Kwik Brain: Learn ANYTHING Faster (Episode 1) | Jim Kwik

Welcome to Quick Brain, bite-sized brain hacks for busy people who want to learn faster and achieve more. I'm your coach, Jim Kwik. Free your mind. Let's imagine if we could access 100% of our brain's capacity. I wasn't high, wasn't wired, just clear. I knew what I needed to do and how to do it. I know kung fu. Show me. Okay, let's do this. Let's unleash your quick brain. How do you learn anything faster? How do you do it? I want you to think of a subject or a skill where you'd like to shorten the learning curve, where it doesn't take 10,000 hours or years or even months. I want you to think of a very specific subject or skill. Maybe it's martial arts, maybe it's music, maybe it's Mandarin, maybe it's marketing. I want to show you a process, 4 steps, on how to absorb it in a fraction of the time. Now in order to do that, I want you to remember the word FAST. FAST. F-A-S-T. The letter F stands for this: forget. Forget. And you're like, Jim, you're the memory coach. Why are you telling me to forget to learn faster? Well, here's the thing. I want you to temporarily forget 3 things. Number 1, what you already know about the subject. What you already know about the subject. Because here's the thing. A lot of people don't learn faster Because they feel like they already know it. Does that make sense? That if your cup is already full of information, then you can't pour new information in. And that's the metaphor for it. And so people don't learn faster if they feel like they know the subject already. So temporarily forget about what you already know about the subject. It's cliché, but your mind is like a parachute. It only works when it's what? It's open. So you can learn something brand new. The second thing I would say to forget is this. Situational things like your mind— we're going to do a whole episode on this, on multitasking— is not capable of focusing on multiple things at once. So if you're trying to focus on the kids and trying to focus on the clients and trying to focus on something that's going on, you know, in your personal life and be present to learn something brand new, you're not putting your attention, your presence to do that. And so maybe your attention is being split 4 different ways, so you're not going to learn it faster. So temporarily forget about anything that's not urgent and important. And the third thing I want you to forget is this. I want you to forget about your limitations. I want you to forget about your limitations. A lot of people, and you're like, well, because people come to me all the time, they're like, Jim, I have a horrible memory and I'm growing older and this runs in my family and I can't remember names. And here's the thing. If you fight for your limitations, you get to keep them. Let me say that again. If you fight for your limitations, you get to keep them. So you don't know what's possible. Many times when I'm in front of an audience, I'll memorize 100 people's names live or 100 words that the audience gives me or 100-digit number, if you will, forwards and backwards. I always tell people, I don't do this to impress you. I do this to express to you what's really possible because the truth is you could do it too. It's in fact, you know, you weren't taught how to do it. That's the only thing. If anything, you were taught a lie that your memory or that your learning or your potential is somehow fixed like your shoe size. And we know that's absolutely not true. We've discovered more about the human brain more in the past 20 years than the previous 2,000 years. And what we found is that we're grossly underestimating what it's capable of doing. So I want you to temporarily forget about your limitations. Now, after you do that, the A in FAST stands for active. Active. You have to be active because a lot of people don't learn well because they're passive learners. And traditional education actually trained us to be passive. It was assembly line, one-size-fits-all, cookie-cutter approach. Sit quietly by yourself. Don't talk to your neighbor. Just sit there and consume information. But here's the thing, how the brain works. Your brain doesn't learn based on consumption. It learns through creation. You don't learn by consuming. You learn by creating. And so there's an activity that needs to be there because what you put in is what you get out. Here's what you want to remember. Learning is not a spectator sport. Learning is not a spectator sport. So how can you be more active in your learning? Well, you could take notes. We're going to do a whole episode on taking notes, the best ways of taking notes. You could ask questions, right? You're part of kwikbrain.com. You could post lots of questions. Be interactive. You could post them online on social media and you could tag me @JimKwik, K-W-I-K, #KwikBrain. You could ask questions, right? You could get involved in this process. So the more active you are, the more you're going to learn. The third thing, F stands for forget, A is active, the S stands for state. State. And what does it mean? What does state mean? It's kind of like a snapshot of the mood of your mind and your body. It's like how you're feeling. You know, if on a scale of 0 to 10, the emotions that you're feeling. Because here's the key to a better memory. Long-term memory is this: information combined with emotion becomes a long-term memory. Information combined with emotion becomes a long-term memory. The emotion is the state. But here's a challenge. Think about school, and if you were quizzed what you learned back in school about presidents of countries or be at the periodic table, are you going to remember that? Most people don't because they learned in a very Bored, tired state. And information combined with emotion becomes a long-term memory. But if the emotion is zero, zero times anything is what? Is zero. And that's the big challenge. And so who's responsible for your state? You are, right? Your feelings. How do you improve your state? You could change your body, right? You could change your posture. You could change your breathing. Like right now, sit or stand the way you'd be sitting or standing if you're totally interested and energized. Right? Do you even— you moved, right? You move in certain ways or think about things that you're going to get, the benefits you're going to get from applying this information. It changes your state. So always, here's the thing that you want to remember. This is the tweetable. All learning is state dependent. All learning is state dependent. So you want to go in with the right state, states of curiosity, states of fascination, states of joy, states of fascination, if you will. Here's here's the quote from Rumi. It says this: It says, "Sell your cleverness for bewilderment." Sell your cleverness for bewilderment, and you're more likely to learn faster. Right? And so that's your state. And finally, the T in fast stands for teach. Teach. And what do I mean by that? As you're listening to this show and future shows, I want you to learn as if you were going to teach it to somebody else. Learn it as if you're going to teach it to somebody else. Because if you had to give a presentation the next morning on this information, are you going to have a different level of attention? Of course you are. Are you going to ask better questions? Of course you are. If you had to give a presentation the next day, are you going to take better notes? Of course you are. So learn with the intention of teaching somebody else and you're going to learn it better. In fact, here's, here's what you want to remember. When I teach something, I get to learn it twice. Say that to yourself. When I teach something, I get to learn it twice. There is this phrase out there that says, those who can't do, teach. Those who can't do, teach. I never thought it was a negative. I always thought, wow, I can't do something, but if I teach it, then I can do it. And so that's a wonderful way to be able to accelerate your learning. So remember the 4 keys to learning any subject or skill faster. Remember Fast. What does the F stand for? Forget. Forget what you already know about the subject. Temporary forget about what's going on situationally that's not urgent and important. And then temporary forget about what? Your limitations. Good. The A stands for what? Active. Active. You have to be active. You have to roll up your sleeves. You have to get involved. So the bad news is it takes effort. The good news, it doesn't take as much as you think. Be active in your learning. You don't learn through consumption. You learn through creating and co-creating. The S stands for what? State. All learning is state dependent. So put yourself in that learning state. And finally, the T stands for what? It stands for teach. It stands for teach because when you teach something, you learn to teach something, you get to learn it twice. So I want you to apply FAST, F-A-S-T, in your future and you are well on your way to unleashing what we call your Kwik Brain. Want to double your brain speed and memory power? If you'd like to learn rapidly and get ahead faster, I'd like to give you my brand new Quick Brain Accelerator program. You will discover exactly what I teach my clients to learn, read, and remember anything in half the time. There is no charge. It's my gift to you for being one of our subscribers. That's kwikbrain.com, or simply text the word podcast to 916-822-7246 and we'll send you a direct link. That's 916-82-BRAIN. Growing up struggling with learning challenges from a childhood brain injury, it's been my life's mission to help you have your very best brain so you can win more every single day. Now, want more Kwik Brain? Here are 4 ways to fast-track your results and lock in what you just learned into your long-term memory. Remember fast. F-A-S-T. The F stands for Facebook. You're not alone on this journey. I invite you to join our free private online group. There you can connect with me, your fellow brain lovers, links to resources, and even submit your questions for me to answer in future episodes. Go to kwikbrain.com. That's K-W-I-K brain dot com. The A stands for apply. Act on what you learned today. Remember, knowledge is not power, it's potential power. It only becomes power when you use it. So use what you just learned. The S stands for subscribe. Don't miss the next episode and other free brain training. And finally, the T stands for teach. You want to learn faster now? The key is to lock it in right away by teaching it to someone else. When you teach something, you get to learn it twice. Here's a simple way to do that. Leave a review on iTunes. Leave a review with your biggest takeaway from this episode. You could also post and share this podcast on your social media. It helps us spread our mission of building better, brighter brains. And of course, tag us so our team can properly thank you. #KwikBrain, K-W-I-K Brain. Mine is @JimKwik, K-W-I-K, on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. So What does FAST stand for? Facebook, apply, subscribe, teach. I'll see you in our next episode of Kwik Brain. Until then, remember, you are faster and smarter than you think.