6 Steps to a Limitless Mid-Year Review | Jim Kwik

Welcome back, Kwik Brain, to a very special podcast. Now, in this episode, we're going to talk about 6 steps to winning the next 6 months. This really could be 6 steps towards winning the next 6 weeks, if you will, the next 6 years. We're halfway through the year, but how do you get the most out of the next 6 months? How do you make the previous 6 months, regardless of when you're listening to this, Because the same thing would apply. These are timeless principles and tactics I'm going to share with you. How do you make the last 6 months jealous? You know, like that of the next 6 months. And that's what we're going to talk about right now. So I want to talk about steps, very tactical things that new ideas you could look at the way the, your brain, the way the world is to get the most out of the next coming months. All right. And I'm going to share with those 6 and part of it is spawned and I'm doing this. Obviously off the cuff. Um, but, but part of me is doing the stream of consciousness because I just got off an interview and the interviewer was asking me, um, a lot of people ask me, how do you read faster? How do you learn languages? How do you remember people's names? Right. Um, or information about, you know, the book Limitless, um, which you haven't, by the way, thank you. This, this book is in dozens of different languages. Speaking of languages. And we're so proud that people are enjoying this book around the world. And thank you for over the 10,000 ratings on Amazon. Thank you for the 4,000+ ratings on iTunes. Thank you so much because please leave a review because your words, your story, we read every single one of them and know that your words and your stories are superpower and it can inspire somebody else to love their brain. Right. And get on this journey with us to be able to realize and reveal our, our, the best version of ourself.

All right.

So thank you. Thank you for that and all your support. Our mission is no brain left behind. And, and it means everything. Like, I can't even put it into words. But, but since this interviewer asked me a different question saying, how did you get involved in coaching? How did you become a brain coach? And, you know, you read in the book how I ended up learning these skills and developing them and how to apply them in your own life. But how did I get started 3 decades ago doing this? And I mean, this is all I do full-time, right? And so I wanted to answer that, talking about the choices that I made and how you could apply some of these ideas and these steps to really getting more out of the next 6 months. Okay. Now, Here's the thing. I share my this story in that maybe there are elements that you could relate to. Everybody's story is different, and recommend if you can take some notes. Some of you are driving, some of you working out, some of you are multitasking, which is absolutely fine. Maybe you could go back and re-listen to it, but I will get to the six steps. But let me give you some some some history. When when I learned these skills, I I met a mentor, you know, if you read my book, and it changed my life, really. I didn't have that network, if you will, or that education and that knowledge, those skills, those abilities. And that's kind of what a coach does, right? And he made me commit to reading one book a week. And I was, as history, I have, you know, I had a series of learning disabilities and challenges. It took me years longer to learn how to read, and I never read a book. You know, my teachers would've been surprised if I read a book cover to cover, much less wrote a book. And so, but reading one book a week where I've never finished a book before was a big commitment. Anyway, it took me on a path where I eventually discovered these tactics and these strategies on how to, how to win in school, right? How to read 3 times faster, understand more, uh, how to learn languages, facts, figures, you know, improve my memory. And so my, my, my grades, as you can imagine, skyrocketed. And, but I couldn't help but help other people because I was upset. My state was, I was angry because I suffered and I struggled, you know, since I had my accident when I was 5 years old till 18 years old. And every single day feeling insecure, working harder than everybody else and getting you know, less results, not believing in myself, right? Having a lot of that negative self-talk that we talk about. And, you know, I was spiraling in a, not a great momentum and I was ready to quit school, but everything changed. But I was upset that there were simple things I could have done and simple frameworks and understandings, ability, skills, techniques, and tools that would help me with my focus, with my memory, with my study skills, with my ability to think, with my reading ability and so much more. Anyway, I was thinking I, I have to help other people, right? That's why you learn something, how it could help yourself, but you learn it so you could help other people so other people could benefit. So I was walking when I had that thought and I saw a room that wasn't being used and I said, okay, next week at the same day, you know, day and the same time, I'm gonna just put 5 people there for free and just teach them for an hour or 2, teach them some of the skills that I'm using that help me with, with my grades and my, my study. And, uh, I didn't know how to find these people. So when I get back to my dorm room, I take a piece of paper and, and a black magic marker, and I write free speed reading memory tips, get better grades in less time. And, uh, and I'm a little bit hoarse right now just cuz I've been on interviews all day, so I, I just bear with me. Um, and the next morning, as I put the classroom, you know, Thursday, 7 o'clock, next morning I make some photocopies on the way to class and I just put some of the Flyers on bulletin boards, right? That was like the marketing. I mean, the internet really wasn't around back then. Nobody had email and stuff like that. And, you know, it's kind of different, right? We have students now in 195 nations. Many of you have downloaded our KwikBrain Universe app. And so you're connecting. It's that, that's by the way, where I'm spending 90% of our time and not so much in social media, but we have this platform in this app where you create your own profile. You can connect with other students and it's free.

Right?

And there's exclusive content that we don't put on social media there. And you could create, you know, connect with your positive peer group and encourage each other, share best practices on how you're learning this language and how you're studying this anatomy and everything. Anyway, we didn't have that back then, but I just put the flyers around and, and fast forward to Thursday, 7 o'clock, I start walking to the classroom and I'm just thinking, I hope 5 people just show up, right? Just 5 people. It's like, for me, if I'm 1 or 2 to tutor. And I turned the corner and outside the classroom, there's a group of people, like a crowd of people. And my, my honest thought at that time was, wow, I hope whatever's going on ends soon so I could do my thing.

Right.

And I go to the doorway and I can't get in because there's this tall guy there. And I just like, I was like, What's going on inside? And he looks at me, he's like, there's a speed reading class. And honest to God, my first reaction was, wow, what a coincidence. What are the chances that the same night, the same time, on the same, you know, the day, in the same classroom, there's another speed reading class? Um, and I, I pushed my way in and there's a crowd of people, people standing in the back. Uh, all the seats are taken. And no one's teaching. And it takes all that time for me to realize what you already realize, that they're all there for who? For me, right? Because you only can see what you believe is possible, right? That's why I talk about the limitless model and mindset, your attitudes, assumptions about something. And I can't even see it because I didn't even realize why they were there because it was outside my reality that all those people were there. Now, by the way, Um, I do, I started doing headcount and I'm, I was hoping 5 or 10 people are there. There was 110 people there. And just as a frame of reference, I'm 18 years old. I look younger than that. I'm wearing t-shirts and shorts. I have nothing planned to talk about, like no specific agenda, uh, or talking points. So I thought I was just gonna have a conversation with 5 people. Um, and They're a lot of older, like they're graduate students there, teaching assistants there. Oh, and I'm phobic of public speaking. Now, I know many of you say you have a fear of public speaking. I, I, I'm phobic of public speaking back then, meaning that when I had my brain injury when I was 5 and I was called on to read and, you know, pass around that book in that circle and it didn't mean anything. So I would get terrified. I would sit behind the tall kid in class. I would sit all the way in the back. I would do the work. I would do the book report, work hard, right? But if teacher asked me to present it, I would actually say, I would lie and say I didn't do it and take a complete zero, even though I worked on it for weeks. And that's how bad it was. So like my heart's beating out of my chest, right? And I'm sweating and I can't even, I mean, just thinking about it, like I'm getting a little choked up just with that memory. 'Cause I'm very, I was very insecure. And it's, the universe has a sense of humor, right? Because my 2 biggest challenges growing up were learning and public speaking. And what do I do? I all, for a living, I public speak on this thing called learning. But that's just a side note, a reminder that your struggles can become strengths, right? That with challenge comes change, that these difficult times, they could diminish you or they could develop you. You know, we decide. But I didn't feel that way back then. Uh, so I left. I completely, I, I leave. I would love to say, oh yeah, I showed up with, you know, cape on my back and I, I, I wowed the crowd and I got a standing ovation. No, none of that happened. I embarrassingly admit that I just left. Um, because I can't even, I can't describe to you, uh, what it's like to, to be phobic of public speaking. Not most people like, you know, a little nervous about it or maybe fearful, but phobic is like you lose control of your body. So I leave and I can't even go back to my dorm room because I can't believe I'm sharing this story. 'Cause you're like, get to the 6 steps of how do I win the next 6 months? I can't even go back to my dorm room because my, my, you know, my suitemates would make fun of me.

Right.

So I go back, I go to this fountain and water always centers me and I, I don't meditate. I mean, I've never, back then I didn't know what meditation was, but I'm just kind of meditating. I'm, I'm quiet. Right. And I'm just trying to get my composure and I'm just thinking and, um, And I hear this voice and it's my mom's voice. And I won't tell you exactly what she said in my head, but it's like 100 people came out and to learn what you promised them and you're disappointing them and you're disappointing me kind of message. Right. And I'm doing this walking meditation back to my dorm room and I don't even realize it, but I stop. And I'm gonna encourage you, maybe now is a nice time to, to stop and to, to pause. And unconsciously, I take one step towards back to the classroom. One step in another direction can completely change your destination. So I wanna talk about steps you could take that's gonna completely change you the next 6 months for you and make the previous 6 months jealous of you, of, of what you're about to do now. And I go back to the classroom and honestly, as a memory expert, it's embarrassing to say I don't remember what I said. I know I opened with an apology to the 100 people that were there, but, um, I talked for like 2 hours straight. And have you ever had just things flow through you? I know, um, Wayne Dyer, who was a mentor, we, we had the same publisher. We shared stage many times, spent some time in Hawaii, uh, together, like years and years ago. But he would have this process where he wouldn't prepare. He would just, he would trust, right? Before he would go on stage and pure magic came out. I'm not saying at all that I was like Wayne Dyer. I was 18 years old and I just like, but, but things flew through me, right? I was in that kind of flow state for those of you who read the chapter or listened to our podcast episodes on the science and art of flow. And, uh, I don't remember what I said as a memory expert, but when I was Done. I was just like, I don't know if I could help all of you, but I need about 10 hours to teach you what I, what I've learned, you know, maybe a couple hours a week over the next 5 weeks. If you're interested, I'll be in the student center tomorrow at 12 o'clock and I can answer your questions and we can get you going. And honestly, everybody stands up and they leave.

They leave.

No, not one person talks to me afterwards. Not one. And now it's at this point, like 10 o'clock at night, and I am by myself in that room and I'm feeling 2 things. I'm feeling completely and utterly confused, like what, what just happened? And I feel exhausted. I mean, I feel spent mentally, emotionally, physically spent because this was my big fear. I've never done any public speaking at all, ever. And I've always done everything to avoid it, right? And have you ever like done something that just took so much out of you and you just, you're just depleted, right? And I end up falling asleep right on the carpet of that classroom and probably the best night of sleep I've ever had in my adult life. And I get woken up. This is how deep I was in sleep. I get woken up the next morning by the class coming in at 8 o'clock. And you know, when you're just on the ground sleeping, uh, you're just like, you get woken up. I just freaked out. I went back to my dorm room, I showered, went to breakfast, went to class. 12 o'clock comes up and I realize, oh, I told everybody I'd be there to answer questions. I go to the student center and I'm just hoping one person, just one person shows up that I recognize to just validate that it wasn't a complete waste, that I didn't just completely trip over myself. And when I get to the student center, that same group of people were there waiting for me. And at the end of 2 hours, a couple hours, 71 of the 100 students signed up for a program that didn't even exist. And, um, and that put me on a completely different track because one of those 71 students, as you read in Limitless, She was a college freshman. She read 30 books in 30 days, and there were books on health and wellness, medicine, and she ended up saving her mom's life of terminal cancer. And when I heard that, I realized that if knowledge is power, learning is your superpower. That if knowledge is power, learning is your superpower, and it's a superpower we all have. And in that moment, I dedicated my life To be able to support people to have their best brain so that you can have your brightest future. And that's my mission. No brain left behind. That's what our team does, you know, like tirelessly.

Do you want to be able to remember confidently the information that you hear on this podcast? Do you want to improve your memory to easily and confidently be able to remember names and faces, client information, give a speech without notes, learn another language, remember what you read, and so much more. There's a solution, and I call it your quick recall. In just 15 minutes a day for 30 days, I've designed the ultimate course, How to Unlock Your Quick Recall. Just go to kwikbrain.com/recall. Enter podcast15 for your immediate discount as a thank you for listening to our show.

And so here in that context, and I'm gonna share that So he's not in the book or in any podcast episode or probably not in any interview that's out there. But I wanted to share with you just as an example of how I got started as your brain coach, many of your brain coach. And then also what was going on here? You know, those little decisions that you make one step in another direction completely can change your destination. If you're watching this on video, I'm saying this is the direction you're headed. One step in another direction to completely change your destination. Some people will call it their destiny, right? So I'm going to give you 6, and the theme of 6, 6 A's, right? So 6 A's, and you please say, you jot 'em down. You'll probably be able to remember 'em if you're one of our students. All right. The first A I would say is assess. You need to assess. So assess the previous 6 months. And this is what's assessed. This is where you're making a judgment. You're doing a little bit of an internal audit about something. And so this is where you can't really manage something unless you can measure it. So how were the past 6 months? And you can do this in any area of your life. And I'm going to go through these 6 quick because, you know, this is called the Kwik Brain Show, right? So do a quick assessment. How were the past 6 months in these areas of your relationships, of your physical health, of your mental intelligence? You know, of the, your finance, your career, and the areas that are important. Do just a little quick assessment and just notice where it is. And maybe if you want, you can rate yourself in those different areas, right? But just do a little assessment. The second A is I would say and encourage you to accept, all right? After you assess, which you're doing an audit of like where things are, I want you just to, to accept things because you can't change it, right? And it's part of being accepting of yourself as being content that you are a work in progress, right? You, that, that's what you are. You are a work in progress and not necessarily seeking the approval of others, but you're just being yourself and you're not comparing yourself to anybody else other than your best version of yourself. And you're not even looking back to, to, you're doing it as an assessment, right? But you're accepting and you're, you're accepting what you can't change, which is the past. And you only look back to see how far you've come. Right. And so accept what you can't change and change what you can accept. I'll say it again, accept what you can't change, change what you can accept. All right. So you have to acknowledge, you, you acknowledge that it's there and then you accept it, that it is what happened. Right. Because I feel like that creates a good foundation to move forward.

Yeah.

And then what's the third A? You aspire again. All right. Once you've gone back and you've done like a little assessment on the past and you've accepted it, and now what I want you to do is aspire, you know, aspire to inspire, right? And what you're doing is you're seeking to attain or accomplish some new vision for yourself. And, you know, and maybe it's a new particular goal. You want to ascend, you wanna be able to soar. And I think that's why Limitless did, is doing so well this year. You know, as many of you know, if you follow, um, me on social media, which obviously some of you here on video are, that, um, we were the, for 6 straight days, uh, the beginning of, uh, 2021, we overtook, uh, Obama's book to be the number one nonfiction book on all of Amazon. And I think, uh, you know, hopefully it was because part of the work, but, but, but also it's, the book's called Limitless. I feel like in 2020, people felt so limited and they were looking for something Aspiring. So that's what I would say. The 3rd A is aspire. Okay. So aspire. What inspires you? What, what new vision do you have now that you've gone back and you've done this audit and you've accepted things? What do you aspire the next 6 months to look like? And we've done multiple episodes on goal setting versus goal getting and how to be able to build that, that big audacious vision for yourself, because the brain is really organized to be able to be inspired by big thinking. Right. And just this, we did a whole section on the thinking section of the book on exponential thinking and just thinking big, right? Magic of Thinking Big is another great book, but you wanna aspire something that just doesn't just touch your head, but also touches your heart. But here's the thing that I want you to do. I want you to be able to, the, the 4th A is I want you to act. This is the big one. Right. Accept, then act. Actually, Eckhart Tolle said that. Eckhart Tolle said, accept, then act. That whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you have chosen it. Right. But always work with it, not against it. He said, accept and act. And so where can you act? Because you know this, right? You know that, that knowledge is not power. We've talked about it so much. It has the potential to be a lot of power. But all the books, the podcasts, the seminars, the online programs, the Instagram and the Facebook, none of it helps. None of it really works unless you work it, right? None of it works until you do, right? Information without application is just useless. And the great aim of education is not just self-help, right? Not just having knowledge for knowledge's sakes, but it's action.

Right.

And you want to think like a person of action and you want to act like a person of thought. Right. And so how can you act now? Now that you have aspired, right? What's something that you could do to act? Because remember, knowledge times action equals power. Even when you listen to our show, for every hour you spend on Clubhouse or on Instagram Lives or on podcasts listening, spend another hour putting it to Action. All right. That's his fair equation. For every hour you spend learning for reading or anything else, spend 1 hour actually applying what you just learned. And that's what I would say, that you need to act. Now, here's the actions I would take. 5 and 6, right? So the 5th A I would say is acts. Acts. What does that mean? Acts. Because nothing changes if nothing changes, right? So you have to, you know, act. And there's 2 ways of acting. You either stop doing something. Or you start doing something, right? If you're gonna act, you either stop doing something, right? You're putting a pause on something or you're going forward with something. And that's what I'm gonna ask you to do. Axe is like you put an axe to it, you cut, right? And that's, that's what you're doing. You're, you have a to-do list. What's on your not-to-do list? What are you gonna stop? And this is really up to you because you've listened to our show. I don't have to go through methods and techniques. Are you stopping just one little simple stop? Stop looking at the phone in the morning, or stop looking at the phone at night, right? Stop looking at the— keep your phone off the dinner table. Maybe you're stopping that. Maybe you're stopping smoking. Maybe you're stop— the episode we did on stop the not-to-do list. Stop caring what other people think. Stop complaining. Stop comparing. Stop overthinking. Stop self-judgment, right? Re-listen to all those things that we've talked about. Stop. Stop eating junk food, right? You know what? What do you need to stop? And then I would just say that the last thing besides acts is that's where you add. And that's exactly what we're doing. We're stopping one, but you can't just stop doing something. You have to start doing something else. So you stop one thing. This is what the actions are. You stop one thing, you start another. All right. So what can you add? Because you can't just stop doing something, right? You have to fill that void. So what are you gonna replace?

Mm-hmm.

You know, watching, binge-watching that show on. Maybe you're going to replace it with reading. Maybe you're going to just replace it, you know, maybe you're going to stop subvocalization in your reading skills, stop backskipping, right? Stop multitasking, right? But maybe you're going to start doing something else. Maybe you're going to start meditating. Maybe you're going to start brushing your teeth with the opposite hand. A lot of you went through our Limitless Challenge, right? Maybe you're going to start cold showers. And you read the book, right? You've done— I listened to this on Audible. By the way, our audiobook, such a hit. Thank you. That has actually hours upon hours of content that's not in the book because at the end of every chapter I have a discussion with somebody and we talk about the applications of that chapter, right? But maybe you listened to it there, right? But maybe you're going to— that's going to be something you're going to start. 10 minutes or 30 minutes of listening to something positive in your commute to work. Oh, you know, or during your workout, you're maybe you're gonna stop listening to music, start listening to something positive, right? Maybe whatever it happens to be, just own it. All right? So that's it. Stop one, start one.

You got it?

Take out a piece of paper right now and just jot down the 6 things. What are the 6 A's? All right? And teach it to somebody else, cuz that's where you get to what you get to learn it twice. All right, here, just remember this. There are some things, if you're going through challenges during this time, the past 6 months have been challenging for you. There are some things you can only learn in a storm, and you've heard me say this before. You know, stay strong, focus on what you can do, control the controllables, and know that the clouds will soon part. There is sunshine, I promise you, behind those clouds. And not all storms come to disrupt your life, right? Just remember that some come to be able to clear Your path. And you might not see it today. Sometimes things take time. You might not see it tomorrow, but I hope you look back. Maybe it'll be 6 months from now, right? And, or maybe it'll be 6 years and you are gonna be absolutely perplexed. Maybe you're gonna be in, in this amazing shock, amazing awe, actually positive, by how every little thing just kind of added up and brought you somewhere. Somewhere incredible, somewhere amazing, somewhere wonderful where you always wanted to be. That maybe I, I pray for you that you would look back and you're, you become grateful that things didn't work out maybe the way you once wished them they would. And let's, let's do that. Let's make the next 6 months, you know, amazing. So amazing that the past 6 months that gets jealous, right? And remember that big things, you know, They stay, they have small beginnings. I, I, I couldn't even imagine looking back 30 years from now when I, when I started this, that it would take me on the road that it has. And it hasn't been a, a direct line by any stretch, you know, peaks and valleys. Um, but you know, my inspiration really was my desperation. And remember that every pro was once an amateur. Every expert was once a beginner. And that there's a version of ourselves that we haven't met yet. So just keep on working hard, keep on showing up, keep on, keep on learning until you're introduced. All right. That's my message for all of you everywhere. Be too optimistic to scare, too positive to doubt, be too determined to be defeated. Every journey begins with a single step. In any moments, we have 2 options. We step forward. Or we step back. We step forward into growth, into possibility, or we retreat and we step back, you know, trying to be safe. But today it's, it's hard to play safe. And sometimes the smallest step in the right direction ends up being like the biggest step, you know, sometimes the leap of our lives. And there's, maybe it's not a big leap, you know, there's, maybe there's no gigantic step. Maybe it's just a lot of Little steps. Remember, little by little, a little becomes a lot, and you're one step closer every single day. This is your brain coach, Jim Kwik. I wanna thank you for listening to me in this rant. Make sure you subscribe, make sure you share this, take a screenshot if you like. And what I want you to do is tag me in it and share just one thing you're gonna do. What's, what's your word for the next 6 months? What's one thing you're gonna do? To upgrade your learning. To upgrade your life.