How to H@ck Your Brain to Achieve Your Goals.

The wonderful fact is that your brain is actually designed to help you.

Everybody’s brain has what’s called the “Reticular Activating System”. And it’s this system that you can ‘hack’ to help you achieve your goals even faster.

What Is The Reticular Activating System And How Can It Help You Grow Your Direct Sales Business?

The Reticular Activating System (RAS) is a small bundle of nerve fibers that sit at the back of your brain. It filters information for you, bringing to your attention what is important at any given time.

The RAS is like a filter between your conscious and subconscious mind (that mysterious part of your mind where emotions, memories, habits, and desires live).

For example, have you ever had the experience that you were thinking about buying a certain car and suddenly you see that particular car everywhere?

That’s the RAS in action. It’s passed on to the subconscious mind that you’re mulling over this decision. And in return, your subconscious mind helps you to focus your attention – you suddenly see this car everywhere. It’s not that there’s a sudden influx of this car on the road, but you’re noticing the car now. Your attention is on the car.

Another example of how this works is finding a place to park your car. Some people are really good at quickly finding a park. It’s almost like a spot just opens up for them.

In truth, their RAS is working for them to notice subtle clues that a park is available or becoming available shortly. They notice people walking to their car while getting their keys out, they notice a trunk lid open, they notice reversing lights, etc. And these clues guide them to an open parking spot without them being conscious of all the clues – it feels to them like they just know.

It works the same way with your direct sales business. Once you’ve tasked your RAS and pointed it towards your goal, you’ll notice the subtle clues that will help you. You’ll notice opportunities, you’ll find you are more creative in ways to achieve your goal, and you’ll notice the information that you need in that moment.

So let’s have a look at how to ‘task’ your RAS to focus that attention and filter to help you in your direct sales business.

Here Are 4 Actions You Can Do To ‘Task’ Your RAS

1. Define specific goals. I’ve talked about the importance of goal setting before and if you haven’t set any goals just yet, do it today.
2. Imagine yourself achieving the goals in detail. Make it a glorious mental movie in which you involve as many of your senses and as many details as you can. If it’s a big goal, you might want to break it down and see yourself achieving the first step first before moving on to the next step towards your goal.
3. Add images related to your goals to your vision board. Make sure that your vision board is in a place where you see it regularly.
4. Focus on your goals daily by writing them in your goal journal or planner. This will also help you to plan action steps.

When you have set a goal and ‘tasked’ your RAS, it will focus your mind. Just like finding a car park, you will suddenly become aware of things that previously you may not have paid any attention to. Things that are useful to you and your direct sales goal.

Hacks to rewire your brain for success.

The good news is that you can actually rewire your brain to become more successful. In fact, according to neuroscientist Michael Merzenich, it takes just 30 hours of training based on specific neuroscience techniques to improve your memory and cognition, speech patterns and reading comprehension.

I know. That may sound like a lot. But, that’s just an hour a day for a month to achieve life-long success. I think that’s totally worth it. And, most of this training involves simple daily tasks, like:

Exercise and meditation. Exercising releases endorphins, which can help with problem solving and boost creativity. Meditation can help you achieve inner calm and break down any mental barriers or limitations.

Consume a diet rich in omega-3s and healthy fats. These can help keep dopamine levels in your brain active, as well as increase cerebral circulation.

Precision affirmations. “We’ve all heard of affirmations: repeating positive statements to ourselves in order to believe it,” writes John Assaraf, the CEO of NeuroGym. “While that may sound good in theory, there is often a severe lack of specificity that can hinder results.” Instead, “make a clear, definitive statement about yourself as if it is already true, your subconscious mind takes over and will act in accordance with that belief.” This “will imprint these beliefs into new neural pathways.”

Say your “Chief Aim” every morning and evening. Based on Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich, “A definite chief aim is a specific, clearly-defined statement of purpose,” writes Dr. Julie Connor. “It has the power to guide your subconscious mind. It transforms your attitude from pessimism into positive expectation.” Write down your own “chief aim” and say it out loud every morning and evening. When I started my invoice company, I started every day by saying that I would become the best at this. Not quite there but getting there.

Get plenty of sleep. Make sure that you get between 6 1/2 and 8 hours of quality sleep every night so that you're more attentive and focused.

15 minutes a day. Carve out 15 minutes of your day to learn something new or master a skill you already have. It will have a positive impact on your brain.

Remove yourself from negative and stressful environments. According to Robert Sapolsky, a neuroendocrinology professor at Stanford University, “stress can not only be stopped, but reversed once the source, psychological or physical, is removed or sufficiently reduced.” In other words, the physical environment around us plays a very important role in the health of our brains.

Visualization. “Visualization is a powerful tool to retrain your subconscious mind, because it allows you to feel and experience a situation which hasn’t happened yet -- as if it were real,” writes Assaraf. In short, “if you are able to genuinely ‘see’ yourself as financially successful in your mind, your subconscious will process that as reality.”