How To Get Better Results

As Internet Marketers, we’re always trying to figure out how to get better results by controlling the flow of information. We’re all aware of the dangers of information overload and its ability to drown us in a vast sea of murky data causing us to feel overwhelmed, stressed and generally out of sorts.

On the one hand, we know that we need to keep studying to improve our knowledge so we can act more effectively and produce better results.

Yet on the other hand, we know we must not give ourselves simply too much information or the information will be as indigestible as a starving man that has completely over-indulged at an all you can eat Indian buffet.

All the information through our senses goes through a filtration process where we judge its relevancy against what it is we’re trying to achieve. For those of you that have studied NLP, or are into Tony Robbins, Christopher Howard and T. Harv Eker, you’ll recognise this part of your mind as the Reticular Activating System (RAS). This controls the flashlight of your focus at any one time depending on what you have consciously instructed, or more likely in our society, unconsciously allowed your mind to pay attention to.

Once  your mind’s RAS has been set, it will receive stimulus from the external environment through our five senses (six if you want to count intuition). This information will be filtered by our RAS by deleting, distorting and generalising the information to make it more palatable for us to accept as humans. If we were to take in every bit of information that’s possible, we would simply find it too much to be able to arrange that information into any sort of usable information that we can take action on.

The question then becomes:

How can we control our RAS to notice the things that are important to us?

Of course, the presupposition here is that we actually know what it is that is important to us in the first place. Most people go through life and never really understand what it is that’s important to them. They don’t even give it much conscious consideration and simply believe they’re a direct result of their circumstances and are powerless to changes them.

The diagram below shows the change in our state when we receive new information from the external environment and what happens to our state once we have received it. To make this example more obvious, I want you to think of an extreme situation where you can associate yourself with the emotion that the news brought.

Perhaps you can think back of first hearing the news that a loved one has just passed away? This may be painful while your focus is here but it will also be enlightening for you to understand the way we behave when we receive such news.

As you can see, the first thing that happens is we receive the news through our senses, then our focus immediately changes which causes a change in our physiology. The change in our physiology changes the way we feel which in turn changes the quality of our actions and behaviour. Of course this affects the result we get in the physical world.

When trying to get better results, most people see and experience a result that they don’t want and try to change the action. However, looking at the diagram, it’s clear to see that changing the action is not making a change at the root of the problem.

To make a proper shift, we need to change our focus. We can change our focus by giving things a different meaning – this is our point of power.

I know that this is easier said than done and I, like everyone else, have daily challenges in changing my focus to one that is more empowering and serves me in working towards my personal goals. Challenges are thrown at you constantly and it’s up to you to see those challenges in an empowering way that serves you to progress your business and life.

Let me give you an example of what I mean…

A man and woman can be happily married for 20 years, then all of a sudden, the marriage breaks up and ends in a bitter divorce. The man might say:

That marriage was a nightmare! I was bruised and broken and I’m never getting married again.

The woman might say:

That marriage was a nightmare. I was bruised and broken but I can’t wait to get married again.

You see, it’s not what happens to us which determines our well-being and our destiny, it’s the meaning we attach to what happens. Remember this:

Outcome = Event + Response

You see, events happen to all of us… our family members pass away, we lose jobs, relationships break down, etc.

Whilst some people may experience these events more frequently, or more severely than others, we all have experience of these events.

However, the ‘Response’ part of the equation is where control lies and it’s this control that determines the outcome from that event. It’s your decision to choose how you are going to respond to the events that life throws your way.

Albeit difficult, it’s worth remembering that we can control the meaning that we give to the events of our lives.

We simply don’t need to be imprisoned with the tyranny of our own conditioned thoughts which mainly judge things as either good or bad, even positive or negative. Things can simply be either empowering (which serves us) or disempowering (which limits us). They can be favourable or unfavourable, or they can be desirable or undesirable.

Consciously take charge of your focus and use it to propel your results to the next level.

To Your Online Success,

The Profit Share

The mutt's nuts or the dog's drivel? I double dare you to leave a comment! :-)