Your Reticular Activating System

Our eyes take in a tremendous amount of information.  We can see a lot, but we can’t notice it all.  We have a system in our brains called the Reticular Activating System.  It looks for things that you have been thinking about.  This is helpful if you are searching for something, should be concerned about something, or have been thinking about something.  It very much confirms what we have been thinking about the world.

There’s a story about an attorney examining a witness where the witness is telling all about what the attacker was wearing in great detail.  Then the attorney turns around with his back to the witness and asks “What color is my tie?”  The witness doesn’t know.  Think about the last person you talked to at work.  What color shirt were they wearing?  You don’t know.  You saw it but didn’t notice it.

But if you are thinking about buying a Tesla, you will see Teslas all over the place.

If you are thinking about how the world is unfair, you will see that the world is unfair all over the place.

If you are looking for opportunity, you will see it everywhere.

If you are thinking of reasons to be mad, you will find reasons to be mad.

If you are looking for reasons you can’t, you will find them.

If you are thinking of reasons you can, you will find them.

Watch what you are thinking about, because you are crafting your world and your future.

Who's in charge of you?

“My life didn’t please me, so I created my life.” – Coco Chanel

Good things and the best you – is worth it.

If you don’t sacrifice for what you want, want you want becomes the sacrifice.

How to graduate from the School of Hard Knocks

The School of Hard Knocks, which we have all attended, doesn’t graduate anyone until they do things differently.

Some never learn and never graduate.

Some learn slowly and eventually graduate.

Some learn quickly and move on.

Don't believe all you have been taught.

Learning all the time is central to moving forward.  But don’t believe all you have been taught.

You have been educated in failure and limitations.

Your teachers taught you what they believed.   They taught you what you can not do while teaching you what you can.

So many around you have limiting beliefs and model them in their speech and actions.

If you are trying to be extraordinary and have high goals, you must filter the right signals, voices, and lessons from the wrong ones all the time.

Fair Weather "Warriors"

It’s easy to do and say the right things when things are going well, life is easy and you are getting what you want.

But when things go wrong some people change their standards, values, actions and justifications.

Do you have values that you know are right, believe in, and stick to no matter what happens; no matter what others do?

Are you the enemy?

Most of us want a great outcome but don’t do the things necessary to create it.  In fact, we may be doing things we know will hurt our chances.

Fun and dopamine hits are all short-term.  We can’t wait.  So we sacrifice fulfillment and our future to them.

We prioritize the short term over the long term.

How are you complicit in creating what you don’t want, or blocking what you do want?

Learn new things

People that consciously set out to learn new things are happier and more motivated.

What are you learning that you want to learn now?

Understanding what you are doing and why.

There is a big difference between memorizing and understanding.

In school, we memorize to pass a test.  But we still don’t understand until we get out there and try things ourselves.

When you memorize a process or script, that’s not the same as understanding what you are doing and why.

People that have context, experience, and understand the big picture and the emotions that people involved have will be prepared to master the field and move on and up from it.  

Overcome fear

Fear holds people back.

Fear of failing.  Fear of losing money.  Fear of being emotionally or physically hurt.  Fear of being rejected.  Fear of being criticized.  Fear of looking foolish.  Fear of poverty.  Fear of success (that’s not like me).

The people who develop courage and overcome fear are the most successful.

“Fear is a requirement of courage.” – Eddie Rickenbacker

Like a bodybuilder uses iron to develop muscle, use fear to develop confidence.  A bodybuilder uses small weights first.  Small steps into fear…and more steps from there.