What is RAS?

Your Brain's Unique Compass Device

Everyday we are literally flooded with noise, visual images and information. Could you imagine what our lives would be like if we were totally alert with every single thing around us.  We would go CRAZY! Lucky we have this great device in our brain called ‘Reticular Activating System’ known as ‘RAS’.

Have you come across the mozzies humming around your ears at night and it made such a distraction that you couldn’t fall sleep and the more you paid attention the worse it got?

What about the ticking sound of your clock?

 How about the humming sound of your aircon too?

This is why the RAS is so important to us.

The RAS acts as our gate keeper for our conscious mind. It’s our little helper, it helps to select and filter the type of information that we allow to get through to our brain and everything else that is not interesting or important to us will be filtered out.

Remember the last time you were in a restaurant, you simply didn't pay attention to the background noises when you were engaged in deep conversation—well, your RAS filtered them out too

Here are the two things that RAS do to us:

1.   Valuable & Important

Example: Say you have a retail shop and would now like to expand into online sales. You firstly need to learn and research all about online businesses before you embark into the internet world. Before that, you never paid attention to online businesses. Now it’s different. You have a special need to know because it affects you and your business. So, after learning all about the online process, will you continue to learn more about the internet world? Of course you will. This is because online sales are now a part of your business and it’s important.

2.   Urgent & Alert

      Example: You don't pay much attention to ads for washing machines until your old one athome stops working and you start to run out of fresh clothes. So buying a new one is an option. That's when you see the full-page spread of washing machine ads. They are everywhere. Realistically, those ads have been there all along. You just didn't pay attention. Now your RAS alerts you to key you in on what is available because you need to know.

Another example is: If your children is riding a skateboard on your  street and you hear a sharp horn blast you charge to the window to check on them, fearing danger,and if they were still inside the house you might not even hear the sound.

In view of this, it is easy to see why it is that people so often say, ‘I'm not interested’ or ‘I know’. They have no need to know information at that specific time. Their RAS are on! 

Now you know what RAS is and how it works.  Let’s leverage it into your business. That is why you need to set  purpose goals and have an action plan in place. The reason that it’s important to list what you want to achieve in your business is to set your reticular activity system (RAS). It’s the compass device for your brain and it will, in turn help you focus on your business and identify the areas that are important to you so you can address them.