What If?. . .The Pareto Principle, The Reticular Activating System, and Bill Russell

What if?

If you want to live Your Dream in five years, you've got to write it down, create a vision board, write down a plan, create goals, and do something daily to accomplish those goals.  It's been said that we overestimate what we can accomplish in a year, and we underestimate what we can accomplish in five years.  You may say, “I wrote all this down, but what if I don’t accomplish this in five years?”  But what if you do?  Remember, five years are going to pass regardless of what you do (or don’t do).

For the sake of argument let’s say you get five years down the line and only three quarters of your Dream is accomplished, or maybe just half is accomplished.  That is far closer to your Dream than you were five years ago.  My wife, Margaret, and I had a five-year plan to be completely financially free with no debt, so we could do what we wanted, pursue our passions, and go wherever whenever.  It took us six years, but we did it.

It’s the 80/20 Rule, sometimes called The Pareto Principle, named after Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist.  You’ve probably heard something like eighty percent of the work is done by twenty percent of the people.  However, the 80/20 Rule applies to all kinds of situations, one of which is your vision.  While most people overestimate what they can accomplish in a year and underestimate what they can accomplish in five years, the key is understanding that consistent work toward a goal over time creates exponential returns to one’s effort.  This is an exercise in delayed-gratification, and it takes faith, acting on the belief that what is done well consistently will eventually lead to the manifestation of your vision.  When you begin, it takes a while to see any results, but eventually the returns begin flowing, and if you look back on the journey, you’ll usually find that the last twenty percent of the time it took to accomplish a goal, the faster and greater the returns on your effort.

R.A.S.

Ever heard of the Reticular Activating System (RAS)?  It’s in your brain.  It is the mechanism that brings relevant information to your attention, and it plays a major role in achieving your goals. You can deliberately program the RAS by choosing to send specific messages from your conscious mind like setting goals, saying positive affirmations, or visualizations to your subconscious mind.  By consciously sending a positive message the RAS makes the subconscious and the conscious mind focus on and carry out the message.  If the message is negative (like, “I could never do that.”) the RAS will carry out that message as well.

The RAS doesn’t differentiate between positive and negative.  It simply obeys the message you send it.  The RAS cannot differentiate between a real and synthetic event.  It believes whatever message you send it, even if the message has not taken place in the real world (as if our thoughts and visions aren’t real, I guess!).  Every person has experienced this phenomenon in his or her life. How does this work?

When I was a kid, my buddies and I used to play this game when we were in the car called “slug-a-bug.”  The object of the game was to be the first to spot a red Volkswagen bug.  If you did, then you got to punch the other guys as hard as you could on the arm.  When I played this game, I saw Volkswagen bugs everywhere.  And I had a really sore arm!  But even after the game was over, I would still see Volkswagen bugs when I thought about the game because I had fed my RAS the information to see red Volkswagen bugs.

 But this isn’t just a thing for kids.  Have you ever decided that you are going to buy a certain type of car, and then that is the car you see everywhere you go?  It’s like all of a sudden everyone else in the world had the same brilliant idea to buy the car you want too!  RAS!  Of course, you realize that all those people driving the car you want didn’t just go out and purchase the car the day before you decided you wanted that particular car.  What’s changed is your awareness of that particular car.  The car you want to purchase has come to the forefront of your conscious mind.

Bill Russell, the great NBA player for the Boston Celtics who led his team to 11 NBA Championships, was a five-time NBA Most Valuable Player, and a twelve-time NBA All-Star, was also cut from his Junior High School basketball team, was nearly cut from his High School team at the age of fourteen, and was ignored by major university basketball programs across the country.  He is the most storied player in NBA history, holding eleven, yes, eleven Championships in his thirteen-year playing career.

At the center position, Russell went up against players like Wilt Chamberlain who was five inches taller than Russell.  When asked how he won so often and how he knew he would win, Russell replied that he knew he would win because he had already played and won the whole game in his mind the evening before.  There it is!  The Reticular Activating System!  Through visualization, practice (goal-setting), and his belief in his ability to win (positive affirmations), Russell placed his championship mentality at the forefront of his conscious mind.  In other words Russell had vision, a plan, and listened to the Advocate's stories that served him.  It’s the same with you and your Dream!

Write It Down and Do It

When it comes to accomplishing a Dream, when you write down your Dream, create a Dream Board to visually stimulate your mind, heart, and body, and focus on it every day, you not only consciously pursue it, but your subconscious also focuses on it as well.  You have to create a vision and visualize it, positive affirmations and affirm them, goals and work them if you want to accomplish your Dream.

Here’s why:  The Reticular Activating System and the 80/20 Rule.  Eighty percent of your Dream will be accomplished in the last twenty percent of the time set for your goals.  The first eighty percent of your time builds the foundation for the exponential growth in the last twenty percent of your Dream timetable.  All those visualizations, affirmations, and goal-setting compound over time, building momentum, like that tsunami from chapter three.  If you have no vision, positive affirmations, and goals written down, then you are not dreaming!  You are wishing.  So, write it down, create a Dream Board, visualize it daily, speak your positive affirmations, and set and accomplish goals along the way.  Your Reticular Activating System will obey you!

With the vision, positive affirmations, and goals you’ve written and spoken I guarantee, ninety-nine times out of a hundred, you will be closer to your Dream than if you did none of these actions because intention brings results.  It may get messy and difficult.  It may seem like two steps forward and one step back (Remember, that’s a step forward!).  It may not look exactly how you visualized it.  In other words it may not be “perfect” (whatever that means to you).  But here’s the dealio.  Let me speak freely: It’s not about perfection.  It’s about progression.