Change Your Life by Shifting Your Identity | Jim Kwik

because we know a lot of people who didn't have any resources that were able to impact the world. It's about our internal resources. And what I'm saying is optimizing our environment, optimizing our behaviors, our capabilities, our beliefs and our values, and our identity, right? At the highest level, our identity, because you can't just change your belief or your values or your behavior even if you don't believe you're that kind of person. And that's why I kind of always go to the superhero mythos because I want people that get to claim that identity. I call it the superhero you, that version of ourselves that we're not waiting for Superman or Batman or Wonder Woman. It's like you are Wonder Woman, you are Batman, you are Superman. It's just we, we have to commit ourselves to be able to unleash that. Dude, I'm a huge believer in identity driving behaviors. I have a hard time explaining to people though how to adopt a new identity. How do you, how have you done it in your own life? I think that's the best. Yeah, I mean, my identity, I mean, obviously this is a work in progress, right? I would say that I would start with the— they call it the 2 smallest words in the English language, but they're the 2 most powerful words in the English language. It's I am, right? I am. Because whatever you put after that determines your destination or your destiny, right? And I think your identity is who you believe you are. And I feel like when we're talking about playing to the edge of our limits, and really playing there and living in that place where we're stretching. You know, I do believe, and I get inspired every time I see your Insta story, you're like, it's like 4:30 and you're working out, you're doing your work, but that's who you are, right? You don't have to fight it because you can't imagine yourself not doing that. And that's the level of that I think is what's most important. So I would think about going through an exercise, and I've done this with friends. I've had them sit, or in groups we do these conferences and such, and I find I have people pair up with someone they don't know, and what they're gonna do is they're gonna do an exercise, I Am, and they're gonna talk a bit. They're literally gonna fill in the blanks for 3 minutes until I call time. Wow. So you have to go like, and you could do this right now, like if you were to fill in I am blank, like I would say, you know, I am a student, I am a teacher, I am a son, I am a, you know, all this. But eventually I'll get to a point where I don't know what else to say, and that's what the real interesting answers come out of, right? Because it's a great way for networking and knowing somebody else, but it also shows us this really big tapestry of our life to the point that we've gotten to right now where we, could I relate to these aspects of ourselves? And I think it's a nice exercise when we talk about self-awareness being a superpower, really knowing who we think we are. Because if we don't believe that we are a public speaker or we're a great parent or we're a great learner or genius, then we'll never be able to reach our full potential because that will always be the ceiling that we bump up against. And also, you know, when I'm talking to individuals and I'm interviewing them on our podcast or just talking to individuals like this, I would be thinking about especially high performers because I think that genius leaves clues. and I believe that it can be replicated if you're willing to put in the work and the learning and the discipline to be able to do that, then I wanna know, really, I wanna know their beliefs. I wanna know what they value. Because if I don't know that, if I'm just working on step-by-step hacks and everything else, it won't stick because it's missing a huge part. So I wanna model their behaviors, their values, their beliefs, and also who they think they are that allows them to do those, accomplish those amazing things in their life. And what are some of the clues that genius leaves? So it's interesting when I'm talking about these levels of change, right? The identity level is the who, right? You know all the 5 W's and the H we learned back in school. The identity is who somebody is. When we're talking about beliefs and values, that's the why, why they do what they do. When we're talking about capabilities, that's the how, right? That's the habit, right? The skill acquisition. When we're talking the behavior, that's the what, the what they're doing, right? And then when we're talking about environment, that's really the where and the when. I'm always going back with, if I want to create change, create a new habit, create a new level of learning for somebody, I'm addressing those different levels. If I ignore one with somebody else or myself, then it's not going to stick because you're not going to have that congruency where it's going to affect, where it becomes second nature. Going back to this, I think if I'm modeling genius and genius leaves clues, I'm thinking about, okay, where are they and when are they doing these things? Certain people are early birds. Some people are night owls. I could teach people, like I teach people how to read one book a week. I really think leaders are readers, that in order to stay competitive in today's day and age, if somebody has decades of experience and they put it into a book and you can sit down and read that in a few days, download decades into days, I mean, I'm preaching to the choir for everyone that's watching. Definitely. But that's a superpower, right? That's a huge advantage. And so I'm thinking about, but some people when I'm telling them to practice and I get these results in 30, you know, about 4 or 5 weeks where it's permanent, where they can read 300% faster. With the same or better comprehension. Essentially read something in 20 minutes that takes— normally takes normal people an hour. Right. But the reason why— but you have to practice. But some people will practice at inopportune times of the day and they won't get the same results. So part of it is self-awareness, knowing your— what they call your chronotype. When's the optimal time to do this? Depending on your body type, there's certain times of the day it's better to work out. There's better times of the day to be able to make love. There are better times of the day to be able to read, to check email, to ask for a raise. So I would think about like if geniuses found— find their element, their sweet spot, and they set up their routines and their rituals throughout the day to be able to align with the time when they're most productive, right? If they're not— if they don't have a lot of energy in the morning, working out is probably not as good as doing it some other time. So the when and the where and setting up your environment for success because all your triggers are there that allow them. So I think geniuses set themselves up. So for example, they have their laptop, but they only use their laptop for work, and it's anchored. That's part of their environment. It's anchored to get them into flow states to be able to write or be productive. They don't use their laptop to watch, binge on Netflix, right? They have a very— they have an iPad that they use when they do that because that's the state that they want to anchor for that, and they don't use that iPad to do work. You know, setting up your environment like your bedroom. Like, we just did a whole episode on sleep hacks and how to optimize your sleep because that's a big, you know, personal challenge for me for many years because I had suffered from sleep apnea. It's a breathing disorder. I stopped breathing 200 times a night for at least 10 seconds, which is the equivalent of somebody coming in and just choking and suffocating you 200 times a night. That's horrible. And so I would actually The reason why I'm so adamant about productivity and learning hacks is because for the longest time, for literally 5 years straight, and you know this, I've slept about 90 minutes to 2 hours a night total. Oof. And you know how you feel when you get like one bad night's sleep and how like where your focus is, your energy level, and you're— I get these horrible migraines and it's forced me to double down in my practices, you know, in terms of like I have a limited amount of time, I have to focus on the things that really matter, resources and stuff. But anyway, going back to this, like my bedroom is sacred space, right? I don't do work in there. I keep it because that's my trigger to be able to rest, go into parasympathetic space. I set up my environment so I have my blackout curtains, I have my grounding pad, so it's optimized my restful sleep that I do get. So environment, so genius leaves clues. They set up genius environments for themselves. And then the behaviors, most people know because they're intuitive. You know, these people are investing in themselves, they're investing in self-care. I always tell people that self-love and self-care is not selfish. A lot of people, you know, they're there for their friends and their family and their clients and everybody else, but they're not refilling their cup. So I think that we have to be, you know, grow givers, meaning we have to— we grow so we have more to give to other people, so we have more impact with other individuals. So the behaviors are reading each day and putting together your to-do list, and you're— I think having your not-to-do list is so important. Having been sleep deprived for so many years, You know, I think a lot of people, I'm super sensitized to it, but I think one of the success rituals people should have is just going through and keeping a consistent not-to-do list. And I think the most successful genius-level individuals, one of the clues that they leave is their not-to-do list is bigger than their to-do list, right? They don't check their phone in the morning, they don't take in, you know, everything is hell yes or it's hell no, right? That's their filter system. They don't, you know, they say no to good so they can say yes to great. Mm-hmm. So the behaviors, then you have the habits, which, and then you have the beliefs and the values. And beliefs and the values, you know, because I've I watch— this is one of the reasons why I watch your show, because I'm just hearing all the time you're eliciting these amazing beliefs about it from achievers in all, every area. I mean, it's amazing. I mean, you got Wyclef there, you know, and like Melon, you have all these amazing individuals, but you see that there's a pattern that's there, right? And there's an art, and but there's a science to it there, and there's an art to it and how they express themselves. And then I also do believe that some of those successful geniuses— and I say geniuses, not just— I'm not talking about IQ. Right, I'm talking about an incredible, you know, artist. I'm talking about an athlete. I'm talking about an advocate, you know, in some area. Is they haven't— they're clear about their identity, about who they are and who they are to the world. And so, but I know what they do commit is they do the work and they're committed to lifelong learning. And I feel like that learning— I always tell people, and we've had this conversation, that if knowledge is power, then learning is your superpower. Mm-hmm. And I think it's a superpower that we all have. It's just not worth not taught. Like recently we had Quincy Jones in our audience and I had to pull him on stage, right? And I was just like, I was like, I have to ask you, you know, We Are the World and Michael Jackson and Oprah, like, you know, what did you— how did you overcome these challenges that, you know, these problems that you had to be able to create this, you know, this legacy? And he looked at me, he's like, Jim, he's like, I don't have any problems. I'm like, what do you mean? I'm like, you're 84, you have no problems? And he's like, no, I have puzzles. And I was like, wow, like that little shift of vocabulary changed everything for me. Yeah, because puzzles are like riddles. They could— you could solve them, right? There's answers for it. And it was a change of perspective. And that was the thing about growing up with superheroes, reading these comic books late at night when I was so impressionable, is for me, a superhero more than anything represents hope. Do you know what I mean? Oh, yes. That one person can make a difference. And a lot of superheroes go through a lot of challenges, right? When you think about the most popular superheroes, they're all orphans. Like Wonder Woman, Batman, Superman, Iron Man, Spider-Man, they all lost their parents, you know, and they go through these big challenges, but through it they found their dharma, they found their mission. And I find that if someone's watching this and they haven't found it quite yet, maybe— I have a belief that their mission and that people's mission, their purpose, and their path is looking for them also. But most of us aren't sensitized to it, you know, because it's coming in different forms and we're not open. to it as much. And so my, my thing when it comes to success rituals and high performance and making an impact is that we all have that sovereignty, we all have that power. And whenever we put it out there and give it out to somebody else, like we're a thermometer, right? The metaphor I always talk about, it's like we're either thermometers or we're thermostats. And a thermometer, you think about the functionality of it, it just reflects what the environment is giving it, right? It just reflects the temperature and stuff. But a thermostat is different. It sets a standard, it sets a goal, it sets a vision, and the environment changes along with it. And I feel like our happiness, our joy, our level of fulfillment, our success is all dependent on where we put the locus of control. And I feel like we have more power than we realize in these cases. And it's hard because we have to fight media, we have to fight marketing that's always telling us about all the things that are going on in the world. But we live in an abundant universe, right? I mean, we talk about the Matrix. You know, which pill people are gonna take, and that determines everything. And every single morning, you determine what color pill you're gonna take.