You have heard this before

Some philosophers or  perhaps more accurately cynical journalists say that there are no new ideas any more on earth. and at first glance this feels true doesn’t it? When in a seminar or listening to a lecture or speaker I will often notice a concept repeated or you have heard this before. I don’t know about you but I find this a bit limiting. I may have heard it before, but did I put it into practice, have I tried this methodology or strategy? what was the result if I did?  Maybe I have or maybe I haven’t.  I bet 9 times out of 10 most people haven’t. I know that I usually haven’t!

What if  we shifted our language around things we have seen or heard before – After all how many times have you seen a movie for a 2nd time and noticed there are things that you didn’t see last time?  Brad Sugars once shared that instead of saying ‘I know’ which he believes cuts off the part of the brain that will learn, suggests that we try the response Isn’t that interesting?

This leads me, always, back to the brain, (one of my fav topics) and the Reticular Activation System, that resides in your thalamus. This is the tiny part of the brain acts like a filter. In fact I love this explanation of the RAS system:

The Reticular Activating System sits in your brain and acts as a customizable filter which adapts to different type of situation and react instantly. Just for the love of metaphor, the RAS can be seen as a bouncer at the door of your mind. Your beliefs tell the RAS what is or what is not important, chiefly making a list of all the information invited to the party, and your RAS then acts like the club bouncer letting whoever is on the list in and thrusting the rest to the curb. Of those millions of bits of information cited earlier your RAS only lets in around 130 pieces of those information per second in your conscious mind because that’s about all what your central nervous system can handle at one time, and the details you let in are the ones that you have deemed over the years to be important enough for yourself.

What I want to suggest today is that perhaps its time that we opened up to the possibility that maybe were meant to hear something again. Or what if its exactly what you needed to hear at that moment.  You may have heard this before but what if your brain’s RAS system filtered out things that you didn’t need last time ?

I love the acronym C.A.N.I – Continuous and never-ending improvement. In fact in our WWA office, we love it so  much that we are releasing our workshop series under this umbrella term.

What if, before you entered an event, attended a talk or opened a book, that you asked ‘what is it that I most need to learn right now ?’- and set that as your intention. Even the books or seminars you have been to before.  I have been trying this more lately and I find that the right information seems to present itself.

Until next time have a brilliant sparkly day
Andy xx