Follow your impulses. Commit fully. Detach from the outcome. Give positive meaning to your experience. Free yourself from limiting beliefs.

These are the five pillars that separate those who create extraordinary lives from those who merely exist. These principles are the key to unlocking more energy, attracting more opportunities, reducing your resistance to action, and creating a virtuous cycle that amplifies over time.

But before diving into this system, you need to understand how your brain filters reality — because that’s where everything begins.

How Your Brain Filters 99.999% of Reality

Right now, you’re somewhere. A room, a place, indoors or outdoors. There are dozens of objects around you, background sounds, subtle smells, sensations on your skin.

But how many of these elements are you actually aware of? Maybe 5, 10, 20 at most.

The rest? The conscious part of your brain completely ignores them.

This isn’t a flaw — it’s a feature. Your brain constantly filters what deserves your attention and what doesn’t. If you had to be conscious of everything simultaneously — every sound, every texture, every movement — you’d be completely overwhelmed, paralyzed.

The sorting system that decides what enters your consciousness is called the Reticular Activating System (RAS).

The Gatekeeper of Your Consciousness

Think of your conscious mind as a very exclusive club. The RAS is the bouncer who decides who gets in. What does it base its decisions on? What you’ve defined as important.

You’ve certainly experienced this: you decide to buy a red car of a certain brand, and suddenly, you see that car everywhere. You think “Incredible, everyone’s buying the same model!” But no — those cars were already there. You simply weren’t noticing them. The RAS was filtering them as irrelevant. Now that it’s important to you, it lets them into your consciousness.

Here’s what you absolutely need to remember: in the same environment, you can live completely different realities.

• If you look for problems, you’ll see problems.
• If you look for opportunities, you’ll see opportunities.

The RAS doesn’t give you access to objective reality. It filters your version of reality based on what you’ve defined as important.

The RAS’s Accomplice: Confirmation Bias

But the RAS has an accomplice that reinforces this system even further: confirmation bias.

It waits quietly in your conscious mind for the RAS to send it sensory information. Then — and this is crucial — it interprets that information to validate what you already believe to be true.

Concrete example: If you believe that finding a good job is difficult, your brain becomes a biased detective. It notices every unemployment report in the news, remembers every failure story it’s been told, interprets every rejection as additional proof. And simultaneously, it ignores stories of people who find work easily, minimizes the opportunities available around you, even forgets your own past successes.

Result? You’re right. The world proves you right. But not because it’s objectively true — it’s because you’ve unconsciously programmed your brain to see only that version of reality.

You don’t see the world as it is. You see the world as you are.

Algorithms: The Ultimate Amplifiers

In the 21st century, social media, YouTube, and Google reinforce this entire mechanism. Algorithms work exactly like your confirmation bias: among all the available information, they serve you content that aligns with your beliefs.

Result: your confirmation bias is exponentially amplified. You have more and more “proof” from the outside world that you’re right.

You end up living in what I call a reality bubble. You think everyone thinks like you, that your worldview is the norm, that your beliefs are obvious — when in reality, it’s simply the RAS filtering, confirmation bias reinforcing, and algorithms amplifying.

The longer you stay in this bubble, the stronger it gets, the more impermeable it becomes to other worldviews, and paradoxically, the harder it becomes to see that it exists.

Congratulations: being aware of this is already a huge step on the path to becoming the creator of your life again.

Taking Back Control of What You Let In

You need to become selective about everything that enters your field of perception — what you see, hear, read, listen to.

Step 1: Clean Up Your Feeds

On your social media, whenever you identify posts that trigger fear, systematically click “Not interested.”

If there’s no real danger to your physical or psychological integrity, there’s no reason to be afraid right now. And normally, if you’re scrolling through social media, everything is fine.

Fear prevents you from opening up to others and connecting with your humanity. It reinforces survival behaviors: selfishness, distrust, withdrawal. Yet opportunities often emerge from the connections we make. We are social beings, and fear cuts us off from this vital need for connection and sharing.

Step 2: Be Selective About Everything You Consume

The films and videos you watch, the music and podcasts you listen to, the books you read, the games you play — each of these contents signals to the RAS what’s important to you.

This isn’t about being in denial. It’s about redirecting the RAS toward a new perception of reality: happier, more confident, joyful, and peaceful. Because these inner states energize you and allow you to act in a much more aligned and thoughtful way.

Survival Mode vs Life Mode

Survival Mode: You’re constantly seeking to consolidate your inner sense of security. You have no mental space to connect with your dreams. You react to events instead of creating your life.

Life Mode: You’ve stopped feeding fear. You’re less preoccupied with your thoughts, so more open to the outside world — to encounters, to opportunities. You stop imagining the worst-case scenario and allow yourself to dream. You act consciously to realize your dreams.

The difference that allows you to switch from one mode to the other? What you choose to feed in your mind.

The 5-Step System

Here’s the secret of everyone who has created an extraordinary life: they learned to pursue their dreams against all odds. And often, without even realizing it, they followed this system.

Step 1: Follow Your Most Intense Impulses

Ask yourself this question: do you do what you do for money, status, others’ approval — or because it truly makes you come alive?

There are two types of motivation:

• Extrinsic motivation: you do things to get something in return (salary, recognition, approval).
• Intrinsic motivation: you do things because the activity itself pleases you. You’d do it even for free.

Research shows that people driven by love for what they do are more successful in the long term, more resilient in the face of obstacles, more creative, and more satisfied with their lives.

Why? Because the brain naturally releases dopamine — a key neurotransmitter for reward and motivation — when you do something you love. Dopamine motivates you, you act, you get results, which generates more dopamine, more motivation… You have a virtuous loop.

Conversely, when you constantly force yourself to do something that doesn’t appeal to you, your brain must draw on willpower. It’s exhausting, and even if it can last a while, it creates lives full of regrets and bitterness.

How to Identify Your Main Impulse?

When you have impulses for two different things, use this technique: flip a coin. If it’s heads and you think “Oh no, I really wished it was tails,” then you have your answer. Your main impulse is the activity corresponding to tails.

What matters isn’t what the coin says — it’s what you feel.

Warning: Impulse vs Escape

“I have the impulse to watch Netflix while eating cookies.” No — that’s not an impulse, it’s an escape.

A true impulse:

• Gives you energy
• Makes you lose track of time
• Leaves you satisfied afterward
• You’d do it even if no one ever knew

An escape:

• Numbs your emotions
• Leaves you empty afterward
• You need increasingly larger doses
• You’d be somewhat ashamed if someone discovered how much time you spend on it

The difference is in your body. After a day of creating, learning, exploring something that truly excites you, you feel alive. After a day of infinite scrolling or binge-watching, you feel dead inside.

Your body knows. It tells you. You’re just ignoring the signal.

The Important Nuance

The same activity can be an escape for someone and a true life impulse for someone else. It’s not the “what” that matters, it’s the “why” and “how” you experience it.

One question to ask yourself: Does this activity cut me off from life or does it connect me more deeply to it?

Trust Your Unconscious

Your conscious mind captures only a tiny fraction of reality, but your unconscious has access to everything.

When your body makes you feel “this attracts me,” it’s not random or a whim. It’s your unconscious detecting something that your conscious thinking doesn’t see yet: perhaps an opportunity, a skill to develop, an important encounter, a necessary life lesson.

When something truly attracts you, regardless of others’ opinions, trust it. It’s often by following these “illogical” impulses that the best opportunities present themselves.

Step 2: Commit Fully

Once you’ve identified your priority action, go all in.

There’s a fascinating phenomenon in psychology called the flow state: you completely lose track of time, you’re fully immersed in what you’re doing. Studies show that people who regularly enter flow states are much happier, because when you’re in flow, you feel much more alive.

The Paradox of Commitment

Committing fully doesn’t mean desperately clinging to something that’s no longer working. It means:

• Giving everything when you’re in it
• Doing your best
• Letting go completely when it’s naturally finished

No half-measures. Either you’re 100% in, or you move on to something else. Frustrated lives are filled with half-finished projects, half-explored passions, half-followed impulses.

Natural Ending vs Psychological Resistance

How do you tell the difference?

Natural ending:

• You’ve learned what there was to learn
• You feel satisfied even if it’s not perfect
• You naturally move on to something else without forcing yourself
• You look back without regret

Psychological resistance:

• A fear blocks your impulse (fear of failure, of being judged, of not being good enough)
• You procrastinate, you make excuses
• You think about it constantly but don’t act

To check, ask yourself this question: “If all my fears disappeared with a magic wand, would I continue?”

If yes → it’s resistance. Continue, push through the fear. If no → it’s a natural ending. Move on without guilt.

If it’s resistance, don’t stop. That’s exactly where your growth lies. Resistance shows you where your limiting beliefs are. It’s a signal, not a stop sign.

The Only 3 Valid Reasons to Stop

1. The action is naturally completed — you feel it’s done, not because it’s hard, but because it’s finished
2. You no longer have the resources to continue — energy, time, materials: something is concretely missing
3. Another action becomes clearly more of a priority — another much stronger impulse emerges

You don’t stop because it’s uncomfortable. You don’t stop because you’re afraid. You don’t stop because it seems illogical.

Step 3: Detach From the Outcome

The more rigidly you attach to a specific outcome, the more performance anxiety you create. And anxiety decreases your cognitive abilities, reducing your performance. It’s a vicious cycle.

Being too attached to the outcome also means forgetting to live in the present — the only time we’re given to live.

It’s the journey that matters. If the goal of life were to arrive, then the goal would be to die. We’re here to enjoy the journey.

Being constantly focused on the outcome means risking missing your life because you’re always running toward a future that never arrives — since our goals evolve over time.

The more rigid you are about what you want, the more likely you are to miss opportunities that present themselves alongside your initial plan.

The Navigator Metaphor

Imagine you’re sailing on a ship. You have a destination, but you constantly adjust your course according to the wind, currents, weather, and actual conditions.

The key to success: you have a clear destination, but your path is flexible.

What Happens When You Let Go of the “How”

• You stay open to opportunities you never would have thought of
• You reduce your stress and can act with clarity
• The RAS lets more information into your conscious mind — you suddenly see more possibilities
• You become adaptable: when something doesn’t work, you pivot easily instead of stubbornly persisting

Step 4: Give Positive Meaning to Your Experience

Here’s a fundamental truth: we don’t experience a situation — we experience the meaning we give to a situation.

This isn’t just a nice phrase. It’s the foundation of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), validated by thousands of studies.

The ABC Model

Every situation is experienced in three stages:

A — The event: what happens B — The interpretation: the meaning you give to that event C — The emotional consequence: what you feel

The common mistake: thinking that A (the event) directly causes C (the emotional consequence). “This situation makes me anxious.”

The reality: A → B → C. My interpretation of this situation creates my anxiety.

It’s at the level of interpretation that all your power lies.

Concrete Example

You lose your job.

Interpretation 1: “I’m a failure, I’ll never make it.” → Depression, despair, paralysis

Interpretation 2: “This is an opportunity to reevaluate what I really want.” → Constructive reflection, targeted action, new opportunities

Same event. Opposite results. The difference? The meaning you gave it.

No situation has meaning in itself. It’s neutral. You give it meaning.

When facing any emotionally difficult situation, ask yourself this question: “How can I define this situation in a positive way?” — not in a way that victimizes or paralyzes you, but in a way that puts you back in your power and opens you to new possibilities.

Personally, I like to believe that life always wants the best for me, that every trial or challenge is there to help me grow. No matter how desperate things look, I always tell myself: “It’s for the best.” It’s a choice, and I can tell you it makes life much lighter.

Step 5: Free Yourself From Your Limiting Beliefs

This is the step that explains why you know what you should do but don’t do it.

There are only two drivers that push a human being to act:

• You always move toward what you perceive as beneficial
• You always move away from what you perceive as dangerous

If you’re not doing something that would be good for you, it’s not laziness. It’s that a limiting belief makes you interpret that action as dangerous.

The Five Whys Technique

To identify the root belief, use this technique:

“I’m not starting my business.” → Why? Because I might fail. → And if I fail? It would prove I’m not capable. → And if I’m not capable? It would prove I’m an impostor. → And then? It would prove I’m inadequate.

Bingo! The root belief is “I am inadequate.”

Testing the Belief

Take a sheet of paper, make two columns:

• Evidence FOR “I am inadequate”
• Evidence AGAINST “I am inadequate”

List all the evidence in each column.

You’ll understand something important: all the evidence saying “I am inadequate” are interpretations — it’s not reality, it’s your way of interpreting reality. And all the evidence showing you’re not inadequate has been minimized by your confirmation bias — but it’s there, it exists.

Once you see this, the belief begins to weaken. Why? Because a belief loses its power when you see it for what it objectively is: an interpretation of a filtered reality, not a fact.

Anxiety as a Signal

Anxiety isn’t your enemy. It’s your alarm telling you: “You’re filtering your reality through a limiting belief, and this belief makes you interpret reality in a way that awakens fears in you.”

Don’t try to suppress anxiety. Look for the hidden belief and question it.

The Complete Process

1. Stop — don’t force yourself, don’t judge yourself
2. Ask yourself the question: “What am I afraid will happen if I do this?”
3. Dig deeper — keep asking “And what would that mean?” until you find the core belief
4. Test this belief with your two columns
5. Understand that the evidence “for” are interpretations and the evidence “against” were simply being ignored
6. Act — once the belief is weakened, action becomes natural
7. Anchor — support this process with positive affirmations
8. Support — create an environment favorable to your new belief (avoid people who put you down, be careful what you consume, display inspiring elements in your home)

Fixed Mindset vs Growth Mindset

To be able to do this work, it’s essential to shift from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset.

Fixed mindset: you believe so strongly in your limiting beliefs that you think you can never change. “That’s just how it is, I can’t do anything about it, that’s who I am.”

Growth mindset: you’ve understood that you are not your beliefs, that nothing is fixed. Life is always in motion and you’re constantly evolving. No matter your current situation, there’s always a path to your goals.

In truth, we’re rarely 100% one or 100% the other. You can have a growth mindset in one area (“If I practice an instrument every day, I’ll improve”) and a fixed mindset elsewhere (“I’m not handy”).

The result of a fixed mindset: the belief verifies itself in reality. Because when you don’t even try, you can’t improve. And so the belief self-validates.

You can always improve in any area of your life. Some have natural abilities or advantages — there’s no point comparing yourself to others. But if you want to progress in an area because your heart calls you to it, you can always do it.

A well-known saying goes: “Practice beats talent.”

What This System Concretely Brings You

1. Your Energy Explodes

You no longer need to force yourself. You naturally want to. Your dopamine and endorphin levels increase, your cortisol drops. More joy, less stress. It’s not willpower — it’s optimized chemistry.

2. Opportunities Appear

The RAS is reprogrammed. You suddenly see opportunities everywhere. They were already there, you just weren’t noticing them. People call it luck, but it’s your brain awakening.

3. Everything Becomes Easier

You’re no longer fighting against your limiting beliefs that, while trying to help you, were putting obstacles in your way.

4. You Create a Positive Spiral

Action → Success → Confidence → More action → More success → More confidence… Each victory, even small, feeds the next. You experience challenges and obstacles as constructive experiences that help you grow.

Summary

The RAS filters almost all of reality. Good news: you can consciously program this filter by working on your beliefs.

The 5-step system:

1. Follow your impulses
2. Commit fully
3. Detach from the outcome
4. Give positive meaning to your experience
5. Free yourself from your limiting beliefs

Your benefits: more energy, less resistance, more opportunities, a positive spiral.

Conclusion: You Are the Creator of Your Experience

You’re not powerless. You’re not stuck. Your current life is the result of your current beliefs.

Change your beliefs → Change your RAS and confirmation bias → Change your thoughts → Change your actions → Change your experience.

It’s not what happens to you that determines your life. It’s the meaning you give to what happens and what you do with it.

Einstein left us this phrase: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”

Go observe those beliefs that limit you. Reeducate your RAS and confirmation bias. Reorganize your environment to support you.

You now have everything you need to create an extraordinary life. It’s up to you to embrace your growth mindset and set out to conquer your dreams — not the dreams expected of you, not those that impress on Instagram. Your dreams. The ones that make you come alive.

Understand your power here. It’s up to you to let the magic into your life.

If you believe in synchronicities, your RAS and confirmation bias will find proof that you’re right. So my question is: wouldn’t it be fun to experiment with the law of attraction?

It programs you to see the opportunities around you, believe in your dreams and allow yourself to discover the paths that lead to them, perceive abundance and let it flourish in your life.

Magic or applied neuroscience? It doesn’t matter. What matters is realizing that you are the creator of your experience.

📚 Scientific References

Reticular Activating System (RAS) Moruzzi, G. & Magoun, H. W. (1949). Brain stem reticular formation and activation of the EEG. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1392403/

Confirmation Bias Wason, P. C. (1960). On the failure to eliminate hypotheses in a conceptual task. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17470216008416717

Intrinsic Motivation – Self-Determination Theory Ryan, R. M. & Deci, E. L. (2000). Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations: Classic Definitions and New Directions. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11392867/

Flow State Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. Harper & Row.

ABC Model – Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) Ellis, A. (1957–1962). Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy. https://albertellis.org/

Growth Mindset Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3197928/