How to Remember Things | Jim Kwik

I don't want you to forget what we just covered the last 2 days.

Oh.

So, I say, because I like my students to go do stuff, and the only students who do things are people who've optimized their brain and who have the memory to remember to do it, who've been trained on how to learn faster, who've been trained on how to remember things better, who have an optimal ability to learn and scan and absorb the important things that are in their life. and recall them with efficiency? Because if we can't do that, then we're in trouble. So I thought, why don't I just call up the world's number one memory expert? Why don't I just call up the world's number one learning expert, who I also love and know and like and do business with, who's just an amazing dude? And I was like, dude, would you come out and just blow these people— just teach them, entertain them, but just give them some tips and tools to remember stuff? Because if they don't remember what I'm teaching and if they don't do it, we don't get that huge change. So I am blessed to have a person in this room who works with elite athletes and actors and executives. We're talking about the C-level suite at GE. We're talking about NFL players, current NFL players. We're talking about casts of entire shows in Hollywood to teach them to memorize lines. To learn faster, to absorb business reports faster, to be able to make decisions better because they can remember what they did last time. All of this, he works one-on-one with people at an extraordinarily high fee, way up there, because he only works with the best. He works with the high performers. So I said, come teach my high performers what you teach them, at least the basics so they know about it, and just give them what you got. Teach them what you got. Take them, tell them about your courses, do whatever you got to do. Come and get these folks to remember this mission, to remember who they are, to remember this energy, and remember to do their work. So in this house, if you would give an unbelievable HPA welcome, is the founder of Kwik Learning. Mr. Jim Kwik is in this house!

I love you, man.

Have so much fun.

Jim Kwik!

Wow. Thank you. Super mad.

How's everyone doing? Amazing, amazing, amazing. I had to— a lot of familiar faces. I've never taken a picture like that on stage before. This is such an incredible room. So give yourselves a round of applause. I've really enjoyed being there in this room with you, learning with you, and I'm gonna send that photo to my family. I don't know if— have you ever tried to explain, like, you go to all these seminars, I go to these seminars all the time to learn myself, and telling your friends and your family and your loved ones exactly what happened. How many people find that's a little bit difficult to do? So I'm gonna send that photo and the video to be able to explain that, because this is something high vibe. Because, you know, they tell you in speaker school— I never actually went to training as a public speaker, I just enjoy teaching— that never to start off by thanking people for coming, but I have to disagree. I want to thank you for coming because I believe, you know, having gone to seminars for the past few decades myself, it's not always easy. How many people know that? How many people, you sacrificed to be here? Right? It takes a commitment to be able to do that, to be able to make a decision, you know, that you have these inflection points in your life, and, you know, whether or not to stay home or to do something else or to come here. And I think you have to go to know. And I really do believe that 80% of success is just attending things and being present, because you never know when things are going to happen, and playing full out. And if you're going to attend any event, this is the event to attend. Definitely, no doubt, because you're learning from the best. I mean, if there's one person that had, you know, probably the biggest impact on me personally and professionally, it's that man back there. So can we give a hand to Brendan? And so when I got the call to come here, he's like, there's, you know, 900 amazing souls and kindred spirits here, and I just moved everything to be able to be here because of what he does. So, he and his team. And what about our high-performance coaches here? Wow. Welcome. Welcome back and welcome home, if you know what I mean. So, I don't have any slides for you, and I didn't prepare anything. It's just I live this, so I just Because I don't wanna make it rehearsed. This is, I really wanna serve you. I wanna make our time together here before lunch as valuable as anything else that you've learned the past couple of days. In fact, I wanna make it as valuable just if you just flew in just to be here for this session.

Wow.

So that's my commitment to you because I know what it's like to be able to come out and give part of your time and your energy and your money to be here. So I wanna be able to make sure that you get all the value out of that. How about this? What I teach is something called accelerated learning. So, I teach people how to read faster, improve their focus, improve their memory, if you will. How many people here have too much to learn, too little time? Anybody have books on your shelf you haven't read yet? Anybody get more than 10 emails a day? What about your memory? How many people came here today like to have a better memory? How many people forgot why you came here today? Who's guilty of this? How many people have ever walked into a room of your own home and just forgot why they're there?

Yeah.

You open the refrigerator, you go into specific— you just don't know what it is. How many people feel a little absent-minded, like senior moments are coming a little bit early? Like you're taking a shower and you honestly can't remember you shampooed your hair? You end up doing it twice. How many people know somebody, or maybe them themselves, you misplace things all the time? You lose things, your wallet, your purse, your cell phone. How many people lose their cell phone? How many people found yourself calling your own cell phone? And that's if you remember your own what?

Number.

Or you read a page in a book, get to the end, and forget what you just read.

Wow.

And how many people, you lose things like your keys, or if not your keys, something larger like your car? You see the people out in mall parking lots? They're using their car alarm like GPS, trying to figure out where they— why they do that. And what about names? How many people here, honestly, you have trouble remembering people's names?

Woo!

How many people have forgotten someone's name in this room already? More than once. So let's start with my name. Hopefully you remember it after today. My name is Jim Kwik. What is it?

Jim Kwik!

It's spelled K-W-I-K. With a name like Kwik, the question I always get is about my last name. My last name really is Kwik. I didn't change it to do what I do. With a name like Kwik, your life and your— my destiny was pretty much planned out. I had to be a runner back in school. I have to be very careful when I'm driving because the worst name to be pulled over for speeding is Kwik because you're not— once you hand over your license, you're not gonna talk your way out of that ticket. And I get to do my passion and my purpose, my dharma, which is teaching people how to learn faster. You know, I teach people how— we have a speed reading program that teaches people how to read 3 or 4 times faster. We have a memory program to teach people how to unlock these 12 areas of their memory. Names and faces, languages, PIN numbers, passcodes, conversation, giving speeches without notes, because I believe 2 of the most costly words in business are, I forgot. I forgot to do it. I forgot to bring it. How many people have ever gone to a seminar, learned something really important, and then what happened a couple days later? We forget, right? So remembering, I always thought that should have been taught back in school, right? Back in school, you learn 3 Rs, reading, writing, arithmetic, but also the 4th R maybe should have been recall. Or retention, remembering, right? And so that's what I wanna share with you today. And I don't have a specific agenda. I wanna customize it for whatever's gonna move the needle for you, for your business, for your career, help you become an expert at whatever you need to, make your life easier, if you will. And so what would you like to learn? Actually, can we actually set up some mic runners also, just in a moment? So in a moment, I'll ask a question. Just think about the kind of things you'd like to learn. I'll put a checklist up here. And then what I'll do is I'll just hack all of that. I'll just go through the list of the things that would be very valuable to you. And the question I always get is when I do these kind of things, I always tell people I don't— see, a lot of people see when I do these things, I'll do these demonstrations on stage. If you've seen me on video or YouTube or what have you, or seen me on stages before doing these mental feats, I don't do that to impress people. I really do this to impress upon you and express to you what's really possible. Because it wasn't always like that. You know, years ago when I was back in kindergarten as a child, I had a really bad accident. I had a head injury in class and it left me with— I was knocked out unconscious, had a concussion, and I grew up with these learning challenges and these really severe learning challenges where I had very bad focus. This is before they had labels for all these different things. I had a very poor memory. It took me an extra 2 years, 2 full years, how to learn how to read, you know, compared to all my friends. And something that I struggle with, you know, for the longest time, I struggled privately, and it affected me as a person also, and it made me very shy and introverted. Even nowadays, even getting on stage, the stages that I get to speak on, I get terrified still because it's still, still part of my identity. Because when you feel like you're broken, You don't really wanna express yourself or share all of yourself. So, I do it, not 'cause it's easy, it's just because when you find your life's work, what Brendon was talking about, right? And so, that's why I do what I do. But what happened was, when I got to college, the reason why I do what I do is because personal growth, high performance, what you're learning here, and why I have such a respect for everybody who took the time and the energy to be here, is because it not only transformed my life, It also saved my life. All right, so I went through school and I was failing out and had all these challenges because I didn't learn how to learn. And when I got to college, I thought I could start fresh and I thought I could, you know, show the world, prove to the world, show my family because I want to make them proud. And mostly I want to prove to myself that I could do this. And I took these classes freshman year and I actually did worse because it was even more difficult. And I don't know if anyone can relate to struggles like this. Can anyone relate to this? And what happened was, it was such a challenge that I was ready to quit school, and a friend of mine suggested— this was in New York where I grew up— he suggested coming out to California to visiting with his family, to just taking a weekend off and just reflecting whether or not you should do that before you make such a big decision. So I agreed because I'd never been to California before. And I go to his home, and there's— and the home is— he's very— the family's very wealthy and successful. And I don't mean financial— I mean, obviously, you know, beautiful home, and it was— I was on the water and everything, but they were really happy, right? And the father walks me around before dinner on his property and just asks the kind of questions that you would ask of an 18-year-old, you know, like questions like, how's school, right? A really innocent question. And when I heard that question, I just break down and I start crying because that question just like it was like you know when you suffer from something for literally a decade and a half, and I just I just couldn't handle it. And all those emotions came out, and because I really wanted to make my family proud because they sacrificed so much like many you know many families do. And he asked me, "Well, why are you in school? You know what you know what do you why what do you want to be? What do you want to do? What do you want to have?" What do you wanna share with the world? And no one's asked me those questions before. And one of the keys to learning is asking some new questions, right? 'Cause you ask new questions, you get what?

New answers.

New answers, right? 'Cause seek and you shall find, right? And ask and you shall what?

Receive.

Receive. And so he asked me these questions and I started to answer them and he stopped me and he pulled out a journal out from his back pocket. And I always thought that only, like, You know, 12-year-old girls carry diaries and stuff. So, but he takes out a couple of sheets and he hands it to me, and I even get choked up thinking about this. Wow, I don't talk about this ever. But if it connects with somebody here, he makes me write down my answers. All right, how many people find that it's nice to type things out, but how many people like to write things down, right, in a journal? And they do these studies with geniuses, and they found out throughout history, all the geniuses, not just IQ, but high performers, they all keep journals. And they didn't know if it was just because geniuses kept journals or just actually keeping a journal turned you into a genius, right? Because I think that reflection is very important. So there's a— I don't know if it's cause or causation or correlation. So he made me write it down. And I don't know how much time goes by, but I started writing down this bucket list, right? And when I was done, I thought the exercise was done. I started folding it up, put it in my pocket, and then he grabs it from me. And I'm like, I'm freaking out because I didn't know it was going to— someone else was going to see this. And he's looking at it and he starts to read it. And I'm just— and I don't know what it is, but it's just— to have another person kind of reading your goals and your dreams and your fantasies. And he goes through it and he says, Jim, You're this close to everything on that list. Now, go like this. Go with your fingers like this. He goes like this. You're this close to everything on this list. And I'm thinking, there's just no way. I'm 18 years old, and give me 10 lifetimes, and I couldn't accomplish that. And then what he did was, he did this, and then he went like this. Go like this. You feel that? And implying that it's this... You know, 3-pound matter between my ears. And he walks me into his home, into a room I've never been in before. I've never seen anything like it. It is wall-to-wall, ceiling-to-floor covered in books. How many people like to read, right? And he just starts grabbing books and he starts handing them to me. And after a few minutes, I have this stack of books and I start looking at the titles and they're amazing. Biographies of incredible men and women throughout history, and some really early personal development books. You know what I'm talking about? Like the Norman Vincent Peale, Zig Ziglar, the Dale Carnegies, like the early success. And I'm just thinking, what's he making me do here? And then he asked me to read one book a week. Now, how many people here read a book a week? Wow. Give them a round of applause. I know Brendon's been reading a book a week for about 17+ years, right? Because leaders are what?

Readers.

Leaders are readers, right? I always think it's amazing that if somebody has decades of experience and expertise in something and they put it in, you know, like literally decades into a book, and you could download decades in just a few days. How amazing is that, right? And so he gives me all these books, and he asks me to read one book a week. And I'm thinking— I don't— that's what I say out loud. You know, I don't know if you— I say to him, I don't know if you've been listening, but I'm having a lot of trouble with school, and I can't even keep up with my books back at school. And then he looks me dead in the eyes, and he says, Jim, he said, don't let school get in the way of your education. And I was like, wow. And I didn't know—

this was over 20 years ago.

years ago, I didn't know that this was a Mark Twain quote. But I was like, wow, that's a really nice saying. And I have a lot of work to do and I can't keep up. And then this is what he does, really, really smart man, wise man. He takes out of his pocket my bucket list, which he still has, and he unfolds it and he starts to read every single thing on that list out loud. If you could imagine what it feels like to already be like an insecure, barely an adult, but to hear another man incant out loud your biggest dreams and fantasies, you know, out and desires out into the world. And it messes with your mind and your soul something fierce. And so with that, hearing that out loud, and honestly, a lot of— half the things on that list, more than half the things on that list, were things I wanted to do for my family, things that they would never do or can't do for themselves. And so with that extra leverage, I agreed to read one book a week on top of my schoolwork. So I go back to school, you know, after that weekend, and I have this stack of books I have to read and then a stack of books that I want to read, and that puts me over the edge because I have no more time. So I'm living in the library. I don't eat. I don't sleep. I don't take care of myself, do all the things that you're learning, you know, about your physiology, you know, the past couple of days, and it's not very sustainable, right? So I pass out literally of exhaustion in the library. I fall down a flight of stairs. I hit my head again. I wake up 2 days later in the hospital, and I'm down to 117 pounds. I'm connected to all these IVs. I'm malnourished, dehydrated, and I thought I died, and I really wanted to die. Like, I mean, it was just— I mean, you ever get to that point in your life you just don't know, right? And it's like that kind of inflection point. I just think like, you know, I need a sign. I don't know what to do anymore. And just when I was thinking that, you know, when I woke up in the hospital, I was, you know, something else woke up. And the nurse came to me to give me a mug of tea. And on the mug had a picture of a pretty smart gentleman, Albert Einstein. But it— and so I don't, you know, you wonder like, the law of attraction and the universe speaking to you. I don't know what it was, but there was a quote that was on the mug. You've heard it a million times. It basically said, the same level of thinking that's created your problem won't solve your problem. The same level of thinking that's created your problem won't solve your problem. And it made me ask a new question, what's my problem? And I said, fundamentally, my biggest problem is I'm a very slow learner. I'm a very slow learner. And so how do I think differently about it? Well, maybe I could learn how to learn faster. And then I thought, well, how do I learn to learn faster? I thought school. And then I asked for a course bulletin because I figured out I'll stay in school and look at classes for next semester. And I look at hundreds of classes, and all the classes there were classes on what to learn— math, history, science, Spanish— but there were zero classes on how to learn. Is there a difference between what to learn and how to learn?

Yes.

And so, I start studying that. I start studying adult learning theory, multiple intelligences, anything I get my hands on, on neuroscience about how my brain worked so I could work with my brain, right? Because they say we use a very small potential of our mind, right? What percentage do they say?

10%.

10%. Einstein said 10%. Stanford University here a little while ago said 2%. I read recently it's 1/10,000th of 1% that you have enough brainpower, mindpower to last you a million lifetimes. It keeps on going down. I don't know if the '70s had something to do with it or what. But, I mean, I think we use all our brain. I really do think we use all our brain, but it's how we use it is totally different, right? There's a difference between working hard and working what?

Smart.

Smart. But the challenge, our brain doesn't come with that owner's manual, right? And it's not always user-friendly. So, what I wanna do here is be able to give you those hacks, those best practices that some of the highest mental performers with their memory, their reading, their focus are able to do. So, how many people are up for that? So, what would you like? Just raise your hand. What brings you here? What can I cover while you're here that would make it useful for you? Brian.

I don't need the mic.

Like, memorizing scripts quicker. Scripts? Okay. How many people here— now, is that word for word, or is it speeches, like presentations? No, talking points. Okay, different things. So, how many people here would love to give a speech or a presentation like this with zero notes, confidently? Good. All right, we'll do that. Scripts is something else. Scripts is something I work a lot with, with actors who need to be able to recite verbatim, right, or a sales script verbatim. Or poetry, right? That's word for word, different strategies. More like 5-minute videos, 10-minute videos, sales videos. Presentations, perfect. We'll go over that. Who has the mic? Right here?

Retention.

Retention. What kind of retention?

All.

All retention? What's your— Retention of what we're working on or what we're reading or what we're talking about.

Okay.

So how many people— so I'll go over basic memory. Like, basically, I'll give you a framework for memory. You know, Brendon, what I love about his teaching, you know, is he has frameworks for people, right? And so I'll give you a framework, 3 keys to, you know, wonderful memory. So I'll talk about that. Sometimes when people generally say their memory is a challenge, I'd like it to be better, it's generally like, it makes me hear like, I wanna be better at sports. Like, what sport specifically do you wanna get better at, right? What else? Who has the mic? Over here.

Short-term memory.

Short-term memory. What would be an example of that? So, like, forgetting too much. Forgetting too much? Yeah, like the keys, car, what you were trying to do. Okay, good. Okay, so we'll go over memory, both short and long-term, and then Okay, we'll go over names.

Speed reading.

Speed reading. How many people here would like some tips on how to read more in less time? Okay, wow.

Remembering quickly. What's that? Remembering quickly. Focus.

Focus. How many people here have challenges with their focus and concentration? This is like an anonymous group. Hi, my name is Jim and I have a bad memory. Who has the microphone over here? Here? I just wanted to say we're a group of psychologists and we work with adults in the workplace with dyslexia, dyspraxia, and ADD. And we're launching an online product for reading, writing organization that's taken about 3 and a half years. I wondered if we could connect.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

Cool.

Thank you.

Definitely.

What else? Was this good? So we're gonna cover speeches, giving presentations without notes. We're gonna talk about general memory. We're gonna talk about how to remember names. We're gonna talk about reading speed, and then we'll talk about focus, especially when it relates to reading. Over here, Mike? Days, dates, people's names, books. Brendon quotes quite frequently from days and dates and people that he's worked with. How do we keep all of that straight in our head, especially phone numbers of people we don't have in our phone? Oh, how many people actually— numbers might take a little time. I don't know if we'll be able to get through it, but how many people here How many phone numbers, by the way, did you used to know like 15 years ago? How many? A lot, right? How many, like 50, 100 phone numbers? How many phone numbers do you know right now?

3.

2. 1. Okay, let's do a quick exercise. Let's do a quick exercise together. Let's do this really quick. Maybe we could do it together, all right? So let's practice remembering numbers, right? Let's go around really quickly and just— how many people honestly have trouble remembering phone numbers? Right? I think one of the big challenges is your brain is like a muscle, and it grows stronger with use. But what if you're not using it? It's use it or what?

Lose it.

It's use it or lose it. So that's a big challenge. So let's say, I think our brains in some areas are getting weaker because of technology. And that's a little controversial, but I think, like, we're outsourcing our brains and our memories to our smart devices. So, our brains don't get the exercise. So, it's very convenient because you don't wanna memorize, let's say, 500 phone numbers or 500 emails. But it's convenient, but it also cripples. There's this new term for it that came out a few months ago. It's called digital dementia. Digital dementia. That us outsourcing, using our phones so much to do what our brain used to do, our smartphones are basically making us stupid.

Yeah.

All right. So, let's do a quick demonstration so we're all on the same page. And you can do it with me. Let's try to remember a number together as one group, all right? So just— I'm going to need mics for this fast. So just— most people have trouble remembering like a 7-digit number. Let's do the best we can to memorize a longer number than 7, and we'll do it together as a group. If you want, you can write it down even, even if it helps. So just raise your hand, and just for time's sake, give me— I'll do it with you. I won't write it down, but give me 2 numbers at a time.

So say—

24, and then everyone writes down 24. And then someone says 13, everyone writes down 13. So just raise your hand and do that towards the mics so everyone could hear.

27.

27. So everyone's writing what?

27.

27, good. We're gonna have to do this fast. Just hand the mic to people, just give 2-digit numbers.

72.

72. So next one is 72. All right. And then let's also try to memorize it together, right? 72. 35. Okay. 35.

18. 66.

66. Okay. Let's wait for the mic so everybody could hear it, you know, also as well. So it's 35 and then 66. All right.

63.

63. How many people have bingo right now? All right, 63. All right.

56.

56. All right, 56.

48.

48. Why are people laughing at that 48? All right, I'll repeat it. Only write down the ones I'm saying, otherwise people are going to get confused, right? 48.

39.

39. Number 39.

Okay, 39. 13.

13. 39, 13.

18.

You said 18? Okay, it's hard to see from here just because of the lights and everything. 13 and then 18. All right, how many numbers is that, single digits, by the way?

10. 20.

20 single digits? Let's keep on going. Let's go keep on going.

10.

10. Okay, next one is 10.

99.

99. Number 99.

47.

47? Okay, 47. 2 digits.

11.

11. 11. Very creative. I like it. I like it. Okay, what else?

38.

38? Okay, so next one is 38.

23.

38. What's that?

23.

23. How many numbers are we up to right now? Okay, a lot. Let's keep on going faster.

67. What's that? 67.

67 is the next one. Number 67.

15.

15? 15 is— okay, 15.

49.

Oops, I'm sorry. Wait. Gentlemen, who said it?

49.

49. And that was after— that was right before 15, right? Right after? You said 49, right? Okay, 49.

82.

82. Okay, like, let's stop there for a second. All right, 82. Let's, let's, let's stop there. All right, just write them down. All right, so how many single digits is that right now, just for sake of time? 40. All right, I'm gonna do the best I can to memorize this What was the last one?

82.

82? All right, I'm gonna do the best I can to memorize this list. Excuse me. Can I have some encouragement, please? All right. All right. All right, ready? I'm gonna do single digits at a time now. It's 2, 7, 7, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 4, 3, 2, 1. 6, 6, 6, 3. How am I doing so far? 5, 6, 4, 8. Is that right? 1— no. Ah, testing you. 3, 9, 1, 3, 1, 8, 1, 0.

09947-113823. Oh yeah. 67154982.

Thank you. Thank you. So, again, I don't do this to impress you. I do this to really express to you what's possible, because here's the thing, you could do it too. Every single person in this room could do it too, regardless of your age, regardless of your background, regardless of your career, regardless of your diet, your level of education, your financial situation, your gender, your IQ. It doesn't matter, right? It's just we weren't taught. In fact, there's no such thing as a good or bad memory. There's just a trained memory and an untrained memory. There's no such thing as a good or bad memory. There's just a trained memory and an untrained memory. Let me try to do it backwards. How many people wanna see me do it backwards? Okay. But let me try, seriously. And I'm gonna stand here just like—

Eyes closed.

Eyes closed, okay. I'll try eyes closed. Ready? Eyes closed. 2, 8, 9, 4. Ooh, this is different with my eyes closed. 5, no. Yes? Oh, nice. 5, 1, 7, 6, 3, 2. How are we doing? 8, 3, 1, 1, 6, 2. 7, 4, 9, 9, 0, 1, 8, 1.

Yes!

Yes. 3, 1, is that right?

Yes.

9, 3, 8, 4, 6, 5, 3, 6, 6, 6, 5, 3, 2, 7, 7-2. All right. So the reason I do this again is— this is why I do it, because I know those references make a difference for you. You know, like, I'm here because years ago, you know, what I had hoped for was this. When I was 8 years old, I was at a family reunion, and it was a busy Saturday. It was like 25 of us at a restaurant, busy Saturday night. And the waitress there, she starts taking everyone's order, and when she gets to me, I noticed something different. She wasn't writing it down. How many people have had a waitstaff like that? And I'm just thinking, I'm naturally very skeptical, me, myself. And I'm just thinking, and I think skeptical is not negative. You know, I've heard this study where Pessimists tend to be more accurate, right, more times, but then optimists achieve a lot more, right? And so I'm skeptical, meaning I just wanna know what the truth is. I'm just thinking there's just no way. We're gonna have to send stuff back and trade our plates. It's gonna be really funny. But when she came back, she got every single thing perfect. Do you know what I mean?

Yeah.

I mean the appetizers, the beverages, the salad dressings, how we wanted the meal cooked, the desserts, every single thing. Now, is that a standout skill or is that a standout skill? Right? She was, for me, my Roger Bannister, right? What did Roger Bannister do in '54? He broke the 4-minute mile. He broke the 4-minute mile, right? Throughout human history, no one could run a mile in less than 4 minutes. And then all of a sudden— now, by the way, how he's able to do it was through a visualization technique, right? He was able to be able to see himself cross the finish line, look at the clock, and it says 3:59. If you saw the ESPN special on this, right? He knew what you know, what all high performers know, that success is an inside-out process, right? It's about taking the invisible and making it visible, but you have to see it where first?

Inside.

Inside first, right? And that's what entrepreneurs do, right? That's what high performers do. They have this idea of this desired environment, and then they create it, right? Where they're not a thermometer, they are a thermostat. Right? You know the metaphor? What's the difference? What's a thermometer? It just reads the— it just reacts to the what?

Environment.

Environment. But what's a thermostat? You set the standard. You set the standard, and what happens to the environment? It changes, right? How many thermostats do we have here? Right? All thermostats, right? And so, that's the difference. So, but what's interesting was not that, is that, you know, 359, he saw it there. What happened after that? No one could run a mile in less than 4 minutes. All of a sudden, one person does it, what happens? Everybody did it. Dozens of people started. Now, was there a big advancement in shoe technology and training devices, nutritional supplements? What was the shift? In their mind. In their mind, right? In terms of what their beliefs, right? And so, she was my Roger Bannister, right? She shook up a limiting belief. And that's why I do those kind of demonstrations. So, let's go into this a little bit. I'm gonna start with Comprehension.

What's that? Comprehension.

Comprehension. We could talk about a little bit of reading. How many people like to not only read faster, but actually understand what they read? Very useful. All right. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna hit the stuff on that list. And so just get ready to just take a lot of notes, all right? Because I'm not gonna— these are tips, right? Everyone knows the difference between like a tip or a tactic and actual training, right? Like, and so because we have a limited amount of time, I'm gonna give you fast tips. That's gonna move the marker for you when you leave, but that's different than having a skill, right? So, 'cause what's the difference?

Practice.

Right, right. Practice and training, right? So, but I wanna give you something you can leave independent of whether or not we work together moving past this. So, this is what I'm gonna talk about. I'm gonna talk about 4 keys really fast on how to learn anything faster, all right? Any subject or skill, any subject or skill. How many people have a subject or skill that they like to take on? What would it be? Shout it out.

Italian.

Italian. What else?

Foreign languages.

Foreign languages. What else?

Economics.

Economics. What else?

Theater.

Excellent. Whatever that is. So we're all on the same page. I want you to remember this, FAST. All right? And I use a little bit of acronyms, just think about school. Remember HOMES and the— what are the 7 colors of the rainbow? ROYGBIV, right? So it helps you to remember. I want you to remember FAST. All right? Remember FAST. All right, so to learn anything faster, I always go to FAST first. F stands for forget. Forget. And you think like, why start a memory seminar with forgetting, right? But here's the thing, I find that sometimes as we grow older, our cup gets full. Do you know what I mean? And it's hard for people to— who are the fastest learners on the planet?

Children.

Children, right? I did this to an audience of 10,000 people, 60 countries. I'm like, who are the fastest learners on the planet? This whole table yelled out, pygmies.

Yes.

And I have no idea why. But children are really fast learners because they know what they don't know. Does that make sense? So they ask lots of questions. Sometimes as we grow older, it's kind of like that parable of, you know, the master with the student and the apprentice. The master's pouring the tea into the teacup, and then the teacup begins to overflow, and the apprentice doesn't wanna say anything, but it's just overflowing, overflowing. And then eventually the apprentice says, Master, the tea is overflowing everywhere. And he's like, Oh, I'm glad you see that, student, because you have to empty the cup to be able to put more in. That's similar, right? So sometimes what you want to forget here, what keeps us from learning faster and leaves us learning slowly, is thinking that we know everything already, right? So temporarily set aside what you know about the subject. I would set aside 3 things to forget. Set aside what you know about the subject. Concerns, right? Anything that's not urgent and important. There was a study done at Harvard University by George Miller, 7 plus or minus 2. How many people are familiar with that? That you could consciously, 7 plus or minus 2 bits of information, 5 to 9 bits. But here's the thing, metaphorically, I don't think that's— I mean, I have a different— but the idea here is this. If you're here in this room, but 2 bits are thinking about the kids and 3 bits are thinking about your clients, It only leaves you like 1 or 2 bits to be here present, right? Will that affect your learning abilities?

Yes.

Yes, all right? So forget about anything that's not urgent, important. Just imagine it's out on the coat rack and you can pick it up on your way out. It'll still be there, but be here and be present. The third thing you want to forget about is, forget about what you know about the subject, forget about what's going on situationally, and forget about your limiting beliefs, all right? Forget about what you— because a lot of people, they don't learn faster because they believe they can't. Right? They have these talks and affirmations in their mind that if they don't write their grocery list in triplicates, they're gonna forget it, right? And here's the thing, if you fight for your limitations, you get to keep them. And that's the big challenge, right? And so, your brain is like a supercomputer. I remember I was preparing for a marathon, I was reading this book, and one chapter was on the psychology of running the marathon, the mental part. And it said this verbatim, because I'm a memory expert. It said this. It says, your brain is a supercomputer, and your self-talk is a program it will run So, if you tell yourself you are not good with names, you will not remember the name of the next person you meet because you programmed your computer not to. All right? Because here's that self-talk. Here's the thing. Your mind is always eavesdropping on your self-talk. That's worth tweeting. I'm sorry. That's, like, awesome. @JimKwik, K-W-I-K. But your mind is always eavesdropping on your self-talk. So, that's the F. right, in FAST. The A in FAST stands for active, all right? Learning— here's a tweetable if you have one— learning is not a spectator sport, all right? Learning is not a spectator sport. The challenge is, if you feel overloaded and overwhelmed, there's too much to learn, too little time, it's not your fault. It's because we all grew up with a 20th century education. Let me say that again. If you're struggling and overwhelmed with the amount of information you need to like absorb and focus and learn and remember, it's not your fault because we all grew up with a 20th century education, which prepared us, that was created to actually, you know, for a 20th century world, which in the beginning of the 20th century was basically working in factories and working on assembly lines and working outside, really follow simple instructions, right? And so, you know, it was sit quietly by yourself, don't talk to your neighbor, cookie cutter, one size fits all, and that's not the world we live in anymore. The world we live in right now is, you know, a world of electric cars and spaceships that are going to Mars, but our vehicle of choice when we learn is like a horse and buggy. How many people see that? They say if Rip Van Winkle woke up today, the only thing he would recognize are our schools. And that's the big challenge. And that's not a slight on teachers, because I have the most incredible respect for educators. My aunt's a schoolteacher. I'm talking about at a system level, right? The world is changing so fast. How many people know that? The amount of information now is doubling at dizzying speeds. They say— I did this program and we had Googlers and founders there, and it was like, it said this, the amount of information— the chairman of Google said this, and they know a little bit about information. The amount of information that's been created from the dawn of humanity to the year 2003, which is only a decade ago, Think about that amount of information. That information now is created every 2 days online. How many people feel it, that the amount of information is like this, it's going up, but how we learn it and read it, remember it, has that changed at all?

No.

So, it's like this. How you read it, it's the same speed. How you remember, the same speed. What's this? What's that gap? Overwhelm. That's pain. That's information. They call it information fatigue syndrome. How many people feel like that there's too much, right? Higher blood pressure, compression of leisure time, more sleeplessness. How many people feel like you're not getting as much sleep and restorative rest as you need to? A compression of leisure time. Or if you have free time, like all of a sudden, let's say a meeting is canceled and you have 45 minutes to yourself, you can't even really enjoy it. Why? Because your mind is still what?

Multitasking.

It's still multitasking, right? And so, you only have— and that's why people make really bad decisions. Which is like, there's this interesting study also. They asked a lot of leaders like Mark Zuckerberg, why does he wear the same sweatshirt? And Tony Hsieh, why do you wear the same Zappos t-shirt all the time? I wear this shirt all the time, right? Like, if you've seen my videos, it's because you don't wanna use— you have a certain amount of decisions that you can make well throughout the day, and you don't wanna suffer from decision fatigue. You know what I mean? Having routines like what Brendon's teaching you is pure platinum. Pure platinum, because you don't have to think about it. Right? So, when you automate certain things, it allows freedom in all these other areas of your life. Because you don't want to— that's why if you want to have surgery, when do they say you have surgery? In the morning, right? Because you're going to get doctors and surgeons that are fresh and awake and all of that. So, A is active. It means you want to be involved, right? So, what you're doing right now, taking notes, that's a way of active learning, right? As opposed to passive. Because the old model of learning through school that we were taught was consumption. It's like a teacher pushing information inside your brain, but that's not how you learn organically, right? It's not based on consumption. It's based on creation. You learn better not based on consumption, but based on what you could create. And so, you know, when I take notes, I always like mind— how many people are familiar with mind mapping, right? Mind mapping, great way of taking notes. Whole brain note-taking, right? If you're not familiar with mind mapping, you could do something— for me, very simple, linear way of taking notes is just put a line down the page. And on the left side of the page, I take notes, and on the right side, I make notes. Really simple, right? What's the difference? On the left side, I'm capturing notes. On the right side, I'm creating notes. Is there a difference?

Yes.

Right? So here you're capturing the techniques and the tips and the strategies, but on the right side, your creative side, just like the right side of your brain, you're creating. How many uses? How does it relate to what I already know? Questions that you might have. How are you gonna teach it to somebody else? 'Cause if your mind's gonna wander somewhere, let it wander on the page and be creative, right? Left brain, right brain. So that would be an active way. Active way would be like, you know, like socially talk, like on, you know, posting stuff on, you know, sharing it with other people. Follow me on Facebook. A. The S in FAST is this, is state. State. And a state's just a fancy word for the current mood of your mind and your body, right? Your mind and your body, your state. Your current, a snapshot of where you are right at that moment, right? Because here's the thing, all learning is state-dependent. All learning is state-dependent. When most people learn something in school, most of it, what we're trying to do is unlearn bad habits, right? So, most of advanced learning, accelerated learning is unlearning limitations and poor habits and routines. But state is this. Stand up real quick. Let me show you what state is. Can you control your mood and your feelings?

Yes.

Yes or no?

Yes.

Yes, right? Because who's responsible for it?

Me.

Me? Who? You are, right? You know, recently I got to introduce 2 of my— I always use these metaphors of superheroes. You know, I think a superhero— we have a conference we call Superhero You, right, and a website called Superhero You, Y-O-U. And it's basically, why wait for Superman to save you? You are Superman, you are Superwoman, you are Superchild, right? And so I believe in a world full of superheroes because superheroes is somebody who finds their superpower, right? They discover and develop their strength, their talent, their unique gifts, if you would. But just having a superpower doesn't make you a superhero. You have to use that power for what?

Good.

Good. To be able to be creative, right? To be able to give and be able to grow. So that's what I'm thinking about a world of superheroes. That's my vision, right? Like living in a real world of superheroes. So here, recently I got to introduce 2 of my superheroes together for dinner. Stan Lee, who created— who's Stan Lee?

Yeah.

Who created Spider-Man, X-Men, Iron Man, Avengers, and Richard Branson, right? And going in LA, you know, after picking up Stan, it took a 10-minute drive, ended up taking an hour because that's LA, if you will. And I was asking him all these questions like, you know, who's your favorite superhero? And he says, Iron Man. And he's like, who's your favorite superhero? And I was like, it's Spider-Man. And then he was like, With great power comes great what?

Responsibility.

And how does 900 people know that, right? It's like in our DNA, right? And my mind being skeptical, I'm just like automatically in like reverse everything. I'm thinking, you know, Stan, the opposite is also true. With great responsibility comes great what? Power.

Power.

With great responsibility comes great power. When we take responsibility and we're at cause, we have great power to be able to affect things, right? That includes our feelings and our state, right? So, 2 things that affect our state, number one, our thoughts. Do our thoughts, can our thoughts put us in a good or bad mood?

Yes.

Yes, right? So, we could change your thoughts, 'cause you change your thoughts, you change your life. But not only that, changing your body would change your state also, right? So, there's certain body movements that actually bring more intelligence and more energy into us. So, how many people are familiar with educational kinesiology? And so, there's actually some movements that actually activate different parts of your brain. How many people wanna learn some of those exercises? All right? So here, this is what we're gonna do. Here's the precept. As your body moves, your brain grooves. As your body moves, your brain grooves. Right? So look at your neighbor and say that. As your body moves, your brain grooves. So how do you move your body? So a couple of quick, quick exercises. And now you might need— just do this safely, okay? So, one elbow to the opposite knee, and then rotate, alternate. And breathe. Try breathing doing it too. So, in educational kinesiology, our brain gym, they call it cross crawls, right? Anything that crosses the midline helps to activate left and right brain connectedness, right? Left brain, by the way, like, A gross simplification, left brain is what? Your logical brain. Words, sounds, right? Linear. What's the right side if this is logical?

Creative.

Creative. Imagination, visualization, emotion, right? And so, you want to increase the level of communication because, for example, when you're reading something, you want more reading comprehension, you hear the words, but you want to experience the words. How many people see that? So, this is split by the corpus callosum. What makes more connections? are these cross-laterals, all right? So, for example, do this. Just kind of pull energy towards you like this. Breathe. I don't know why half of you are like holding your breath. Oxygen, very important for learning. Now stop. Now watch this. I want you to pull one towards you but one away from you like this.

Or wherever.

Okay. 90% of you are still doing this. So, one towards you, one away. How many people feel like you have to think about it? Right? Thinking's good. This is exercise, right? Because we're not getting our brain exercises. Do this. Kind of shake out. How many people are on the computer all day? Okay. Just kind of, you know, move your wrists around like this. Like this. Now watch. Just— I'm gonna show you. Just now watch. One side's gonna go twice as fast. That's it. Just twice as fast. Watch. Try it. Think about it. Here, try this. Just pat your head and rub your stomach. All right. Have a seat. Have a seat. Have a seat. So, this S, but how many people feel like your brain started getting a little, like, alert? You have to be more engaged, more aware. That's always a good thing, right? So, S is state, right? The state, because all learning is state-dependent. So, it's based on your psychology and your physiology. Like, for example, sit the way you'd be sitting right now if you were totally interested in what I was saying. Sit the way you'd be sitting. Breathe, your posture. Why do you even have to move? S is state. Notice who controls this. Who?

Me.

You control your state, right? So, it's never whether you're in the mood or has nothing to do with the educator or your coach. You could always put yourself in state because the state you learn something in is the state that you're gonna remember it in because emotion tied to information becomes a long-term memory. Emotion tied to information becomes a long-term memory. All right? If you learn something in a bored and dull state, how much are you gonna remember it?

Nothing.

How much motivation are you also equally gonna have to apply it? How many people have ever learned something really important but never used it? Right? So, that's S, state. The T, notice I haven't even got to techniques because I think 90% of success is all the soft stuff. It really is. The T here, This is the big one, is teach. Teach. Now, I'm gonna teach you how to read faster right now. I'm gonna teach you how to remember more names. I'm gonna teach you how to give a speech without notes. But how many people would pay attention differently if you had to teach this to someone on Monday? A little bit or a lot?

A lot.

How many people would take different levels of notes if you had to teach it? How many people would ask different questions? How many people would own it, personalize it, right? 'Cause here's the thing, when you teach it, like, I always, I never thought it was a negative. Growing up, when you heard this phrase that you've all heard, those who can't do what?

Teach.

Teach. Like, you can't do business, so teach business. I never thought that it was a negative. I thought that, wow, if I can't do something, teach it, and then I could do it, right? Because here's the thing, when you teach it to someone else, you get to learn it twice. When you teach, you get to learn it twice. Like, it's one thing to learn something for you. There's 2 ways, 2 reasons to learn anything. One is what it could do for your own life, but number 2 is what? What it could do for somebody else. What it could do for somebody else, right? So, you pay or play it forward, right? So, what I would do is the things that you wanna learn from this conference and really wanna learn it well, think about that person that you really care about in your mind and think about how you would teach that person. How many people have someone in mind that you care about that you wish was here? They could be here when you teach them. Do you get it?

Yeah.

All right, cool. So, how many people see this? 4 keys. Forget about what you already know about the subject. Forget about your limiting beliefs. Be active as opposed to passive. Ask questions, take notes and everything. Control your own state. You'll learn faster. And then teach it to someone else. Now, let's get to speed reading real fast. Now, this is not the actual technique, but I'm gonna give you one thing you could do that's gonna dramatically boost your reading speed. Now, how many people have ever taken over the years, like, a speed reading class? Traditional speed reading, how many people agree, like, for those who went through it, is more skimming, scanning, getting the gist of what you read, right? Here's the difference. Traditional speed reading is more associated towards skipping words, right? But you don't really get good comprehension, but you get— sometimes scanning is very useful. Sometimes you don't need to learn everything, and the fastest way to learn something is to kind of skim through it. That's the fastest way to learn it. The challenge is, like, you know, for us, you know, I work with a lot of chairmen, a lot of doctors, a lot of, you know, financial advisors. I mean, how many people want their doctor just to get the gist of what she's reading, right? That wouldn't be the goal, right? So there's 2 parts to reading, right? There's a Woody Allen quote that said, I took a speed reading course. I read War and Peace. It's about Russia. That wouldn't be the goal, all right? So, There's 2 parts to reading. There's reading speed and there's reading comprehension. Now, I'm gonna give you some distinctions because I think really genius, and I don't care if it's the champion Formula 1 racer or it's a top athlete or it's a business professional, I think genius, they have these patterns. They're always looking for these patterns and they're incredible at their pattern recognition, right? And they look for patterns. And that's all that I do with geniuses. I find out the patterns of how someone can learn a language 4 times faster than somebody else. The patterns on how someone could give a speech without notes, the patterns that someone who could just go around and just remember everyone's name naturally, that there's always a method behind the magic. There's always a method behind the magic, right? You could see somebody demonstrate some kind of genius, like remember our 20— and I could have done 200, 300 numbers forwards and backwards, right? It would just take longer. But someone could see that and say, well, that's really great. Good for him, and then leave. I want to say, that's really great. How does he do that? Right? And that's the difference that makes the difference, right? But I could still go through the list. I could go 2, 7, no, 2, 7, 7, 2, 3, 5, 6, 6, right? 6, 3, forwards, backwards. And you could meet me on the street a month from now and say, do you still remember the list? Yes, here it is, forwards and backwards. And people say, well, here's the thing, my brain can't hold. Your brain, this is the difference. Someone could go to the gym and you see that person bench pressing all that weight and you're like, oh, that person could do it because they're really strong. That's not the right cause. What you should look at the person is like, no, that person does it. That's why they're very strong, right? And so, here's the difference. Your brain isn't like it's full that you could put more in. The more you could hold, the more stronger it is, the more it can hold. You know, I have people all the time. I had somebody call me up, like, at the office. I was first one in. She was like, I love you. I love you. This is amazing. I was like, whoa, who's this? And she was like, I found it. And I was like, what'd you find? She was like, have you ever hid something so well or come up with a password that's so clever You don't even remember what it is?

Yeah.

She was given this heirloom, this family heirloom, this necklace, if you will. It went to her from her grandmother. It didn't go to her 3 sisters, it didn't go to her mom, it went to her, and she was entrusted to keep it safe, right? And she hid it somewhere in the house, and for 3 years, 3 long years, she couldn't find it. And she got so much slack from her family and everything. She thought she had lost it, she thought it got stolen, whatever. 2 weeks after going through our online, like, our memory training that we have, she wakes up in the middle of the night, 3 o'clock in the morning. She runs down 2 flights of stairs. She goes behind the boiler into this little crevice, and what does she pull out?

The necklace.

The necklace, right? I was like, wow, I didn't teach you how you could find misplaced things. She was like, you know what? I just feel like the past couple of weeks, my brain is alive again, because it got the exercise, right? And it started remembering names, started to be able to learn, her focus started to be... Because most of us don't work out our mind, right? We work out our bodies, right? And so let me tell you about the distinctions and these patterns that I'm talking about. There's 5 things that keep you— really fast, the 5 things that keep you from reading slowly, all right? And I'll write them down quick. The first one is just lack of education. Lack of education. Are you born with the ability to read?

No.

No one, like, was born, they just crawled out to the— the waiting room to start is speed reading magazines, right? No, you're not born. So how do you improve your reading speed?

Practice.

Yeah, because practice makes what?

Progress.

Progress. Good. Practice makes progress or practice makes permanent, right? Practice makes permanent. That's how you create a habit, right? The challenge though is like back in school, I wasn't good at anything, like anything, except for one time. in school in typing class. You know, back in junior high school, before they had computers, they had these, you know, typewriter class, and I was the fastest one. And it was the first time I was good at anything in school, the only time through school. And it was great because they would put your name, like, on the board, and it was Kwik, K-W-I-K. And I was, like, the fast typer. I was like, wow, this is the first time I was good at anything. And it's not because I was naturally good at typing, it's just when I visit my grandparents, They had no toys, but they had this rusty, dusty typewriter, and I would just type things, right, like this. And so first couple— the first week they just let you type or whatever, and then a week into it, teacher's like, okay, I'm gonna teach you how to type. And I'm like, oh, I just wanna take the final right now. This is great. And, you know, this is really good. And she's like, no, no, you're gonna use all 10 fingers, and there's home keys and all this stuff. And then I try that, and what do you think happens to my typing speed? It goes all the way down, right? And so what do I do? I go back, right? Because I know better. And then, but all my friends, they start doing this. Now, an interesting thing happened over the next couple of weeks, right? Where I was on the leaderboard here, what happened over the next couple of weeks with my friends doing this and me doing this?

You slip.

I started to slip, you know, to 2, to 3, to 5, to like the bottom 5, right? Over the few weeks. Now, it took my low brain all that time to realize, hey, that's not fair. They're using 5 times more fingers, right? They're like cheating. But there's a difference between working hard and working what?

Smart.

Smart, right? And so, I could practice this all day and that's not gonna make me a better typer. It won't make me a better reader, right? Because when's the last time you took a training called reading? How old were you? A class called reading?

Elementary school.

Elementary school. So, how old are you? 6, 7 years old. 7 years old, that's the last time you took a reading class. Now, has the demand and the difficulty increased a little bit in your reading since you were 7? A little bit or a lot?

A lot.

A lot. They say the amount of information doubles like every 6 months or whatever, right? Dizzying speeds, right? And so, it has increased, but how we learn it, read it, remember it, focus on it is exactly the same. That's the challenge, right? So, reeducation. The second obstacle to effective reading, this is a big one because you asked me to cover this, Lack of focus. Lack of focus. How many people, you'll read a page in a book, get to the end, and forget what you just read? How many people, you'll go back and reread it, and you still don't know what you just read, right? So, focus. Now, let me tell you where some of the focus issues come from, in my opinion, because we test tens of thousands of people, like, every single year. You know, we have online programs in 140 countries. This is what happens. People think that if I ask you to read faster, what's gonna happen to your comprehension? It's gonna go down. It's gonna go down, right? You think like it's gonna go down. In actuality, the fastest readers tend to have the best comprehension because they have the best focus. And here's what I mean. When you're reading something, you have this unbelievable supercomputer of a brain, right? But when you read, you feed this supercomputer one word at a time, metaphorically, Starving are— No, I can't. I'm from New York. I can't even talk that slow. But if I was to talk that slow over time, not only would this session take like 5, 6 hours, what would your brains and minds naturally start doing when I started doing that?

Tune out.

It starts to what? Tune out. What else? Slow down. What else? Start checking something else. What else? Starts falling asleep. Good. What else? Distracting, right? Now, so when I talk slowly, you start getting distracted, your mind was wandering, some of you are falling asleep.

Tell me—

and you just started losing focus. Tell me that's not reading for a lot of people. How many people feel that?

Yes.

It's falling asleep, right? How many people actually use reading as a sedative? You know what I'm talking about, right? How many people have a book by your bed and an embarrassingly long time it's been there? Right? You pick up a book to read when you wanna fall asleep, right? So, that's the wrong associations or triggers to have towards reading, right? And here's the thing, 'cause you're reading so slow, your mind is starving. If you don't give your brain the stimulus it needs, it'll seek entertainment elsewhere in the form of distraction. Let me say that again. If you don't give your brain the stimulus it needs— It'll seek entertainment elsewhere in the form of distraction. And that's why a lot of people lack their focus. Does that make sense?

Yes.

It's because you're reading so slow and your brain can handle so much more information, it starts to think about other things to entertain it, and that's a big challenge, right? It's like if you're driving. If you're driving a car going, you know, 20 miles an hour in your neighborhood, are you really focused on driving? What are you doing? You're doing what? You're thinking about the kids, the dry cleaning, you're texting even though you shouldn't do that, you're listening to music on the radio, you're drinking your Starbucks, you're doing 6 different things because you're only going 20 miles an hour. Now, let's say you're racing cars and you're doing straightaways at 180 miles an hour, 200 miles an hour, taking hairpin turns. Do you have more or less focus?

More.

A little bit or a lot? A lot, right? That's like reading, right? Like, if you're racing cars, are you thinking about the dry cleaning?

No.

Are you trying to text? No. You're 100% focused on what's in front of you. That's what reading is, all right? Third obstacle to effective reading, this is the big one, subvocalization. What's subvocalization? Quick, what is it? Reading inside your head. Reading inside your mind? How many people notice that— how many people notice when you're reading something, you hear that inner voice reading along with you? Hopefully, it's your own voice.

Yeah.

It's not like somebody else's voice in there, right? Subvocalization. Vocal is speech, sub, like a submarine, under, inner, inner speech. Now, why is it an obstacle to your reading? Is if you have to say all the words, then you can only read as fast as you could speak. Does that make sense? The average reading speed is about 200 words a minute. Just like, you know, it's like they measure it in words per minute, like typing speed. But if you have to say all the words, that means— let me say it another way. If you have to say all the words, that means your reading speed is limited to your talking speed and not your thinking speed. Is there a difference?

Yes.

Yes. All right. So, do you need to say a word, you know, like computer to actually understand what a computer is? No. Do you have to see, you know, when you're driving and you see a red sign on the corner there, do you have to say stop every single time? No one says that. No one does. Because 95% of the words that you read on a regular basis, all your emails, all your texts, all your magazines, all your newspapers, you know, all your books, 95% of those words are what they call sight words, words you know by sight that you don't have to pronounce by sound, right? And the fastest readers, they don't subvocalize, or they subvocalize very little. Like, leaders are readers, right? Like Brendon Burchard, very fast reader, very avid reader. I did a program for Bill Gates here. I asked him, if you could have any one superpower, what would it be? And he says, Jim, the ability to read faster.

Yeah.

Like that, because they know, right? Because leaders are readers. The more you can learn, the more you could earn, right? Because we live in this knowledge economy, right? Where if knowledge is power, learning is your superpower. If knowledge is power, learning is your superpower. So reading faster, so you don't have to subvocalize. And then finally, Number 4 is regression. Regression is what? Regression is just like going back and rereading words. How many people notice you'll reread and backskip whole lines, right? That's a waste of time, and then that's a focus issue. And then 5th obstacle is what they call belief. What's a belief? 'Cause if you believe you can or believe you can't, either way, what?

You're right.

You're right. Stand up real quick. Let's get some energy in the room a little bit. All right. Jump up and down. This is home stretch, right? This is where you're gonna learn everything here. Okay? So, jump up and down. Make some space from the person next to you real quick. And then, I just want you to notice where your feet are right now. And I just want you just to point forward with your right hand. Just point forward with your right hand. And now, turn— without moving your feet, turn to your right clockwise. To your right, and notice how far you could point. Notice where you're pointing comfortably as you take out your neighbor's eye. Notice where you're pointing. Come back center. Put your arm down. All right. Now, I wanna do a quick visualization exercise with you. Take a deep breath. Exhale. Let it go. Relax your body. Close your eyes. Breathe normally. And I just, for 30 seconds, watch this. Imagine you're raising your hand again and imagine you're turning to your right And this time, imagine you're turning twice as far. Just see it and feel it in your body. Imagine it. See and feel you're getting a great stretch going twice as far. And then breathe again. See and feel yourself raising your arm. And this time, see and feel yourself turning 3 times as far, like you're made out of rubber. See and feel yourself turning. Great stretch. See and feel yourself turning 3 times as far. And then one more time with a big smile on your face, thinking, what does that have to do with speed reading? See and feel yourself turning 4 times around. Like you're Gumby, if you know who Gumby is. So you can feel yourself turning 4 times around. Good. Now open your eyes, point forward with your right hand, and turn to your right as far as you can now go.

Whoa.

Whoa. What? Come back center. All right. Give yourself a round of applause if you went further the second time. So the B here is B stands for belief, right? Belief. Now, keep standing. So, your belief, 'cause how far, how many people went further the second time? Look around. How many people went further, right? Now, how many people actually went considerably further, 25%, 50% further, right? That's a metaphor for everything in our life, all right? Because how many, now, were you physically capable of turning that far the first time?

Yes.

Like, nobody took a yoga class when my eyes were closed, right? You're physically capable. Where was the limitation?

In my mind.

In your mind, right? People say, I don't have a belief in how far I could turn. How many beliefs do you have? A lot. You have a lot of beliefs. All behavior is belief-driven. All behavior is belief-driven. If you're looking at patterns and you're looking pattern recognition, you wanna examine not only the behaviors of the most amazing high performers, but their beliefs that allow those behaviors, all right? Have a seat. So just working off of these 5 obstacles to effective reading, I'm going to give you a couple quick tips, really fast tips, because I want to get to names. Part of— so I read a lot. People ask me all the time, like, where do these tech— you know, how is— you know, I've been teaching this, you know, for so long, over, you know, almost 25 years of my life. I don't know how to do anything else. This is what I do. You know, and that's my goal. My life's purpose is I want to change the way the world learns. I wanna change the way the world learns so they can step into that superhero version of themselves. How many people believe inside there's this inner superhero? You know what I mean? Make the sound of that superhero inside of yourself. So, that superhero, like, when that's unleashed, it just won't go back, right? And so, my goal is to be able to create an environment for that to come out ongoing so you win every single day, right? So, I think a big part of that has to do with your learning abilities. Right? And so here, if I'm gonna learn how to learn, initially what I had to do is I read a book. I read a book a day for 4 and a half years, a book a day, every single day for 4 and a half years. I read, I did research, and then I role modeled. Remember who I role modeled the most? For who?

Children.

Children, right? Children are fast learners. Now, there's this term called organic learning. First of all, when children are learning to read, if you're gonna role model them, their success, First of all, a couple of quick tips. They use part of their body to help them focus. What part?

Their finger.

Their finger. 100% of kids will learn. If you don't teach them, they'll use their finger naturally. Now, are you taught to use your finger while you read? You're not, right? Sometimes you got disciplined for it, right? But here's the thing. There's a difference between— how many people feel like there's a difference between intelligence and wisdom? How many people feel like there's a difference between book smart and, like, just common sense? And so part of learning and high performance is being able to just, in your mind, think about things and just reevaluate, is this working? And so, and test it for yourself. Because I don't think the expert's always who's on stage or is on the podcast or what have you. Who's the expert?

You are.

You are the expert, right? Because you know you better than anyone else. So I love self-coaching. I think you'll learn a lot from yourself when we're tested for it. So here's the thing, thinking about it from common sense. First of all, children naturally use their finger to help them focus, right? So they say that people who use what they call a visual pacer, a visual pacer is like your finger, a highlighter, a pen, a pencil, a mouse on a computer, will boost their reading speed 25% to 50% across the board, right? Is that a little bit or a lot?

A lot.

Right? 50%, that's a lot. That's like 20 minutes on every single hour. People's like, well, that doesn't make sense. I'm like, yeah. So here's why. I'll tell you actually exactly why. By the way, Reading takes time, right? The average person has to read about 4 hours a day to keep current. How many people feel that? How many emails that you have and all the books, everything you need to do to be amazing at what you do? 4 hours a day. That means like half of your day, of your workday, could be spent just reading, right? And what if you could double your reading speed and save 2 hours a day? What's 2 hours a day over the course of a year? Some math, right? 2 hours a day over the course of a year. Sorry. Let's say you save 1 hour a day. 1 hour a day over the course of a year. How many hours is that?

365.

365 hours. That's a really big— how many people would like to have an extra 365 hours a year? Now, let me make that tangible for you. How many 40-hour work weeks is that about? Because we need to be thinking work weeks.

9.

9. Can you imagine getting 9 weeks of productivity back just saving an hour a day? Saving an hour a day on the most time-consuming thing that you do, which is reading, 1 hour a day will save you 9 work weeks. How many people would love to have an extra 9 weeks a year, right? Think about what you could do, right? So, reading. So, first of all, to help— so, here, test yourself. I would ask you to go home, pick up your favorite book. One of my favorite books, Motivation Manifesto.

Ooh.

Yeah. Pick it up, time yourself to read it for 60 seconds, count the number of lines. And then use your finger while you— no fancy finger motions. A lot of speed reading classes will say, go right down the page, but you miss everything on the left and right or fancy this. Don't skip anything, read everything, and then time yourself for 60 seconds using your finger. That second number will be 25%, 50% jump, right? By the way, how many people would have loved to get 25% on their investments last year? Because reading takes time and time is what?

Money.

This, right? Not only that, but it'll help you focus. But here's why you wanna do it. I'll tell you, 'cause human beings, adults, we wanna know why. First of all, kids do it. 100 out of 100 kids will naturally do it. Second of all, you already do it. Like, most adults won't use their finger while they read, but if I ask you to count the number of lines that you just read in a motivation manifesto, what would 100 out of 100 adults do? Use their finger. This, 1, 2, 3, 4, 100. You naturally use a visual pacer. Third reason why you wanna do it is because your eyes are naturally attracted to motion. Like, if somebody just ran across the stage here, no one would look at me. You would all look at what moves in your environment because it's survival. Growing up as hunter-gatherers, you're in a bush and you're hunting lunch. You're hunting this rabbit or this carrot, depending on what your diet is. And then the bush next to you moves, you better look at that bush. Because number one, it could be lunch. Number 2, what? You could be lunch. You could be lunch, right? So either way, your eyes have to look at what moves in your environment. So when your finger's going across the page, your eyes are being pulled and your mind's being pulled through the information, as opposed to your attention being pulled apart. How many people have focus issues? This is gonna help you a lot with that. The other reason why you use your finger while you read, it's how your neurology is set up. Neurology is a fancy word for your nervous system, right? You have your spine, you have your brain, but you also have your senses, right? Certain senses work very closely together. Like, how many people love, like, springtime? And how many people love, like, fresh harvest? And how many people love fresh fruit, like, right off the vine? Like, you know, at the farmer's market or something, not something that's been sprayed and waxed for 6 months and sitting in a grocery store, but something real fresh. How many people love the taste of a great-tasting peach? Right? Yeah, you're like, wow. Like, here's the thing, you're not tasting the peach. What are you doing?

Smelling.

You're smelling the peach. But your sense of smell and your sense of taste are so closely linked that your mind doesn't know the difference. Just like your sense of smell and taste are so closely linked, you know, when you're congested though, what does food taste like? Nothing, right? It tastes bland. But your sense of smell and taste are closely linked, so is your sense of sight and your sense of touch. All right? So is your sense of sight and sense of touch. That people literally reading with their finger, this is what they'll say, I feel more in touch with my reading lately. That they'll say that in their languaging. By the way, if somebody loses their sense of sight, how do they read?

Braille.

With Braille, right? With their sense of touch. How many people are willing to try doing this? Okay, good. Now, here's the other thing. For comprehension, I wanna encourage you to use a specific hand while you read. What hand do I recommend you use? Left or right? There's only so many possibilities, right? Left hand. Why? They always say left-handed people are in their right what?

Mind.

They're in their right mind. It's because cross-laterals again, right? Back in high school biology or physiology, you learned that one side of your brain controls the opposite side of your body. And God forbid, if you know someone who's had a stroke or head trauma, if there's paralysis, where does it manifest? On the opposite side, right? That we know through science that your brain controls your body. But the new science coming out is that your body also affects your brain. It's not a one-way signal, right? That using your body in certain ways actually activates your brain. Just like when we're doing these exercises that we're doing, this helps to activate more of your brain. There's a study done in Oxford 2 years ago that said jugglers have bigger brains. How many jugglers do we have here? They have huge brains. Look at them. Big brains. Jugglers actually have bigger brains. They create more white matter, that using your body in certain ways. So, there's a study done by Dr. Lawrence Katz. He's working with these seniors, wanted to find out how to keep their brain alive as they grow older, and their mental acuity, their focus, their memory. Some of it was just very simple, like using your opposite hand to be able to eat, using your opposite hand when you wanna be able to brush your teeth, right? So, as your body moves, your brain grooves. So, by using your left hand, it helps to activate your right brain. And what's your right brain? That's your imagination. That's your creativity. That's your emotion. That's the meaning and the experience of what you're reading, right? How many people are willing to try using their left hand? Now, here's the caveat. It might feel a little bit different. Remember when I started typing like this? It felt what? A little weird and awkward, different. But how many people here could actually type like that now, right? So, maybe you take a step backwards to take 3 leaps what?

Forwards.

Forwards. And that's the difference. That's the difference that makes the difference, right? Arnold Schwarzenegger talks about going through the pain period. That's the difference between a champion People that could go and be a little uncomfortable. You wanna embrace that. You wanna embrace feeling uncertain and uncomfortable because that's where all the learning is. If you learn something and you got this already and you're saying to yourself, oh, I know this, I know this, I know this, then nothing new is happening. You're probably just validating what you already know. All right? And that's the difference. Let me get to memory real quick. 3 keys to a superhero memory. All right. How many of you are ready?

All right.

I want you to remember Mom, M-O-M, really fast, M-O-M. All right? What is it?

Mom.

Mom, all right. How many people wanna learn how to remember names better? Raise your hands. How many people have trouble remembering names? All right. Here's the thing. Let's say there was a suitcase here of $100,000 cash, $100,000, for you or your favorite nonprofit if you just remember the name of the next person you meet. How many people are gonna remember that person's name? Raise your hand. Now, what technique did you use?

Motivation.

Like, you're all memory experts all of a sudden, right? The M stands for motivation. Motivation. So, it had nothing— I just wanna point this out cognitively, build your awareness. It had nothing to do with your potential or your capacity. It had everything to do whether or not you wanted to learn it. How many people see that? All right. So, all your excuses, they don't apply here, right? Because when you wanna remember something, you'll remember it. when you really want to remember it. So, the M is motivation. I always tell people, like, a success formula that I use, H cubed. That if you could affirm things, and visualize things, and say things in your head all day long, but how many people have ever had a goal, or a dream up here, or affirmation up here, but they never actually changed their behavior? How many people? Am I the only one, really? Okay. So, if you never use your hands, usually what's missing is the second H, which is your heart. That success goes from your head to your heart, to your hands. Your heart, the emotion, the energy emotion, the fuel that's steering. I had a martial arts instructor tell me years ago, you can't steer a parked car, right? You need energy. So, you know, why? Always start with why. Because reasons reap results. Reasons reap results. I would ask myself when I first learned how to remember names, I would ask myself, why do I wanna remember this person's name? It would be part of a practice. Right? And this is the psychology of what people do, all right? So, why would I remember that person's name? And I come up with— if I can't come up with one reason, what's gonna happen? I'm not gonna remember it. Reasons reap results. The O is this. Do it with me. Do what I'm doing here. Camera's on me. Take your right hand, shake it out. Shake it out. Come on, really shake it out. Make a fist, put it to your chin. Now, come on, where's your chin? The O here is Stands for observation. Observation. A lot of people, they blame their memory. It has nothing to do with their retention. It has everything to do with attention.

All right?

It has nothing to do with retention. It has to do with paying attention. So, the O is observation, right? So, a lot of people, they're not forgetting a name. They're just not hearing the name. How many people see the difference?

Yes.

Right? And so, if you're modeling success in leaders, We talk about leaders are readers. Some of the most amazing leaders also have incredible memory. One example, President Bill Clinton. President Bill Clinton, I mean, people know, regardless of your political views, how many people see Bill Clinton as high in charisma?

Right.

Connector, right? Communicator. What a lot of people don't know, he has a phenomenal memory, a phenomenal memory. And so, on the occasions that I've had the opportunity to meet him and to be able to talk with him. He remembers my name. He remembers things about me. He just remembers things, right? And here's the thing. It's like— and the first time, I'm like, whoa, how do you do that? What memory tips are you using? He's like, I don't use any memory techniques. I'm like, really? And then I hear these stories about how his grandfather back in Arkansas would tell him and the other children stories, and then at the end, they would actually quiz Quiz the kids, you know, so they would have to see their focus and if they're really listening and paying attention. But it's a practice, right? Because there's always a method behind the magic. When someone could do something absolutely phenomenal— by the way, how important is it to remember names?

Very important.

A little bit or a lot? How many people here own your own business? How many people sometimes wear a cap like business development, right? How many people have a relationship with a human being, right? So, a name is the sweetest sound to a person's ears. Right? And so think about the name, like the emotion behind a name. What's one of the very first words you learned how to write?

Your name.

Your name. And think about the emotion that you got, the reward that you got for doing that even slightly well. That's what's attached to a name. Name is the sweetest sound to a person's ears. It's the O, you honor them, because people don't care how much you know until they know what? How much you care. How much you care. And it's really hard to show someone you're gonna care for their future their health, their finances, their family, if you don't care and just remember them. All right?

Fair?

All right. So, the O is observation. And so, what I realized is— so, I had this opportunity to meet some of my literal superheroes on stage, like, on set of a movie, which I'm gonna tell you about. And I wouldn't have left that stage if I didn't have— I had a fundraiser that I was really committed to. And I went to this fundraiser, it was 2,000 people, and I looked at my badge, it was like table 9. And it was like 200 tables of 10. And I sit at my table and I'm first one there, and all of a sudden, Forest Whitaker sits right next to me. I'm like, I'm a huge Forest Whitaker fan. I'm like, this is awesome. And then right after that, Richard Branson sits right next to him. And I'm like, whoa, this is crazy. You know, like surreal, right? And the reason why I'm saying these names is not just to name drop, it's because if I just said Bill and Mike and John, it doesn't put pictures in your mind. But you'll remember this, especially if we're on social media together, because you can see the picture. And then after that, Ashton Kutcher sits down with his twin brother, which I was like, wow, I didn't know he had a twin brother. And then 10 minutes into dinner, President Clinton sits right next to me. And I'm thinking like, wow. And we just pick up where he left off, and he remembers everything. But here's the thing, this is what I noticed about his memory and observation. Everyone he knows, like, he has an incredible memory, has an incredible powerful presence, but I feel like his powerful presence comes from being powerfully present. You see that? Have you ever had somebody that's talking to you or communicating, you're in discussion with, and you feel like you're the only one in the room? You know, 'cause— which is the exact opposite of how we are actually behaving. How many people go to an event and you're talking to somebody, but what you're really doing, you're scanning around the room, right? You're seeing who else is important. Now, does that come across?

Yes.

Can people— people aren't stupid. Can they feel that? Yes or yes?

Yes.

And so, yes. So, they're not even present, right? So, they're not even paying attention. Or if they're not distracting them outside, they're distracting themselves inside because they're talking to themselves, right? You're meeting someone for the first time. This is a wonderful opportunity to acknowledge this person, right? 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, one of the principal habits, you know, routines, is first seek to understand, then to be what? Understood. Understand. But most people, what they're doing, if you go in their mind, And they have this auditory talk, just like that subvocalization. They're not actually listening. They're talking to themselves, and they're trying to think about how they're gonna respond, right? Which is a big mistake, 'cause they're not even present. Even take the word listen, right? And then scramble it. What do the letters spell?

Silent.

Silent. Wow. That's not a coincidence. Listen becomes silent. So really be silent. 'Cause here I'm talking to Clinton, and then it's like no one else exists, even though that there's a lot more people that are more important to me, especially at that even, or to to Tim potentially, even at that table, but I feel like I'm just like the only one. And that powerful presence, you know, really stands out. And I think that's the difference that makes the difference with learners. M is the mechanics, all right? So, I'm gonna go through the mechanics really fast. Am I giving you too much information?

No.

All right, you ready? Be suave, all right? Be suave, really fast. And if you've heard me say this before, there's a difference between dabbling something and really mastering it. All right? Because I like to— how many people like— there's a difference between niceness and kindness. For me, a kind friend is gonna tell you what you need to hear. And so, as a coach, even if you've heard this before, if you're not doing it, you don't know it. Can I call you on that?

Yeah.

How many people like know stuff and they can recite a lot of things, but if they're not doing it, I promise you they don't know it, right? Behavioral competency is the goal, right? Being able to do it. So, B is believe. All right? Believe you can or believe you can't, either way, what? You're right. Who said that? Henry Ford said that. If you believe you can or believe you can't—

You're right.

Durrell, you said it, right? So, believe you can, believe you can, either way you're right. All right? So, monitor your self-talk, all right? Because your mind is always eavesdropping on your self-talk. Keep it positive. E is exercise. And I don't mean physical exercise, although people who are more physically active will do better on mental acuity tests. Whatever's good. Remember, Dr. Amen was talking about blood flow and physiology and everything? Whatever's good for your heart, it's good for your brain. All right? So physical exercise, excellent. But I don't mean exercise, physical exercise. I mean practice, because practice makes what?

Progress.

Progress. All right? Practice makes progress. Practice makes permanent. All right? Now, by the way, how often do you need to be able to practice? Practice until you know how to do it. Most people say 21 to 30 days. Right? The Law of 21. Now, SUAVE. The S is you say the name. Say the name. You meet someone for the first time, acknowledge them by saying their name. Tom, it's really nice to meet you. Right? And that's all you do. You say the name. And you say the name also because you wanna make sure you observe the name correctly. How many people, you notice, if you're at an event or at a wedding or something, there's a lot of ambient sound, you might not have heard it. So, you know, if you're talking to someone named Ted, you don't wanna get corrected Later on, like, you know, goodbye, Ed, right? You wanna get corrected up front, you say the name. The U is you use the name. Use it. Now, you use it, you don't abuse it, right? This would be abuse. You wanna use it, but you don't wanna abuse it. An abuse would be, Tom, thank you so much for coming. Tom, what do you wanna cover today? Tom, you wanna grab some lunch? Tom, Tom, Tom, Tom, Tom. That would be an abuse. But you use it 3 or 4 times in the context of the conversation. Next, the A is ask. What's everyone's favorite subject?

Themselves.

Themselves, right? It's not travel, it's not entrepreneurship, it's not gluten-free stuff, whatever people are talking about nowadays. It's themselves, right? And this is really great if people are— how many people have a name, you meet someone and their name is a little bit different than what you're used to? 10%, 20% of the time you meet someone whose name is a little bit different. Great thing to do is ask. And people are genuinely complimented when you ask about the person's name. What can you ask about a person's name? Quick.

The origin.

The origin. What else? How do you spell it? How do you spell it? What else? Who are you named after? Who are you named after? Are you related to this person? What does your name mean? All these questions, right? Because, you know, it's the sweetest sound to a person's ear. I remember I was doing a training, country's largest life insurance company. The training director here was Nankita. And I was like, wow, that's a beautiful name. You know, how do you spell it? You know, where's it from? What does it mean? And she paused. She looked at all her coworkers, and she says, it means graceful falling waters. I was like, wow, yeah. And her coworkers said that too. And I'm thinking, how long have you worked here, Nankita? She was like, about 4 years. I was like, but these people? She's like, yeah, a lot of them are good friends. They were at my wedding. I'm like, that's great. Raise your hand if you knew that's what her name meant. And out of over 100 people, how many people raised their hand?

0.

Not one person. And so that was our bond, right? Because the name is the sweetest sound a person hears. You could ask about a person's name. The V is visualize. Visualize. How many people here are better with faces than they are with names? Raise your hand. How many people, you go to someone and say, hey, I remember your face, but I forgot your— Name.

Name.

You never go to someone and say the opposite. You never go to someone, hey, I remember your name, but I forgot your face. That would make no sense, right? And so, the V is visualize, because we tend to remember what we see. There's a Chinese proverb that says, what I hear, I forget. What I see, I remember. And what I do, I understand. What I hear, I forget. I heard the name, I forgot the name. What I see, I remember. I saw the face, I remember the face. What I do, going back to practice and exercise, I understand, right? And so, visualize. If you tend to remember what you see, then try seeing what you wanna remember. So, this is a memory trigger. Right? You know, just like what Brendon was talking about. Turn the person's name into a picture. So, a person's name is Mike, you can imagine them singing on a what?

Microphone.

On a microphone. And it takes a split second. People say, oh, that's so childish. Who are the fastest learners?

Children.

That's what children do, right? They make fun of other kids' names. They make pictures. They do all these kind of things. How many people were teased growing up with their name, right? I certainly— So, I'm like, you know, so that's the challenge. So, you turn things into pictures. The person's name is Mary, you can picture what? Yeah, someone getting married, right? Or Mary had a what?

Lamb.

Imagine meeting Mary, she's holding 2 lambs underneath her arms, right? And if it makes you laugh, the emotion part, that's why you're gonna remember it later on. Because you'll see that person, you're like, oh, what she was doing? Oh, I was getting married to her. What's her name? Her name is Mary. And now these are— by the way, this is in the privacy of where? In the privacy of our own minds, okay? But here's the thing, we're talking about short-term memory. I call it the 6-second syndrome. You have 6 seconds to do something when you hear something, otherwise it's gone. And so, this technique, what it does, even when it doesn't work, it still works, because it gets you to focus on the person, and it gets you to focus on the name, right? And then, once you know that person's name is Mary, then the picture disappears. It's a means to an end, right? So, a person's name is Mark, you can imagine putting a what?

Mark.

Mark, right on their forehead, right? And a person's name is David, I use a slingshot. Why? David and Goliath. David and Goliath. Person's name is Bob, I picture apples. Why? Person's name is Carol, you could picture what?

Krispy Kreme.

Krispy Kreme. So, it's that easy, right? Even if a person's name is a little bit more difficult, just trying to come up with a person's name will help you to remember it. And finally, the E is end.

End.

End. You end saying the name. Because if you could walk into a room and meet 20 strangers and leave saying goodbye to every single one of them, who are they all gonna remember?

You.

You, and that's a standout skill. All right? So let me show you how to memorize a speech without notes. That's the only thing that we didn't cover real quick. You guys, I need the energy high for this one. All right. I'm gonna take Dr. Daniel Amen's, 'cause I was in the back of the room, I'm gonna give you his 10 keys for unlocking your brain. All right? I'm gonna show you how to memorize them. He had 12. I'm gonna condense them to 10 for sake of time. All right? I'm gonna teach you, I'm gonna repeat what they are, and then I'm gonna put a little twist on it myself, you know, custom to what I think is, 'cause here's the thing with your memory. Remember I said it doesn't matter your age, your background, We help people all over the world be able to literally put on a cape for their brain and just be alive like that. But there are 10 keys. Here's the thing, 1/3 of your memory is predetermined by genetics. They say about 1/3, right? Biology. But 2/3 is all in your control. How awesome is that? 2/3. So, let me tell you the 10 things that are gonna move the needle. These are the 10 steps, right? Don't write these down, all right? How many people get a little nervous they're not gonna remember, right?

Yeah.

But I wouldn't be doing my job as a memory expert if I was gonna teach you how to memorize this, all right? 'Cause that'll be the speech you wanna be able to give. If you wanna give a presentation, 10 keys, these would be the 10— this is the way to do it really fast. All right, 10 tips, right? 10 steps. Don't write it down. Do not write it down. 'Cause some people feel like you write it down and you feel like it's there. That's why you don't remember your best friend's phone number. That's why you don't remember things, 'cause it's written down. Ready?

Yes.

I need the energy high for this. All right. 10 things really fast, 10 things. Number 1, good diet, right? Because you are what you eat. Number 2, I'm not gonna go into detail because he already did this, right?

Good diet.

No, you don't have to repeat this. It's good diet. Number 2, killing ANTs, right? Automatic negative thoughts, getting rid of negative thoughts, number 2. 3, exercise, physical activity, really good. Number 4, and this sounds— how many people does this sound familiar, right? Number 4, brain supplements, right? Because you don't get it all from the soil and from the foods. Number 5, a positive peer group. It's not just biological networks, it's social networks. Who you spend time with is who you become, right? That's number 5. Number 6, clean environment, right? Because your external world is a reflection of your internal world. Number 7, sleep, huge for restorative and building your memory. Number 8, brain protection. You know, if you especially wear a helmet and everything else, you protect your brain. Number 9, I think is the biggest one, new learnings, new learnings. And finally, number 10, stress management. All right? Now, how many people— I'm gonna teach you how to memorize these 10, right? Quick exercise. This technique comes— is 2,500 years old, right? It's accredited to a Greek warrior named Simonides, and he was giving a poetry reading, and when he left, something really tragic happened. The building collapsed, and it killed everyone that was there. And he had the responsibility to come back in and help the family members find the bodies of their loved ones, because they were beyond recognition. But he was able to do it based on where they were sitting, right? Can you do that also? Can you close your eyes and remember who is around you? Because we sort by location, right? We sort by location because as a hunter-gatherer, we didn't need to memorize long numbers and words and speeches. We need to remember where things were, where the fresh water was, where the enemy tribes were, where the clean— where the great food was, right? The soil. That was our survival. So what he did was he came up with this technique for all orators, and they use it to this day, great orators. They'll take what they need to remember and put it in places they're familiar with. All right? So, I'm gonna take you on a journey right now. Take a deep breath, exhale. I'm gonna take you to my office in Westchester, New York. All right, Westchester, New York. Yeah. Westchester, New York. And so, I want you to imagine you're on a plane, you're going there, you're going to a couple-day seminar on speed reading, right? You have your books that you wanna read. Close your eyes. Just picture it. You land, and I want you to imagine you land in Westchester Airport. It's the suburbs of New York City, lots of trees and buildings. You're in the car and you can't wait to take the speed reading class. You have all these books you wanna read. Think about the books that you wanna be able to read faster. Just own it. Which books? Motivation Manifesto, good book. You have it? The Charge? Change Your Brain, Change Your Life. It's all there? Great. And you go to big— there's a big building, and I'm gonna point out, this is where my office is. You're taking a speed reading class, and I wanna point out 10 places around the building, and I'm gonna add to it the 10 keys. The 10 steps to unlocking your superior brain. All right. So, you get out in the first place and it's a parking lot. Say it out loud, it's the what?

Parking lot.

Parking lot. And then immediately right there is a good diet, good brain diet. Does everyone see it there? The blueberries, the walnuts, the avocado, the fish, good brain diet. What is it? And you start eating everything, you start eating a big buffet, right? The second place you walk to, there's a little waterfall, creates like a moat around the building. You have to cross a bridge. The second place is the bridge. What is it? Bridge. Good. The bridge. And then bridge, like you cross a bridge, but you start killing ants. See yourself stepping on all these ants, killing ants. What are you doing?

Killing ants.

Killing ants. That's number 2, killing automatic negative thoughts. You get into the building, you go into the 3rd place, which is the elevator. What is the 3rd place?

Elevator.

Elevator, good. And immediately when you get in there, exercise. Imagine yourself having the best workout of your life. See and feel yourself, imagine it. Even if you can't imagine it, imagine that you can imagine it. All right? You're there exercising CrossFit, yoga, whatever you need to do. It's awesome. Your trainer's there, exercise. Get out, the 4th place is the hallway. What's the 4th place?

Hallway.

Hallway. And when you're there, you're like Indiana Jones, Lara Croft, you're jumping over these big bottles of vitamins, big bottles of brain vitamins, brain vitamins. See the vitamin Bs, the omegas, right? All the brain vitamins, you're jumping over them, they're rolling at you. See and feel it. Great. You open the door to the office, immediately to the left is the next place, is the 5th place, which is the Closet. What's the 5th place?

Closet.

Closet. You open a closet and inside, all your positive peer group, all your positive friends are in the closet. All right? They're all happy, positive friends. See it, imagine a positive peer group. Good. You go to the 6th place, which is the receptionist. What's the 6th place?

Receptionist.

See our receptionist there, and our receptionist is cleaning the environment, cleaning the environment, cleaning the environment. All right? She has, you know, our receptionist has OCD, cleaning the environment, bleach everything. Everything has a place. Clean environment. Behind the receptionist is the 7th place, which is the fish tank. What's the 7th place?

Fish tank.

Fish tank. And you know something funny? All the fish are sleeping. Sleep. It reminds you of sleep. What is it?

Sleep.

Sleep. They're in their pajamas, they're in their bunk beds, they're snoring. Nemo's there. Sleep. Then after that, you go to the door. You're excited. Speed reading. I finally wanted to learn how to do this. And the 8th place is the door. The door. What's the 8th place?

Door.

The door to the classroom. And then you can't get in 'cause it's locked. You put on your helmet, and the helmet reminds you of brain protection. What is it?

Brain protection.

And you headbutt the door open and it shatters, all right? Brain protection. And immediately up front, I'm there ready to start your course. You know, the 9th place up there is the whiteboard. What's the 9th place?

Whiteboard.

Whiteboard. And I'm writing the words, new learnings, new learnings. That's what you wanna remember. What's number 9?

New learnings.

New learnings, because you wanna stretch and learn new things. And finally, number 10, you see all these bonsai trees on the side of the classroom. What are they?

Bonsai trees.

These little Japanese plants that are there. And I want you to imagine stress management. You're getting the best massage on the bonsai trees. You're meditating on the bonsai trees. You know, like, you're doing things that help you to relax right on the bonsai trees, stress management, all right? Excellent. Stand up real quick. All right, I say, how's your memory? You say, great. How's your memory?

Great.

How's your memory?

Great.

All right. You're on stage. All right? You're on stage here. You have to give the presentation that Dr. Amen did. You don't have slides because slides aren't working. You just walk around my office. What's the first— not the place. I wanna know what the step is. The first step to unlocking your superhero brain is what?

Good diet.

Good diet. Number 2?

Killing ants.

Yes, killing ants. Good. Number 3?

Exercise.

Exercise. Say it out loud, number 4.

Brain supplements.

Brain supplements. Number 5? Your positive peer group. Good. Number 6?

Clean environment.

Clean environment. Number 7?

Sleep.

Number 8?

Brain protection.

Brain protection. Very nice. Number 9?

New learning.

And number 10?

Stress relief.

Give yourselves a round of applause. All right. Let me— keep standing, okay? Here's the key. When we're talking about superpowers, let me share with you, like, you know, you have these inflection points, that's something that you have a decision whether or not to do this or this, and she makes all the difference. Like, you know, who are you gonna be with and where are you gonna live, and it changes your complete destination or your destiny. How many people have had moments in your life like this, right? So being here is one of those things. And so one of the things was I took on a new client, and I was speaking for 20th Century Fox. And when I was walking to talk for the chairman and 20 of his officers, I was a little nervous, but I saw all these movie posters that put me in state. Remember state?

Yeah.

And the state is like, I see Titanic, I see Avatar, I see Star Wars, right? And I'm just thinking, wow. I see Aliens. And it puts me in the state like when I was a kid watching these movies. So when I was a child, I pretended I was a child and I gave my very best training. And everyone, they doubled, tripled their reading speed. They did amazing things. When I was done, the chairman came up to me and said, Jim, this was most amazing, absolutely incredible. You made me look so great. He gives me a personal tour of the Fox studio lot, showed me where all the Marilyn Monroe was, this and this. And I was like, wow, this is great. And I saw this movie poster of Hugh Jackman for the next Wolverine movie. How many people watch these movies? All right. So I see it, I was like, wow, I can't wait for that movie to come out, because it wasn't coming out for another couple months. And I was like— and he's like, oh, don't— he picks up the phone, 5 minutes later I'm in a theater with 3D glasses watching Hugh Jackman take on all these super ninjas, right? And I'm just— I'm like, this is the best Friday ever. And then afterwards he was like, how was the movie? Doing some market research. I was like, man, this was great. It was better than the first one. And I was like, you don't know this, and I don't tell these people, but when I was 7 years old, I mean, I had this accident, I had learning challenges, and I couldn't read for years. And I would teach myself how to read late at night when my parents were sleeping. I would be under the covers reading comic books. 'Cause something about the pictures and the story brought it to life. And I was thinking like, wow, it's like, you don't know what this means, 'cause my favorite comic books growing up were the X-Men, which Wolverine was an X-Man. And it's like, not because they were the strongest, but because they were just different. Do you know what I mean?

Yeah.

Like, you know, 'cause I felt like growing up, I was broken, that I felt like I didn't fit in, and just like the X-Men didn't fit in. And I tell them the big point in my— when I was 7 was this one night I'm reading late at night, 2 o'clock in the morning, and I read that the X-Men headquarters, the school that they all trained in, was in Westchester, New York, where I grew up. And so I tell them that every weekend I would ride my bike around my neighborhood trying to find this school. Because I wanted to run away because I didn't have any friends. And I didn't fit in, and I felt like I was broken. And so I tell him this, like, it's like, Jim, I didn't know you liked superheroes. How would you like to go to Comic-Con? And how many people know what Comic-Con is? Right? It's a gathering of hundreds of thousands of people to kind of geek out over comic books and superheroes. And I was like, when's Comic-Con? It's like, it's today, tomorrow. It's like Friday, Saturday, Sunday. And automatically I go from an 8-year-old to an 88-year-old. Like, I'm thinking, oh, traffic, I have nothing to wear, I have all these meetings. And he's looking at me just waiting for a response, and he's like, Jim, do you want to go or not? I'm going tomorrow. And I'm like, oh yeah, chairman of Fox is going. I want to go with you. And then so he picks me up at my hotel next morning, Saturday morning, 8 o'clock, and we get on the Fox plane, right, the Fox jet. And when I get on the plane, I kid you not, it's the entire cast of X-Men. And I'm just like— and for some people it would be like, you know, the 49ers or Seahawks or like Patriots. But this is like, whoa. I mean, like, Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart. I mean, it's like— and I'm sitting between, like, you know, Jennifer Lawrence and Halle Berry, and I'm just like, this is insane. And we go to Comic-Con and have a great time. We come back to LA, and he was like, how was your day? I was like, oh my God, this was the best day ever. Thank you so much. He was like, well, you know, I have something else for you. I'm like, I don't want anything else. Like, this is great. He was like, well, like, they really loved you. How would you like to go on set? And I was like, what do you mean? He's like, well, we have another 30 days of filming X-Men: Days of Future Past. And I'm like, oh yeah, I totally wanna do that. And I'm thinking like, well, what can I do for you? He's like, oh, just teach them your stuff and teach them how to focus on set and speed read their scripts and memorize their lines. I was like, oh yeah, I could definitely do that. And then the next morning I get on the plane, same plane, and the cast is there and I'm brain training, right? And I'm sharing my gifts with with my superheroes. We get on set in Montreal and— wow, I can't talk about this. We get on set in Montreal and I'm just 12 hours a day with them. And I got to see my, as a 7-year-old, my superheroes come to life, right? And when I get— thank you. When I— but when I— but here's the highlight, if that wasn't enough. I come home And I just, like, I just, I don't even know how to explain this to people. And I go home, and there's a package waiting for me about the size of a plasma TV. And I go, and I unwrap it, and it's this photograph. It's me and the entire cast of X-Men. And— but here's— Here's the thing. It came with a note, and the note was from the chairman of Fox, and it said this: Jim, thank you so much for sharing your superpowers with us. I know you've been looking for your superhero school. Here's your class photo. So my— My message is for you. So from as early on, I don't know if you could identify with finding your tribe and finding your school, if you will. Since then, I've created, as inspiration for this, created an online superhero school to help people to step into their superpowers. So if you feel like that you want to— how many people here would like to go a little bit deeper and speed reading or memory and stuff like that, I'd like to invite you. And maybe we could pass out some of the invitations. I created this kind of superhero school for your brain. And it's based on the best of what I know to help you to be faster, to help you to become smarter, to help you become better. Because the— and we did a special. I only have 3 superpowers. It's speed reading, it's memory, and it's thinking. Like, those are the— that's That's the trinity. If you wanna unlock your superhero gifts, how many people feel like that there's something inside of you, that there's a genius just waiting to come out? I can guarantee you, it has nothing to do— you were told a lie that your potential or your intelligence or your learning ability is fixed, like your shoe size. And I'm here to say it's absolutely not. I'm here to say that as long as somebody has the determination and desire and they're willing to go through the effort, that everyone has the power to be able to change their lives. And so, here's the thing. What we did is, I only have these 3 programs, a memory program, a speed reading program, and a thinking program. The memory and speed reading, you got a taste of today. The thinking program is decision-making, problem-solving, basically strategies of superhero geniuses on how to live your best life, right? And so, if you'd like to join, as the invitation here for our Superhero School, what we did was, you basically, for the The inviting to come to one of them, you get all 3 of them. All right? So, if you'd like to join us, I'd love for you to be part of it. And this is not on there, and I hope it's okay for people here. I like these live events because I think this is where all the magic happens. And I want to thank you for being here. Is that we do 1 or 2 annual events every single year. So, if you sign up, and they're $2,000 events, if you sign up for this today, we'll give you a $2,000 ticket to attend.

That's awesome.

our next Kwik Learning event. If you can't come to that one, come to the next one. We're scheduling it now. We always do one in the fall and one in the beginning of the year, and you could come as my personal guest. All right?

So—

I'll leave you with this also. The last thing is the purpose of the superhero story, of X-Men specifically, is it takes place— how many people have seen the movie? It takes place where Charles Xavier, Professor X, who's the leader of the superhero school, X-Men, He's in the future, and the future is very bleak, and it's very troublesome. And he sends Wolverine back in time to talk to the younger Professor X at a choice point where he could change his whole life, all right, and give him advice to go in a different direction so the future won't be the way it is right now. And so my question for you, reflecting on the theme of that, is going back in time right now, from where you are, knowing what you know now, what advice would you give To that 7-year-old, like my 7-year-old, you know, that 7-year-old version of yourself that they would really need to hear. So I would ask you to ask yourself, like, what advice you would give that inner child. I would ask you to also go ahead and sometime in the future, maybe it's 2 years or 3 years or 5 years, and you're looking back at today, and what would your advice be for you right now? All right? And so I think that imagination is more powerful than knowledge. And that we have genius inside of us, and we have this intelligence that just knows. Like, for me, everything— like, being here, I don't wanna be anywhere else. I really don't. Like, for me, my life is hell yes or hell no. Like, it's like either, like, you know, hell yes to work with this person or to go here or to be— spend time. Or if it's not— I don't feel that juice, I just— hell no. That's my standard. But here, there's nowhere else I'd rather be. And so what we're looking to do is work with people who are like, hell yes, like, I'm all in. All right. And so I want to thank you so much. I want to thank Brendan and his entire team. I want to thank you for playing full out. I, I wish your days be full of lots of life, lots of love, lots of laughter, and always lots of learning. Thank you.

Jim Kwik, ladies and gentlemen. I love you.

Love you, brother. Good man.

Awesome.

Awesome.

Obviously, I can choose anyone to be on this stage in the world, and I bring you these guys because they're the ones advising the top, highest-performing people on this stuff. You can see who his clients are and everything else, but at the end of the day, it's about if this is something you're interested in, do this. I mean, sign up for this. I've gone through his courses and they're amazing. I mean, there's the little Like tips that you're like, that, that's all I gotta do, and all of a sudden you get 10x the result, that's worth the investment.