Nothing has meaning except the meaning you give it.

An explanation of how we process outside information and how it influences what we think and how we act.

You may well have heard an expression like ‘what you focus on is what you get’ or ‘your thoughts create your reality’ or ‘nothing has meaning except the meaning you give it.’ Such expressions, though sometimes sounding a little ‘woo woo,’ have neuroscience supporting them.

Amongst many studies conducted around how our brain works and how our thinking is influenced, are the studies by Richard Bandler and John Grinder, who developed the NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) Model of Communication. This model explains how we process outside information and how it influences what we think and how we act.

Image courtesy of https://www.the10minuteleader.com/nlp-communication-model/

So here is a short summary:

We receive external information or data through one of our senses – sight, taste, sound, touch, smell and it’s just raw data, no meaning just data, and then our brains process this external information and give it meaning and then we act in alignment to the meaning we give it. Hence….

Nothing in life has any meaning except the meaning you give it. Tony Robbins

Now one important thing to note here – our brains literally can’t handle all the external data coming at us at once so it deletes, distorts and generalises most of it and only pays attention to the things we decide are important.

So how do our brains decide what is important?

There’s many factors that influence what we notice in our world and the meaning we give things, some of the main ones are:

· Our beliefs (what we believe to be true). Another example is say you believe there is also an opportunity in every challenge, then you will process a challenge more optimistically looking for the opportunity rather than someone who believes challenges are setbacks and a source of failure.

· Our values (what we care most about). Say you have a value of health, that will affect the meaning you give going to exercise or eating ‘healthy’ foods and consequently your actions.

· Major decisions we make including recent decisions we’ve made (part of what we are focussing on). Let’s say you decide to buy a new red Mazda CX5 – firstly, you will notice then so much more because ‘what you focus on is what you get’ and secondly, seeing more and your decision to buy one will influence the meaning you give this type of Mazda and also how you view other cars.

· Memories that we have (or have made up). For example, if you had a terrifying experience with a rottweiler when you were growing up, it’s likely that memory will play a significant role when processing seeing a rottweiler.

So once our brains decide that something is ‘important’ based on the above as well as a few other things which we won’t go into here, then it:

- Gives it a meaning (or an internal representation), this then

- Influences our emotional states as our thoughts create our feelings, then it

- Impacts our physiology – the way our body is responding. For example, if the meaning given, it’s a ‘scary thing’ then our hearts might race, we might get goosebumps etc. And then..

- We will act in line with how we are thinking, feeling and physically responding.

Let’s put this altogether with the rottweiler example:

- Person sees rottweiler (external data accessed through sight)

- Brain chooses to notice this data as it is linked to a distinct memories (memories are a major deciding factor for the brain to pay attention to the data)

- Meaning given is this is not safe (internal representation)

- Feel scared (State)

- Goosebumps raise on body and heart accelerates (physiology)

- Run (action/behaviour evoked as a result of the meaning given).

This highlights why two people seeing the rottweiler may respond completely differently. It’s because they are coming from their views of the world based on their decisions, memories, beliefs and values.

A couple of things to note:

· If we don’t choose what we focus on and what meaning we want to give things then it’s likely, based on our hard-wiring, that we default to thinking either negatively or risk-adverse, which has it’s place, but not all the time.

· Growing and creating results requires some optimistic thinking and acting courageously.

Applying this to create what you want in life:

You can choose what meaning you give things. Choose to focus on beliefs that work for you and make decisions that support what you are wanting to create in your business and in your life.

To create more of what you want, focus on that which you want more of.

What you focus on grows. What you concentrate on is what you see more of in your life. Robin S. Sharma

If taking control of your thinking is an area you are curious in mastering, why not attend our free training ‘How To Influence Your Thinking To Create Results’ or contact Leaders Network at hello@leadersnetworkgroup.com.au