Here we go again, we have all heard the saying “The rich get richer and the poor get poorer”. One of the main reasons for this is because we become what we pay attention to the most. This is especially true for the part of the brain known as the reticular activity system.

The reticular activating system has several functions, however for the purpose of this article we will only focus on the function related to the filtering and selecting of incoming data.

What Is The Reticular Activating System (RAS)?

Without getting too technical, the reticular activity system is a network of neurons which function as an information filtering system. The role of this filtering system is to protect the brain from information overload by the data that is being supplied by our sensory organs.

In any given second, when we see, hear, feel, touch and smell, our sensory organs capture an enormous amount of data which is impossible for the brain to process.

This data consists of billions of variations in colors, textures, sounds, temperature, informational content, human behavior, random events and the whole matrix of energy in motion.

For this reason, your RAS will filter and select only the things that are relevant and supportive to your current thoughts, beliefs and intentions. This applies to every aspect of your life no matter how big or small it may be.

We may not realize it, but we only notice a fraction of what is happening in our environment at any given moment. This even applies to people who always say, “I notice everything, I don’t miss a thing”. They still only notice a small amount of their surroundings, mainly it’s what they are focusing on the most.

How The Reticular Activating System (RAS) Is Related To Success?

Essentially, the RAS creates a filtering algorithm that’s designed to strategically select what you are looking for. It will block everything else that it considers unimportant or irrelevant to your current thoughts, beliefs and intentions.

For example, if you are truly a positive minded person and focused on achieving wealth, your RAS will filter all incoming data and primarily select anything that is related and supportive to your achievement of wealth. It doesn’t matter how small or insignificant it may be, your RAS will still consider it valuable and select it for you to notice.

As a result, you will notice examples of wealth and wealth related events, people and content everywhere you go. You will constantly see examples of abundance of money and as a direct result you will naturally discover new money-making opportunities. At the same time, anything that supports the lack of wealth or the inability to achieve it gets blocked.

Conversely, if you are a negative minded person who is fixated on the lack of money, then your RAS will filter and select everything that supports that belief and mindset. Consequently, all you will see are examples of lack of money and reasons why you can’t make money.

For the negative minded person who is resisting wealth, if opportunities of wealth appear in your life, there’s a good possibility that you probably won’t notice it. This is because your RAS has blocked it based on your current beliefs and your lack of intention to acquire wealth.

Equally, if you see  an opportunity to create wealth, your RAS will automatically select data that supports every reason why it won’t work. You will only see flaws in the opportunity as well as obstacles and problems that may not even exist.

This type of mental blindness is common with die hard sports fans, brand lovers and political followers. No matter how bad or dysfunctional their favorite sports team, brand or political leaders are, they still somehow only see the things that supports their love, beliefs and desire for them.

Its Time To Reprogram Your Reticular Activating System (RAS)

Now that you have a basic understanding of  how the reticular activating system works and how its filtering relates to success or the lack of it, its time to reprogram it. Learn how to reprogram the filtering algorithm of your RAS to achieve success.