Learning is everything with success.

Success with business, with study, with woman, to learn is to the prerequisite to success in my humble opinion.

This is a rather unorthodox take on how to learn faster, I want to know your thoughts too, let me know.

Video Version

Today I’m talking about learning, how you can unleash more of your potential to learn new things and come up with new ideas all the time.

So what I want to talk to you about today is your ability to learn quickly and cultivate new ideas constantly. Rather than just plain memorizing things, I want to introduce you to possibly a new perspective on how to improve your capacity to learn, using your reticular activation system to your advantage.

Rather than relying on your innate intellect, you were born with.

What Is Your Reticular Activating System?

In layman’s terms, your reticular activating system works on focused energy. Focused energy means your brain sort of picks out the variables that aren’t important and allows you to pin down on what needs to be attended to.

Think about your reticular activating system like a camera lens. The lens is focusing in on a face while the rest of the background is blurred out.

This focus point is something which is of value to you or could even be a threat. Your other surroundings become insignificant to the focused object.

Here’s a quick story to give you an example of your reticular activating system in action.

A year ago I was listening to a public speaker talk about how he picked up the book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. He was 22 at the time.

He read the book, but he had trouble retaining any major points Stephen was trying to convey. Even though at the time he was an avid reader and in general, a sharp dude.

As he developed more in life as an entrepreneur and had to work within a team to accomplish his goals. That’s when he then re-read the book and everything clicked.

All the points by Steven Covey now made sense and he could implement these habits into his life he had created.

Remember this is despite the fact that when he was 22 and was perfectly capable of reading and digesting the information in the book, so why was it that the book was useless to him?

Focusing Your Lens

So the point with this book analogy is that despite your intelligence, your brain is really not going to see any use in digesting most information you expose it to. Your mind sees no practicality in remembering something that you subconsciously recognize as not applicable to the present moment or near future.

Despite the quality of the book, it became a blur in the background of the photograph.

The point is, if you’re a normal human being then your mind isn’t actually going to be stimulated enough for you to see the results you want to see if you are not genuinely somewhat interested in the subject you are trying to retain.

Of course your ability to learn somewhat comes down to intelligence too. But the point is that this is all subjective to the individual, so for everyone this rule remains the same. The more interested you are in a subject, the easier it’s going to be for you take away key messages. This not only applies to books but for learning languages, technique in sport, anything.

I call this the ‘zooming effect.’

The more interested you are in a subject the easier it’s going to be to remember what you’re trying to learn.

Passion And Habit

If you’re a reader of mine or a follower of anyone who talks about something they are passionate about, do you ever notice that they really love what they’re talking about?

That’s the reason that piece of work exists in the first place. The reason why you see Usain bolt cross the finish line first or somebody writing a best-selling book comes down to the fact that this individual LOVES their craft.

Their passion is spoken through the fruit of their work.

Now I want you to understand that the people who are truly successful have great habits, there’s no denying this.

CEO’s of top companies in the world, athletes, usually all meditate, read, put healthy food in their body, exercise and have strong boundaries.

Do you know why they have these habits? Because it’s easy for them. These habits bring them closer towards their vision.

The reason why they can do these things isn’t because they are just gifted in being more disciplined, it’s because they all share one common trait. That common trait is the genuine belief that they can do these things every day. Why? Because these habits bring them closer to the image they have cultivated for themselves.

They have the belief that it’s possible and then they do it because their reticular activating system sees this focus point as feasible.

What’s The Point?

These successes are possible for everyone, maybe not at the elite level minimum far beyond average. With this mindset these people individuals who actualize their vision. They don’t just do it, they believe that they can do it.

So if you’re not doing these things if you’re not doing the habits that unleash genius and allow you to cultivate your mind to learn and brings bout new ideas it’s not because you can’t or don’t have the innately ability to.

This all just comes down to they question of simply, why would you?

Why wouldn’t you sit and not read and instead smoke a joint, or just watch TV, if there’s no projectile reason or vision for you to implement habits to reach then you reticular action system is just going to focus in on what;s making it feel good now and biologically since you’re alive your mind is naturally content with the state it’s in.

Chances are you’re well fed and have a roof over your head if you have the time to read this.

The solution? Understand it’s a question of why would you. In some ways your ability to learn comes down to finding a strong purpose.

Purpose Is Key

As your sense of purpose increases so do your boundaries. You realize if you want to accomplish the goals you have set for yourself you must be careful of which influences, what kind of people and the energy you surround yourself with and even more importantly your own behavior. This could be the food you are eating, a habit of procrastinating or becoming upset over small trivial things. These traits arise from lacking a sense of purpose or strength in the purpose you have manifested for yourself.

If you think about it, how many of your beliefs you have or day to day activities you engage in are actually a part of your own conscious decision. What I think is that most people are closer to sponges rather than that of a human being. If you take a positive, happy-go-lucky individual and put them in a negative environment, chances are they are going to, with time, become rather negative themselves. It’s important you understand that environment takes its toll on people.

Many people end up imprisoned in denial. Hiding and pushing away their super-aptitudes because of social conditioning and because they may already be doing something else something they have done for years. The answer for this scenario is self-explanatory. You must move towards what you know is true in your innate abilities, slowly if necessary but progress towards it.

You must try as many things as possible. If you try enough, a super aptitude will make itself apparent. Once that super aptitude appears, you take it, hold on and fully commit. You will know when this happens and maybe it has already happened, don’t doubt it. Remember, your gut is much more real than you give it credit for. It won’t be fully blossomed yet, for example, Kobe Bryant at 16 wasn’t Kobe in his prime.

Cultivate A Sense Of Urgency

Once you see that lane open up, you focus completely and go for it. Not one foot in the water and one out so you can back out one day. No, once the lane opens you just go for it. Don’t set up barriers for yourself so you make excuses. When you see that lane open up, you just fucking do it.

So remember why it is important to find your purpose (your ability to focus deeply and learn using your reticular activating system) and realize the urgency in needing to do so. Finding this gives you a sense of entitlement, empties you out and possibly most important of all it creates the gravity which sucks in the armor of personal boundaries.

One who is on their purpose has a glint in their eyes. They don’t have their face ground into the ground from the set blueprint of ‘life’.

People with a purpose are happier, engaged and present.