How To Unlock The Full Potential Of Your Mind With Jim Kwik, Brain Coach & Author Of Limitless

I think one of the most important productivity tools we have is our calendar. And most people don't schedule like they schedule maybe investor meetings or sales meetings or zoom team calls, but they're not scheduling their implementation, their application. And I think for every. A good rule of thumb is just like, for every hour you spend listening and learning something, like, on this podcast, you should schedule an hour putting it into play.

Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the show. I'm so excited about today's guest. He is somebody who Chris and I met quite a few years ago, and the second we met him, we were so impressed with this human being. We actually first heard him speak and were blown away and then got to spend some time with him. And I can tell you that this is the type of human who just changes your life. And, you guys, I can't wait for you to listen to this, because he is all about helping you make. Make your brain better. And my guest today is Jim Kwik. He's an internationally acclaimed authority in the realm of brain optimization, memory improvement, and accelerated learning. And let me tell you, I used to think that I could not memorize things, and Jim has taught me so many different methods around being able to remember things better, whether it's talks or being able to remember things that I am trying to recall, like names. You guys, he truly is the expert and has dedicated his life to helping people tap into their brain's fullest potentials. I think you're going to get so many nuggets out of this podcast, so let's dive in.

All right, Mr. Jim Quick, how you doing, buddy? We've missed you, man.

Chris and Laurie, thank you for having me. This is really special.

Yeah, this is honestly just selfish for us because, well, we just caught up for a few minutes there in the beginning, but now we get to sort of catch up on this podcast to see everything that you're up to, because you're doing some really awesome, awesome stuff right now.

Like, you, too. Yeah.

Super excited about your. Do we call this a new book? Do we call this a new version of the book? Limitless Expanded Edition?

Yeah, it's the updated. It has, like, 120 new pages. Just a lot of new content, strategies, methodologies for accelerated learning and brain optimization. Yeah, I know, I know, but we're definitely not updating this ever again. This is final. It's complete. It's my magnum opus. If I was to, you know, something happened to me, I was teleported somewhere off the planet, this is what I want to leave behind.

That's cool.

I have to tell you, I just. In all of the different rooms that I've been in lately, your name has come up in almost all of them, which is so crazy. Like, people are like, do you know who Jim Quick is? I'm like, I know Jim Quick from way back. Like I try to claim it. Like we go way back.

Yeah, a lot of history.

We're coming up on almost 10 years probably of knowing each other at this point. That's a long time.

Stop it. Time flies, but our brains just get better because of you. So this is great.

This is very true. I love it.

I want to start with the quizzes that you had us take. You said, hey, take this quiz, it's going to be really fun. I took the quiz. I felt like I was learning stuff about myself while I took the quick quiz. It was only like 3, 4 minutes, so it was real easy. But it came out that I was a cheetah and we just found out. It also came out that Lori was a cheetah. So what in the world does this mean about us, Jim?

So this is a cheetah and we just had a little party. So we have these like little, like this is AI art that we created. So we created a brain code and it's a four minute, maybe it takes three or four minutes to go through multiple choice. Kind of like how people, what Game of Thrones or Harry Potter character are you kind of kind of thing. And it's fun, but it's very insightful. I think it's so important self awareness is to just kind of know your strengths and know your traits and this is one of the things, kind of like your love languages but for your brain. And so I pulled, I was inspired by various things in psychology and sciences, personality types like Myers Briggs to build this out. Left brain, right brain dominance theory, visual, auditory, kinesthetic learning styles, multiple intelligence theoret of Harvard and introvert extroverts. So I melded all of this as inspiration and I've been using it with one on one clients for years. But this is the first time we put it out publicly. So it's a simple quiz and basically the premise is it's not how smart you are, it's how are you smart. It's not how smart you are or how smart your team is or your friends are, it's how are they smart? Because everybody has certain strengths that we really want to lean into that kind of like your element. And these are cognitive types. So I use an acronym code, C O D E to help you Remember it. So I'll go through really fast. The C are the two of you, you're cheetahs. And cheaters are amazing because they're often entrepreneurs. Their primary trait, their dominant trait is, is action. They're very good at putting things into play. They don't just learn things for the sake of learning it, they apply it, they implement it, they execute. We were talking even before that you could iterate a million times in your ideas, but actually putting stuff out there is where the rubber meets the road. Cheetahs thrive in fast paced environments. They can adapt, they have very strong intuition. So the O in code are your owls. And their dominant trait is logic. They love the data, they love the facts, they love the figures, they do the research. And by the way, we're not limited to just one, we're a composite, obviously, but there's usually one that is more dominant than the others. And, and even if you just think about an owl and a cheetah, they would learn different. You know, they would even communicate different. You know, cheetahs are more direct and to the point, not kind of beating around the bush because that would take time, right? And owls are, are more linear, they're more organized in their presentations, their communications, their thinking. The D in code are your dolphins and this is a fun one. Dolphins are your visionaries, they're very creative, they're really good at pattern recognition. So it would be like a Walt Disney, a J.K. rowlings, kind of thing of that type. So that's your dolphin and then finally your E are your elephants and the elephants are your empaths. They love collaboration. They're your team builders. These are people that have high levels of empathy. So they want people to feel seen, they want people to feel valued and heard. Even in their communication style. They try to come to some kind of consensus where others could talk about hi or me. They're using more words that are more inclusive, like we and us, because they come from, from that kind of herd mentality. And so just knowing these four animals allows you, it informs like what your strengths are like. We had our team take it this quiz and a hundred percent of our customer service team were elephants. And we didn't plan it, but it's interesting how based on your strengths and your values, the way you see the world and think, you're going to find positions that align with that, those superpowers, if you will. And that makes sense because they're there, high empathy, compassion, interpersonal skills. They're be supportive, their community builders. You know, in our Social media and everywhere else. Our CFO is a very strong owl. And you want, I guess you want that person to be numbers. Right? My business partner, Alexis, of 17 years, she's our CEO. She's a dolphin. She's a creative visionary. She just has a vision for where we're going. And she's very passionate around that. So these are qualities of these different animals. And you can see this also in pop culture. I mean, you take anything like friends, right? Joey would be the cheetah. Just very instinct or just always acting and moving forward. You would have, let's say Phoebe would be the dolphin, the creative, music, art, all of that. Ross would be the owl, the scientist, the professor, all the research, the facts. I imagine Monica would be the elephant because she always wanted to host every party and I always had to be at her apartment. She held everyone together that way. So you can see these kind of archetypes and it determines you could use it for hiring, for management, for parenting, for coaching, for influence and sales, for fundraising. Because once you understand their animal type, because if you don't, what happens often when we're talking about learning is sometimes your brain animal is different than the teacher's brain animal. And you just kind of pass each other like two ships in a night. And you don't even recognize the other ones there. And there's no connection. Right. Similar to love languages, people tend to communicate in their animal type as if they're communicating to somebody with the same type. And that's not always the case.

Yeah, Jim, this makes so much sense because I didn't finish college and I thought there was something wrong with me because I didn't like learning in school. And I didn't like learning the way that they taught me in school. But I loved learning on the job. And I remember I just wanted to be out working and participating in economy and learning as I physically do things and taking action and all that. So it makes a lot of sense because for a long time I thought, what's wrong with me that I don't want to go get my bachelor's and my master's and my. All these other things that people said that you needed in order to be successful. And you nailed it when you said, it's not how smart are you? It's how are you smart? And all of a sudden I felt like that gave me permission to lean into the how that I'm smart instead of how smart am I.

That's an incredibly empowering statement too. I just thought if someone would have said that to Me when I was younger because I did not graduate high school, but I knew I was really smart. Like I knew that when I went in rooms and I knew I was the hardest worker in the room and I knew I was like very hands on. So if someone would have just said that to me think that I would have felt because I carried so much shame for so many years, that would have immediately made sense that I'm still smart. It's just in other arena. So I love that you're putting language.

Around it and I appreciate that too because I think we're also best, you know, for me I had some learning difficulties, pretty severe and brain injuries and just like as a child. So I think also I think we're best suited to support and serve the person we once were. Yeah. And so it's kind of like even when you think about that inner child and, and be the parents that you wish that you, you had or be the coach or the mentor to yourself, but this also, you're right, it takes away the shame and the judgment you have for other people because they're just acting in accordance to like their brain type. But it also takes the self judgment away, also gives yourself a little bit more self compassion. You be kind to yourself because this is. And then you could kind of surround yourself with a team that also is leaning into their element and, and their own brain type. So what happen when people go to mybrainanimal.com, they could take the quiz. There's nothing to buy. It takes like four minutes. And then just like there's personalized medicine based on your genetics or personalized nutrition based on your microbiome. This is like personalized learning based on this assessment. And then I show you based on your animal how you could actually read better. Not just faster, but better comprehension. I show you I can remember names based on your animal type. And then we just go on building teams, building learning organizations. Because a cheetah, when they're reading, you imagine it's action they're going through fast. Right. They're going, going through and getting into kind of the gist of it. Owls are looking for the little details for everything. And obviously these two people invest differently. Right. They'd be persuaded differently in an elephant who has empathy and leaning more into feelings is to make different decisions than a dolphin that you could lead by painting a picture for them. So I think it's really fascinating. So there's so many different applications. Could have been a book on itself, but it's a full one of the largest chapters in Limitless, Expanded and then also people can to get a taste of it. Take the quiz@mybrainanimal.com and you'll get a full map on on how to use it. Oh my God.

Seriously, go to my brainanimal.com because it just made me feel totally normal in the way that I learned and it kind of made me think of my next question.

With the holidays and the new year coming, you probably are looking around your house thinking that you would love to upgrade and freshen up your environment. And there is no easier way to do that than with your window treatments. There's Nobody covers windows Better than blinds.

Com.

Blinds.com brings your space to life in your way. They have free design help. Other retailers may claim to have experts, but blinds.com has spent nearly 30 years building an award winning team of over a hundred design consultants that are ready to help you create your dream space. Always convenient, always tailored to you. Three ways to shop 1. Perfect fit Whether you want a DIY, have it all done for you or you're somewhere in between, choose what works for for you and rest easy knowing the fit is guaranteed. So the holidays come fast you guys, and you can freshen up your window treatments fast as well. And unlike some competitors, the price you see is the price you pay. No hidden fees and there's zero pressure. From blackout and motorized options to classic shutters, blinds.com has window treatments for every room style and budget, even shades for your outdoor space. The Black Friday deals@blinds.com are going strong all month long, so don't miss your chance to save big. And as always, our listeners still get $50 off when you spend $500 or more. Just use code earn at checkout. Limited time offer rules and restrictions apply. See blinds.com for details. 2026 is the year that you launch your business. It's the year that you've become the boss. You've become the leader. That idea that you have that has been eating at you forever that just will not leave you alone is going to come to life. Maybe it's something that someone tells you, you or a store you've already designed in your head. And with Shopify, 2026 is when you finally make it happen. Shopify gives you everything you need to sell online and in person. Millions of entrepreneurs have already made this leap from household name to first time business owners. Just getting started you guys. I use Shopify for glossy and I remember when they sent me my little shopping bag celebrating my 10,000 sales and I literally cried because I was so scared to take the leap and I'm so glad that I did and that I use Shopify. It gives you all the tools to easily build your dream store. You can choose from hundreds of beautiful templates that you can customize to match your brand setup is fast with Shopify's built in AI tools that write product descriptions and headlines and help you edit photos so marketing is built into. You can create email and social campaigns that reach customers wherever they scroll. So as you grow, Shopify grows with you. You can handle more orders, expand to new market and do it all from the Same dashboard in 2026. Stop waiting and start selling with Shopify. Sign up for your $1 per month trial and start selling today at shopify.com happy go to shopify.com happy that's shopify.com happy. Hear your first cha ching this new year with Shopify by your side.

So you're one of the experts out there helping people read and retain better. And if I were to sit down and hold the book, like right now I'm reading the new Elon Musk book, right? If I were to sit down and hold the book and read it, it is tough, buddy. It's real tough for me. Like I have to read the same page three times over. I don't retain it. I don't remember what I just read on that page. But if I listen to it, not only do I consume the books better, but I listen on like one and a half speed or it feels too slow for me. So does that have something to do with like the way I learn?

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And it's, it's interesting so you can actually listen it's to it quicker on like audible or something. A cheetah would do that. And so it's interesting because so reading is a skill and some and most of us didn't learn how to do it properly and if we're not good at something, we probably don't aren't going to do it very often. So we're not going to get any better at it. It's like golf, father in law plays all the time, my father plays all the time and I always get invited for work to go play and I just, it's not fun for me because I'm just not that great at it, right. So I don't do it very often. But there's this confidence, competence loop. The more competent you get, the more confidence you get. But same thing with reading because our skill, I mean hasn't been improved since the last time we were taught and that was probably when we were six years old. You know, there's a class called reading. So yeah, a couple things you could do, and I'm a fan of audiobooks, certainly that you could put on a faster speed especially. But if someone's going to read on a E book or a physical book, reading is a different user, activates a different part of your brain. People actually read, will get more out of it, usually if they do it properly through a couple of techniques. I'll share with you right now, only because sometimes when people are listening to an audiobook, they're usually doing something else. They could be cleaning, they could be working out, right? So so inherently their attention, they're multitasking is going to be split. And so as opposed to reading, because you're probably, when you're reading, probably not driving, right? Or trying to clean the house or something like that. Well, leaders are readers, right? We've heard this so many times. But a lot of people buy books, they sit on your shelf unread and it becomes shelf help, not self help. But reading is really the key. Even Warren Buffett reads 500 pages a day. I mean, if people seen pictures of me with Elon or Oprah or any people, they always ask how we bonded books, right? And so you read to succeed. What I would say is a couple quick things to first, faster and smarter reading. Using a visual pacer will help you read faster. So let's back up. If you pick a book up and then put a mark in the margin where you left off and put your phone to time it for 60 seconds, and then at the end of 60 seconds, put a mark in the margin where you left off and then count the number of lines, all right? That's your base rate because you always have to be able to manage it. You have to measure it, right? And then you set the ALARM to go 60 seconds. And this time you read where you left off, but this time just underline the words with your finger or a pen or highlighter. You're not actually marking up the page or touching the page or the screen. You're just going margin to margin and do it for 60 seconds. And at the end of 60 seconds, count the number of lines. For the majority of everyone listening, that second number will be 25, 50% greater. Whoa. That's not a little bit. Because reading is probably the biggest consumer of time for most activities. I mean, think about how much reading research or emails or media or, you know, things that you have to keep attractive. Right? Area inbox so four or five hours a day. If you just double your reading speed, save two hours a day, that's huge. Even save one hour a day, it's 360, 65 hours a year divided by 40 hours in a week. You know, work week is like nine. You get over nine weeks of productivity, two months of productivity, just saving one hour on something like that. The reason why we do the speed reading training at Facebook, Nike, Google, SpaceX, all these places is if half their time is being paid to read, that means half their salary is going towards reading. So if someone's making 100k, 50k is just spent just processing information. And so that's a real. That's a real needle mover for a lot of people. So, yes, using a visual pacer. And it could be a mouse on a computer, it could be your pen highlighter. I use my finger just back and forth, not skipping anything. Traditional speed reading is more skimming, scanning, getting the gist of things. And we work with a lot of financial advisors, doctors. You don't want your doctor to get the gist of what she's reading. Right. And so using your finger, 25, 50% lift now, how you get better comprehension now, by the way, people think if they went faster that they would understand less. We have students in every country in the world, 195 nations. We have a lot of data. We actually find that the faster the readers actually understand, understand more, because they have better focus. It's kind of like driving a car. If you're going really slow in your neighborhood and you're not really focused on driving, have you ever, like, ended up where you were going and you don't even remember the trip there? Kind of.

Yeah, it's scary, but yes.

Right. Just like that. Because we're mindless. Because what are you doing? You're. You're drinking your coffee, you're thinking about the dry cleaning, you're trying to sing it along, whatever. Right? Five different things when you're going slow. But if you're racing cars, if, like F1, you go doing 180 miles an hour, hairpin turns. Are you thinking about the dry cleaning? Are you trying to text or check your makeup? No. Right. You're 100% focused on two things. What's in front of you and the act of driving. Same thing with reading. If you go really slow, you feed this supercomputer or brain one word at. I can't talk that slow because I'm from New York. But if I did, if we did that in this conversation, Everyone would what they would think about other things. Their mind would wander, they would fall asleep. And those are the same things that happen when people read same symptoms, because they're reading too slow. If you don't give your brain the stimulus it needs, it'll seek entertainment elsewhere in the form of distraction. So actually, the greater speed will give you greater focus, and the focus will give you greater understanding and comprehension. And if you want really to level up your comprehension, the key is to ask better questions. You know, we talk about a lot in Limitless, expanded the power of questions and having a dominant question. And we have about 60,000 thoughts a day. And a lot of those thoughts come in the form of questions. And your questions stimulate a part of your brain called the reticular activating system, ras, which determines where you shine a spotlight on something. So as an illustration, years and years ago, my younger sister would send me emails, postcards of a very specific breed of dog, who is a pug dog, right? And she kept on multiple times a day, and I was just like, why does she keep on doing this? And I realized she's a good marketer. Her birthday was coming up, right? She was eating her present, and she ended up getting her present also from me. But the funny things happen. I just started seeing this pug dog everywhere. I would be at the health food store checking out, and someone in front of me is holding a pug dog checking out at the cash, cash register. I'd be running in my neighborhood, and someone's walking six pug dogs. And so my question for everyone listening is, did the pug dogs just manifest and magically appear in my neighborhood? Did it teleport there? No, they were always there, but I was deleting them because the brain primarily is a deletion device. It's trying to keep information out. If you let out, we could be focusing on a billion stimuli, but we would go insane, right? So the only things that we let in are the things we care about and we have questions about. And so once I started asking questions, I started seeing it. How does that relate to what we're talking about? Well, we all have these dominant questions that we ask, and some people's are. Their question is, how do I get people to like me? And this is exactly. We talk about this in the book. A friend of mine, we found out her dominant question that she asks hundreds of times a day is, how do I get this person like me? That you don't know anything. You don't know her career, what she looks like, or where she Lives. But you know a lot about her personality. What would you think or guess that this person is like, what are some of the characteristics or some of her personalities? If somebody says obsessed with how do I get them to like me?

People pleasing big time. Also very giving all the time. But also probably feels very burnt out.

Yeah. Resentful because she's always overly giving.

I think it's also a personality trait of not tapping into. I don't know how to say it, but like not tapping into who you are. You're just trying to bend and flex.

And that's very true. It's very true. Because her personality changes depending on who she's spending time with. Because she wants to be like them, you know, and so. And she is a giver to the point where they. She's a martyr. People take advantage of her on, on the regular. Right. And so it's interesting. So you don't know anything about her, but you know a lot about her based on one question that she asked herself. So one of the things we talk about in the book is what's our dominant question? What's the question we're asking more than any other question? That is hijacking focus. Because like for me, growing up with a traumatic brain injury, I mean, I had migraines almost every single day as a 5, 6, 7 year old. I had sensory issues. I would lose my balance. So I wasn't really good at sports. So I was always the last one picked. I was called a boy with a broken brain. You know, my kind of my origin story. But my question back then was, how do I be invisible? Because I didn't want to be bullied anymore. I didn't want to be called on in class. So even if I see look at old pictures of me, I was always like shrinking. Like my posture, my shoulders were always collapsed because I want to take up less space. But that was my dominant question. How do I become invisible so I don't be. So I'm not seen. And then later on it evolved to like, okay, I have the broken brain. How do I fix this? And then it got a little bit better. How do I make this better? And then I started getting answers similar for reading too. When you're reading, if you ever read a page in a book, got to the end and just forgot what you just read and you go back and reread it and you still don't know which is read. Part of it is because we don't have those questions. Because if you had questions about what you're reading you'll read it and say, oh, there's a pug dog. There's a pug dog. There's a pug dog. You start seeing those answers because you're shining a light and it acts like a magnet, pulling the information in to help you to retain it. And three questions I love asking when it takes, like, when people are listening to your shows is, how can I use this? I'm obsessed with that question because most people, they do this kind of mental masturbation where it's just learning for the sake of learning and not applying. And I know cheetahs don't get that. Like, owls could sit and just learn all the time and just get back and not execute on anything, right? And the challenge is like. So you could say, like, how can I use this? You know? And then, why must I use this? To give you some emotion, you know, and purpose? Then when will I use this? Meaning? I think one of the most important productivity tools we have is our calendar. And most people don't schedule like. Like, they schedule maybe investor meetings or sales meetings or zoom team calls, but they're not scheduling their implementation, their application. And I think for every. A good rule of thumb is just like, for every hour you spend listening and learning something, like on this podcast, you should schedule an hour putting it into play.

Oh, man, that's good.

It's just even you spend, you know, three hours doing a deep dive in this, and you spend three hours doing the deep work and making it happen. But I feel like knowledge by itself is not power as a potential to be. Power becomes power when we utilize it, because common sense is not common practice. I mean, your listeners probably have forgotten more about success than most people, most of their friends and family, you know, and will ever learn. But are they using it? Because that's the difference. Because somebody reading a book and not applying it functionally, I mean, yes, it's good mental exercise to read, but functionally, their life is no better than somebody who is illiterate who couldn't read the book to begin with. Right?

Really true.

I met a woman who. It was at, like, a personal development event, and I was like, oh, when are you going home? And she was like, oh, I always book a day or two after an event because I integrate and implement. So she's like, whatever I take from that event, if I just go home, I forget everything. I never do the thing. And she's like, but if I stay a full day after and I put it in my calendar and I decide one thing I'm taking to change my life. I was like, you're an actual genius. Will I do it? I don't know, but I integrate pretty fast, so. But for people who don't, that's a great idea.

No, And I love that because, I mean, that's why even we met. I met the two of you at a mastermind. And you know, people go to mastermind, they learn something, but they just like start putting into action right away because it's this kind of the mindset around it. Having peers to be able to share ideas and then putting it into action and having people to hold you accountable I think is so knowing that I.

Would have to see Jim quick again and tell him I didn't do something.

Yeah.

Yeah. That accountability is second to none.

Too many people finish their workday feeling frustrated, drained and unfulfilled. I know that. I have experienced that myself. And the good news is it doesn't have to be this way and you don't need a new job to fix it. Patrick Lencioni, author of the Five Dysfunctions of a Team and more than a dozen other bestsellers, created the Working Genius assessment to help you pinpoint the kind of work that gives you energy, the kind that lights you up up, and it also shares the kind that drains it. So over a million people, including me, have taken it and completely changed how I lead and show up every day. If you're a CEO, an entrepreneur, or someone who just wants to level up in business and in life, Working genius is going to give you the clarity and confidence to operate in your strengths and find greater joy in what you do. Because confidence isn't pretending to be good at everything. It's knowing where you're trying. Truly gifted Take the Working Genius assessment today and get 20 off with code. Earn@working genius.com that's working genius.com you'll be glad you did it. There are so many challenges to business that I don't want starting to be one of them for you. And when you want more. When you're starting a business, you need Northwest Registered Agent because you get access to thousands of free guides, tools and legal forms to help you launch and protect your business. And it's all in one place. You can build your complete business identity with Northwest today. Northwest Registered Agent has been helping small business owners and entrepreneurs launch and grow business for nearly 30 years. They're the largest registered agent and LLC service in the US with over 1500 corporate guides. Real people who know your local laws and can help you and your business business every step of the way you can sign up for free account to begin managing your business hub with lawyer, drafted operating agreements, bylaws, resolutions, membership certificates, bills of sale and more at no cost. Northwest makes life easy for business owners. They don't just help you form your business, they give you the free tools you need after you form it like operating agreements, meeting minutes and thousands of how to guides that explain the complicated ins and outs of running a business. And let me tell you, this is life changing because I had no idea how much went into this. So don't wait, protect your privacy, build your brand and get your complete business Identity in just 10 clicks and 10 minutes. Visit www.northwestregisteredagent.com Earn free and start building something amazing. Get more with Northwest Registered agent at@www.northwestregisteredagent.com EarnFree I have a question about, let's see, Expand edition.

Because a lot of the things that we were just talking about, a lot of those were in the original book that was a smash hit New York Times bestseller, the Whole Nine Yards. And I read somewhere, and this really struck me, I read somewhere that Limitless, the expanded edition were brand new tips and tricks for learning and operating in a post pandemic world. And it made me do two things. It made me say, oh my God, ever since the pandemic world showed up, I have a lot more trouble retaining things. And I don't know why, but we're talking about a lot more trouble. I have a lot more trouble with recall, like getting the words I want to say and that kind of thing. And then the second thing that came up for me was like, I wonder if other people are experiencing this. And what other changes did the post pandemic world bring about that changed the way that we're learning now.

Now. Yeah, I think it's so important for post pandemic AI world also, wherever it is. And so we could talk about that because we did a whole chapter in the new book also on how to use AI to improve your hi, your human intelligence. And that's definitely a culprit. I mean, more and more when people went through the pandemic, I think we focused on six Cs in terms of kind of becoming more limitless. There's that quote in there that says life is the letter C between B and D. Be as birth, be as death. Again life. See choice. These difficult times, they could diminish you. These difficult times can distract you. Or these difficult times, they could develop you. We ultimately always decide. And a few things that I'm kind of thinking about to get our mind right during chaotic times. Six Cs. The first is clarity. I think it's so very important to ask yourself the right question like going back to the speed reading just to put a bow on it to improve your speed. Use your finger while you read right 25, 50% to get better comprehension. Ask more questions so just to be clear because questions are the answer but questions will also provide you the first C which is clarity. And I think one of the most important questions to ask is what's most important to you in this moment that gets your focus back to like the task at hand. Especially in this post pandemic world. Some people are working in remote some people are working in office. Some people are hybrid or they're multitasking switching off from doing this and writing this report going to slack the social media and so on. But clarity is definitely a superpower because I think a lot of people are burnt out not because they're doing too much. I feel like a lot of people are burnt out because they're doing too little of the things that matter to them that make them come alive. Right. That really light them up and personal care. So you don't know that unless you ask those questions. And one of the questions for clarity is what's most important to me in our relationship. Right. What's most important to me in my career. What's most important to me at this stage in my life and the impact that I have have right. And that clarity will give you your values and we make decisions based around that. And so we relate that back to the book around purpose because even if people lack purpose for why they're reading something, they're not going to get it. Even if people lack a reason to remember someone's name, they're not going to remember that name because they have no reason to remember the person's name. So I think clarity is a good starting point. Second thing even it would help your memory. Everything else in a crazy world is careful. We know that self care is not selfish. That's why the original book here that the expanded has it the best brain foods, how to manage your stress, how to get your the best sleep in your life right. All science based techniques to be and principles to care but also self care is also just realizing that you have permission to rest. I don't know who I'm talking to right now but you are now responsible for fixing everything that's broken. You do not have to try and make everyone happy. So remember you take time for you, time to recover, time to replenish, but self care, so that's number two, clarity care. The third thing that I feel like you get people out of a slump in this kind of post pandemic world is contribution. And I know the two of you are pillars for this. You do so much for the community. I know I get to share time with you. We're just talking about Pencils of Promise, which is an organization we've supported to build schools, different places around the world for children who need it. But also the reason why you do that also is because it allows you to tap into. Because chronic stress will shrink the human brain. Chronic fear will actually suppress your immune system and make you more susceptible to colds, the flus, the viruses, various science called psychoneuroimmunology. But I think what gets you out of fear is contribution being a service to somebody else who could use it. And I really do believe you learn to earn to return. You learn to earn so that you have more to return to be able to be able to give. Right. I love that. Thank you. Yeah. We sold over a million copies of the original book in just three years this month.

Oh, my gosh.

And part of what we did was supporting, you know, building multiple schools for Pencils of Promise for Alzheimer's research for women. Women are twice as likely to experience Alzheimer's than men, yet most of the research is done on men and treatment done on men. So it's just in memory of my grandmother. But contribution is a big part. And then finally, just a few more things to think about. And this relates to being in a chaotic world is take time for creativity. It was during the great plague that Sir Isaac Newton came up with his theory. He had to leave, leave the university to go, be able to go home. Apple fell on his head, whatever. He created the theories of motion, the theories of gravity. William Shakespeare, during the great plague, wrote Macbeth. Right? And so this is a wonderful time. I think the future belongs to the creators. And even though AI can help, you know, in that process, I still think nothing's going to replace, you know, the. The power of the human mind. So how can you be more creative? Maybe you want to create a podcast or you want to write something, you want to do music, some kind of physical expression, whatever it is. But I feel like creat us even with. I read a lot of non fiction, but I also read a lot of fiction and I like it because I feel like it makes me more creative. Like non fiction, you learn through information. Fiction, you learn through imagination. Yes. So to even improve your eq, your emotional quotient and empathy and the narrative allows you to see things from different points of view. And those are really important assets to have today to be able to succeed. And then finally, the last two things that are seeds. You have clarity, you have, you have care, your contribution, your creativity capabilities. I just want to remind, and your listeners know this, to always level up your skills. Because the human mind is the ultimate adaptation machine, like everything in nature has a superpower. Some creatures could fly, some could breathe underwater, some could go really fast like a cheetah, some are very strong. But human beings, we're not any of those things. But because of the power of our power, which is our power, our mind, we can fly and we can go underwater and we can go super fast. Right? Because your brain is what is creating, you know, all the other powers and technologies that exist around us. So I would just remind everyone to always upgrade your knowledge, skills and abilities. And also it'll help you live longer. There's a study done with nuns that were living 80, 90 and above, and they wanted to find out what was the key to their long life. And they said half of it was their, was their faith and their gratitude. And the other half there were lifelong learners. And because they were always learning and reading and having deep discussions, it added years to life and life to the years. It was on the COVID of Time magazine, they called it. Aging with Grace was the name of the study. But in terms of capabilities, I think the most important capability of all is learning how to learn. Because if there's a genie and I could grant you any one wish to be an expert in any one subject or skill, you can say it would be investing and it could be coding and it could be fashion, whatever it is. But if you chose learning to be a learning expert, you could apply it to all those things. Because learning how to learn, you could focus, you could read, you could understand, you can improve your remember, think. Then you apply it towards money management, martial arts, marketing, Mandarin, everything gets so much easier. So learning how to learn. And so Limitless Expanded is an owner's manual for your brain. Have the best brain of your life and tactics to be able to learn faster, like speed, read, memory, and so on. But then the last one, which the two of you are really good at, Glass C is community. Because how do you become limitless in a limited world? We have to do it together, because it does take a village. And learning nowadays is not just solo. It has to be social. It's not Just your neurological networks. It's your social networks. And who you spend time with is who you become. We've heard it so many times that or the average of the five people we spend the most time with because we have these things called mirror neurons, like your reflection. We imitate people around us unconsciously over time. That's why you start looking like your pet or you start having similar expressions as your partner. Because we start marrying the words, the actions, the thoughts, the character, the habits. Like, whether or not somebody smokes is less to do with their biology and more to do with does their friend smoke. Right. Like, if you're around people that just work hard all the time, you're going to be working hard. If you're. We're on people that are exercising all the time, you're going to be exercising all the time. Because we are social creatures and so take stock. Because sometimes it's. It's those family or friends that maybe, you know, kind of maybe steal your dream or some, some of your thunder just because they good intentions, maybe they don't want to see you outgrow them and they, they lose you and there's some kind of separation. Or maybe they don't want you to get your hopes up. But I think it's very important that we choose our peer group and build a community around that. And that'll insulate you for a lot of the stress and, and loneliness and isolation is a big epidemic nowadays for people's mental health.

You just gave us the six Cs, but I feel like in the past half hour, 45 minutes, you've given us 600 reasons to go get limitlessly expanded edition. And people can grab that@lesslessbook.com is that right?

When they go to limitlessbook.com, you get to get all the information there or wherever you get books, Amazon or Barnes and Noble or support your local bookstore.

So I've got a question related to this book you mentioned. There's a whole chapter on AI, and one of the things I was curious, I was like, I wonder what Jim thinks of this whole AI thing that's exploding everywhere. Do you think, think it's going to help our ability to learn and think, or is it going to hurt our ability to learn and think in the long run?

I think it's going to come down to personal choice. Just like how we use it. Like fire is technology. It's an early form of technology, and it's how we're using it. We could use it to cook our food or fire could burn down your home. Right. It's just how it's applied. Kind of like money too. You know, money can amplify your life. Or if someone's really kind of not a great person, they could do more harm with it. But I do think technology. In book I talk about the four four horsemen of the mental apocalypse that we have to be conscious of and just very quickly. Digital deluge. That's the overwhelm. And like taking a sip of water out of fire hose, we're just drowning in information and information anxiety symptoms we're familiar with, higher blood pressure, compression of leisure time, more sleeplessness. That's why we teach speed reading, study accelerated learning to meet the demand of the information. Second one, besides digital deluge, the second horseman, his digital distraction. How do you maintain your concentration in a world full of rings, pings, dings, app notifications, social media alerts? Because we're being, you know, we're always flexing our distraction muscles and wonder why we can't focus when we need to. Right. That's why we have a whole chapter on focus and concentration. The third one is digital dementia. This is a real term in healthcare where it's the high reliance of technology or it's like your device is your external memory hard drive. So you think about how many phone numbers the two of you used to know growing up and it was like all of them, Right. And how many phones now?

I know. None.

None. Right. And that's digital dementia. And not that I want to memorize 500 phone numbers and people who see me on stage memorize 100 numbers all the time or 100 names, but I don't want to memorize 500 phone numbers. But it should be concerning. We've lost the ability to remember one phone number, our PIN number, our passcode or seed phrase or something we just read or something we were going to say, or something somebody said to us, or someone's name. I believe two of the most costly words in life sometimes are, I forgot, I forgot to do it, I forgot to bring it, I forgot the meeting, I forgot to just lose time, trust, a sale, everything. And on the other side, when you could easily remember things, facts, figures, languages, presentation, you need to give a toast at a wedding, remember what you've just read, remember someone's name or client information, product information, life gets so much easier. So that's why the largest chapter in the book is Memory to overcome digital Dementia. And finally, the last one, and I'll get to the AI is digital deduction. And this is involved A little bit with AI and I just made them all Ds. Digital, daily distraction, dementia, deduction. It's. Technology is doing the thinking for us. It's not just telling us, you know, it's telling us what to think. I mean, you think about even simple getting here to there right now, you go on Waze or your Maps app, right? But we're not building that visual spatial intelligence. It's just like technology that if you had to go to the bank and it's eight blocks away and we get in our car, then we don't get our steps in right? So it's convenient. But is it crippling also? Because if you put your arm in a sling for a year, it wouldn't grow stronger. It wouldn't even say the same same. And then like if somebody has their apartment or their office on the third floor and they take the elevator every single time, and they don't do the stairs. The stairs was an opportunity for them to be physically fit. And so I love technology. And I still think we have to maintain our mental fitness more than ever because of things like AI to be able to catch up, keep up, and get ahead. Like, we use AI all the time. I mean, everybody in our team uses in different respects. For when I'm coaching somebody, you could use AI to improve your, hi, your human intelligence. I don't even even see it as artificial intelligence. I see it more as augmented intelligence. Right. Augmentation. It's like a partner for you. So, for example, I mentioned neuroplasticity earlier in the conversation. If someone didn't know what that was, they could go into an AI platform like a GPT to keep it simple and say, hey, explain to me what neuroplasticity is in a story format, as if I'm 8 years old, and you'll be surprised what comes out. It gives you a base foundation. I have a podcast also as well, and sometimes if I'm interviewing an author and get the book in time, and I like to read physical books, I'm not. I don't even know the reason to be on a screen personally, then I could go in there and say, give me a summary of this book or present 10, offer up 10 questions for this expert that they haven't been asked before that that are specific for my audience, and I'll describe my audience. Right? Or we have a quick bot that's in our platform. We have students, 195 nations. We fed it all our courseware so people could go in there and they could just ask Hey, I thought my child learned this formula or this, this periodic table or whatever. How would you go about doing it? And it'll come up with answers. It's amazing. Everything we teach in Limitless expanded everything from mind mapping to memory palaces. You say, hey, I have this presentation to give for work or this sales video I need to make. And then can you mind map this for me? Or can you use Jim's mind palace technique to build a story so I could easily remember it? And then all of a sudden you have that, and then even we have, have. We're programming ours right now to measure your reading speed and reading comprehension, ask you probing questions to test you how much content that you have. But all this is available just because of AI. So I'm just, I'm very. People think that it's going to take over their jobs and technology, you know, trucks, I mean, everyone like it took over horses, everything. There's a progression, but I really think it's the people who choose to apply it will be more valuable in the marketplace than those who don't.

You really summed it up well for me when you said, I don't see it as artificial intelligence, I see it as augmented intelligence. And then giving those examples of like, how you're going to enhance your ability to learn, including, I loved your prompt of teach this to me. Like I'm an 8 year old, because that's something I'm like, oh, now I could understand it. You know what I mean?

I love that. And something I love about you. And no pun intended on your last name, but pun intended. But like you actually, every time I either read something of you, yours or listen to you, there is something quick that I can take away and actually implement, which feels like a win on top of. I know there's things that we could go a lot deeper in that are in, you know, your limitless book. But I feel like those quick hits of winning, you've just like really mastered how to keep people learning.

Yeah. Amen.

Yeah. Every single page or every other page in the book, we have these areas that they just say, it says this quick start, and it's a little exercise you can do in 60 seconds because it's just to prime people, just to realize that just learning this, it's not going to do anything unless you put into action. I feel like we don't know something unless we could do it right. A lot of people could repeat a lot of the things that the two of you have taught, but if they're not doing it, I feel like, they don't really know it. Right. There's a difference. You can't read a book on push ups and just. And just be in better shape. You have to actually do the work. Right.

Yeah, I couldn't agree more. It's funny. I'll kind of sum it up by saying I don't know if you've ever seen the movie Limitless with Bradley Cooper. Have you?

Yeah.

Okay. Well, your book reminds me of the pill that he took because it truly teaches us how to learn everything. Remember in a movie like, like he'd see something and recall it. How to fight all of a sudden, or how to calculate this all of a sudden or do this all. I literally think your Limitless book is that pill. If people would grab it and read it and learn how to learn without.

The nasty side effects.

Without the side effects. Yeah.

Yes, exactly. So we want to do something special. You know, you've been a dear friend forever, and we love to do this for people who, who have books that we support. I want everyone, number one, to go to limitlessbook.com, grab your own copy. But for those of you that are willing to share your biggest takeaway from this episode on Instagram so you can show Jim a thank you for pouring into you guys if you'd share your biggest takeaway from this episode and tag Jim and myself and Lori in your stories so that we see it and can do this, we'll give the first 100 of you you. We will buy it ourselves and send it to you ourselves. So again, for the first 100 of you that are listening right now, if you would take us in your. Your biggest breakthrough, your biggest takeaway on your stories in, in Instagram, then Lori and I will personally buy and send you a Limitless expanded edition book as a thank you for listening and thank you for letting Jim know what your takeaway was.

Yeah, just so generous. Wow. Thank you. I want to just thank the two of you and whoever's listening to this right now. Get on to that, that, that. Right, right. Absolutely. Go quick.

Go quick. Yes. Go, Go quick, Kwik. So listen, and for everybody else, you know, if you're not the first hundred, go over to limitlessbook.com make sure you grab your copy. Grab one for a friend. It's always a great gift. And don't forget to go to my brain. Animal.com.

Right.

That's what it was for the quiz.

Yeah. They could post their picture of their animal and, and tag the three of us also, because I'm curious.

Oh, My gosh. If you do that, that's extra credit.

That's getting you a for sure. If you do that, the majority of your communities are. So it'd be interesting to see the pattern there. So, yeah, when you take the quiz at my Brain Animal, there's a link in my easy link in my Instagram. You'll get some of this art and then they'll post it and tag the three of us so we get to see it. What animal you are.

That's awesome. That gets some extra credit for sure. And guys, make sure you take the three of us, mainly me, because I'm the one that's going to be compiling these and sending them to our assistant to. To buy and send you guys a book. So tag Lori, tag myself, and take Jim so we can all.

I'll see it.

Jim, brother, listen, you know we love you. We are so grateful for the work that you do because we've seen behind the curtain, you work tirelessly, constantly trying to improve the way that you're getting this information out to the world, the way that you teach. You're one of the best teachers on the planet, and I know that you are making millions, literally millions of lives better by teaching people how to learn better.

So grateful for you. And you guys make sure you go take that quiz because it was so much fun. I learned so much about myself, and you're. You're pretty much going to get a free book.

MyBrainAnimal.com all right, Jim, thank you so much for being on brother. We sure appreciate you.

Oh, love you both so much. Thank you.

Bye, everyone.

Sam.