Jim Kwik breaks down FAST, a framework for learning faster: forget what you think you know, actively engage with material, manage your emotional state, and prepare to teach others. He shares stories from his learning disability and meetings with Stan Lee and Richard Branson to show how these principles work.
Chapters
How do you learn a subject or skill in half the time? Let's do this together. I want you to, right now, think of a subject or skill that you just want to learn fast. You want to learn it rapidly at an accelerated rate. You want to learn faster so you can achieve faster. I want you to remember four letters. F, A, S, T. F, A, S, T, fast. And the F stands for forget. You're like Jim, you're this world class memory expert. You're this coach to all these celebrities and CEOs. Why? Why are you starting with forgetting? You want to forget what you already know about the subject so you can learn something brand new. Often a lot of people don't learn faster because they feel like their cup is full and they feel like they know it already. So always remember to start with the beginner's mind. I would also say forget about what's going on in the world and anything that's not urgent important in your world, because if you try to think about things that are going on and be present, you can't do that. And you're only using a fraction of your own potential. If you. If you're distracted, I would also say forget about your limitations because you don't know what you don't know. Often people will see me on stage, memorize a hundred people's names or 100 words numbers backwards and forwards. And I always tell you, I don't do this to impress you. I do this to express to you what's really possible. Because the truth is, you could do it too. Regardless your age or background, your education, you're just not taught how to do it. If anything, you were taught a lie. A lie that somehow your intelligence, your memory, your learning is somehow fixed, like your shoe size. But we know that your learning is absolutely limitless. So set your limitations aside and forget about them. The A in FAST stands for active. What do I mean by active? If you feel overloaded with too much to learn and too little time, like, do you have books on your shelf you haven't read yet? You get more than 10 emails a day. You listen to podcasts, there's so much information out there. But if you feel like you're stressed, like you can't keep up, here's the thing. It's not your fault. You know why? It's because we all grew up with a 20th century education that prepared us for a 20th century world, which at the turn of the century was working in factories and farms. But now, now we live in an age of autonomous electric cars and Spaceships that are going to Mars. But our vehicle choice when it comes to learning is like a horse and buggy. And one of the challenges, our school has trained us to be very passive, sit quietly by yourself, be lectured, to just consume information. But your brain doesn't learn based on consumption. It learns through creation. And so learning is not a spectator sport. You have to get involved, you have to take great notes, you have to ask lots of questions. There's so many things you could do. So to be more active. The S in FAST stands for state. What do I mean by state? I mean the current mood of your mind and your body. Because here's the key to a better memory. Information combined with emotion becomes a long term memory. Information combined with emotion becomes a long term memory. What do I mean by that? Is there a song or a fragrance or a food that could take you back to when you were a child? Of course, because information combined with that emotion becomes a long term memory. The challenge back in school is what was the driving emotion you had back in school when you. For most people, they're bored, right? And if you times anything by zero, what do you get? You get zero. So most people don't remember what they learned back in school because of the state. Remember this, all learning is state dependent. All learning is state dependent. That if you want to learn more, control your state. Now who's in control of your state? You are, because you are a thermostat. You're not a thermometer. What do I mean by that? What does a thermometer do? A thermometer reacts to the environment. It reflects what the environment is giving it. And so we are all thermometers at some point and that affects our state, right? React to the weather, we react to the economy, we react to how people treat us. But in reality, where's the locus of focus? Who has the control? You do, because you're a thermostat. A thermostat is different, right? A thermostat sets a vision, it sets a goal, it sets a standard. And what happens to the environment? The environment raises to meet that thermostat. And for you, you want to identify with the thermostat. And the most important thing that you want to have control over is how you feel. I remember recently I got to introduce two of my superheroes together. I talk about superheroes because I grew up with learning challenges from a brain injury. I taught how to read. It took me three years longer to learn how to read. I taught myself how to read by reading comic Books late at night. Something about the superhero story really brought it to life for me. And recently I got to introduce two of my superheroes together. It was Sir Richard Branson and Stan Lee. Stan Lee. Not Stan Lee. Stan Lee, the co creators of Spider Man, Avengers X Men, Fantastic Four. And I remember asking Stan Lee, I said, stan, who's your favorite superhero? And he says, iron Man. He says, jim, who's your favorite superhero? And he had this spider. Spider man tie. I posted on Instagram and I was like, spider Man. And without a pause he went, with great power comes great responsibility. With great power comes great responsibility. You've heard that, right? And I went to him, I said, sam, you're right. With great power comes great responsibility. And the opposite is also true. With great responsibility comes great power. When we take responsibility for something, we have great power to make it better. And I think the most important responsibility we have is controlling how we feel. How do you get into that state of curiosity, of excitement? Excitement? I mean, who are the fastest learners on the planet? They're children, right? Children have this wonder. One of my favorite quotes is from Roomie says, trade your cleverness for bewilderment. Trade your cleverness for bewilderment. And finally the T and fast. If you want to learn any subject or skill faster, learn it as if you're going to teach it to somebody else. Because when you're learning it to teach it, then you're going to pay attention differently. Then you're going to make it your own, Then you're going to remember it differently. Because here's the thing, when you teach something, you get to learn it twice. Hi, my name is Jim Kwik. And growing up, I was labeled the boy with a broken brain with all these learning challenges and disabilities. And I went from that to become the world's leading memory and brain coach for the world's top universities, CEOs and celebrities. Over the past 25 years, I've developed all these strategies and techniques to unleash the power of your super brain. I want to share these techniques and methods with you. I hope you'll join me, Sam.
