Jim Kwik teaches BOSS, a four-step memory framework: Believe in your ability, Observation to pay attention, Strategies to turn nouns into verbs, and States to embody emotional modes like Fun, Focus, and Fierce. Belief shapes what you can do physically. Most memory problems come from not paying attention in the first place.
Chapters
Will you stand up please, everybody? He's like, oh, he's one of those guys. I believe that your imagination is like the ultimate superpower, that you as visionaries and founders, creators, it's an inside-out process. How many people agree? Raise your hand. I'm gonna give you 4 quick tools that you could use over the course of the next few days to tap more of that Incredible superpower. And my premise for all this is that you— I always wear a brain on my shirt because I see— I think what you see, you take care of. You see your car, you see your hair, your skin, you take care of it because it's in your awareness. But we don't see the thing that takes care of us. And so here are a few things that you could do. I believe that we are the pilot of our mind, not the passenger, right? And you could be the boss of your own brain. the brain that creates everything in your reality. And so I'm gonna use the acronym BOSS, B-O-S-S, as 4 quick tips to remember things better. Now, the B stands for believe, 'cause if you believe you can or believe you can't, either way, what? You're right. You're right, right? Henry Ford said that. Let me show you what a belief is. Just make a little distance from the person next to you. I know it's a little bit difficult 'cause we're shoulder to shoulder, but I'm gonna show you something kind of fun here. I want you to shake out your body. Stop. Notice where your feet are. And I want you to just point forward with your right hand. Now without— your other right hand, sir. Sorry, it's been a long day. OK, so with your feet stationary, I want you to turn to your right as far as you can go without moving your feet. And notice the exact point. Take a snapshot of that place as you take your neighbor's eye out. All right, notice where you're pointing. Come back center. Put your arms by your side, empty your hands, not in your pocket, just empty them. Take a deep breath, exhale, relax, and just close your eyes and breathe normal. Now, with your eyes closed, I want you to imagine you're pointing forward again, but this time I want you to see and feel yourself turning twice as far as you did the first time. See and feel like you're made out of rubber, like you're going twice as far. And even if you can't imagine it, Imagine that you can imagine it. All right, now see and feel yourself going 3 times around, and it's really enjoyable. This is a great stretch. All right, see and feel yourself now going 4 times around like you're Gumby. Now watch this. Open your eyes. Everyone point forward with your right hand and turn to your right as far as you can now go. Turn. All right, clap if you went further the second time. Have a seat, have a seat. Now raise your hand, look around, raise your hand if you went further the second time, raise your hand. Now my question for you is this: were you physically capable of doing that the first time? Yes? Of course, nobody took a yoga class when my eyes were closed, right? You were, but where was the limitation if there was one? In your mind, right? Remember this: all behavior is belief-driven. And so even athletes, they don't do physical training all the time. They do what? Mental training. Some of you went 25-50% further, and you didn't work harder. What if you could go 25-50% deeper in your fulfillment, in your health, you know, in your impact that you have? And so that's the power of imagination. The O in BOSS— everyone do this: shake out your right hand. Make a fist, put it to your chin. Now everybody, where's your chin? The O in MOM stands— sorry, the O in BOSS stands for observation. A lot of us, we use our imagination, but your imagination is either hindering you or it's helping you, right? So you have to be very careful with the way you see things and the way you hear things or your own belief. And so paying attention, you know, a lot of people blame their memory, their retention, when it's really your attention. The S in BOSS stands for strategies. Now, there are strategies. You don't have imagination, you do it. You don't have focus, you do it. You don't even have energy, you do it. So when you take your nouns in your life and you transform them into verbs, it gives you agency and power to make things better. In fact, if you were in my early earlier session today, how many were in my session earlier? Do you remember using your imagination for remembering things? Like, what were some of the brain foods, for example? What was the first one? Avocados. Avocados, and what else? Blueberries. Blueberries, what else? Broccoli. Broccoli, olive oil. That's the power of your imagination, and we'll talk about more of that on our session on Sunday. Finally, what I wanna show you is the last S in BOSS that will unlock more of your imagination. Stand up one more time, really quick. Get in a group of 3 really fast. Group of 3 or 4. Introduce yourself. Go, go, go. All right. Shh. Just grab any group, 3, 4, or 5. It doesn't matter. Shh. Repeat after me. Shh. Now, really quickly, how many of you played superheroes when you were kids? You're like, I still play superheroes, Jim. I'm gonna show you how to harness 3 emotional states I'm going to give you 3 states this weekend that will level up your learning and your life using your imagination. And I'm going to recommend you feel these states and you pretend you're these superheroes. So the first one is fun, and for me it's Spider-Man. Show your friends Spider-Man's move. Go! Wait, where do the sound effects come from? And when you do this, shh, I want you to say fun. 1, 2, 3. Fun! Great. The second superhero, the F, is focus. And for me, I think about Black Panther. So why don't you make the X? Wakanda forever, right? This is your focal point. So 1, 2, 3, go. Focus. Focus. Louder. 1, 2, 3. Focus. Great. And the third one, the superhero that you want to represent, the emotional state is fierce. All right? So I want you to do Wonder Woman. Hands on your hips. 1, 2, 3. Fierce. 1, 2, 3. Fierce. All right, here's the game. Go back to back with your partners. Go back, put your backs together. Shh. OK, here's the game really quick. We're going to end with this. I want you to think about one superhero and their word. In a moment, I'm going to count to 1, 2, 3. When I say 3, turn around and do your move, OK? And say the word. The goal is to win. All 3 or 4 of you have to match perfectly. OK. What's the sound— and if you do, you win. What's the sound you make when you win? Go. Woo! Oh, come on. What's the sound you make when you win? Woo! And if one person doesn't match, you lose. What's the sound you make when you lose? Aw. Okay, ready? Clear your mind. 1, 2, 3. Shh. One more time. Go back to back. Back to back. Clear your mind. One more time. Ready? We'll give you one more chance. 1, 2, 3. 1, 2, 3. So here's the power that you have. All learning, like life, is state-dependent. When you could cultivate fun, focus, ferocity, you could be the boss of your own brain. Because I believe there's a version of all of you that you haven't met yet, and we show up every single day until we're introduced. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.
