Overview 

As we start this journey toward a flexible, growth mindset, we begin to uncover tools and natural abilities we have always had at our disposal. Along with these existing tools, we will gather in new tools that allow us to seek the future we want, and meet the challenges along the way, with confidence. First up, a pre-existing tool we may not realize we have – the Reticular Activating System 

Objectives 

By the end of this unit, I will be able to: 

• describe the Reticular Activating System (RAS), where it is and what it does. 
• identify two past experiences where my RAS has led me to information that I needed to fulfill a goal. 
• compare my sense of self-efficacy in three different areas of my life. 
• describe how my perceptions of my efficacy affect how I approach my life, my work and my responsibilities. 

“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
Hamlet, Act 1
William Shakespeare 

   Key Points 

• The Reticular Activating System (RAS) is a built-in filter system, a net-like grouping of cells in the brain’s central cortex, that sorts and prioritizes all of the information coming at us through our senses. Its primary function is to alert us to information that is of value or threat, information that is significant. 
• Based on past experiences, our RAS knows what we value or fear, and raises our awareness about situations that could affect our behaviors, as in the value of a baby’s cry to its parents, or the presence of a potential threat, like a spider or snake. We could be totally focused on something else (or even sound asleep) and the RAS will immediately pull our attention to the situation at hand. 
• We can program our RAS when we go to set goals, because each new goal is declaring a new significance to us. The RAS goes to work scanning for the information we need to complete the goal. Try using it the next time you need to find a parking place. 
• Not only can we turn on our RAS to find information we need, we can also turn it off. When we give up accountability for a goal or responsibility for a situation, our RAS shuts down. If we know someone else is taking care of something, our RAS goes back to working on a previously-set goal. 
• While our RAS is a ‘built in’ mechanism originally activated by the survival instinct, effectively using it nowadays requires us to believe that we can make things happen for ourselves. That is our sense of self-efficacy. 
• The term “efficacy” has long been used in medicine as a way to measure the usefulness of a specific therapy, often pharmaceuticals. Research from Dr. Albert Bandura, of Stanford University, applies this to self, as our belief in our ability to cause something to happen for ourselves. And we do not have one sense of self-efficacy, but as many as we have beliefs about our abilities. 
• Our current self-efficacy appraisals are based on our experiences of the past, including the emotions – positive or negative – that we attached to those experiences. With each new experience, we either build up our self-efficacy and take on new challenges, or let it fall and avoid the challenges. 
• Our self-efficacy is not fixed; we can change how we feel and we start by deciding who is in control. Is control over my life inside me or outside me? Do I decide or do I let others make the decisions over my life? This is the “Locus of Control” (LOC) and to more fully live into our potential, we want that LOC to be inside us. Then we decide, we invent and we take control of our future. 

Key Concepts 

Locus of Control – a way to measure if we feel control of our lives is outside of us, or inside of us. Those who believe in self-reliance and self-accountability have an internal locus of control. Those who feel helpless and not personally accountable have an external locus of control. 

Neuroplasticity – the capacity of the brain and nervous system to develop new neural connections throughout life. Neuroscientists have discovered that the brain never stops growing. 

Reticular Activating System (RAS) – a network of neurons in the brain-stem involved in consciousness; a primary alert to awareness network that transmits sensory stimuli to higher brain centers. 

Self-Efficacy – one’s appraisal of one’s own ability to cause, bring about or make happen; one’s capacity to produce the desired effect; a combination of self-esteem, skills and resources; task specific. 

Threat – words or actions that frighten or imperil. 

Value – quality of worth or merit; something of excellence or importance that varies with each individual. 

Application & Review Questions 

Download the interactive PDF and save to your hard drive. Then, take time to reflect on the Application & Review Questions and answer them in relation to the concepts presented apply to your own life. 

(See downloads) 

Negativity Bias 

Recent research has shown that the brain can get side-tracked. We’re great rationalizers, and neuroscientists refer to this as cognitive bias. 

We can get overly optimistic or unrealistically negative without even knowing it. There’s a price to pay in either case, but a negativity bias often has a greater overall effect because the brain is wired to be on the alert for threat, especially when fear is involved. (Remember the RAS?) Negativity has a stronger influence on our perceptions, beliefs, attitudes and memories – even our decision-making – than positivity or things of a neutral nature. The key seems to be the emotional charge. 

Negative information has a priority when engaging the brain’s processing, leading to the effect that negative situations are more likely to be remembered than positive ones. For example, behavioral finance tells us that if we are an investor, and our stock goes down on a particular day, we get double the negative emotional hit than if our stock had gone up. The lesson, don’t follow your stocks too closely; you’re not going to win emotionally. Over-watching may set the stage for bad decisions. The math, the emotion, and the negativity bias is working against us. 

In fact, research points out that our negative vocabulary – the words we know and use – is also more richly descriptive than our positive vocabulary. We may want to reconsider our use of sarcasm and a cynical view of the world. They may be clever, but there are consequences and these consequences cascade through everything we attempt to do. 

We will take a closer look at this when we get to goal-setting.