The Power of One More | Jim Kwik & Ed Mylett
In this Kwik Brain episode, Jim Kwik sits down with entrepreneur, author, and podcast host Ed Mylett to discuss Mylett’s new book, The Power of One More: The Ultimate Guide to Happiness and Success. The conversation introduces the “One More” philosophy, which posits that people are much closer to their desired life than they realize—just one decision, relationship, meeting, thought, or action away. Mylett explains that many people suffer from a “depth‑perception” issue, underestimating how near their goals are, and that raising personal standards (doing the promised action plus one more) can shift outcomes dramatically. He credits his father’s struggle with alcoholism and eventual sobriety as the primary influence, illustrating how a single extra attempt (“one more try”) transformed his family. Mylett differentiates standards from goals, describing an “identity thermostat” that regulates how people feel when results exceed their self‑concept, often causing overwhelm. He links this to the brain’s reticular activating system (RAS), which he calls the “Matrix,” explaining how the RAS filters the environment to highlight what matters—akin to the law of attraction. The interview also covers the importance of embracing inconvenience and pain, drawing on Napoleon Hill’s ideas that difficulty reveals a “other self” and that the path of least resistance yields the least fulfillment. Mylett defines “equanimity” as calmness under duress, citing examples from elite athletes and fighters, and notes its roots in ancient wisdom traditions. Towards the end, Mylett promotes his book’s availability, a massive live‑virtual event featuring multiple high‑profile speakers, and a preorder incentive that grants free access to the event. He also shares a personal vulnerability: despite public success, he still battles confidence, introversion, and imposter syndrome, emphasizing his ongoing work on self‑improvement. Kwik wraps up with calls to action—preorder the book, share the episode, and subscribe to the channel.
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Welcome back, Kwik Brain. We're gonna talk about today, The Power of One More: The Ultimate Guide to Happiness and Success. And we have a very special guest on the show, the one and only Ed Mylett.
Mm-hmm.
He's an entrepreneur, philanthropist, podcast host. He's a keynote speaker. He's a bestselling author. He wrote a book called Max Out Your Life, and he's got a brand new book, and it's called The Power of One More: The Ultimate Guide to Happiness And success. Thanks for being on the show, Ed.
You know, it's an honor to be with my dear friend. Thank you for having me, brother.
Thank you. Our community loves you. They shared an episode I was actually on. I encourage everybody to subscribe to your amazing podcast. And that gets— I get tagged in that every single week.
I know you do, because it was so well received because you crushed it on there.
And this is a real honor to be on the other side, get to have a conversation with you talking about your brand new book. I want to get into the nitty-gritty of this because I'm a big fan and our community mindset, they know is paramount. You know, it's the beginning of everything. So what's the premise of the One More philosophy?
Well, the overall premise is that you're much closer to your dreams or your vision for your life than you think you are. And most people don't have a vision issue. They have a depth perception issue, meaning they think things are further away than they are. And so they act in accordance with that belief system and they keep these ambitions, these dreams, these visions for their life at bay because they think it's so far away. But the truth is not that. The truth is that you're one decision, one relationship, one meeting, one new thought, one new book, one new podcast, one new emotion away from a completely different life. That it's much closer than you believe that it is. And if you can, you know, buy into that philosophy, that I can teach you how to begin to see those relationships, see those thoughts, have those emotions, and change your life. So you're much closer than you think you are. There's a power to doing one more. In other words, People that don't have confidence, why? They have a relationship with themselves, a reputation where they don't keep the promises they make to themselves. People who develop self-confidence, they keep the promises they make to themselves. But then there's a higher standard than that. What if you kept the promises you made to yourself plus one more? I'm going to make 10 contacts today. You do that plus one more. I'm going to do 10 reps in the gym. You do that plus one more. You're going to tell your child you love them today plus one more. Your entire life transforms when you set that higher standard.
So, one more phone call, you know, one more meeting, one more page in a book and because we don't know like the wondrous worlds that lie beyond one more. Who is the influence on this one more philosophy?
My dad! My dad was an alcoholic the first 15 years of my life and I think the reason I believe so deeply that human beings can change is because I watched my hero do it right up close, my father. My dad didn't live a great first 15 years of my life. But the last 35 years of my life and his, he lived magnificently. And my dad had tried to get sober many times, Jim, as you know. And then there became this time where he was driving me, he was in tears in the car. I never saw my dad cry before. And he said, I'm going to give it one more try to quit drinking. And that one more try changed our family tree forever, brother. I wouldn't be talking to you now if my dad didn't give it one more try. There's a chapter in the book, as you know, called One More Try. And then these one more started to stack up. When my dad got sober, I'd say, Dad, are you never going to drink again the rest of your life? And he would say, I don't know, I'm just not going to drink for one more day. And that served me very well. Businesses I've been in that, you know, my back was up against the wall and I'm thinking about quitting, I've always just said, just don't quit for one more day. And so, these one mores in my life were lessons from my dad over and over and over again. And then, like you, I wanted to know, how's this impact the brain? What's the reticular activating system in the brain? How can I find these one mores? You know, all these different strategies that I've come up with. So it's a pretty heavy book on how to do the one mores.
People hear a lot on podcasts or in books about goal setting. And, you know, one of the challenges when people set out to achieve their goals in their career and their relationships and their body and in their health and their bank account, they might feel overwhelmed, right? And so why do so many people feel overwhelmed when they approach goal setting?
Well, one, I don't think we get our goals long term. I think we get our standards. So I think we probably get 20-25% of our goals. Statistically, that's probably bearing to be true. But we always eventually get our standards. Eventually, you're going to get your standards. So if your standard is just to do the basic, you're going to get a basic life. If your standards are do the one more, you're going to get the one more. And I actually don't think you are overwhelmed. I think that's a notion that you've created in your mind because what starts to happen is when our results begin to exceed our identity, we start to experience a bunch of emotions that don't serve us, that try to confuse us, try to make us feel overwhelmed, try to make us feel lack. Unprepared, not ready for something. And all that is, is your identity is like a thermostat setting sitting on the wall. I cover this in the book, and it sets the temperature of your life. So, if your success identity is set at 75 or happiness, and your results begin to exceed that identity, you get 80, 90, 100 degrees worth of results, you unconsciously turn the air conditioner on of your life and cool it back down to what you believe you're worth. Well, how do you do that? You start feeling overwhelmed. You start creating chaos. You start thinking it's circumstantial. No, no, no. You know, I was doing well financially but then I had to make this loan or the market changed or the economy changed. No, no. You turned the air conditioner on and you started to feel overwhelmed even though it didn't really exist because your results exceeded your identity. So, the key is raising that identity thermostat in our lives so that we never have those emotions.
I love that. Identity thermostat. Thermostat. And that also implies that we take responsibility for where we are, that we are setting the— we are changing the environment all the time, you know, for, for something that is for us or something that could be disabling us also.
Yeah, I feel like what it is is our filter. So the environment is set what it is, but we have this filter in our lives, this RAS, as you know, in the brain. I, I call it the Matrix, which I know you know those guys, so this is right up your alley, but I call it the Matrix. And the matrix is where you can slow things down. And your reticular activating system in your brain is essentially the place that reveals to you what's most important to you in your life and filters out the things that aren't so you can be sane. So, I just bought a Tesla. I like what Musk is doing. I'm like, let's get a Tesla. So, I get this Tesla Plaid. Jim, within a day when I'm driving this thing, I'm seeing Teslas everywhere on the freeway. They're everywhere. White Tesla, honey. Hey, look, red one, 3 lanes over going the other direction on the highway. I'm like, babe, black Tesla. Right? Here's the thing. Those Teslas were always in the environment. What happens is they've been screened into my RAS, so I see them now. So what if theoretically our Teslas of our lives become those relationships, those decisions, those meetings that we have to have in order to change our life? In other words, we get programmed in our RAS to see the things in the environment that were always there, hear the things that were always there, but now have become important to us. And they, that's like the law of attraction explained actually in the brain of how you do it. So it's using the RAS.
Because primarily our brain is deleting everything. It only lets things in. The RAS lets in, it's interesting, our name when we hear our name.
That's right.
Because yeah, it's part of our identity. It lets in threats because that's part of survival, opportunities for procreation, because that's also passing on your genes. But yeah, the things that you value and the things that you're asking questions about and you start seeing those Teslas everywhere. So clearly then the standards are more important than the goals. You talk about in the book this idea of inconvenience and how the importance of embracing inconvenience.
Yeah. So Napoleon Hill says in Think and Grow Rich that on the other side of pain, of difficulty, we're introduced to our other self. So it is literally that the inconvenient things in our lives are the things that introduce us to the other versions of us. And so I have a chapter called One More Inconvenience. If you could begin to build the muscle of chasing, doing hard things, of pursuing the inconvenient. That's where the other self is revealed to you and that other self produces another life. As human beings, our tendency is to avoid pain because we think it's permanent and the truth is, the only thing that's permanent in our lives, if you believe this, is our souls. Even our bodies aren't permanent. I was with my father, as you know, when he died. I watched my father's body no longer exist in the— in a functioning state anymore. His spirit continued.
Yeah!
So, this temporary pain you're going through, the truth of the matter is, it's temporary and if you'll Survive the inconvenient pain and work through it. On the other side of you is all the things you want in your life. So, I've sort of learned to build the muscle. Not always, I make mistakes. But what's the inconvenient thing right now? I'm going to do the inconvenient thing, not the easy thing. The path of least resistance leads to the least happiness, the least bliss, the least benefit to you. The path of most resistance oftentimes is where all the good stuff lies. So, chase the inconvenient.
I want to make sure, and I have a couple more questions for you, but Where do people get The Power of One More? Where do you recommend? Where should we—
Anywhere books are sold, but I also have a website called thepowerofonemore.com. And then there's this little thing you and I are doing that's not so little that we should at least mention here.
Not little at all.
It's never been done before, but I'm doing the mother of all events, the granddaddy. That way I cover both genders. And at this event is myself. I'll miss people, but myself is speaking. Jim Kwik is speaking. This guy Kwik, it turns out he's a pretty smart guy. Andy Frisella, Mel Robbins, Maria Menounos, Jenna Kutcher, Marie Forleo, Dean Graziosi, Rob Dyrdek, Eric Thomas, John Gordon, and a few others are all at one event. And if you preorder my book right now and you go to maxoutlive.com, I'll give you that event for free. You can watch it on a virtual basis in your home or your living room. If you want to come to the event, you got to buy some books, but it's free. It's a gift. All you got to do is preorder my book. Go to maxoutlive.com and you'll see all of us speak in one place, one day for free. It's crazy!
That's so much value. And in the time that we've known each other and our friendship, you know, what I love is that you are the person that you are not on camera and on stage, and it means everything. You're so very congruent. My last couple of questions has to do with this word that I see often in the book, and it's Equanimity!
I knew you're gonna ask!
What?
Yes!
This is something that is— I love! Like, I tweeted something that's like, what's your favorite word out the other day? I got hundreds of responses. This is one of my favorites! Can you define that?
Yeah! If you looked at a picture of it in the dictionary, it would probably be Jim Kwik and this is true and it's why I love you! It's why I wish we had more time together! Equanimity is basically tranquility or peace under duress, calmness under duress. And this is such a quality of the people that I admire most in my life and of all high performers and of all happy people. Duress, chaos, difficulties are a given in life. So it's not the events of our lives that matter, it's the meaning we attach to it and that meaning then creates an emotion and that emotion makes us make an action. If you can learn to seek more equanimity, which is calmness, think about someone you admire, if it's an athlete, Right! Tom Brady under center, 50,000 people. It's the playoffs. They're down 6 points. It's the last drive. It's the highest level of chaos and stress you could get. It's his ability to find equanimity, which is calmness and peace under duress, so that things slow down and they don't speed up. I have a fighter that I work with that I love named Michael Chandler. He just fought last week, and I know you know who Michael is. And typically, a lot of times, Mike, when he's been in these fights, when it starts to get really riled up, he speeds things up. And he gets all wound up and it doesn't serve him. This week when he had the fight, it happened. He got punched, he was really hurt, and he stepped back and found equanimity and calmness under duress, and he ended up knocking this guy out and winning the fight in a really dramatic way. And so equanimity basically means finding peace and calm under a stressful situation and condition. And it's the one thing emotionally— the people that I admire the most have the ability to maintain emotional maturity and emotional control in their lives. And the people that are just sort of average and ordinary, that when it's everything's okay, they have emotional control. But when stress level gets elevated, when an importance level— the important meeting, the important phone call— the higher the importance level, the less equanimity they experience. And so in the book, I talk and teach how to have more of equanimity under duress.
Yeah, that's one of my, one of my favorite parts of the book. I recommend everyone I recommend you get 3 copies of Ed's book. Get 1 for yourself and get 2 to gift to others. And I'll actually gift 2 of my copies to some random people who are listening. I challenge everybody to take a screenshot of this episode. If you're listening on Spotify, on iTunes, on YouTube, take a screenshot, make sure you tag Ed, tag myself, and repost some of our favorites. And equanimity is actually, it's this principle is through all the ancient wisdoms, from Taoism to Stoicism. It has it, it's represented there. So it's so very important. So for more detail on this, you have to read the book because the book is— you're an amazing storyteller and there's some real practical, powerful, proven things that people could do. I have a question for you that's kind of off script. You know, you're very public. You know, you have a huge following, millions of people. You do these big events, huge, huge, huge podcast and brand, very successful. Is there Is there something that people seem to maybe misunderstand about you? It's kind of a left-field kind of question, but is there— and there might not be an answer, but—
No, there certainly is. And I think you've probably experienced a little bit when you're around me. I probably struggle with confidence more than most people would think that I do. And so even at this age of my life, you know, I've got a pretty deep voice, I've got kind of a hard look to me, I teach all these things about being confident and all those things, but The truth is, I have to keep that guy at bay. I'm very introverted like you are. We're both very quiet people privately. Public things aren't easy for you or I, and I struggle with still at this stage in my life, you know, believing I belong, not having imposter syndrome. You know, no matter what level of external success I've had, that has not changed this child of an alcoholic that grew up in chaos and grew up in stress and would go to school every day Thinking, why is my family this way? What's wrong with me? Why can't my dad be like their dad? You know, and none of my friends wanted to come over to our house because it was so stressful. And I ended up with a wonderful, beautiful dad. But so, there's that little dude in me still, man. All those beliefs that are installed in you when you're a child and you're defenseless about who you are and what your role is in the world. And it's why I'm in this space. I'm one of the few people I think that's like, hey, you're on my Instagram. I'll tell you, I'm having a bad day, guys. I'm struggling with this today. I'm hurting today because I don't want to be perfect. I want to be aspirational where people aspire to be like me, meaning that, hey, this guy's working on himself too. And so, maybe that would surprise some people if they see, you know, jets and islands and houses and oceanfronts and, you know, great friends and all that. But I'm just a man who was once a little boy who is just trying to get better and feel better about himself and help other people. And it's when I'm doing something like this, brother, with someone I love and I know we're serving people and my intent is there that I have the most confidence because I know I intend to serve. So, that's probably something most people wouldn't know.
Amazing! Thank you! Thank you for sharing that! Everybody, get your copy of The Power of One More and please join us for this amazing event and the message here is really, as Ed has said, you are much closer to the life that you dream of than you think you are. You know, he says in the book that you're often just one more meeting, one more relationship, one more decision, one more action, one more thought, you know, away from leading the life that you desire and that you, that you really deserve. So, Ed, buddy, thank you so much for being on our show.
Tyler, what an honor. So great to be with you. Thank you.
Till next time, make sure you subscribe. We'll put all the links to Ed's book and more in our show notes and also to my— where he interviewed me. We'll put all the links to all the things we mentioned. At jimkwik.com/notes. And until then, make sure you max out, as Ed would say, and be limitless, everybody. 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.
939-362-7392.
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.
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