Unlock your Brain Power to Learn More & Forget Less | Jim Kwik at MaxOut LIVE

From the incredible Jim Kwik! Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Let's go! You know, a few minutes ago I was doing some math, uh, before I got on stage while you guys are on your break, and I was, I was It's like, start with math. How many people have some anxiety around some schoolwork? You think about it. I'll make this really simple. It's good to see everybody at home here. Check this out. The power of one more, because I like to put things into formulas. And I just thought about this, so it's a little bit raw. Improving just 1% a day, like one more, just one more, actually compounds. Because over the course of a year, if you take— write this down— 1.01, that's 1% growth, right? 1.01 to the 365th power, if you're just doing that every single day for 365 days, that equals 37.8. A multiple of 37 over just improving one more every single day. And that could be in your health, that could be in your relationships, that could be in your faith, that could be in your in your resilience. Now, if we don't show up, if we go one less, nobody wants to go less, right? But if you're at, let's say, instead of 1.01, you're at 0.99, is that right? Yes. Then that to the 365th power is 0.03. And that's the difference that makes the difference, right? Because if you're persistent, you could achieve it. But if you're consistent, you get to keep it. Right? So little by little, a little becomes a lot. And that's really where the power comes from. I love Ed. It was a no-brainer to say yes to this. You know, he's an inspiring force of nature, an unstoppable force of good. So are many of the speakers here. They're family to me. And I'm mostly honored to be here with all of you because all of you watching this at home— this is an amazing setup, by the way. Thank you. Everybody, I'm here because I feel like my goal in life is to build better, brighter brains. No brain left behind. And while this didn't cost you anything, well, some books and such, but it costs you your time. You have to pay attention. And so that's really the goal. My goal is to make this session so valuable for you Including, I want people to read this book. You know, I had the opportunity to have Ed on my podcast twice recently to talk about his book. It's mind-blowing. And how many of you buy books like you did and they just sit on your shelf unread and it becomes shelf help, not self-help? Right? And so, and how many of you also can't remember what you read? You read something, you get to the end and just forgot what you just read. And you go back and you read it, and you still don't know what you just read, right? So, as a thank you to everyone who bought a book at home also as well, our company is gonna gift you our 10-day speed reading memory focus program. Woo! Because I want you to finish this book. Because it's a myth that knowledge is power. It's not, right? The truth is knowledge is potential power. It becomes power when we what? When we apply it, when we utilize it. All right? So if we do send this to you, how many of you promise to be able to go through it? And one more. Perfect. So we're in the right place. And by the way, I love— this is incredible. I can't get over how amazing this setup is. Can somebody take a picture of this and tag me, please? I want to show my family. Or take a screenshot if you're watching this at home. Because I want to capture the memories. And that's what my session is all about. It's about improving your memory. Not just for facts and figures and formulas and foreign languages, that's pretty straightforward. But for remembering the moments in your life, remember the people in your life. And so I want to show everybody— how many people came here today like to have a better memory? Yeah. How many of you forgot why you came here today? Have you ever done that? Have you ever walked into a room of like maybe your own home and then you just forgot why you're there? Anyone feel like senior moments are coming way too early? Displace things, your wallet, purse, your car keys, or if not your car keys, maybe something larger like your car. You ever see people using their car alarms like GPS trying to figure out where they parked that day? And how about names and faces? How many of you have trouble remembering names and faces? Raise your hand. Is it important in life or business? Yes or yes? Yes. Yes, of course, right? Because how are you going to show somebody you care for their future, their wealth, their family, anything if you don't care enough just to remember their name? So, hopefully you remember my name after today. My name is Jim Kwik of Kwik Learning, and I help people to learn quickly. Yes, Kwik really is my last name. I didn't change it for branding or to do what I do. So, what I'm gonna do is I wanna give you a number of tools. You can write them down. I encourage you. I'm gonna show— I'm gonna give you right now, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 tips on how to max out your learning and max out your life. And everyone write out max out. Max out. I use acronyms a lot. The M, to learn any subject or skill faster, and I think it's the number one skill to master in the 21st century, bar none. Because if you can learn how to think, learn how to focus, learn how to remember, retain, understand, you could apply it towards what? Everything. Everything. Money, marketing, management, medicine, martial arts, man, everything in your life gets so much easier. Your ability to learn faster and translate that learning into action is the ultimate competitive advantage. It is a real-life superpower. So, everyone write down MAX OUT. The M stands for your mindset. Now, you know this because you're here, right? Mindset is everything, right? If you believe you can or believe you can't, either way, what? You're right. You're right. And who said that? Henry Ford. Henry Ford, right? Somebody came to me, just a little while ago and they said, Jim, I have a horrible memory. Jim, I'm so glad you're here because I just, I'm not that smart. And I always say, stop. If you fight for your limitations, you get to keep them. That's true. If you fight for your limits, you get to keep them, right? So your brain is this incredible supercomputer and your self-talk is the program it will run. So if you tell yourself, I'm not good at remembering names, you will not remember the name of the next person you meet. Because you programmed your supercomputer not to. If people truly understood how powerful their mind is, they wouldn't say, think, or even feel something they didn't wanna be true. And that's the power of your mind. So first, start with your mindset, right? The A in MAX OUT, this is a powerful one, ask. Ed talks a lot about the reticular activating system, that part of your brain that determines what you focus on, 'cause primarily your brain is actually a deletion device. Most of the time your brain's trying to keep information out, because if you just let everything in, we would be overloaded, overwhelmed. We would go insane, right? So what you let in, the RAS is like that control system. It filters. It lets in things like threats, right? It lets in things like your name. That's why a name is the sweetest sound to a person's ears. It commands instant attention. Also, what it lets in are things you have questions about. And ask and you shall what? Know. Receive. Receive. And most of us don't ask those questions, right? If you had questions when you're reading a book, you would— there's an answer, there's an answer, there's an answer. But if you've ever read something and forgot what you just read, or it didn't even connect, it's usually because we're not asking those questions. Now, in my book Limitless, I talk about the average person has 60,000 thoughts a day. Most of those thoughts come in the form of questions. Are we monitoring our own thoughts? In order to conquer your mind, you have to be self-aware, right? Self-awareness is a superpower. And there are certain questions you ask more than any other questions, and that's gonna determine your focus. And your focus is gonna determine what you do. And what you do is gonna determine what you feel. And those feelings are gonna go back to those thoughts. So, 3 questions to ask yourself today, ongoing, to be a Kwik learner. Number one, how can I use this? I'm obsessed with this question. How can I use this? So whenever I'm sitting, I'm learning, I'm online, how can I use this? Second question, why must I use this? So many people know what to do, but they're not doing what they know because common sense is not common practice. And it's the difference that makes the difference in people's lives. So it has to go from how can I use this in your head to why must I use this in your heart? Because if you struggle with procrastination, how many people know somebody that struggles with procrastination? Maybe they're sitting in your seat right now, right? Start with your why, right? Simon Sinek wrote that great book, Start With Why. Because if you're not acting with your hands, it goes from your head to your hands to your heart, right? You start, you start, because people, they don't even buy logically. They buy what? Logically. And they justify logically. Because we are not logical, we are biological. Think about dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, endorphins. We are this chemical soup. So even realizing that, how can you tap into the reasons? Because reasons reap results. If somebody doesn't have a reason to remember someone's name, they will not get the result, right? And so reasons reap results. So second question, why must I use this? Third question? When will I use this? When will I use this? I think one of the most powerful productivity performance tools you have is your calendar, right? Your phone. And how many of you miss something important, like something for your self-care? We know self-care is not selfish. How many of you missed it because it simply wasn't scheduled? You didn't meditate that day, you didn't work out that day, you didn't do the thing you were supposed to do because you didn't put it in your calendar. And that makes it tangible. So it goes from your head to your hand to your heart. Why? How can I use this? Why must I use this? And finally, when will I use this? So that's the A, is ask. Now, the X in MAXOUT, X stands for exercise. And now, part of it is like application, right? Implementation, because that's the difference. But I also say the physicality of it. Like, stand up, everybody, even at home. Everyone stand up. And just move your body around a little bit, shake out your body. There's something called educational kinesiology where certain movements can actually stimulate your focus, stimulate your creativity. For example, let's do these cross crawls in the area of brain gym. You're just raising your knee, you're just touching with the opposite hand or your elbow. Are we getting this B-roll? This is awesome. At home too. If you're watching this at home, do it also as well. Do it! All right. And write this down. You can smile. Show your neighbor your billion-dollar smile also. Just write this down. You can sit. As my body moves, my brain grooves. As my body moves, my brain grooves. So many studies, we talk about it in our podcast, about how Movement, your physiology changes your psychology. That when you move, you create brain-derived neurotrophic factors, which is BDNF, which is like fertilizer for your brain. So sometimes when we're on screens all the time, which is, you know, when most of us are working remotely or learning remotely, take some time to just stand, right? And the other thing is when you're listening, how many of you listen to podcasts when you're working out or audio? Like a lot of the speakers, we have podcasts, we have audiobooks. And when you're actually doing that, you're doing something rhythmic, like an elliptical, like you're going for a light walk or a jog, you'll actually retain it better also as well. So make sure you get the physicality into it also. So that's the M, the A, and the X. The O to learn faster, to max out your learning, max out your life. Camera on me close. Everyone do this. Shake out your hand. Make sure your neighbor's doing this. Make sure you're doing this at home. Remember, learning is not a spectator sport. All right, do this. Camera on me, please. Camera on me. Make a fist. Put it to your chin. Now come on, where's your chin? The O in MAXOUT stands for observation. Observation. A lot of times people blame when they have memory lapses, their memory, their retention. It's often not your retention, it's your attention. The art and science, the art of memory is the art of attention. It's a good thing I'm a speed reader here. So, I love this chat on the side. So, keep pouring on the love. So, attention. You remember I said this doesn't cost anything, but it kind of does. It's because You have to pay attention. And so we have to direct our focus, and that's our superpower. And so what I would say here for O is your observation is be present. Do not multitask. Multitasking is a myth, right? The science, the research is pretty conclusive. When you're trying to multitask, you actually lose more time switching, your task switching. It takes 5, 10 minutes to regain your focus. You also lose— you make more mistakes. And that's absolutely true. Surgeons who multitask make more errors during surgery. And the third thing it costs you when you try to do more than one thing, you're not directing your focus, energy. When you switch from task to task back and forth, you burn more brain glucose. And if you feel mentally fatigued, right, you feel tired, you have brain fog, part of the reasons we're trying to do this. So when you're here, be here. All right? And part of what I'm doing is just reminding you what you already know when you're outstanding at doing these things. The U in max out stands for us. And here's the thing, my book is called Limitless, so I get this question a lot. Jim, how can you talk about becoming limitless in a limited world, right? With all the fear and constraints and everything that people feel like, you know, being programmed. That's what television programming is, right? And what I think this gathering is today is about transcending. Transcend, you're ending the trance. This mass hypnosis, media marketing, fear that you're not enough, right? They need to be fixed. And it's absolutely not true. So, here's the thing. How do we become limitless? We do it together. And so, what I would say, what does that mean? Learning is not just solo, it's social, right? So, connect with the people who are online. You're seeing chat, connect with each other, support each other. People have questions, be there for them. Meet the people to your left and to your right. And that's the power of collaboration, right? Because it's corny, but it's true. T-E-A-M, together everyone achieves what? More. More, right? And so the power of us, of community. And then finally, what I would say is the T in MAXOUT. If you want to learn anything faster, remember it better, teach. Your intention matters more than you think it does. And let's say I'm gonna share with you 10 keys for a limitless brain. This is about brain health, right? And if you learned it as if you were gonna have to give a talk about it next week, would your focus be better? Yes. Of course it would. Would you take better notes? Yes. Yes. Would you ask the questions? You would get really involved because you take advantage— in science, they call it the explanation effect. The explanation effect says that when you learn something with the intention of explaining it to somebody else, we learn it better. Because when you teach something, you get to learn it twice. So, I want you to think about somebody you wish was watching this right now, right? Someone that you could really— that would really benefit from having this day. And if they can't get the book or be in present, then I would say, when am I gonna teach that person? Because you're gonna learn it. That's the gift. You get to learn it even better. All right? Now, what I wanna share with you is a 3-step system for improving your memory right now. And I call it PIE, P-I-E. My goal is to give you everything that's very practical. And so, the key to a better memory, I believe 2 of the most costly words in your life, I forgot. I forgot. I forgot to do it. I forgot to bring it. I forgot that conversation. I forgot that meeting. I forgot what I was gonna say. I forgot that person's name. Every single time you have this thought, you lose time. You lose credibility. You could lose a sale. On the other side, memory, memory will make you money, right? And I don't just mean financial, right? That's obvious because knowledge today is not only power, knowledge is profit. But I mean all the treasures of your life. In military, they call it a forced multiplier. You take the same amount of input, but you get multiple outputs. Remember that compounding, right? In terms of 37x after 1 year of just doing exponential of 365, that's the power that we all have. There's a quote in my book Limitless that says, life is the C between B and D. Life is C between B and D. B stands for birth, and D stands for what? Death. Death. C, life, choice. I believe that these difficult times, they could define you, these difficult times can diminish you, or these difficult times can develop you. We decide, right? And so what are some of the choices that you can make? So, PIE, 3 keys to a better memory. P stands for place. You learn things better if you have a place to store that information, like a filing system. The I stands for imagine. When you imagine something, you activate that part of your visual cortex. When you could see it inside your mind, you remember it better. How many of you remember things better that you see? How many of you are better with faces than you are with names. You go to someone and say, I remember your face, but I forgot your— Name. Name. You never go to someone and say the opposite. You never go to someone and say, I remember your name, but I forgot your face. That wouldn't make a lot of sense, right? But so we tend to remember things that we see better, and that's the imagine. And the E stands for entwine, entwine. And that's where you put the place and the image together. Let me give you an example. In Limitless, I talk about 10 keys for upgrading your brain. And these are 10 things, and I don't think anyone's gonna debate them. I'm gonna give them to you, and I want you to rate yourself on a scale of 0 to 10, how well am I doing in this area? Okay? Is that fair? Because our work is endorsed by, if you read Limitless, the Cleveland Clinic Center for Brain Health, the founding director, The number one Alzheimer's researcher out of Harvard. And we know that about 1/3 of your memory, for instance, is genetics or biology, but 2/3 is in your control, which is amazing. So, let me talk about the 10 things that are gonna help you to move the needle. I'm gonna go through them really fast for sake of time. And when we send you this 10-day speed reading memory, so basically their team will send you an email. To get access to this. We'll go through and teach you how to remember all these things. So, I'm gonna go through them, these 10. Rate yourself 0 to 10, how much energy and effort am I putting in these 10 things? And then ask yourself, what's one more? How do I go from a 6 to a 7? Does that make sense? Number 1, good brain diet. What you eat matters, especially for your gray matter. All right, a whole area of brain nutrition, that your brain is only 2% of your body mass, But it requires 20% of the nutrients, 20% of the hydration, 20% of the oxygen. Right? And so some of my favorite brain— actually, yeah, I'll go through this. Some of my favorite brain foods, avocados, blueberries. I like to call them brain berries. Broccoli is good for your brain. Olive oil is good for your brain. Eggs, if your diet allows, good for your brain. One of my favorites, dark chocolate. How many dark chocolate? Amazing. So, what you eat matters. So, that's the first one. 0 to 10, how good is your brain diet? On the other side, processed foods, a lot of sugar, not good for you. Number 2, killing ANTs. And this is a term I got from brain doctor, Dr. Daniel Amen. Killing ANTs is good for your brain. Automatic negative thoughts, right? Acronyms, automatic negative thoughts. And we already discussed this, the power of your mind and your self-talk. So 0 to 10, how encouraging is it? And how positive as opposed to how negative? Number 3, 3rd key, exercise, which we already talked about. And I don't just mean working out 2, 3, 4 times a week. I mean, how much are you moving throughout the day? And that's what's important. They say sitting is the new smoking. And whether that's true or not, when we're on screens all day, and that's why I think it's important when we take a break, you take a break, you look off into the distance, Right? You move your body, and as your body moves, your brain grows. 0 to 10, how much are you moving? Number 4, 4th key to unlock your limitless brain, brain nutrients. We don't always get it from our diet, right? And so, there's certain nutrients that are key for your brain, and specifically for your brain as part of your body, but it has different nutritional requirements. So, whether it happens to be your omega-3s, your DHA, Creatine. Creatine. Like, there's certain nutrient supplements that are just amazing for your focus, amazing for your brain health. 0 to 10. Number 5, we're halfway there. Number 5 is a positive peer group, positive community. We talked about the power of community because who you spend time with is what? Who you become. Who you spend time with is who you become. And so, and the reason why is you have these mirror neurons and we're always imitating the people around us. I always tell people to WATCH, W-A-T-C-H. You're like, this guy has a lot of acronyms. W-A-T-C-H. We start mirroring and imitating the words of the people around us. How many of you realize that you use a lot of the same language of the people you're spending time with? Besides that, the A, actions. We start modeling the behaviors of the people around us. That's why we tend to get the same kind of results. The T in WATCH, thoughts. And we know thoughts are things. And then the C, big one, character. We start modeling the integrity or the morality of the people that we spend time with. I heard recently you can measure integrity by the distance between someone's lips and their life, right? Character. And finally, the H in WATCH, your habits. First, you create your habits, then your habits create you. We have a video online that has 10 million views, just like my morning routine, right? If you wanna win the day, there's certain things you could do to jumpstart your brain, which I think are really important. So, that's the power of habit. Ed talks about that also in his books, a lot of this. So, that's the power of— that's number 5, your positive peer group. And then rapid fire, number 6 is a clean environment. We know that your brain loves and craves a clean environment. How many of you notice when you clean, you make your bed, you clean, you put things on a folder and on your desktop, you have clarity of thought? Yeah. So, you wanna make sure you Marie Kondo your mind, all right? 0 to 10, how clean is your environment? And then, 'cause everyone wants the magic pill, but there is no pill, right? There's a process. Number 7, big one, sleep. 0 to 10, how well are you taking care of— how's your sleep hygiene? I think one of the most important behaviors is waking up and going outside because your visual health leads to your mental health. And you reset your circadian rhythm because your eyes are the only part of your brain that's outside of its skull. And seeing that daylight helps you, even if it's cloudy and misty, will help reset. And now that's definitely gonna lead to a better sleep. And that's number 7. And we've done multiple shows on this. Number 8, 8th key, brain protection. Protect your brain. When people see me on stage, I'd often, if there's time, I'll often have 100 people stand up and introduce themselves and I'll memorize all your names. Or an audience will give me, pass around a microphone Give me 100 words or 100 numbers and I'll recall them forwards and backwards. You could see it on YouTube or something. But I always tell people, I don't do this to impress you. I do this to express to you what's possible. Because the truth is you could do this and so much more. You just weren't taught. If anything, you were taught a lie that somehow your memory or your potential is somehow fixed like your shoe size. But we've discovered more about the human brain more in the past 10 years than the previous 1,000 years combined. What we found is we're grossly underestimating our own abilities. Right. And so, and because it's not taught in school. School teaches you what to learn, math, history, science, Spanish, but no classes on how to learn it. There's no class called concentration. There's no class called memory, right? And so you learn these skills, and that's what you're doing right now. So that's number 8, is brain protection. I had 3 traumatic brain injuries as a child. My first one was at 5 years old, and because of it, I had learning disabilities. I had challenges. When I was 9, I was slowing down the class because I just didn't understand. And a teacher pointed to me and said, that's the boy with the broken brain, in front of the whole class, right? So my self-talk— how many of you have kids? Raise your hand. How many of you once were a kid? Raise your hand. How awesome are kids in terms of learning? But adults have to be very careful with their external words because they become a child's internal words. So, every single time I did badly on a quiz or test or not picked for sports, this was all the time, I would always say, oh, because I have the broken brain. And that became my self-image. And so, we want to monitor it. But I learned how to compensate over time. And then I found my mission the past 30 years is teaching people how to have better brains and learn faster instead of learn slowly like I did. Now, that's number 8, protect your brain. Wear a helmet. How well are you protecting your brain? And by the way, remember, when I'm talking about this, What's one more? What's one more brain food? What's one more thing I could do for my sleep? Number 9, and I'll finish with this, 9, new learnings. And I'm preaching to the choir, but on a scale of 0 to 10, how much are you learning on a regular basis? And I think reading, if you've seen me on social media and we're connected there with Elon or whoever these individuals are, we bonded over books. Right? Because if somebody has decades of experience, like Ed, a few decades of experience, and he puts it into a book, and you could sit down and read that book in a few days, you could download decades in a day. Yes. Biggest advantage. And then finally, number 10 is stress management. And this is the invisible threat that's out there. We don't even realize how much stress and anxiety that we're under because we're just getting used to it. But when you're creating cortisol and adrenaline in your amygdala, For those of you who understand, who've studied this, is hijacked. Your part of your brain's hijacking your survivor brain. You don't have access. It's holding you hostage to your executive thinking, for your creativity, for all the things that you need to do. So on a scale of 0 to 10, how well are you handling stress? And are you doing something to get out of stress? Are you doing float therapy? Are you doing meditation? What are you doing to be able to lower that stress fight-or-flight response, getting that rest and And digest kind of place. So those are the 10 keys. And I wanted to leave you with this. When you get that series, I'm gonna teach you how to memorize those 10 things in 5 minutes. So you can give a speech without notes. You don't have to rely on teleprompters or keynotes or anything like that, because you have that superpower. And when you were talking about the power, one more, just own this, right? There is a version of yourself patiently waiting. And the goal is we show up every single day until we're introduced. I'm your brain coach, Jim Kwik. Max out, everybody. Be limitless. Thank you.