Unleash your Superhuman Mind to Learn Faster | Jim Kwik

This morning, my goal here is to upgrade your brain so you can learn what you're about to learn today and tomorrow, so you could focus, so you could concentrate, so you could remember what you learn. And the faster you could learn, the faster you could what?

Earn.

'Cause knowledge today is not only power, it's profit. So I think 2 of the most costly words in business are, I forgot. I forgot to do it. I forgot to bring it. I forgot that appointment. I forgot that meeting. I forgot what I was gonna say. I forgot that conversation. I forgot that person's name, right? Every time you say those things, you lose trust, you lose credibility, you could lose a sale, you could lose respect. And when you could turn the tables and remember everything, you could be the expert in your space. How many people want to be like, like top in your industry? Raise your hand. All right, this is the right crowd. So what I'm going to do is share with you practical strategies you could use today. How many founders or business owners or aspiring entrepreneurs in the room? Raise your hand high. How many of you are the boss, right? You're the boss of your— and everybody should be raising your hand, right? Because you are CEO of your own brand. Yes or yes?

Yes.

Yeah, you are the leader. You are the boss. You might have one client that might be your employer, but you're the boss of yourself, right? So I want everyone to write B-O-S-S. B-O-S-S. These are 4 keys that I want you to have while you're here. Because when we're talking about driven, the thing that drives everything is the human mind, right? And you want to be the boss. You want to have your boss brain on the next couple of days, right? So, put on your boss brain. I'm going to use it as an acronym. The B in BOSS stands for belief. Those leaders need a sense of certainty around their vision. What's a belief? Tell me, what is a belief?

A belief is a strong conviction. A state of mind.

A state of mind. How else would you define a belief?

It's conviction.

It's conviction. Good. Let me show you what a belief is. Stand up. You're like, oh my God, I'm getting a lot of exercise today. But is it okay if I push you? Yes or no?

Yes.

Because this is a high-level crowd just to be here, right? And I want you to get the most out of it. And I'm telling you, the human brain does not learn just sitting there consuming information. You don't. You think it is because that's how you grew up in school. The human brain doesn't learn best through consumption. It learns better through creation. The human brain doesn't learn through consumption. It learns better through creation and creativity. And I'm pushing you to do this right up front because you want to train yourself to do difficult things, right? You want to train not only your growth but your grit. I, years ago, there was a big boxing match going on. It was Mayweather versus Pacquiao. Do you remember this fight?

Yes.

It was years ago, and I got a message from Sylvester Stallone. I'm going to drop a couple names, is that okay? And he was like, do you want to watch the fight together at my home? And I'm like, do I want to watch the biggest boxing match in history with Rocky? Yeah, I totally want to do that. So, I go over to his home, and we're in the theater. And I'm sitting on the couch. To the left of me is Stallone. To his left is Arnold Schwarzenegger. Now, I honestly, if somebody took a picture of that couch, people would be like, who Photoshopped that Asian dude in that photo? But afterwards, after the fight, I believe, and this is a principle of success, genius leaves clues. If somebody is successful and genius, not IQ, but successful in their area of expertise, They're doing something other people aren't doing. When people have seen me on YouTube memorize 100 people's names in an audience or 100 random words or 100 random numbers, I don't do this to impress you. I do this to express to you what's possible to change that limiting belief, right? And after the fight, I was like, guys, this is bothering me here. What does it take to be the best? You know, like, these guys make like $300 million. Like, what is— that's a take-home. What does it take to be that? And I will never forget what Arnold said to me. He looked at me and he said, Jim, the difference between a champion and an amateur, the champion is willing to push past the pain period. Let that sink in, the pain period, right? Is building a business easy?

No.

Not at all, right? You have to feed your business until your business feeds you, right? You have to constantly feed your business until it feeds you back. And so, if you're building a muscle, which one do you wanna do the least if you're doing 100— if you're doing 10 reps, 10 curls, which one do you wanna do the least? Number what?

10.

10, right? But which one gives you the most growth though?

11.

Oh, who said 11? That's awesome. Because pushing past the pain period gives you all the return. So, when I ask you to stand up, please stand up because I'm pushing your grit, right? If you've listened to my morning routine, Like, just search Jim Kwik morning. All this, by the way, we put today, links in my Instagram. So there today, you could go and get a free speed reading class. You can see a video of me taking people from an audience, teaching you how to remember their names and faces, right? So it's all, 95% of everything we have online is free. Podcast, many of you, anyone listen to my podcast, right?

Yeah.

You can binge listen and listen to those things on how to remember names, how to give a speech without notes. But a big part is developing grit. Getting yourself to do difficult things first thing in the morning because you take that grit. How many of you do cold therapy, like cold showers, ice baths? Raise your hand. You do it for— and you're like, what's this guy talking about? But you do it because it resets your nervous system. But the other reason you do it, write this down, how I do everything is how I do everything. How I do anything is how I do everything. If you get yourself to be uncomfortable in a cold shower, you could take that grit and that resilience Into public speaking, into having a difficult conversation, going into an investor meeting that you're very, you know, kind of a little apprehensive about, right? Grit is a muscle, just like focus is a muscle, right? Just like distraction is muscle. You know what? Fear is a muscle too. And if you're indulging in fear, whatever you do repeatedly, you get better at, all right? So, let me show you what a belief is. Make arm-length distance from the person next to you. So, if you go like this, you can't— so, spread out. Spread out a little bit into the aisles. If you go like this, you can't touch your neighbor or even the wall behind you, even the wall behind you. Make some distance, make some distance. All right. Jump up and down, shake out your body. I'm going to share with you something you're going to use, many of you, the rest of your life, okay? So notice where your feet are. Keep it stationary. Do not move it. With your right hand, point forward. Everyone point with your right hand. Make sure your neighbor's doing it. With your other right hand, sir. Good.

All right.

That's okay. It's early. It's all good. All right. Without moving your feet, here's the exercise. I want you to turn to your right clockwise as far as you can go without moving your feet and notice the exact point you're pointing at. Notice how far you could go. As far as you go, notice the exact point you're pointing at. All right. Come back center. Now, empty your hands, put them by your side, not in your pockets. I'm gonna walk you through a quick 30-second visualization exercise that I use with athletes. I want you to take a deep breath, exhale, breathe normal, breathe normal, and close your eyes. And we're gonna train your brain, right? Because athletes just, they don't do just physical training. They do what?

Mental training.

With your arms by your side, not in front of you, I want you to imagine you're pointing forward again. But this time, imagine, see and feel yourself just in your imagination turning twice as far, like you're made out of rubber. See and feel yourself getting an incredible stretch, turning twice as far. What does that feel like? And even if you can't imagine it, imagine you can imagine it. Now, imagine you're raising your hand and going 3 times around. See and feel yourself turning 3 times around. You're getting the best stretch of your life. And then one more time with a big smile on your face thinking, what does that have to do with remembering names? Put a big smile on your face and turn 4 times around in your mind. All right, open your eyes. You ready to blow your mind? Open your eyes, point forward with your right hand, turn to your right as far as you can now go, everyone. Clap if you went further the second time. Have a seat, have a seat. Look, I mean, I'm getting goosebumps just watching this, because how good does it feel to be not on a screen right now, like, learning this stuff?

It's amazing.

Being with your peers, right? Raise your hand high, raise your hand high if you went further the second time. Raise your hand really high. Now, some of you went 25% further. Some of you went 50% further, yes? Now, my question for you, were you physically capable of turning that far the first time? Yes.

Yes.

Nobody took a yoga class when my eyes were closed, right? You could turn that far. Where was the limit?

In my mind.

In your mind. And you might be saying, well, I didn't have a belief on how far I could turn. How many beliefs do you think you have? Limitless beliefs, right? Please write this down. All behavior is belief-driven. This is so key. For you to persuade somebody, if you want them to buy, that's the behavior. All behavior has to be belief-driven. You know what it is? It's like your mind is like a supercomputer, and your self-talk is the program it will run. So if you tell yourself, I'm not good at remembering people's names, you will not remember the name of the next person you meet because you program your supercomputer not to. Before, you know, coming through here, people stopped me and asked me questions. They're like, Jim, I'm just in secret, like, I'm just not that smart. I don't have a good memory. And I always stop. I literally say, stop. If you fight for your limitations, you get to keep them. Yeah. If you fight for your limitations, you get to keep them. And how many of you, like, you know, if you're honest, you have that negative self-talk sometimes creep in, right? We need to kill those ANDs, automatic negative thoughts. I got that from Dr. Daniel Amen, another great book, Change Your Brain, Change Your Life. I'm gonna name a number of books, right? You need to squelch that because your mind is always eavesdropping on your self-talk, right? So you need to be conscious of it. So that's a belief. 25%, 50%, did you work harder the second time to turn? No, but you got— how many of you would love to get a 25%, 50% increase in your income this month? Raise your hand. Yeah, using the same amount of work, right? So you could go 25%, 50% further. How many of you would like to get 25%, 50% healthier? How many of you like to improve your sales 25-50% this month, right? Your relationships deeper, right?

Because it's—

their limit is learned. Your limit is a lie. Then let's get right down to it. A lie, L-I-E, limiting idea entertained. That's what a lie is. A lot of the lies you tell yourself, oh, I'm not smart enough, it's a lie. It's a limiting idea you're entertaining. It's total BS. Beliefs, belief systems, right? Total BS belief systems. So first you have to check your beliefs. Now, when I mentioned athletes do this, what did— do you know what Roger Bannister, what he did in 1954? He broke the 4-minute mile. He broke the 4-minute mile. Throughout human history, no human being could run a mile in less than 4 minutes. And if you saw the ESPN special about this, his documentary, He did it because he would visualize himself crossing the finish line, looking at the clock, and the clock says what? 3 minutes, 59 seconds, because he was a thermostat. Does that make sense? Leadership is taking the invisible in your mind and making it visible for everybody else. So he trained that in his mind, and the mind doesn't know the difference. Please write this down. Your mind does not know the difference between something that you vividly imagine and something that's real. You know, there was a study done at Harvard University by Dr. Ellen Langer, and in 1979, she was visiting a senior center and noticed, like, this isn't necessarily the best place, environment, this particular place, for people to spend their last years. And she took 8 of the guys out and put them into a monastery. And here's the thing though, before she put them in, she decorated the monastery as if it was 20 years earlier, like it was 1959. The television was black and white with 1959 television programming, Time Magazine from 1959. And before she put them in, she measured all of their attributes. She tested their physical strength. She tested their dexterity. She tested their flexibility. She tested their senses, their sense of sight, their sense of hearing. They also tested their cognitive fitness. They wanted to test their focus. She tested their memory. And she gave them instructions saying, when you go in there for just 7 days, just 1 week when you're living in there, I want you to imagine and pretend It's 1959. She took all the mirrors out so they couldn't see themselves, right? And these guys would go out from the van, and many of them were on canes, and they would go in, and they just pretended it was like 1959. She followed up 7 days later, took them out, and these guys, a lot of those who walked in with canes didn't walk out with canes. This is a well-published study. It's called the Counterclockwise Study. Counterclockwise, out of Harvard. And she measured everybody's assessment. They were physically stronger in just 7 days. They had more flexibility and more dexterity. Their sense of sight was better after just 7 days. Their sense of hearing was improved. And when it comes down to, you know, my world of cognitive performance, they had better focus and a better memory. The mind doesn't know the difference between something you vividly imagine and something that's real. There was a study done at the University of Chicago. They took 3 groups of people, had them do free throws, and then they said, okay, Group A, for the next 30 days, I want you to practice an hour a day. Group B, I don't want you to practice at all. Group C, I want you to practice, but don't touch a ball, don't go out on the court, just practice in your mind like you're successfully throwing free throws for an hour a day. They followed up 30 days later, measured Group A, put them back on the court, improved 24%.

Wow.

Amazing, right? Practice makes...

Progress.

Progress. Practice makes progress, right? Group B, exactly the same. No practice, no progress. Group C that just practiced in their mind, it blew their mind, improved 23%. Just 1% less than people that did actually put on the court. That's the power of your imagination. So, all behavior is belief-driven. When you rehearse failing, which a lot of people do, like everything that could go wrong, going on stage, all the things, then you are practicing. You are mentally rehearsing failure. Does that make sense? So, what I'm talking about with belief is controlling your self-talk, controlling what you're picturing, because you're constantly programming your mind. Now, the interesting thing was not that. The visualization, that was really interesting. What impressed me out of the documentary is Nobody could do it for all those years. One person does it, what happens after that? A lot of people started running, breaking a 4-minute mile. Now, were there big advances in shoe technology, nutritional support, training methodology? No. Where was the change? Where's the change, everybody? In your mind. In your mind, in your belief, all right? If you believe you can or believe you can't, either way, you're right. Who said that? Henry Ford said that, right? Henry Ford. So, the first B in BOSS, you need to believe it, all right? Here's the other thing. My mentor, Wayne Dyer, said, it's not you'll believe it when you see it, it's the opposite. You'll see it when you believe it. All right? So, that's the B. The O in BOSS, BOSS brain for the weekend, you need this. Everyone do this. Keep the screen on me.

O.

Everyone do this. Make sure your neighbor's doing it. Just shake your hand. Everyone look at me. Make sure your neighbor's— we're going to keep on doing this. Everyone's shaking one hand. Make a fist. Put it to your chin. Where's your chin, everybody? Where's your chin? Show your neighbor your chin, everyone. So the O in BOSS, observation. A lot of you struggle. You come to me like, I'm horrible with names. I don't remember what I read. It's not your retention, it's your attention. A lot of people blame their retention when it comes to your memory. It's not your retention, it's you paying attention. I remember years ago, I was sitting at a fundraiser. There's 2,000 people like this in a room, and I go to my table, the one I was assigned to, and I was the first one there. And then a few minutes later, the actor Forest Whitaker sits right next to me, right? Right next to him, Richard Branson and Ashton Kutcher, and then Ashton Kutcher's twin brother. I didn't know he had a twin brother. Did you know that?

No.

His twin brother. And then about into dinner, President Clinton sits right next to me. And regardless of politics, most of you agree he's a great connector, great communicator, you know, a lot of charisma. And when he sat down, he remembered me by name. And I was like, whoa, because we met only years before, a few minutes, right? Just very, very briefly. And I was like, okay, somebody told him who was sitting at his table, obviously. And I swear to you, he picks up our conversation from 2 or 3 years earlier. Now, some of you don't know, he has an incredible memory. Leaders have an incredible memory. They need it, right? And I was like, look, I'm the memory guy. I need to know how you're doing this. And he was like, Jim, I, you know, he tells me this story about his grandfather in Arkansas and all the kids in their living room. He would tell stories, and afterwards though, he would quiz each of the kids to see if they were paying what?

Attention.

Attention. Attention is a muscle that you could build, but most of you are building your distraction muscles. And many of you have seen this video of me and Simon Sinek. We have a video online. Start With Why is a great book, by the way, by Simon Sinek. How many of you know who this is? We have a video, 37 million views and growing on Facebook, and it's just me saying, don't touch your phone the first hour of the day. Because when you do, you're in this relaxed state of awareness and you're training your brain to be distracted, right? With every like, share, comment, and then you wonder why you're distracted later on when you're online and everything else. The other thing though, you're training your brain to be reactive. Meaning that if you check your phone and get messages, you're just on the defense, and leaders can't just be on the defense, right? Our friend Brendon Burchard has this saying. He says, your inbox is nothing but a convenient organizational system for other people's agenda for your life. Powerful, right? You don't want to start your day fighting fires. So, this is an idea of how to manage your levels of focus and building your focus. But it starts with observing, right? And really painting— and when he's explaining to me, President Clinton, the story, I notice he's just talking to me. I feel like even though there's a room of 2,000 people, I'm the only one there. Have you ever met somebody who made you feel that way? Like they're so present? And there are a lot more important people in that room, certainly at that table, than me, but that's a skill. That's a leadership skill. I realized at that moment that his incredible memory and his incredible presence comes from being powerfully present. That his incredible memory and his powerful presence with people comes from being powerfully present with people. Now, is that limited just to him, or who could do this?

You.

You could do this. Even just remembering people's name, all you have to do is be present, and that's all people want, right? Write down the word listen right now. Write down the word listen. Now, here's a brain exercise. Scramble the letters in listen, and it spells another word perfectly. Shout it out when you know it. Silent.

Silent.

Very good. Silent, right? You could remember someone's name, but for the most part, if you're honest, you're not listening. You're thinking about how you're going to respond, or you're waiting for your turn to speak, right? So, the O in BOSS is observe, right? Be present with people. The S in BOSS, we just did, state. The 3 emotional states we cultivated this morning. Emotional states, the mood of your mind and body, the feeling, right? Information times feeling becomes a long-term memory. And the 3 emotions from Spider-Man, Black Panther, Wonder Woman, right? Playfulness, right? A sense of focus. And also a sense of confidence. You want to— all learning is state-dependent. Even right now, sit the way you'd be sitting again if you're really focused. You do this. Sit, sit, move your body. Your physiology affects your psychology. As your body moves, your brain grooves. And then finally, the last S stands for the strategies. Strategies, BOSS: belief, observation. Believe, observe, right? State, management, and finally strategies. And honestly, you could Google my name, podcasts, YouTube, everything else. All the strategies are there, but how many of you know what to do, but you don't do what you know? Right? Common sense is not common practice. So what I want you to do over the next couple of days to get the most out of this is ask yourself 3 questions. These are your 3 dominant questions. The Be obsessed. Write these down. Ask them from every speaker. Number 1, how can I use this? How can I use this? Otherwise, you're just gonna be taking a bunch of notes, right? So, ask yourself, how can I use this? The second question, why must I use this? Because success goes from your head to your heart to your hands. If you— raise your hand if you have trouble with procrastination. Raise your hand, honestly.

I do.

You know how to get over procrastination? You put it off.

All right.

Bad joke. Head, heart, hands. If you have goals in your head and you're not acting with your hands, up the emotion, the heart. And finally, after we're talking about emotions and states, then you have the actual strategies, right? And so the strategies are out there. Again, a link in my profile on Instagram. If you go there, that's the place you want to go. You know, we can connect there also as well, ask your questions, text me, all that, all that free stuff.

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.

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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 And always, lots of learning. I'll see you in our next video.