"These Habits Will CHANGE YOUR LIFE Immediately!" | Jim Kwik

How do we learn how to learn something that we want, but it's really challenging.

Let's deconstruct this. Okay? So this is the key. And there's one skill to master. It's our ability to learn. It's called meta learning. Meta learning is learning how to learn, and that's a meta skill. And it helps you to learn salsa or Spanish or anything else better. And so let's deconstruct how to do that confidently. We'll start with the limitless model. Like, how come you want to learn something Spanish or something else and you put it off or it takes longer than you should? Because method is only one of the three parts. And so this is the limitless model. And I want everybody to think about a subject or some area of your life where you're feeling held back. It could be your relationship. It could be you're not making progress in your career. It could be make maybe in your physical performance or wellness. Think about one area where you're stuck in a box right now. Box is like a cage. 3D box. And 3D is three dimensions. What keeps you in the box? Three forces. And these are the three M's. And I want everyone to draw a circle. And in that circle, we're going to draw a Venn diagram. You know what a Venn diagram? It's three intersecting circles. And the first circle is your mindset. Three M's. And I always alliterate everything because it helps you to be able to remember it better. First one is your mindset. Now your mindset are your assumptions and your attitudes about something. Now let's break that down for me functionally, what your mindset is about this subject. I want people to make this very personal. Think about something, an area. You're held back. This is what you believe is possible is your mindset. It is what you believe you are capable of. It is what you believe you deserve is your part of your mindset. Because that's a big thing. That's your thermostat. Right. If somebody has a mindset of, like, I could teach someone the method of how to remember names. But they. But their mindset is, I'm stupid.

I don't deserve to remember names. Or I'm not capable of it.

Exactly. Or exactly. Or I'm too old or whatever it is, that's their mindset.

My brain doesn't work that way.

Exactly. Then the method won't take hold. It won't matter. Exactly. So this is the formula here.

How do you learn to believe that you are Capable.

So we'll go into this. That's exactly what the book does. I take people through a process called unlimiting. It's a word that I coined years ago. Unlimiting is different than unlimited. Unlimiting is like the process of removing limits, limiting beliefs. Exactly. Or behaviors or our habits. Right. So unlimiting is an active word where it's. You're redrawing the boundaries and borders of your life. Limitless is not about being perfect. Limitless is about advancing and progressing beyond what you believe is possible. That's what this book is about. Now I apply that towards accelerated learning so you can learn your languages and, you know, give speeches without notes and all that stuff. But really it's a process of liberating yourself out of that box. So one of the dimensions that keep you in that box is your mindset. And we can go deep into how to change negative beliefs and everything. I talk about the seven lies. Lies for me, again is an acronym. Lie is a limited idea entertained because it's not true. It's not true that you don't deserve it. It's not necessarily true that you're stupid. But it's an idea we're giving energy to. We're entertaining that idea in that moment. I show people how to unravel it in the three step process. But that's the mindset. Okay? All right. Now the second M, you can have the greatest mindset and believe everything is possible. You're capable, you deserve it. But if you don't have the second M, which is motivation, you're not getting out of that box right in your career.

I believe I can do it. But I'm gonna sit here and eat chips on the couch.

Exactly. And so your motivation for me is your drive, it's your purpose. It's the vitality that you bring to something. Now most people think motivation, they'll say motivation is a lie. And in some respects it is. Because the way a lot of people perceive motivation is just rah, rah, get excited, get hyped up, and next day nothing changes. So my evidence, the evidence of motivation is something is happening. There's an action, there's a new action taking place. And if you're not doing that action, you're not motivated. No matter what you say, if you're not doing it, it's better well done than well said. Even like a lot of people on social media, they promise things, but prove it right. Don't say it, show it right. You take it to action. Because knowledge is not power. It's potential power. Applying it makes it powerful. So motivation for me is a three step formula. And here's the formula and I go deep in, in this book because there's a chapter on each part. The key to sustainable motivation, how to overcome procrastination. If you're putting things off, this is the key. It's this. P times, times S3. Now this is a formula for sustainable, not just a surge of motivation, right? We've all watched a limitless movie where he takes a pill and he can learn languages and read really fast and remember everything. And Dr. Mark Hyman, who wrote the forward of the book, who's a mutual friend of both of ours and I know he's been on your show, he says that there is no genius pill, but Jim gives you the process for a brighter brain, right? Like it's the process and there's no side effects, right? Right.

Yeah, it's good.

But going back to this, you know, when he had a surge of motivation, but then when the pill wore off, it goes back to no motivation. But this is the key. There's no pill, there's a process. And these three things, P times E times S3 is sustainable for the rest of your life. Because I've lived on no sleep for over a decade, right? My sleep has gotten much better since of recent, you know, just some, some breakthroughs this in, in medicine and everything else like that. And but you know, I had sustainable motivation. I was still doing all the conferences, still doing my podcast every week, still speaking and traveling and doing all this stuff because I had these three things. Number one, so the P stands for purpose. Now again, if you feel not motivated in any area of your life. Now some people can have motivation. Now some people are very motivated to sit on the couch and binge watch Netflix. They're highly motivated to do that, right? But if you're lacking motivation to work out consistently, and now here's another lie, limited idea, entertained, is that you have to enjoy the activity, right? Like, you know, it doesn't mean that you have to do that. Like I was having this conversation with Tom Bilyeu, right? And he was like, I work out 4 o', clock, 5 o' clock every morning. I was like, do you enjoy it? He's like, no, I don't like working out at all. You know, but he's motivated, doesn't miss a day. So he has the motivation. So motivation doesn't mean you enjoy it. Like every morning I do my cold showers, you know, like Wim Hof, right? No fun all the time, but. Exactly. I grew up in Northeast. I hate the cold, right? But I do my cold showers or my ice baths. You know, I post all the time on Instagram about doing it because I know I have a purpose, right? So I don't enjoy it. But the P and the formula is purpose. Reasons reap results. And if you get the reason. So even if I'm not getting my sleep, I have a purpose. I have a reason to help people every single day. I want every single person that comes in contact with me, whether it's on my podcast or a video or a book, Their brain is better off because. Yeah, you know, and so that's my reason. And. And really, you know, my story. Like, my first student three decades ago almost, she read 30 books in 30 days. And what was her purpose? Her mother was dying of terminal cancer. Two months to live 60 days. And the book she was reading, Health, wellness, energy, right? And she ended up saving her mom's life. And that's when I realized that if knowledge is power, learning is our superpower. I dedicated my life to make that kind of difference. And that's what. That's what. So I have my reasons to do something so I don't have to pump myself up. So P is purpose. Tap into your reasons. And it can't be intellectual. You know, you have to feel it, right? And even you could even feel the pain. Like, who's counting on you to do this activity? You know, who's watching you? Who's role modeling you, right? Who's counting on you to show up today? You know, it could be painful, too, but if it gets you to move, that's what's important. Have that reason, the purpose. This E. Now here, my mind does this thought experiment. Scientific experimentations, right? If somebody just has a reason, are they always motivated? Are there any cases where they're not motivated? And I said yes, if they're lacking the E energy. So somebody could have a reason to work out, or they could have a reason to read, you know, or learn Spanish. But if they're trying to do it late at night and they didn't sleep the night before, or they had a big processed meal, it's hard to have the motivation. Exactly. They're a food coma. They can't be motivated because they lack energy. So in the book, I talk about 10 keys for brain energy, the 10 things that I do to light up my brain. And one of them is our brain foods. Another one is optimizing your sleep. So I do a whole area of what I'VE learned really moves the needle for maximizing your sleep. Because how's your, how's your thought process if you don't sleep? How's your focus? How's your memory? You know, how are you making good decisions? Right. I heard that that was the advice, you know, presidents give other presidents is like, get it, don't make a big decision if you didn't get a good night's sleep. Right? So I talk about sleep. So in the book in Motivation, we do a whole section on finding your purpose and even life purpose and passion and a whole area on optimizing your energy. Now you have energy to do it. I ask myself, okay, you have a purpose for something to work, to work out or whatever you have or start this business. You have the energy. In what case, if you're like doing this critical thinking, in what case won't you be motivated? You like, let's say you want to start a business or whatever, you're just procrastinating on starting that business. Number one, you have the motivation. You really need it. And you know why you have the energy. Because you're eating the right foods, you're maximizing your sleep. You're with not energy vampires. Yes, there is. S3. What the problem is, is you're making it too big in your mind. That will keep you from being motivated, starting a business like where do you even start? Or getting that perfect relationship or having perfect health. That, that's way, way too big. So what do you do? Small, simple steps. That's what will keep people unmotivated. They could have the reasons and purpose, they could have the energy, unlimited energy. But they don't know where to start. And because they make it too big in their mind. And a confused mind doesn't do anything. Confused mind doesn't do anything. So clarity is power. I like that. So small, simple step, all you have to do is ask a magic question. What is the smallest action I could take where I can't fail? It allows me, give me some progress, but I can't fail. What's the smallest step? And I cite the work in here of the habit experts that you and I have interviewed, you know, Dr. B.J. foggs or the James Clears atomic habits. And really my take on how to make sustainable habits. Because what you do repeatedly becomes that habit. But it starts with a small, simple step. What's an example of that? I want people to read a book a week. It will change their life. I think if there's one thing people could that would change their life immediately. Long Term, just read every day. Reading is to your mind, what exercises your body, even more than audio. And my podcast and I do everything on audio, I still encourage people to read because it activates a different part of your brain also. And I listen to audios when I drive, when I work out. But when people are tested in terms of what they read, in terms of comprehension, what they listen to, reading the actual more, and they'll understand more. You know, why is not only does it activate a different part of your brain because it's active, because listening can be passive, like watching a movie or anything can be very passive. You don't have to get involved, but reading forces you get involved. But the second reason why is because usually when someone's listening to something, they're doing something else and they're trying to multitask. They're cleaning their house, they're working out, they're driving, so they're not. Their attention is not fully on what they're listening to. So that's why the comprehension is down. But reading every single day is a great activity. But I don't tell people, you know, read an hour a day. A small, simple step to get someone reading is read one sentence. That's a small, simple step. Open up the book. That's a small, simple step that you can't fail, right? And nobody's going to stop at one sentence. You know, the example Dr. BJ Fogg talks about with tiny habits is, hey, we know flossing is good for your longevity.

Just one tooth.

One tooth. And who's going to stop at one tooth, right? So how do you break it down? And really, motivation is energy management. It's really about energy management, meaning when you have clarity and purpose, it gives you energy, right? When you have energy, like if you activate, you eat the right foods and everything else, vitality, you have energy. And small, simple steps requires very little energy, requires very little effort output. And there's something in memory called the Zeigarnik effect. It's by a psychologist, a woman who in Europe noticed that at the cafe she frequents that the waitstaff would remember all the orders until they were delivered. And once they were delivered, they would forget it. And the Zeigarnik effect, which is her last name, means that the mind doesn't like open loops. So, like in all of the series that you binge watch knows this because at the end they open up a loop and you're like, one more. Who does that? Like, one more. And you end up watching until like 2am, 3am because it doesn't like the open loops. Well, starting something like an order, remembering someone's order and then it delivered it closes the loop. Well, when you start something anywhere, your mind still keeps an open loop about it, so it's more likely to finish. And that's another way to overcome procrastination. Break it down into small simple steps where you can't fail. That's the three step formula. So I do a chapter. So this is really three books in one. It's a whole book on mindset, on how to eliminate negative self talk, how to be able to get rid of negative beliefs that you don't deserve it, you're not capable of it, how to have optimization. So a chapter on purpose, a chapter on energy, a chapter on small simple steps. And then I added a chapter on habits and flow. Because the ultimate state, and you've had Steven Kotler and all these amazing people on here talking about flow state is when you're in the zone. Where you lose flow states is you lose your sense of self. You lose, it's effortless and you lose your sense of time. And there's no motivation required because you're just in the zone. You know that as an athlete, when you're in the zone or you're on stage and it's just coming through you, right? We all have those moments. So we debunk and apply this method for a whole chapter on flow. And then finally you could have the mindset and motivation and still be stuck in that box. Because again, let's say you believe everything is possible and that's your mindset and you're capable and you deserve it and you're motivated. But if you don't have the last M which are the methods, then you're stuck in that box. You could have be believe that you deserve this income. You could motivation. But if you're doing the wrong things, then you're not going to get the result if you're doing the wrong marketing tactics or if you're doing the wrong things in a relationship, right? If you're using bad advice. And in here I document the example of learning because we learned very poor antiquated methods of learning in school. It was rote repetition to Learn something repeated 100 times in your mind. And the problem is it just takes a lot of time and it's not the optimal way. The brain learns. The human brain doesn't learn through consumption, it learns through creation. Right? The human brain does not learn by consuming, it learns by creating. And so we also learned a bad habit, a method of Reading, which was sub vocalization. Sub vocalization is. Have you ever noticed when you're reading something, you hear that inner voice inside your head reading along with you? Hopefully it's your own voice. It's not like somebody else's voice. The reason why it keeps you reading slow is if you have to say all the words in this book, you can only read as fast as you could speak. That means your reading speed is limited to your talking speed, not your thinking speed.

How do you limit the conversation in your mind?

That's interesting, right? Because the question becomes Everybody reads about 200, 250 words per minute because that's how the average person talks. But do you have to say the question becomes do analyze it. Common sense. Do you need to say all the words in order to understand what those words mean? The truth is no. Like when you see a stop sign, you don't say to yourself, stop. But do you comprehend what that means? Of course. 95 exactly. And just like symbols in the book, periods, punctuation marks, you don't say question mark when you read or comma, when you read. You know, so the. And there. Because of all, all those are sight words. And you don't have to pronounce them by sound. You pronounce it, you do them by sight. And the fastest readers actually only sub vocalize the more difficult words. And so I'm not saying you really.

Should just kind of skip through and just go through.

You read all the words? No, you read all the words, but you don't have to say all the words. And so that sub vocalization is my example of an old method, an antiquated method that will keep you in that box of learning slow.

So let me, let me do an example. Here's a sentence from your book, Part two, about mindset.

Yeah.

And if I were to read this, I would read it slowly just because that's how I'm used to it. I would say, and I already get nervous reading out loud from my childhood fears of stumbling, the deeply held beliefs, attitudes and assumptions we create about who we are, how the world works, what we are capable of and deserve, and what is possible mindset.

So let me show you how to actually. So one example, and there's a link in my Instagram for a free masterclass on reading like a whole like one hour tutorial in real time here when people are reading. What I recommend is sub vocalization. The key here is first acknowledge that it's there and don't try to fight it. Not, don't try to not Sub vocalize. Because if you, you know this from your study of the mind, you can't not do anything. You can't not think of a purple giraffe because you have to do it. So the more you try not to say the words, the more you're gonna do it. Plus you're gonna be talking to yourself. Am I really understanding this? And you're not gonna understand it because you have two things going on. Right, Exactly. And so the goal here is when you, when you read past a certain speed 400, there's a sub vocalization threshold where you can't possibly talk any faster than that, but you can understand it. Oh, perfect example, when you listen to your podcasts or audiobooks, many people. Exactly. And you can understand it, but you can't speak that fast. So that's proof. You could think that fast but not understand it. And so here, one of the hacks that we teach in the book is to use a visual pacer, like when you use your finger while you read. Most people think this is an old antiquated method. They say, don't do that because that will slow you down. But in actuality, I challenge everybody to take that masterclass on that link and what you'll find is test yourself. Read without your finger and then read for another minute with your finger. Count the number of lines just underlining it. That second time will be 25, 50% faster.

And just kind of, what, forcing your finger to go a little faster than.

You would normally, you could actually go regular because what happens is you don't regress. A lot of people have another bad method, going back to limited methods. And we want to unlimit their methods of regressing and back skipping. You know, have you ever found yourself rereading words or rereading sentences? 25% of our time could be wasted doing that. And that's a bad habit that we learned when we were kids.

Why do we do that? Why do we repeat a sentence or word?

The same reason why we sub vocalize. Because we were taught that. Remember back in school we were taught so public speaking. When we got in those circles and we had to pass around that book, and that book comes closer and closer and closer.

Fear and anxiety just comes my name.

Exactly. And that's where I believe we learned that public speaking was something to be feared. And that's where it was imprinted on us. And like for some people. And it was good intention. But people can be sincere teachers, but be sincerely wrong. And I got that. I couldn't even read at that time. So when I. When that book came to me, I would just look at it, and it would look like hieroglyphics. Exactly. I would do that. And I would, like, cry. It would be so embarrassing because everyone's looking at you and you have to perform. And that's where I think my fear of public speaking, why I wouldn't do the book report or speak on it. And everything came from. But the other thing teachers had you do is once they know you could pronounce and you had to say it out loud to make sure the teacher knows you're pronouncing it phonetically. Right. But later on, your teacher taught you the limit with subvocalization because he or she said, all right, read quietly to yourself or read silently to yourself. And that's where you took that external voice and you're like, in order to understand it, I have to hear it. If not outside, then inside. And it's been there ever since. So this book is about unlimiting those bad habits of learning, of rote memorization of bad habits we make about decisions like, why are we always dating? Why are people dating the same people? Or making the same financial mistakes and everything else. It's not insanity doing the same thing over and over again. It's a bad memory. And we weren't taught decision making. So, like, in the book, I talk about four super villains that hold us back. And it's really. Because I talk about superpowers. Four super villains. And I'll go back to the model and make this very like, aha to everybody. Four super villains that are holding you and your team back, Your children back, your team back, your employees back, your spouse back, number one. And they're all driven by technology. Digital deluge. Digital deluge is these information overwhelm. It's like, do you feel nowadays like you can't keep up? It's like taking a sip of water out of a fire hose.

Yeah.

And here's the thing. People buy a book, but they don't read the book. Right. It just sits on their shelf. It becomes shelf help, not self help. Right. And here's the thing. Buying a book is a different skill set than reading the book.

I'm really good at buying books. Not that good at reading. I can buy books all day long.

Exactly. But reading is a different skill set. But digital deluge is. Is a real medical condition. They call it information fatigue syndrome. Higher blood pressure, compression of leisure time, more sleeplessness. And this is happening if you own a business or you have managed a Team that four or five hours a day on estimate are we spending processing information. Just think about your team, how much they have to process A lot, right? That means half of their salary is being paid to process and learn and read. So if someone's being paid $80,000 for 40,000 is just to read something. So if I could double their reading speed, that's like, that's a huge. That's a huge amount of time. Like if it normally takes four hours to read something and you read it in half the time, two hours. What's two hours over the course of a year? That's like a math. And we can't even do the math because that's another one of the digital challenges. But that's two. That's even if you save one hour a day, 365 hours a year. 40 hour work weeks. How many 40 hour work weeks? Nine. Two months of productivity. We get back to saving one hour a day on something ubiquitous like reading. That's why this book will help you read every other book to save you time. It's a digital deluge. Number two, digital distraction. With every ring and ping and ding, every app notification, social media alert, it's training our distraction muscles. And we are so good at being distracted. That's why so much of my morning routine that people do is like something simple like brushing your teeth with the opposite hand, right? Because it engages the opposite side of your brain, which is good for making new connections, neuroplasticity. But it's also good for making you present.

You have to focus, right?

It forces you to be in the moment. So it's something you do every day. That little things where you get novelty, where it focuses you to be here as opposed to about everything else, right? And how you do anything is how you do everything. So if you wake up first thing in the morning and touch your phone and I think we should have a to do list. I think your not to do list.

Don't touch your phone.

Yeah, don't touch your phone first hour a day. It rewires your brain to be distracted. And also it rewires your brain to be reactive. I can't stress this enough. When you pick up your phone the first hour of day and a lot of people talk about this and we have videos. My video with Simon Sinek has 28 million views on just this thing on Facebook. It literally just says don't touch your phone because it rewires your brain to be distracted and reactive. Because you're fighting fires, you're on the defense like why are you going to check your email and voicemail and takes you off tangent and you're not even focusing on what's most important, like in terms of your win. Our friend Brendon Burchard says this. Exactly. And you're like, you have a lot of quotes that you remember, but he says your inbox is nothing but a convenient organizational system for other people's agenda for your life.

Boom.

Wow. Brendan Burchard, your inbox is nothing but a convenient organizational system for other people's agenda for your life. So don't go on the defense. So don't pick up your phone because when you wake up, you're in this relaxed state of awareness. You're very suggestible. So you're training your distraction and your reaction. You have to be proactive. You want to be a thermostat, not a thermometer. A thermometer reacts the environment. A thermometer sets the environment. So digital distraction, second, third, supervillain. That's driven by technology that's potentially holding you back. Digital dementia. Digital dementia is where our phones become an external storage device. It keeps our to do's right. It keeps our phone. How many phone numbers did you know growing up?

A lot. Growing up?

Yeah. How many do you know now?

1.

Like if there's one person my own, is there somebody who texts and call all the time?

I know my mom's because I've had to like write it down as like emergency contacts.

Exactly. But if you don't, if you don't have your phone with you or the phone is battery's dead, you can't. Now here's the thing. Nobody wants to memorize 200 phone numbers. I don't want to do that. But isn't it concerning that we've lost the ability to remember one or a passcode or a conversation. We just had, I believe two of the most costly words in life. Yeah. In life, our business. I forgot. Every time you say the words I forgot, you lose credibility, you lose trust. You don't show you care about the person, you lose a sale. I can't tell you how many clients come to me saying, look, I forgot I called this person by the wrong name. And he was so offended that he didn't do the deal with me. I lost a million dollar commission. Like those kind of things, Right. And how are you going to show somebody you're going to care for their future, their finances, their health, their family if you don't care enough? Just remember their name. Right? So we do 13, 14 tips on just how to remember people's names. We covered it in the previous episode also as well. So digital dementia is where it's a real Source. I mean, Dr. Daniel Amen has talked about it. Other people have talked about don't be over reliant on technology to do everything. Memory is a muscle and it's use it or lose it. That's why I'm such an advocate for mental fitness. I remember I walked into the office one day, I picked up the phone first thing in the morning and a woman's voice was like, I love you, I love you, I love you. I'm like, whoa, who's this? She was like, I found it. She went through our online memory course and she was given a family heirloom, a necklace by her grandmother. It didn't go to her mother or her three sisters, it went to her and she hid it somewhere in her house. She forgot. She forgot and she thought for three years she thought it was stolen. She felt so much guilt and she got so much shame from like her family and she just passed on for generations. And after going through this course and she Woke up at 2am in the morning, ran down two flights of stairs, went behind the boiler in her basement, pulls out this crevice, the necklace. And I was like, I didn't teach you a method on how to find lost items in this program. She was like, I don't know what it is, but my focus, I'm just remembering this without even using a method. It's just. He was like, thank you for giving me my brain back. She felt like her brain was 20 years younger because it was fit. And that's what I'm talking about. Mental intelligence is very important. Facts, figures, foreign languages. You learn how to do that in the methods of the book Mental Fitness and Mental Health. You know, that's also very important where if you're physically fit, right? So if you were going to go up Runyon Canyon or wherever, if somebody is not physically fit, they're going to have to use more effort, more energy because they're not trained. And so if you're an athlete, you could train, you could help them as a coach in two ways. You could show them the strategies like how to do a forehand or a backhand or a hit up golf ball and you can take them in the gym and optimize their fitness, you know, the heart rate variability, their, their, their foods and everything. So get people mentally fit. Digital dementia. And finally the last one that we talk about in the book, Digital Deduction, right? I always iterate ddd so digital deduction is where we're our phones and our smart devices are doing the thinking for us because it just, it literally because it's just spoon feeding you. And I'm not just talking about fake news, I'm talking about algorithms that just give everything but you don't have to think anymore. And we've lost our thinking abilities to the point where you look at a menu and you're like, I don't even know what to eat because normally an app tells me what to eat or what, what to watch next or what to do everything. They're seeing kids and they have lower ability to critical think, critical thinking abilities, analysis ability, reasoning ability because of phones because our smart devices are making us stupid.

If you're looking for more greatness in your life, make sure to check out this video right here and also check out our free PDF. The three secrets to unlock the power of your mind. To help you change your life. Download it right here.

And so those are the three dominant questions that you want to ask to take knowledge and turn them into power. So as you're going through this.