Hacking Your Brain For Success

With many people feeling unsettled by all that’s going on in the world, Zoetica founder Kami Huyse decided to share some suggestions for how to train your brain and remain focused on what’s important to you. ⛅

(While in this post the words ‘brain’ and ‘mind’ are used interchangeably, the brain actually refers to the physical organ, whereas the mind refers to the faculties responsible for mental phenomena.)

Your Brain Has An Algorithm. 

The reticular activating system (RAS) is located in your brainstem and regulates consciousness, arousal, and motivation. Kami describes it as the “algorithm for your brain” and explains that, “whatever you put in your brain as being important, that is what your brain is going to be looking for actively.”

Keep Your Mind Focused With an Aspirational List. 

Your mind’s attention field is continuously bombarded with information. Help it focus by creating an aspirational list that spotlights the ten most important things you want to achieve. 

In her livestream, Kami shared how the list she created years ago ended up changing the trajectory of her life. 

Make Visuals for Each Item on Your List. 

Creating visuals will strengthen your ability to actualize what you want to achieve. You can make a vision board or simply picture something in your mind. For example, if making a certain yearly income is on your list, visualize having that amount in the bank. 

Try to imagine what achieving each item would feel, look, and sound like, who is involved, and so on. The goal is to make this as much of a sensory experience as possible. 

“You’re training your reticular activating system to look for opportunities to get you to those things you’re trying to accomplish,” says Kami.

Place the Aspirational List Where You Can See It. 

You want to help your mind focus, so put your aspirational list where you can easily see and review it. 

Maybe that means hanging it on your bathroom mirror so you start and end your day looking over each item, or maybe it means laying it on the kitchen counter so you can review it when you have breakfast and dinner. 

What you don’t want to do is tuck your list away and fall into an out-of-sight-out-of-mind situation.

Help Your Brain Work for You. 

To perform at an optimal level, it’s important that you focus on possibilities and solutions. 

That doesn’t mean being unrealistic about what needs to take place to achieve your goals or ignoring challenges. 

However, when it comes to your reticular activating system, “think on the solutions rather than the problems,” says Kami, and then “you will see the opportunities when [they present themselves].” 

To hear Kami explain these concepts in more detail, watch her entire livestream here.