How to REMEMBER What You Read | Jim Kwik

Welcome back, Kwik Brains. How do you remember what you read? Have you ever read a page in a book, got to the end, and just forgot what you just read? And you go back and you reread it and you still don't know what you just read. Here's the thing, we wanna be able to understand information, be able to focus on it, be able to retain it so we could go out and implement it. So in this episode, I'm gonna share with you tips, memory tips to remember Gary Vee's Top 12 emotional skills for greater levels of success. And we're gonna make it fun. I met Gary maybe 15 years ago, and recently I got to give the opening speech at his VCon, which is— VCon was his Web3 event in Minneapolis, Minnesota. And I was the opening speaker for this event, and it was for NFT holders. And so here, What I did was I shared strategies. I wanted to give you a sneak peek of what I shared on stage here. In this book, he outlines 12 essential emotional skills for greater levels of success. Now, when most people read stuff, they usually either forget it or it goes in one ear and out the other 'cause they're saying the words. I'm gonna use a strategy here called the PIE method. And if you're familiar with our book Limitless, or you maybe have gone through our quick recall masterclass, You know this strategy, but just as a review, PIE stands for place, imagine, and entwine. The P stands for place, the I stands for imagine, and the E stands for entwine. Now, this is a really fun, enjoyable, powerful, and proven way, very practical, fun way to remember things quickly. So let's get started. I want you with me to do a memory exercise. And remember, there's no such thing as a good or bad memory. There's a trained memory and an untrained memory. Okay. What I want to do is go from top to bottom. I want you to come up with 12 different places on your body, and that's the P in PIE. And we're going to do it together. All right. So if you want, stand up and do what I do. I want you to touch that part of your body. The first place is your top, the top of your head. If you're watching this on a video, which I encourage you to do on YouTube, you really appreciate these visuals. All right. Make sure you subscribe also. Top of your head. That's the first place. The second place going down your body is your nose. So touch your nose. Third place below your nose is the third place, which is your mouth. Very good. Now I want you to go to the side of your head, which are your what? Your ears. The side of your head, the fourth place are your ears. Next, the fifth place is your throat. Touch your throat. Now the sixth place from there, you go to the sides, your shoulders. Touch your shoulders. Good. That's number 6. So, we're halfway there. We want to come up with 12 places because we have 12 different emotional skills, all right? Do you remember those first 6? Let's review it. Quick review. Top, nose, mouth, side of your head, ears. Good. Throat and what? Shoulders. Very good. So, we're halfway there. Number 7 is your collar. Everyone touch your collar. Collar. Good. Your collarbone. 8 are your fingers. Wiggle your fingers.

Good.

Very nice. 9 is your belly. Touch your belly. Maybe your belly button. 10 is going to be your bottom. 10 is bottom. 11 are your thighs. Touch your thighs. And then finally, number 12 are your knees. Everyone touch your knees. All right. Quick review. Number 1 is what? Say it out loud and touch it. That's your verbal auditory recall and your kinesthetic recall. So number 1 is what? Top.

Nose.

Say it out loud. Mouth. Ears. Good. Throat. Shoulders. Collar. Fingers. Belly. Bottom. Thighs and knees. Perfect. How'd you do? That's 12 places. So that's the P is place. Now the next thing you're going to do, that when you come across something you want to remember, we remember things not only based on place. Remember, you forget someone's name, you ask, where do I know them from, right? What's the place? Because the context will give you the content. But from there also, the I is imagine. We tend to remember things that we imagine or that we see inside our mind's eye. You see, you recognize somebody because you remember their face, but you forgot their name. You remember what you see. And so how can you imagine the things you want to remember? Well, let's go through it. I'm going to take the 12 emotional skills, and Gary has made— done the work for you. He created his VeeFriends, his NFTs. And so there's a corresponding animal for each of these emotional traits. All right, are you ready? Fantastic. The first one, the first animal, if you will, is gratitude gorilla. Gratitude gorilla. Now imagine this. Now the E in PIE is entwined. So what are we going to do? We have the place, which is the top of your head. We have the image of the grateful gorilla, the gratitude gorilla, and now the E is entwined. Put those 2 things together. So what can you imagine? Imagine A gorilla may be styling your hair, and afterward you are very what? Grateful. Okay. Or maybe there's a gorilla sitting on top of your head and they are expressing gratitude and appreciation. Whatever you come up with, that's the best image. Take a moment and imagine it now. And even if you can't imagine it, imagine that you could imagine it. Even if you don't see it, just, just feel it and hear it.

Okay.

All right, very good. Number 2 is what? The second place is your nose. Good. The second V friend that I want you to remember that represents the emotional skill in Gary's new book, the second one is hare, right? The animal is a hare, like a rabbit, and it's self-aware hare. Self-aware hare. Now pretend you are 8 years old. What can you imagine? Be very playful with this. Imagine a rabbit coming out of your nose. That sounds silly, but that's why you remember it, because it is silly and playful. And maybe it's coming out and it is self-aware. And some people might be thinking about hair coming out of your nose, right? Just whatever it is, pick something and imagine it now. You don't have to spend lots of time studying it, just picture it. All right, self-aware hair coming out of your nose. All right, the rest we're going to do pretty quickly. Number 3 is what? Is your mouth, and what I want to remember—that's the place. The third emotional skill coming from number number three is accountable. You want to be accountable, and the V friend that he created is accountable ants. Accountable ants. So imagine that ants in your teeth. Maybe they are counting, or they are accountants. Imagine ants using your teeth as maybe a calculator. Kind of silly, right? But it's because it's silly that you're going to remember it. All right, fantastic. So what's the— what are the ants doing? They're doing counting. Where? In your mouth. Fantastic. Number 4, what's the 4th place on your body?

Ears.

Very good. So the 4th Vee Friend is Optimistic Otter, and associate that with your ears. What can you imagine? Come up with your own. What do you picture? You know the idea. You want to see it, Hear it and feel it. When you use those 3 main senses, you use more of your nervous system, which means you're more likely to remember it and you're gonna remember it quickly. So maybe otter earrings or otters cleaning your ears. How do you remember the more, the optimism part of it, the optimistic? Maybe they are just smiling. Maybe they are putting earrings, otter earrings on and they give you the thumbs up, right? Optimism, right? Optimistic otter. Number five. By the way, it takes a lot more time to explain it than it is to actually picture it. Number five is your what? What place? Fifth place is your throat. Very good. And the animal I want you to remember that represents the emotional skill, the V front, is is this: is empathy. Empathy elephant. Empathy elephant. So what can you imagine around your throat? Maybe an elephant wrapping his trunk around your throat. Maybe like a scarf because you're cold. Because the elephant is very empathetic. It's showing you empathy. Right? So, imagine that. Around your throat is an elephant's trunk and it reminds you of empathy elephant. Very good. Number 6, what's the 6th place on your body? Say it out loud.

Your shoulders.

Good. And the emotional skill that you want to be able to cultivate, number 6 in this book to remember it better, is that of kindness. And this is your kind kudu. Kind kudu. So can you imagine a kudu with, with its big horns on your shoulders? And maybe it's eating a Kind bar, or maybe it's showing you kindness. But look to your left and look to your right, look on your shoulders. And see and imagine a kudu there, but it's very, very kind to you. All right, or maybe it's eating a Kind Bar. Whatever you come up with is the best. Now, by the way, we're halfway there. What's on top of your head?

Gratitude gorilla.

Very good. What's coming out of your nose? The self-aware hare. Very nice. Number 3, your mouth? The accountable ants.

Your ears?

Being cleaned by who? The optimistic otters. Very good. And then from there, number 5 is the elephant. And what's the emotional skill? Empathy. Very good. And finally, 6 on your shoulders, you have the kudos, right? And they are very kind. See, even when it doesn't work, it works because it gets you to focus on the thing that you want to remember. And that's really the key. It gets you to direct your concentration. But we're halfway there. Are you excited for the second half? All right, let's do it. Number 7 place on your body is what? Your collar. It is your collar. And what do you want to be able to remember for your collar? I want you to remember termites. All right? Termites. And they are very tenacious. Right? They're very tenacious. So, what can you imagine? Maybe these termites, they're very tenacious and they're eating at your Collarbone? I don't know. Whatever you come up with is absolutely wonderful. So come up with something that you're gonna remember, something that's outstanding, something that you feel. Remember all the principles to better recall. That is number 7. Number 8, what part of your body? Your fingers. Very good, your fingers. And the 8th emotional skill from the book is that of curiosity, right? You wanna be curious, a wonderful trait for greater levels of success. And the animal, the VeeFriend, is, is really the curiosity The curiosity crane, right? The curiosity crane. And you have to associate it with your fingers. So what do you picture? Maybe you picture cranes on your fingers. Maybe the cranes are there and you have little question marks on your fingers to remind you of curiosity. For me, automatically, I think of— I love watching old kung fu movies, so I think of crane technique, right? The crane technique is where you put all your fingers together and it's a fighting style. But you— it looks like a crane. Or some of you will use your fingers to maybe make shadow puppets of a crane, right, on the wall. Whatever you come up with is absolutely great. When I go like this, I look at this as a question mark, so I see curiosity also as well. So that's the curiosity crane, number 8. Number 9 on your body is where? We said it is your what? Your belly. And the emotional skill that you want to cultivate is, first of all, it's represented as a VeeFriend. As a pig. All right? It is pig. And the emotional skill is all about patience. All right? And so, you want to be patient. And this is your patient pig. And what can you picture? Some people think of pork belly. That's a basic association which might help you to remember. If— that would stand out in my mind. Right? So, maybe that they're cooking A pig, and it's kind of a, kind of an interesting image, if you will, but you have to be very patient, right? Or maybe a pig is, is on your, on your belly and you're being very patient and playful with it. All right, maybe it's getting a little trouble and you have to show patience. Just whatever you come up with, again, it's absolutely great. That's number 9. We're almost done. All right, and we're exercising and brain training right now. We're exercising your mind. Number 10 is your what?

Your Bottom.

And what you want to remember here is cockroach. That is the V friend. And what kind of cockroach? It's conviction. Conviction. Because conviction is an incredibly important emotional skill for success. You need conviction, right? So the animal that you associate is conviction— cockroach. So what can you picture? You know what, I don't even want to know what you're picturing. Whatever you put down your bottom, that's what— that's your own business. All right, that's number 10. But you gotta see it and feel it. See it and feel it, not just hear it. All right, so going down your body, number 11 is what part of your body? Your thighs. And this is all about humility. And the V friend, the animal I want you to think about is the humble hummingbird. Humility, right? Very important trait for success. Humble hummingbird on your what? Thighs. So imagine you could put lots of hummingbirds on your thighs. Many of you will remember this because it's Humble hummingbird, right? The first few letters are exactly the same. You notice most of these have alliteration, so it's going to help you to remember it. But imagine hummingbirds covering your thighs, and imagine there's a level of humility there also as well. So number 12 on your body finally is what? There are your knees, and the 12th emotional skill is ambition, right? You want to be ambitious, and the V friend that Gary chose Is the ambitious angel. So associate angel on what? Your knees. Angel knees. And associate these— this angel happens to be very ambitious is what he chose for, for his book. So imagine that ambitious angel associated with your knees. I'm going to allow you to use your own creativity, your own imagination, but you can't just hear it. You have to see it and feel it. Now, I'm going to test you. I want you to imagine that you are speaking at an event and maybe you want to share what you just learned. And you read this book and you want to be able to remember the 12— those 12 emotional skills in order. I want you to know you don't even need notes. You don't even need a teleprompter because you're right here. You have your notes inside your mind, inside your mind's eye. Let's go through it very quickly. Number 1 is what? On top of your head? That's your gratitude gorilla. Very good. Gratitude. Number 2 is what? Out of your nose is what? Say it out loud. The hare. Self-awareness. Good. We're talking about the emotional skills. Number 3, your mouth. You have the ants which remind you of accountable. You want to be accountable. Very good. From there, your ears. You have the otters. Optimism, right? Optimistic.

Good.

Number 5, on your throat, you have the elephant. It's giving you like a trunk, the scarf, which— because the elephant is very empathetic. Empathy. Number 6, what animal do we have there? Kudu. And very kind. Right? Kindness is really a superpower. Number 7 is your collar. And those were those what? Pesty termites. And they were very what? Terrible. Tenacious. So have that tenacity for success. Number 8 is what? Your fingers. 8 are your fingers. And what does that remind you of? The crane. And what does the crane remind you of? It's the curiosity, right? Curiosity. Be curious. Number 9 is your belly. You think automatically belly and pig to remind you of patience. Very important, patience. And patience is not You passively waiting. Patience is, you know, maintaining a good attitude and, and, and positivity while you do the work, right? Good. That's number 9. Number 10 is your bottom, and that's the cockroach, which maybe the cockroach was being convicted of something. A conviction. And your thighs, what's going on with your thighs? All the Hummingbirds to remind you of humility, humbleness. And then finally, on your knees, you have the angel. And this angel has a very specific trait: ambitious. Amazing! You did great.

How'd you do?

I challenge you two things. I challenge you to pause this and take out a piece of paper and write them down. And I want you not only see if you can do it forwards, but can you do it backwards? Can you go from the Ambitious Angel to the Humble Hummingbird and go all the way back up to the Gratitude Gorilla. And you do that. And then the second thing I would challenge you to do is to teach this to somebody else. Teach it to somebody else. When you teach this, you get to learn it twice. And it's called the explanation effect. So explain this to somebody else so you get to learn it even better. And if you like this exercise, we have a lot more. It's our premier flagship program called Kwik Recall. Kwik Recall is where you get to spend 10, 15 minutes, maybe 20 minutes a day, every single day over the course of a month, and I help you become a memory master, help you unleash your ability to remember what you read, remember facts, figures, foreign languages, names and faces, and so much more. So if you had fun, go over to kwikbrain.com/recall and join our fellow students from 195 nations and to upgrade our minds, upgrade our memories, and to be able to upgrade our life. And also, if you like conversations, speaking of NFTs, we get a lot of questions about the future of education, the future of learning, the future, how technology is affecting the brain, the metaverse, Web3, virtual reality, AR. And to have those conversations, many of you are part of our Kwik Brain app, many of you are part of our private Facebook group, but those conversations, specifically around technology, we're gonna have in this place called Discord. So if you'd like to join that conversation, it's absolutely free. We'll be posting regular content there. We have many teammates there managing the community, sharing the best insights and research and technology, and having this conversation about the future of learning and performance with regards to technology. Go to discord.gg/kwik. That's discord.gg/kwik. And I'll see you inside. Until then, be limitless.

Hi, Kwik Brain. It's your brain coach. I want to thank you so much for watching this video. 3 things to do. Number 1, make sure you share this because when you teach something, you get to learn it twice. Update your learning so you can update other people's learning as well. Number 2, make sure you subscribe to this channel so you don't miss a thing, because if you miss a video, you miss a lot. And finally, make sure you hit that bell so you're notified and you find out when we put out the latest and the greatest. One extra thing, if you want really close attention, then text me. Here is my phone number: 310-299-9362. Did you remember that number? 310-299-9362. Shoot me a text and we'll stay in touch. Ask me your burning question. And I wish your days be full of lots of life, lots of love, lots of laughter, and always lots of learning. I'll see you in our next video.