Jim Kwik explains how lasting change requires new behaviors that build brain capacity through novelty. He proposes a three-try method: first attempt to beat fear, second to learn, third to decide if it sticks. Then apply the Three C's: Consistency, Capability, and Challenge to sustain it.
Chapters
How do you create change that lasts? How do you— if you want a new result in your life, you have to do a new behavior. You got to change that behavior. In order to change a behavior, you need a set of capacities or capabilities or beliefs. How do you go about changing that? Because if you want something you've never had, then you've got to do something you've never done. Let me say that again. If you want something brand new, something you've never had, you have to do something you've never done before, but most people can't get out of their own way. Isn't that true? They say the average person has about 60,000, 70,000 thoughts a day. The problem is 90 to 95% of those thoughts are the same thoughts they had yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that. In other words, if you want something brand new, you have to stop doing something old. One must do something new in order to see something new. And the best thing you could do for yourself in this kind of situation is stop saying, "I wish this would change," or "I hope this would change," because hope is not a strategy. You got to take "I wish" and turn it into "I will." And their secret to making this happen really is neuro. Neurogenesis and neuroplasticity, because the goal is to create new brain cells, neurogenesis, to birth new neurons, really to make sure you have these connections, because that's really a big part of what intelligence is, is making a connection between something you don't know to something that you know and reinforcing it. Now, the key to neurogenesis, neuroplasticity, the essence of change is this: novelty. So, novelty. So here's the thing, no matter your age, your brain is like a muscle, it grows through use. So try something new every single day. That's why it's important. If you want to create change, you have to try something brand new every single day. After all, we're given this life, right? We're given this precious life. We have one life to figure it out and it doesn't last forever. Besides, life could be extremely, extremely boring if we just stay within the lines, if we just stay within the limits of what we already know. So if you feel inspired to be able to jumpstart your habits, your change, I invite you to look at 3 things. I invite you to actually approach this with like, try something new. And most people, they don't want to try something new because it's outside of their script, right? It takes effort and energy to try something new. But if you train yourself to do this— so I recommend you do 3 tries. Number 1, try something once and to get over the fear of it. You know, so many people, they want to learn how to salsa, they want to learn how to be able to juggle, they want to learn how to be able to take a cold shower, or whatever the things they want to do. Because again, first you create your habits, and then what? Your habits create you right back. So I say, number one, try it once, just get over the fear of it, because then you've done it. And then I would say, number two, try it twice to begin to learn it. You begin to learn it, you begin to ingrain it. And finally, I would say try it a 3rd time, and the 3rd time is to see if you like it or if you love it or not. You know, usually after trying something a few times, you get— now it doesn't have to be 1, 2, 3. It could be try it once or twice to get over the fear of it, try it a 3rd time, a 4th time, a 5th time just to kind of learn it, and then try it a 6th, 7th time to be able to see if you like it or if you love it or not. Does that, does that make sense? You know, I feel like— so you don't have to know every single day, but the goal is to understand the process of doing this. Now, the real key to making change— think about a change you want to create. Maybe it's in your career, maybe it happens to be in your relationship, maybe it happens to be in your health, maybe it has to do with your learning, right? Think about one specifically, and I want to talk about really 3 keys to change, 3 keys to making lasting, fast-lasting change, if you will. Now, the first C I would say is consistency. Does that make sense? When you're talking about habits— and we've talked about habits in the past, talking about how to create new habits, how to break old limiting habits— so that's very important. But the consistency is key. Whether it takes 21 days or 30 days or 66 days or 10,000 hours, whatever it is, the power comes from repetition. So consistency. Remember, if you're persistent, you could attain it. But if you're consistent, You get to keep it. So the consistency is the first key because you can't go to the gym and then all of a sudden you're just healthy and you're fit and strong for the rest of your life. Consistency, right? That's the first C to change. The second C to change happens to be capability. Capability, meaning it's the actual strategy. You— it's the skill, if you will, on how to be able to do something because what you're looking to be consistent about is your capability, the skill set that you're gonna get. And where does that usually come from? It usually comes from the 3rd C, which is challenge. You get better and more capable at something the more you challenge yourself. Isn't that true? Because with challenge comes what? Change. With challenge comes change. Through your struggles, you develop your strengths. Through when you lift a weight, it's very difficult. There's adversity and difficulty there. But when you do the hard things, life gets easier. When you just do the easy things in life, life gets hard, right? But if you do the difficult things in life, like that's your routines, getting yourself to meditate each day, getting yourself to eat well, getting yourself to move every single day, then life becomes easier because you're better. It's not like life got better, you got better, and that's the key. But in order to do it, you need to be consistent, you need the capability, and you need to be able to challenge yourself because— Just like lifting weights, life gives you challenges, and all of a sudden, maybe you get to the other side of that challenge and you're stronger because of it. I mean, don't you have a reference for this in your personal life, that you went through a time that was extremely difficult, you wouldn't wish that time upon anybody, but there's a light, there was a light that came from it? You found a strength, you found a mission, you found a purpose, and you developed, again, Strength, and I'm talking about strength a lot, but that's how you develop fortitude. That's how you develop grit. That's how you develop cognitive strength, mental fitness, and fortitude is through challenge. Because for me, every single month I like to learn something new, if not every single week. Every single month I have— you have your to-do list, right? And I also have a to-learn list. And I feel like the longest living people are people who are committed to lifelong learning, right? Change your brain, change your what? Change your life. Change your life, we could change the world.
