One-on-one Business Coaching: Who is kicking your “RAS”?

Where you set your attention is where you end up. Who is keeping you accountable to getting you where you want to be?

Okay, so who’s wondering what RAS is then?  I thought so!  One-on-one business coaching with clients keeps people accountable to their plan and their goals. If you’ve ever heard the phrase “we get what we focus on” (and found it to be true), you now understand RAS (Reticular Activating System).  It’s actually a part of our brain.  Without getting too scientific about it, our brain has so much stuff to handle that, without real focus, we don’t get the information we need to move forwards.  I guess that means that we need to get really focused then, doesn’t it?

We call that “setting your RAS”.  Sounds a bit odd, doesn’t it?  Well, here’s a great example (and I have many) of RAS at work.

My coach has been beating me up for a while now about referrals.  His constant question to me is “How can you have the client retention and results that you have, with the level of referrals that you get?”  So now I should share some numbers.  I’ve been coaching for nearly 9 years now, and I’ve never focused on referrals.  In 2015, I got one!  Prior to that, one or two.  So when James asked me in January what my RAS was set for with regard to referrals, it should be no surprise that the answer was “it’s not!”  We agreed at that call that I should firmly focus on 1 per week.

At 10.31am, literally half an hour after I finished my one-on-one business coaching call with James, the referral landed!  Every week since then, I’ve asked myself the question “where’s this week’s referral coming from?”  And without fail, every week, the referral came in!  Until April, when conference came along, and I took my eye off the ball and stopped asking myself the question.  Consequently, the referrals stopped!

Two weeks ago, at my Thursday one-on-one business coaching call, James reminded me again about setting my RAS.  On Saturday morning, during a pause in conversation whilst driving Alex to a bell boating regatta, I wondered to myself “where’s this week’s referral coming from?”  Upon arrival, I quickly checked my email – at 8.33am, the referral email had arrived (while I had been driving!)  It’s good this RAS thing, I though to myself – but it would be great if the referral arrived a bit earlier in the week so I don’t have to wonder where it’s coming from!  So guess what?  Monday morning, 11.45am – inbound referral phone call!  And on Tuesday came the next one!

Where do you need to set your RAS more clearly to get the results you’re looking for?

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