We should teach children how to use their brains in a way that helps them meet their goals

In 1999, Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris detailed a study that elaborated on a test, called the ‘selection attention test’ or better yet, the ‘invisible gorilla’ experiment.

In this video, six people; three in white shirts and three in black shirts, pass basketballs around. The audience is asked to keep a silent count of the number of passes made by the people in white shirts. While this is happening, and the audience is trying to keep their count, a gorilla strolls through the frame. While walking through the set, the gorilla stops dead centre to face the camera and thumps its chest, before walking out of the frame.

You would expect that the audience would notice this gorilla easily. But when this experiment was conducted at Harvard University, at least half of the people who watched the video and counted the passes completely missed the gorilla.

It was as though the gorilla was invisible to them.

What this experiment reveals, is that we are missing a lot of what goes on around us, and that we have no idea that we are missing so much.

The human brain processes about 400 billion bits of information per second from various stimuli in our environment. Yet, we become consciously aware of just 1% of that information. What’s truly amazing about this little fact is not the sheer amount of information that it processes, but the implication that it filters and blocks out information from the external world that it feels may be irrelevant.

If the brain was unable to filter out excessive information, it would experience something similar to a ‘data overload’, and be unable to process any information, at all.

The filter that helps prevent this overload is called the Reticular Activating System (RAS).

The RAS is a filter that’s applied to a staggering amount of data, which is picked up by our five senses. It works 24x7 and is the only thing keeping us from being overwhelmed by the billions of bits of information that passes through our brain every second. To better understand its importance, we should think of it as a filter that directs our focus and shapes our beliefs. It controls what we consciously give our attention to at any particular moment.

That’s what makes it so valuable while setting goals.

When we set a goal, we communicate to our RAS that anything associated with that goal is important to us. Your RAS then focuses on bringing anything associated with that goal to your attention. The reality of our being, is that we only have a limited amount of energy and attention to direct towards our goals and we have an overwhelming amount of data that comes at us, so we need the RAS as a filter.

Children lack guidance vis-à-vis goal setting. As parents, we can help them create focussed goals. An important aspect about the RAS is that we can change what it pays attention to. A filter is set once we focus on something, not otherwise. We can activate the RAS by ‘programming’ goals into our subconscious mind. This mechanism explains why goal setting is primarily a scientific principle. The brain is like a computer; waiting for instructions.

When the RAS finds a successful way to achieve an objective, it directs our efforts to keep up that method. That is how we form habits and develop our inner monologue. It is through knowing these features of the RAS that we can help our children train their brains to replace negative thoughts with positive and constructive thoughts. Positive intent will translate into positive outcomes because the RAS will ensure that they filter out anything irrelevant to those goals.

There is a scene in Alice in Wonderland that perfectly helps explain goal setting to children. It occurs after Alice has shrunk and she is exploring the dark forest, while desperately attempting to find her way. There she sees the disappearing-reappearing Cheshire Cat, perched high in a tree.

Alice stops and asks him for directions.

“Where are you going?” asks the cat.

“I don’t know!” replies Alice.

The cat responds: “Well, if you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there!”

Simply put, our RAS has to know where we want to go to take us there. Even when you use Google Maps — the first thing you need to do is type in your destination.

What can we do to help children?

1. Ask them to write down their goals and set their intention

Writing down goals is a research-backed way of accomplishing them. Research shows that when we note down our goals in visible places, we work harder to achieve them, as the note keeps activating our RAS.

When a person has no clear goals and doesn’t have any plans to achieve specific goals, their level of goal arousal, passion and overall enthusiasm is low. They do not have the intention to follow through with actions that will give them the traction they need to realise goals. As a result, they do not recognize or identify the people, opportunities, or resources that could be helpful to them.

So, when we write down our goals, our brains are more attuned to helping us achieve those goals. However, we need to make a point of being specific with our intention. Setting the right intent plays a key role in encouraging our subconscious mind, through the RAS, to create pathways for success. We need to pinpoint specific objectives that we want to move towards and the specific steps that we need to take to get there. Thereafter, our reticular activating system will help us stay ready and alert to respond to cues in our environment that are relevant to those goals.

It’s important to remember that for this to work, children’s goals and intentions should be derived from what they aspire to do or to be, not what they are externally motivated, instructed or pushed into creating as an intention and goal. As mentioned earlier, when a goal is set, we communicate to our RAS that anything associated with that goal is important to us, but without a strong intention, the motivation and determination to achieve those goals will be lacking.

2. Help them visualise their goals

By asking our children to visualise the act of achieving a goal and to focus on what feeling it evokes, we can bring emotion to the goal. Our mind affects the external world. The observer effect in quantum physics states that where you direct your attention is where you place your energy. Consequently, you affect the material world which is all made up of energy. So, if we mentally rehearse the desired experience in our thoughts, we will experience the emotions of that event before it has physically manifested and find the motivation to act. Most sport coaches know the power of this and use it as a part of their training. Physically shooting the ball in a basket and visualising it is a way of conditioning the brain towards successful outcomes. When we visualise or imagine something, the same neurons and brain regions are stimulated as when we physically perform these same actions.

The RAS is working whether we have set it intentionally or not. Therefore, goal setting is an essential step to achieving meaningful success. It can positively affect our children’s lives on a daily basis, in addition to helping them create a happier future. Parents just need to help children understand their goals. The RAS will be the road map telling their brains what to focus on and what can be useful to achieve those goals.

For more information on RAS, you can watch my Moonshot Conversation here