I remembered my first car was bought in 2002 by my dad. It was a Proton Saga Iswara. I remembered how excited i was then. As I drove the car and my dad sitting next to me, suddenly while we saw so many similar cars on the road. We were thinking, is this the most selling car on Malaysia? They were not there before but after purchasing the car only we noticed this phenomena.
What actually happened? It is the Reticular activating system in our brain. It functions like an antenna to detects whatever we focus on. In this case since we just bought this new car, the antenna is activated and suddenly we see it anywhere.
Last year I was dreaming to buy a Porsche Cayenne. After felt in love with the model (without any concrete reason) guess what happened? Suddenly i saw so many Cayenne on the road. And the best part is whenever I saw other SUV from far, I started to think that it is a Cayenne. I saw it looks like Cayenne and when it came near me, it is an Audi or Harrier which looks almost similar from far.
Recently my friend bought a new Kia Forte. He convinced me that the car is the best in the category. Previously I was thinking that Honda City is the best. And I noticed the car was so famous and so many on the road. Now after riding my friend’s new Forte I convinced that Forte is the best. Guess what, I started to see so many Forte on the road.
Why all these things happened? It is the Reticular Activating System (RAS) that focusing on specific items. When this antenna is activated, our brain is start focusing on that. In this case is the car. But there are so many other instances in our life. There was a saying said “Whatever we focus on will expand.” The RAS is the explanation why whatever we focus on expand.
The next time I try to focus on something, I might need to focus on good thing and big thing. By focusing on these thing, I can dream big and start noticing that big thing is actually around us.