Did You Know?

The part of your brain that achieves your goals isn’t the same part that sets them. I explain more about this in this video, where I talk about the subconscious mind and how it either helps—or hinders—your progress.

But there’s another part of your brain that plays a huge role, and it deserves some spotlight.

It’s called the Reticular Activating System (RAS)—the brain’s gatekeeper. Nearly all the information your brain receives enters through this system. The RAS decides what to let through and what to filter out. In other words, it determines what grabs your attention and what slips right past you.

Think of it this way:

What if the opportunity you need is already right in front of you—but you just don’t see it?

What if the solution to your biggest problem is already within reach—but you’re looking in the wrong direction?

The truth is, most of the time, the answers we need are already there. The people, resources, and ideas we think we’re lacking aren’t as far away as we believe. Often, they’re one realization—or one shift in awareness—away. That’s the job of your RAS: to help you notice the things that matter most to your goals.

You’ve already seen your RAS in action.

Maybe you bought a new car, and suddenly you see that same car everywhere. Or you came up with a unique name for your baby, only to start noticing a dozen kids with that same name.

Feels weird and mysterious, right? It’s actually not.

This is how your brain is wired. The universe runs on dependable, natural laws—like a computer program designed to respond a certain way to a certain input:
If X, then Y. If A, then B.

And now that we live in a digital world, we’ve started to see how a system like this could work—structured, logical, predictable—even if it sometimes feels random.

Here’s a perfect example.

The New York Times published a story that illustrates this concept beautifully—on a micro-level. It shows how something seemingly "magical" is actually just a matter of attention and algorithms:

“The shoes that Julie Matlin recently saw on Zappos.com were kind of cute, or so she thought. But Ms. Matlin wasn’t ready to buy and left the site. Then the shoes started to follow her everywhere she went online. An ad for those very shoes showed up on the blog TechCrunch. It popped up again on several other blogs and on Twitpic. It was as if Zappos had unleashed a persistent salesman who wouldn’t take no for an answer. 'For days or weeks, every site I went to seemed to be showing me ads for those shoes,' said Ms. Matlin, a mother of two from Montreal. 'It is a pretty clever marketing tool. But it’s a little creepy, especially if you don’t know what’s going on.'"
—Helft, M. and Vega, T. (2010, Aug 29). Retargeting Ads Follow Surfers to Other Sites.

Click on a pair of shoes, and they follow you around the internet. That’s how powerful attention is.

(I’m currently being stalked by ads for a gorgeous baguette ring. Similar to [this one] or [this one]. I’m not mad about it. It actually makes me smile every time I see it. I’m a size 5, in case anyone’s wondering.)

But here’s the big takeaway:

Just like those ads, your thoughts work the same way.

Your life—your daily experience—begins to shift based on the kind of thoughts you consistently give attention to. Your mental “clicks” determine what shows up.

So, be intentional about your thinking. Click on the kinds of things you want to see more of—literally and mentally. Think more about what you love and where you want to go. Think less about what you hate or what’s not working. That includes mentally replaying frustrations. Why? Because what you focus on expands.

And then—expect to see change.

That expectation is what activates your RAS. It primes your brain to notice the right people, ideas, and opportunities when they come. Often, they’ve been there all along—but your filters weren’t open to them yet.

Here’s one of my favorite stories from a student who tested this out. She wrote this to my husband after reading The Jackrabbit Factor:

“So, your wife is a genius! The [Jackrabbit Factor] book was incredible…I have a great story… I could not put the book down, finished it in just a few hours one night. I was at the beach with my kids the next day after I was done, and decided to test the theory. We belong to a beach club defined by huge rock jetties and good shells are hard to come by. We’ve never ever found a decent shell. Anyway, I walked down to the water and realized this was a great place to test…after all, no better place for the universe to be able to provide than the ocean!! So I put my energy on finding those big white gorgeous shells – we’ve never seen them anywhere near our beach. I imagined us all picking them and carrying loads back to the house…  I reached down into the water, and only pulled out a sand dollar - hmmmm...

We walked the length of the beach, no shells. I did not let go of my focus. At the end, we went through the lagoon, and my kids climbed up on the last jetty. For the first time, they wanted to keep walking onto the next beach. They wanted to climb down the other side of the jetty and keep walking. At first I said “no” the jetty isn’t really safe to climb over, we could get hurt, blah, blah, blah…

Out of no where my youngest finds a small path that leads right over the jetty. We have never, ever noticed it before. We are now on the next beach, I go down to the water, and start pulling these huge white shells out of the water – bigger that we have ever seen. My kids are picking them up off of the sand…it was so weird! We had armfuls! OH MY GOSH. The jackrabbits had literally turned into shells! It was wild. I sat down dizzy at the experience, and then realized the power. Now, I’m working on doing this with bags of money…I picture myself walking into my back yard pulling up bags of money instead of weeds…hey, you never know!”

And then… two months later:

“Ok – so you may remember my first experience ...after reading the Jackrabbit factor…the shells at the beach. Well, at the end I think I mentioned that I would like to attract bags of money…I have, and I am blown away. In early September I put out ...that I would like to have $5,000 within three months.

I was willing to work for it (should an opportunity present itself), but really, I just wanted the money to appear…hey, what the heck, one can dream. Well, my parents took us out to dinner this past Saturday evening as a celebration as they have recently come into some money from my Grandmother’s estate (she died in March). At the beginning of dinner my parents handed my brother and I checks for $20,000. Oh my gosh! I now put it out there ...when I need about anything …the concept of scarcity is gone from my life…there is an abundance. Once again, thank you for the Jackrabbit Factor!!"

Pretty incredible, right?

So, have you tested this for yourself yet? If so, I’d love to hear your story.

And if not, what’s one challenge—big or small—you’d love to solve today?

The answer might be closer than you think.

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•   To discover how to start choosing more effectively now, read The Jackrabbit Factor (FREE!)  
•   If you want more step-by-step guidance on creating the life you really want, join me in the Mindset Mastery program.
•   If you want my help overcoming that giant obstacle right in front of you, learn more and sign up for Genius Bootcamp.