Slug Bug! Have you ever played that road trip game where you get to punch someone in the arm whenever you call out a Volkwagon Bug? Just me mentioning this will cause you to see more bugs on the road today. And that is the reticular activator.
Why do we care about the Reticular Activator?
You’ve likely heard of the Law of Attraction where if you think about something enough, it will happen.
What you have noticed since the time you decided to get your real estate license, is that there are a lot of real estate conversations happening around you. That’s your focus so that is what your brain grabs. Besides keeping you safe, your brain is also a goal-seeking device. “I want berries,” says the caveman. The brain looks for them but ignores the snake under the bush.
There’s some ridiculous amount of information around us at all times. Your brain can only take in so much at any time so it has to pick and chose what’s important which is decided by your goals. Maybe in college, you were so hungry that you didn’t notice the attractive co-ed you walked past to buy a slice of pizza.
The main importance of understanding the reticular activator is to show the power of goals and to also help them keep their mindset straight. I’ll get to that second part later. For now, understand that if you are looking for buyers, that’s what you will get. You might also miss a seller though. If you are looking for problems, you’re going to get that. And if you open yourself up to any real estate possibility, that will happen too.
This is the reason many talk about Big Hairy Audacious Goals. If you shoot for mediocre goals, you aren’t likely to go past that. But if you made a plan for selling 10,000 homes next year, how might your reticular activator change its focus? What opportunities might you notice? Who might you notice that could help you? This ties into a growth mindset as well.
One Easter morning it was time to hunt eggs. I was laser-focused on finding the eggs in the hard, clever places. My cousin found the easy ones that I didn’t see; they didn’t even exist to my brain. I had a goal and a parameter set on how that would happen. My activator wasn’t set correctly and that can happen to you.
Now for the mindset part of this. As much as I try to scare people out of real estate, once they are in, I’m there to help them. This is a tough business for many reasons. But if you turn on your reticular activator by talking and thinking about how hard it is or what could go wrong, well, it’s more likely to happen. Your focus determines your direction.
So, do you want to see more opportunities? Do you want to see more happiness and gratitude? This is who it starts.
Exercise: Write down three things you want to happen, at least one business-related. Write down three positive things you saw in the last 24 hours.
Do the work, get the results.
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