Wiring Your Brain for Peak Performance
When it comes to peak performance and realizing your goals, there’s a partnership of three that’s crucial to your success; The Bouncer, the Miracle Worker, and You.
The Bouncer
Remember standing in line outside the nightclub waiting to get in while some guy whose nickname was “Meat” stood vigilantly guarding the door? Remember also how from time to time a group of attractive young females would approach the club, shamelessly passing everyone in the line and with a smile “Meat” would step aside and let them in? And remember how “Meat” acted as if he didn’t hear your protests and complaints but continued to stand there dutifully guarding the door until another attractive or important person arrived? Meanwhile the rest of us (feeling chromosomally defunct) stood outside in the rain, wondering what was going on inside the club.
You can get mad at the Bouncer all you want but he’s just doing his job; screening the world for the attractive and important. You and I actually do the same, well at least our brains do. Our gray matter is constantly being flooded with millions of stimuli, all attempting to gain access into our brain. Without a bouncer at the door, the party inside your head would soon be so crowded that even the Nucleus Accumbens (the brain’s pleasure center), would be having a miserable time. Fortunately for us we have our own muscle bound friend guarding the door of our minds, only allowing the attractive and important to get through. His (or her if you’re a woman) name is the Reticular Activating System or RAS for short. Of course you can call it “Meat” if you like. The RAS is believed to be the centre of arousal and motivation. It acts as a filter for our brain, sorting through stimuli and deciding which ones will gain access to your mind and which ones will be turned away. The RAS is why you can be at a party, barely able to hear the person you are speaking with, and suddenly clear as day hear your name being mentioned from 10 feet away. The Bouncer has just let the information cut through the line and given it an instant backstage pass. How about when you begin thinking of buying a Ford F-150 truck? What happens? Suddenly they’re everywhere. Did Ford miraculously increase sales of the F-150 in the last week or have you just begun to notice what has always been around you in the first place? Our brain can actually be programmed to let in the stimuli we most want and need. One of the reasons we want certain items to get past the bouncer is so they can meet the Miracle Worker who is hard at work inside the club.
The Miracle Worker
Your subconscious mind is a bit of a miracle worker. I say miracle because it works for you without you knowing it, and anything that does work for me without my knowledge is pretty miraculous. Your subconscious mind can work on solving a problem you have while you’re enjoying time at the beach, unaware of its activity. Have you ever gone to sleep with a problem on your mind and woken up with possible solutions? Guess who was working during the night? Anyone who is going to help me find ways to reach my goals, I want them around a lot. The more information the subconscious possesses relating to your goals, the better it will be in helping you out.
You
When it comes to peak performance, one of the secrets is to stay focused on your most important goals and activities. You have probably heard it said that you should not only have goals but also review them daily. This is sound advice. The reason why we need to review our goals consistently is to ensure they are pushed to the forefront of our mind. When we review our goals daily we raise their importance in our minds. When our goals are “important” suddenly anything related to reaching them becomes more attractive to the RAS (our bouncer). “Meat” then unhooks the chain and allows the stimulus in. Once inside it’s introduced to the subconscious who then pulls up a stool and gets to work.
A Leadership Example
Suppose there is a manager who wants to grow in her ability to praise and reward her team. If she makes this a goal and reviews it every morning, suddenly she will begin to notice opportunities to praise employees all around her. As she reads the newspaper, an article on “Employee Recognition” now catches her eye. Driving home from work she spots a sign advertising a new restaurant and the thought pops into her head of taking the team out for a celebration lunch. So we see a partnership of three. You set the goals and remember to review them, the bouncer (RAS) will then allow the now important and attractive stimuli to get through, and the subconscious will get to work with its new information. The more your subconscious has to work with the better job it will do aiding you in your quest. As long as the manager continues to keep the goal of rewarding employees on her mind, the bouncer keeps letting in the stimuli, and the subconscious continues to work.
Practical Suggestion
The nice thing is you have only to do your part. Make sure you have written down some clear and measurable goals for your life and business. Then make sure you get in the habit of reviewing them daily. Write them in your planner, or post them on your mirror in the bathroom. Develop some way that will work for you which brings your goals to your mind daily. You will be amazed by the incredible power of focus this creates. As you do your part, the Bouncer and his friend inside will do theirs, and the partnership of three will yield some impressive results.
Summit Climbers
For those currently on the Summit.
We designed the Summit to capitalize on this powerful concept. In order to help employ this process you must have your Summit Goals in front of you daily. One suggestion is to make it a daily goal to review your Summit Goals. You are looking to form a habit here. If you do this daily, after a few weeks it will become an automatic exercise. Your Summit Goals will then be etched into your brain. You will begin to notice stimuli all around you, a lot of which will aid you in your quest to fulfill your dreams.
Need a speaker for your next meeting? James Robbins is creator of the Summit, an online peak performance system guaranteed to help you have the most focused and productive 12 weeks of your life. For more info contact us. info@ontothesummit.com
