I have this friend who believes the universe is a bountiful place. It is always presenting gifts for him to discover, learn from, and use. Even setbacks and obstacles become opportunities for growth. He sees and is grateful for gifts all of the time. I have another friend who feels that the universe is a cold and harsh place. He is convinced that the world is aligned against him. He sees proof of this everywhere he looks and spends most of his life feeling defeated.
All the smart people care about intentionality
I firmly believe that we can shape how we interact with the world, and that, by intention alone, we can shift our perspective and, quite literally, shift what we see, hear, and feel. Last week I was lucky enough to attend the Entrepreneur Organization’s Global Leadership Conference. I got to listen to Daniel Pink, Jim Kwik, Christina Harbridge, and a lot of other brilliant people. They all stressed the importance of intentionality. By the way, even though everybody brought it up, intentionality was NOT the theme of the conference.
The Reticular Activating System
I agree that intentionality is a very powerful predictor of success. However, I never made the connection between what I felt and the biology behind it until I learned about this tiny little piece of our brains, wrapped around our brain stem, called the Reticular Activating System (RAS). It does a ton of stuff, which, due to my English Lit degree, I really don’t understand. However, I do know that it is the regulator between most of our senses and our conscious brain. It is sitting there figuring out which things we see, hear, and feel get through to our consciousness.
So how does this tiny little piece of our brainstem figure out what senses to let through? Some happen by default. For example, when it senses light after we’ve been sleeping, it starts to trigger a wakeup routine in our brain. How cool is that? It is also the thing that will let mothers who live near busy airports sleep through planes taking off and landing but wake up at the sound of their baby stirring. Ever become suddenly aware of a conversation in a crowded room because someone mentions your name? That’s the good old RAS.
The Reticular Activating System will find it for you
Basically, you tell the RAS what’s important to you and it’s on the lookout for it. If you feel the universe is out to get you, that’s what you’ll see. If you feel there’s gold in them there hills, then your brain will find it for you! For me, It learning about this has doubled down the importance of values, mission, and vision. If we can get more aligned with what we truly want in life, the impact we want to make, and how we want to show up, or brain will be there to help us.
A note to future me:
Intentionality matters. Be really clear with what I want, what I’m looking for, and how I want to show up.
Thanks to Stephen Kraakmo for the cool picture of the lens (which I cropped the heck out of) and to freepik.com for the photo of the security guard.