Using Your RAS to Help You Focus

RAS, your reticular activating system, is the scientific term for a network of nerve pathways at the base of your brain that connect the spinal cord, cerebellum and cerebrum, and acts as a filter for all the sensory input your brain draws from the external world. 

We filter things through our RAS like a mother filters the sound of a lot of children at play to the sound of her child when they start crying in a schoolyard. You can think of the system as being something like Google. When you type a word or search a string into Google, it scours the internet for everything that relates to that specific item, and then retrieves it. 

Another example … imagine you’re asleep and you’re in charge of your baby sleeping in the next room. Cars honk outside, dogs bark nearby, the guy next door comes home late and slams his car door, yet none of those rouse you from your sleep. But when your baby in the next room starts to whimper, you’re out of bed in a flash. The reticular formation is the most intelligent and sophisticated alarm system in the universe. 

So how do we use the RAS to create focus and build sales in our business? When you create a clear, focused picture of what you want, this part of your brain kicks into high gear and doesn’t stop until it finds it for you. When you create a focus area to look for business, it helps your RAS contribute to the search. For example, a sales team might be looking for advertisers in the area of political parties. If they focus the whole week rather than just looking for leads in general, but look for leads from political parties, their brain will begin to focus and pick up those leads. 

When you focus on something you get more of it. When you buy a red car, all of a sudden you see all of these red cars that you never noticed before. Our brains need to be used to their true capacity which means not just using them as a file cabinet, but giving them focus so that they can be creative. 

So the next time you have a work project, whether you’re in sales, editing, or writing, focus on the main thing that you are looking for. Take one focus at a time. Let the reticular activating system of your brain act like a Google search engine to help you find what you are looking for - for your business success.