Goal Setting Success - Does It Match Your Version of The Truth?

By: Rick Seymour
Submitted: 2007-01-17 16:41:45
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The third question your Reticular Activating System is constantly asking is, “Does it match my version of the truth?” Your version of ‘the truth’ is what you think about yourself – your self-image – what you think you deserve or don’t deserve, your strengths, your weaknesses, your skills or lack thereof, who you think you are and what you think you are capable of, what you can have and do in this life and what you do or don’t deserve. All of this is filed away in your subconscious mind.

There is an ancient verse that says, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” This is where cognitive dissonance comes into play. To maintain your sanity, you must behave consistently with what you believe. The easiest way to do that is for you to perceive things the way you believe they are. How often have you said about someone else (not that YOU would ever be like this!), “Oh, he only hears what he wants to hear.”? It’s true. The Reticular Activating System will typically only allow those things into your conscious mind that are consistent with what you believe to be true. If it doesn’t match your version of ‘the truth’, it will filter it out – you will quite often not even be aware of information, data, circumstances or opportunities that are not consistent with what you believe. We can literally be blind to what is around us.

If we are bombarded with too much information that is different than what we believe, one of three things has to happen: 1. We will go crazy, 2. We must subconsciously block the information, or 3. We have to change our belief system. If we really do want to change our lives, which option do you think would be the best? It should be pretty obvious that we need to change our belief system – especially since we know that we have a lot of limiting beliefs. Which option do you think most people choose most of the time? #2 – block the information so that they don’t have to ‘deal with it’.

If you don’t think you are a ‘salesperson’ or you have negative feelings about selling, your Reticular Activating System will make you unaware of any buying signals the prospect may be giving you and only allow you to register anything that you could construe as an objection. They may merely be asking a simple question for clarification, but you will perceive it as something negative, indicating to you (falsely) that they don’t want to buy. If they get too close to buying, you will even say things that will turn them off so that they don’t follow through with the purchase – even if they really wanted to. You do this totally on the subconscious level. You never intentionally and consciously shoot yourself in the foot, but all the same you sabotage the interaction just so you can be sure to prove one more time that you really are not a ‘salesperson’. Our performance will never exceed our self-image by very much or for very long.

In summary, the RAS will only allow you to perceive accurately those things that satisfy ALL THREE criteria: 1. “Is it my responsibility?” 2. “Is it important?” 3. “Does it match my version of the truth?”

If we really do want to move ahead in our lives, then the crux of the problem becomes -- How do change our version of ‘the truth’? Until we do that, self-defeating behaviors repeat themselves over and over, so we continue to get what we have always had. The only way we can break out of these patterns is to raise our self-image – our version of ‘the truth’ -- of who we are and what we deserve to have in life so that we can perform UP TO our real God-given potential.

For more information about the Reticular Activating System and Cognitive Dissonance, go to: http://www.godinyourgoals.com

Article source: Expert Articles