I know you’ve heard this one before… “What you focus on expands.”

Every dream board wielding watcher of “The Secret” and reader of personal development literature has at some point been exposed to this concept.

And, there is truth here. Focused energy on just about any topic or thing you want to bring into being will assist you in doing just that… Yet, there is an over simplication here that has always bugged me. Largely, it comes down to the idea that simply setting your focus is enough. That you can put of picture of a new car on your mirror and in short order that new car will end up in your driveway… or that you can write your deepest desires on a sticky note that hangs on your rear view mirror and magically those desires will manifest by themselves.

Well, in short. That has not been my experience. I doubt it will be yours either. Especially when it comes to money… Stay tuned for more on that.

First, lets get to the bottom of this idea of simply focusing on things to manifest them and make them real inside your life. To do that, we need to look at your brain. That 3 pounds of grey matter about the size of 2 fists between your ears.

Turns out there is some science happening here that you may want to take notice of… On some level, you’ve probably been exposed to the fact that scientists have been doing their level best to identify and map the various parts of the brain for many years now in an effort to understand what part of the brain is responsible for various thought processes and activities.

And while there is still a long way to go, certain bits of the map have started to be reliably identified.

One such area, which sits at the base of the brain, has been identified and named the Reticular Activating System or RAS. It turns out that the RAS acts as a filter. We all are being constantly bombarded with information and stimuli all day everyday. And, we need a mechanism to let us know what is important and what is to be ignored.