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The Power of Focus: the Reticular Activating System and Success

You find a car you’d like to own and suddenly you’re seeing the exact same type of car wherever you go.

You learn a new word and you begin to notice people using it in conversation. You can’t help but wonder: what sorcery is this?! How has this word suddenly become so commonplace when there was no mention of it before?

No sorcery here – just the amazingly complex human brain doing what it’s programmed to do. Let’s try an easy demonstration for kicks:

Focus on the color yellow. Okay, so you’re thinking “yellow”; keep doing that.

Now look around your room.

You’ll be seeing every hint of yellow there is.

You notice the things around you when an idea settles in your brain in the exact same manner as with the example of yellow in your room.

That’s your reticular activating system (RAS) at work. The RAS is a pencil-thin bundle of nerves in your brain which helps sort through the billions of bits of data your brain receives at any given moment. Essentially, it acts as a spam filter, determining which information is worth your attention so that you can get a hold of only the important things and not lead your brain into overdrive. Of course, this happens all the time without you noticing it. But we can actually use what we know about the RAS in order to achieve success with any goal we set ourselves, and that’s what we’ll talk about in this blog post.

How The RAS Works

As you can gather from the introduction, the RAS takes instructions to drive your focus. It takes what you focus on (for example, the color yellow) and creates a filter for it, picking apart the data to present only the relevant information to you (so when you look around your room, you’ll be noticing everything yellow). It acts as a switch, turning on your perception. In this way, it helps the brain form a response to the immense amount of signals that the sensory systems send.

That’s why you don’t hear the different conversations in a crowd of people, but the moment you hear your name, your attention turns to the person who’s said it – your name is a call to focus, a switch of sorts.

And how does the RAS affect our focus on work?

The Effect Of The RAS On Your Workflow

The RAS controls our workflow as it works in harmony with Cortisol, the stress-regulating hormone. We need some level of cortisol in order to maintain focus on a task, as explained by the Yerkes-Dodson Law:

  • When your cortisol levels are too low, you’re in the calm zone of the Yerkes-Dodson curve, and this is where the RAS is slowed down, off-guard, making it difficult for you to focus and pick out information.
  • In the stress zone of the curve, you’re at an optimal performance level: the RAS and cortisol (which is present in moderate amounts) work together to make you alert and increase your attention, helping you be highly engaged in work.
  • In the distress zone, the cortisol levels are too high, creating an imbalance and driving the RAS into a frenzy of anxiety to take apart all the information at once – it’s the stage of being overwhelmed.

The RAS only tries to work in your favor and it’s programmed to respond to your Cortisol Levels. That’s why achieving a healthy range of cortisol levels regularly is a very important factor in manipulating the RAS to get you the kind of focus you need for success at any task.

The Influence Of The RAS On Your Actions

But there’s more: because the RAS creates filters according to the parameters that you give it, and your beliefs are also parameters, it will seek information that validates your beliefs. It has an effect on your actions because it helps you see exactly what you want to see, which can be a very tricky, self-sabotaging type of deal if you let it.


For example, if you perceive yourself as lazy, even only subconsciously, you’re more likely to act lazy. And the other way around: when you set a goal to achieve something and keep thinking about achieving that, envision success, your RAS will draw your focus towards this belief of you achieving your goal and influence your actions.

And that’s what we’re going for. Basically, you get what you focus on, and you can train your RAS to shift your awareness to whatever it takes to reach any kind of goal. When you think about it, you can see how the RAS stands behind the Law of attraction.

Harnessing The Power Of Focus

The idea behind programming your RAS to help you achieve success is about tuning the system to what really, really matters to your goal. It’s about visualizing your goal so that your conscious and subconscious mind will together be entirely driven towards it. If you focus hard on your goals, your RAS will draw your attention to everything related to reaching them, because you will be more aware. You’ll be finding solutions and opportunities in obstacles, as your focus drives you to your goal and your RAS influences the way you perceive your circumstances.

Of course, training your RAS to achieve success is not as simple as it sounds – it requires perseverance and conscious habit. That’s why many suggest meditation to help clear your subconscious mind of clutter. Start with setting a particular goal, whatever it may be. Then, think about the precise result you want to reach, or the experience you want to have and create a detailed mental picture. Always keep this picture in your mind and go over it intentionally.

The RAS is there to help you out, and it will be filtering what you tell it to filter. And remember – the point of it all is not just to keep a positive picture in your head, but to have the picture influence your actions. You’ll still need to do a lot of work.

Caitlin is a bookworm, photographer, and dancer. She is also a medical student in love with science. When she is not trying to find the meaning of life and Universe, Caitlin is researching and writing about various health-related topics. She is happily addicted to art in all its forms, grilled tofu, and hiking. To see what Caitlin is up to next, check out her Twitter dashboard.

The post The Power of Focus: the Reticular Activating System and Success appeared first on SuperFitMen.



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