Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 1300: Upgrade Your Brain With Jim Kwik

Episode Date: May 25, 2020

In this episode, Sal, Adam & Justin speak once again with renowned brain coach, Jim Kwik. Jim provides actionable advice on how to develop the right mindset to excel in these uncertain times. How loneliness is an epidemic. (3:50) Life is the seed between B and D. (6:17) The ‘Limitless’ model for parents. (15:19) The methodology surrounding the book. (19:53) The four stages of the “hero's journey.” (23:26) Small simple steps to WIN during these tough times. (25:33) How to upgrade your capability and skills. (31:21) Shifting your mindset from fear to opportunity. (40:20) Practices to build your focus. (47:08) Knowledge is what is and imagination is what could be. (54:20) The ‘Limitless’ framework to build the ultimate human being. (59:26) Jim Kwik Challenge. (1:16:54)   Related Links/Products Mentioned May Promotion: MAPS Starter ½ off! **Promo code “STARTER50” at checkout** Special Promotion: MAPS Anywhere ½ off!! **Code “WHITE50” at checkout** Visit Everly Well for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! **Code “mindpump” at checkout** Mind Pump #1002: Jim Kwik’s 10 Keys To Getting More Out Of Your Brain Kwik Brain Episode 101: 4 Keys to Changing Your Behavior & Habits Kwik Learning Dealing With The Effects Of Digital Dementia Kwik Brain 138: Discovering Your Dominant Question Mind Pump #1020: Dandapani On The Power Of Focus Kwik Brain 158: How to Sustain Your Motivation The One Thing Only 1% of People Do | TRY IT FOR 21 DAYS and Success Will Come! Mindset: The New Psychology of Success – Book by Carol S. Dweck Mind Pump Free Resources Featured Guest/People Mentioned Jim Kwik (@jimkwik)  Instagram Website Limitless Mark Hyman, M.D. (@drmarkhyman)  Instagram Dandapani (@dandapanillc) on Instagram/Twitter

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, with your hosts. Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. In this episode of Mind Pump, we interview the great Jim Quick. Now, he's got an interesting story. After a childhood brain injury left him with learning challenges, he created innovative strategies to dramatically enhance his mental performance.

So for over 25 years, Jim Quikis worked closely with top actors, athletes, CEOs, and super achievers in all walks of life to unlock their true capabilities. This guy specializes in memory improvement, brain optimization, and accelerated learning. Now, he just wrote a book called Limitless. In this groundbreaking book, he reveals the science-based practices and field-tested techniques that the world's top performers use to accelerate their learning and create world-class results.

Jim speaks on the power of the brain to audiences totaling 200,000 plus across the world per year. His online videos have garnered millions of views each and he's frequently featured in Forbes, Fast Company, and CNBC, and he shares brain optimization insight. You're gonna love this episode. This guy drops tons of knowledge, apical knowledge to help you think faster and better.

Now you can find him online at gymquick.com, so this J-I-M-K-W-I-K.com, you can look up his book, LimitlessBook.com, it's really cool, and then you can find him on Instagram at gymquick. Remember, quick spelled with the K-K-W-I-K. Now before we start the episode, I want to let everybody know that this episode is sponsored by one of our favorite companies, Everly Well.

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It's the Memorial Day apparel sale. Also, by the way, that starts tomorrow and it ends Friday, May 29th, so get on there right now. And also, maps Starter, our wonderful introduction to resistance training program is 50% off. All you need are dumbbells and a physio ball for this program, just go to mapsstarter.com, that's MAPS, S-T-A-R-T-E-R, and then use the code Starter50.

That's S-T-A-R-T-E-R,0, no space, and that'll give you 50% off that program. I'd love to start you off with, since you're the brain guy, I want to ask you, how do you think right now this shelter in place is and social distancing is actually affecting our brains. Yeah, I mean, I think, I mean, historically, this never happened, you know, where the whole planet is experiencing the same level, you know, the same stressor, if you will, especially at the size and scope. So it's kind of unprecedented.

I would imagine a lot of people who are tuning in, they feel like with all this physical distancing that they are alone, and the metaphor I'm using right now is that of a butterfly, where it's the ultimate transformation, right? When the caterpillar feels like it's in the world, it becomes that butterfly. The wild beauties and the butterfly,

the growth happens in the cocoon, and we feel like we're cocooning. And one of the challenges to our mind is that we're alone with our thoughts. I mean, we're alone with our doubts, we're alone with our fears. And we might be feeling alone, and loneliness is an epidemic, you know, the challenges that has on our nervous system, you know, is on the rise. I'm sure a lot of people are experiencing a lot of symptoms of mental health issues. You know, in this, because chronic, we know chronic stress, shrink your brain, we know chronic fear actually suppresses your immune system. So it makes you more susceptible to viruses, to flus, to colds.

So, a whole area of science called psychonuro immunology. Psychonuro immunology, and so, you know, the media certainly doesn't help with everything that bleeds or leads and people choosing to focus on that, you know, it just makes them more, even more difficult because there's an algorithm to that, and we start looking for everything that's dark and scary and the breading, and if you're in fight and flight and freeze all the time, you're not gonna be able to create just the life that you desire, the life that you deserve under these those circumstances.

So I think more than ever, do we need to prioritize not just physical hygiene, but also mental hygiene. Like physical hygiene, we should be spending six months, six feet apart, washing our hands, sanitizing everything, but I think people really need to be very vigilant about standing guard to their mind, monitoring their physical, their mental hygiene, as well as their physical. What are some good practices for that?

I've never heard that before, that term, mental hygiene. Yeah, I would say that in the book, limitless, it has, I have this quote from a French philosopher that says life is the sea between B and D. Life is sea between B and D and B stands for birth and D stands for death. See, life stands for choice. And there are simple choices that we can make that our life is to some total of all the choices that we've all made up to this point and where are we going to live, what are we going to do, are we going to you know cocoon, are we not, or what are we going to eat, what are we going to feed our minds, you know, just

who we can spend time with. So there are five choices that I would focus on while we're cocooning, so we could come out stronger and smarter and better, and I'm not saying I'm not discounting anything anyone is feeling, I'm saying that again, this is a different kind of human experience. And so we're gonna feel like all spectrum of emotions, the five choices we can make while we're cocooning.

For better mental hygiene and mental health, I would say, number one clarity, using this time to reconnect with what's most important to us in life. And people might hear a siren because I'm actually cocooning in New York City, which is interesting, you know, from terms of your men, but in terms of what's going on with mental hygiene. Number one is clarity and asking yourself this simple question, what's most important to me in life? Because sometimes, before this, where we were going a million miles an hour, now we're

taking a global pause, and we have finally, we have time to check in with ourselves, and maybe when you're racing your car, or be single day, you don't have to check in with yourself to say, am I going in the right direction? This idea where we're climbing the ladder's success, we're being extremely efficient about it, and then we get to the top of the ladder, and what if we're climbing the ladder's success, we're being extremely efficient about it, and then we get to the top of the ladder and what if we're leaning on the wrong wall, right? And so, solitude is a great time for self-reflection, and to get self-reflection, I would get into your core values, and the clarifying question is, what's most important to me in life?

What's most important to me in a career? What's most important to me in a job? What's most important to me in my impact? What's most important to me in my family, in's most important to me in a job, what's most important to me in my impact, what's most important to me in my family, my relationships, and my health, and reconnecting with our values, and then asking yourself a second clarifying question, because connecting with your values will give you strength. That clarity gives you power. Second question is, are my actions aligned with those values?

Because if people are self-sabotaging, if they're taking one step forward and leaps back, usually it's because the things we're doing aren't aligned with those things that are most important to us. And then that's why it's important this kind of fight, tug, pull constantly, and it's hard to be an alignment with ourselves internally. And sometimes that we don't question what our values are. Sometimes they've changed over time, but this is a great time to connect with ourselves. So that's clarity. Second choice that you can make that while you're cocooning, good for your performance and your just piece of mind is care. You know, self care is not selfish. And when it comes to mental hygiene, I mean, you and I, we've all talked in the previous episode on best

brain foods and optimizing your sleep. And what I would say for mental hygiene, choice is a what you're going to input into your brain, who you're going to spend time with, who you don't listen to. My challenge with people who are overindulging in media, because if it pleads, it leads, we know media is a business like any other business, and the product is viewers and listeners. And so I would say that, you know, tune in if not seven o'clock to find out how many people fell in love and how many people had children and gave birth to all those great news, but you tune in if you're going to die. You know, the seven ways you're going to die today, tune in at 11. You're in a tune in and the challenge is just as your, your, as Instagram has an algorithm. If you happen to engage with

every workout post like share watch all those workout videos, Instagram is going to show you a lot more workout post. Same thing with your mind. Your mind has an algorithm and if you just feed it with dark and scary and threatening, it just starts feeding you everything that's dark and scary, much likely background noise that's going on here in the city, and then you just start seeing that all through your mental newsfeed. And the challenge is you have a limited bandwidth, and you're not going to be, that means you're not putting energy and focus into possibility, you're not putting focus into opportunity, you're not putting focus into what you're grateful for.

And those kind of things. So that's what I mean more about mental hygiene choosing what's going inside your mind. On a regular basis, I mean really the Jolenton standing guard to your mind. And I'm not saying don't, I'm not saying just be positive. And you can know, I think it's important to know what's going on. So you can make good decisions. I'm just saying the overindulgence, will put you in fight or flight or freeze and you're not going to have quality life that way. So you have clarity of care, third-see contribution. I think the antidote to chronic fear or feeling scared is service.

And so the question to get your contribution is how can you invest some of your time, your talent, your treasure to making a difference. You know, you guys know my story, right? Like it's just I grew up with learning challenges. I was definitely afraid of public speaking phobia or a lot of people say they're scared of phobic like public speaking, they're not really compared to me. My heart, I would pass out.

My heart was being on my chest. I would have her ventilate. I wouldn't know what to do. And so I would always, I would do a book report, but T-Trash could present it. I would say, I would pass out. My heart was being on my chest. I would have her ventilate. I wouldn't know what to do. And so I would always, I would do a book report, but if T-Trash could present it, I would say, I would lie. And I'd say I didn't do it. So I even get to talk about butterflies, butterflies before I go on stage still.

But the moment I just focus on the audience, serving them, then this fear disappears. And so I would say, how can you contribute right now to the world? Like right now, with our proceeds for my first book, Limitless, we're donating 100% to build schools for children. We don't have access to education. So we're also providing health care, clean water,

exact keeps kids out of school in these challenging areas. Also, we're donating money's towards Alzheimer's research. And because in memory of my grandmother, past Alzheimer's, but on social media, we're doing like student programs that are for free. We're doing recession proof your brain for people who have lost their jobs on Instagram and Facebook. But how can you contribute in a unique way to get out of that fear? Because I think of

like calling up a neighbor, it's simple as checking out somebody's older and more vulnerable, preparing for some food for people on the front lines, but service. And so I think that's an antidote to fear and detrimental hygiene stride. So clarity, care, contribution, finally, two more things, creativity.

I feel like a lot of people, they're not burnt out because they're doing too much. A lot of people are burnt out because they're doing too little. It makes them feel alive. And I think part of being alive is creating. And so it was during the Great Play that William Shakespeare wrote some of his greatest works. McBath, Anthony, and Cleopatra. It was during, when they shut down London during the play that Isaac Newton had to physically

distance himself and sound familiar. He had to sit sitting underneath a tree at his yard and then Apple fell on his head and came up with a serious motion, the theories of gravity. And I'm not saying we could create those kind of things, but you know, you could create that blog, you could create that music, you could create that business, you could create, you know, you could write a little bit each day, you could do something creative. And by the way, even before what's going on in the world, jobs are going to AI, artificial intelligence,

they were going to machines, they're going to automation, and what's not gonna be outsourced is your creativity. When I talk about limitless, I believe the limitless resource on planet earth is human potential. Like it's not the sky's the limit, it's more our minds are the limit. There's no limit to your creativity,

there's no limit to your imagination. There's no limit to your imagination. There's no limit to humans be able to come together or human determination. I'm fan follow through. And so that would double down on creativity because I believe the future belongs to creatives. And this could be a personal renaissance for each of us. And then finally, the last C, after clarity,

care, contribution, creativity, capability. And if you want to be able to take control of your mind, one of the things you can do is just you have your to-do list, you have a to-learn list. What are the things on your to-learn list? You've always said, oh, when I have some time, I'll do that, when I have some focus, I'll do that. Does it manage? Also, speed reading, you know, we have unfethered access to the world's information, YouTube podcasts. And I think if someone's going to level up in any capability, it's learning how to learn.

And that's why we wrote this book, because I think if there's one skill where jobs are being disrupted and economies are changing, you have to learn a new career subject or skillset, learn how to learn. Because if you can learn how to learn, which means how to focus, how to read faster, how to improve your memory, how to make good decisions, how to study technical material, and you can apply that towards money, management, marketing, martial arts, music, man, man, man, or anything. Everything gets easier. Jim, we have a lot of people, a lot of

listeners right now that have been shaken up with the shelter in place and are now parents that are teachers for the first time in their life. They've never had to school their kids from home and a lot of them are struggling. What are some tools from limitless that you can provide for these parents that are struggling with this? That's a great question. So the whole book you could apply towards children. And we could talk about the limitless model, which is really the whole framework of not only accelerated learning, but for unlocking human potential, both in yourself,

your family, your team, your community, and such. Right now, for parents who never really sat down and then teachers, that is quite an experience. Quite a had to be able to have and a responsibility. And then how are you going to do that and also manage your business and work? And so none of this is easy. It is, some of the things are very simple, but they're also, it's that simple, but it's also that difficult also as well. I would say one of the important things,

I'll add another C to the list, because all five of those could be applied towards children is consistency. I think it's extremely important as a parent, where our somebody working or your manager team at home is to have structure because those constraints will give you, will actually, it's ironic because those limits will actually make you more limitless.

When you have constraints on your time or your money or your some kind of resources of it forces concentration, it forces creativity, it forces commitment. And so I think routines are very important. Educational routines. We talked about in the previous episode, the first you create your habits,

and then your habits create you. Now, this is crazy, this background noise, because it's never like that. I don't know if you guys are picking this up, but this is actually, if this is makes the edits right now, because it's real, this is raw, it's extremely relevant right now. This is a test on your focus and concentration.

And we can talk about, we do a whole chapter on focus and focus development that focuses a muscle. And most people are actually building their distraction muscles nowadays, with every ping-ping, ding, social media alert, you know, notification and stuff like that. So I would encourage everybody, when distractions come,

either in this conversation or I elsewhere, is to really hone your focus. Point back to who, working with kids, certainly your focus is being tested. And I think having structure, that having routines for them and for yourself is very important. Having set times is incredibly important

in terms of not only asking yourself the question as you're listening to this, how can I apply this? Why must I apply this? But also when will I apply this? Having actual teaching times. And then also teaching them the things that are in the book that we've discussed before, how to read faster, how to improve their memory, how to study. You go to kids and you expect them to be able to focus

because you go to kids and you're like, focus or you go to kids and say, study. And it's like going to a child and say, play the piano who's never had a class and playing the piano. They've never had a class and how to focus. They've never had a class on how to remember things. They've never had a class on how to study. So I think an important thing that would give

your children an advantage is teaching them how to learn as opposed to what to learn. And this is an opportune time to do that right now. And Misch is going through and teaching them how to read faster. I'm teaching them how to focus, teaching them how to study better, teaching them the best brain foods, teaching them how to, you know, especially, you know, routines that we've talked about and you've had the experts on your show before. Well, it's absolutely very talking about genius foods, or people who are experts on sleep, merely managing their sleep.

All that, everyone wants to know the pill. I mean, the book is called Limit List. Some people think of the movie, you guys saw the movie, right? It would rather be Cooper. Right, moving to your house, yeah. Yeah, I mean, the pill, you take the pill, it was from zero to hero, and you can have focus.

He has his gravel memory, learn to use the languages. He follows through, but it's a surge, right? It's a surge of motivation. But after a pill wears off, 20-parameters later, he loses that motivation. So in the book, I have a three-step formula also for motivation for sustainable motivation, which is not like hyping yourself up,

but also you can apply it towards yourself and your team. But especially your children, how to motivate them, the study, how to motivate them to clean their room, how to motivate them to always be learning. Now, these are just concepts, right? This is an actual curriculum that you provided them. This is a curriculum, yeah. This is the closest thing that I've ever created for a textbook.

I waited 28 years to publish this work, and this book, primarily, it's interesting. I'm gonna talk about this, but when I was writing it, this book was 100% methodology. It was based on the five superpowers, I think every age and stage of life should have, and it's all around meta-learning.

And I was actually gonna title it meta-learning. Meta-learning means learning how to learn, but then I realized that having learning in the main titles is just not something people... not attractive. Not at all. So I was like limitless. Yes, that's it. We went into something and Dr. Mark Kymin wrote the forward of the book and he's like, you know, in the forward he says, there is no genius pill, but there is a process for genius and Jim shows you, you know, that process for your best brain, your brightest future. But the book is full of processes, methods on the Sufi superpowers. The first one is focus,

because how are you going to concentrate and roll full of these crazy distractions? The second chapter is on studying, how do you study technical material and really understand it. Third one is on memory, which is the largest chapter. I actually wrote that in Greece. Holy smokes. I think you're out to get you. It's never been like this. So crazy. On memory, I actually wrote in Greece because I found out that goddess of memory, her children, the nine uses of literature, science and arts, which is interesting. The mother of science, literature and art is memory.

And I found out that these ancient memory techniques that I was really inspired, I wrote it there. And then the final two chapters and methods with speed reading and critical thinking skills. And the critical thinking skills, we've talked about digital super villains before, digital distraction, digital, the veiluge overload, digital dementia. By coin another term called digital deduction, where it's interesting that children talk going back to children, and when they're tested, they have lower analytical abilities than previous generations, and they're attributed that to technology because they're growing up on technology that's telling them just what to think. So they never have to develop like

their critical thinking skills, their ability to rationalize or analyze, divergent thinking because everything's being spoon fed for us in terms of what to think. We're not taught how to think. But going back to methodology when I was ready, the book was done. It was a great textbook manual curriculum on how to learn anything faster. And before I hit send, I asked myself to my publisher, the question is like, is our 100% of the people going to get the results of this program that they're hoping for? My honest answer was no, because a lot of people know methods, but they don't do it, because knowledge alone is not power. All the podcast programs coaching, not if it works unless we work. And so I realized that it was missing two elements, and I developed

this limitless model as a framework for really accelerated learning and unlocking human potential. Because somebody kept the method for remembering names, you know, stuffy, we've talked about in previous episodes, but their mindset is I'm stupid, I'm too old, I'm not smart enough, they're still going to be stuck in that box. And so we're trying to develop this framework for everybody to be able to have a lens for themselves,

for their children, for their teams, to see how we can redraw the borders and boundaries of what we believe is possible in our life. Now, do you have any examples of high profile people or anything you've used these concepts with and they've really ran with it? Yeah, I mean, I can't... I mean, we've given a couple examples in the book with Jim Carrey and Will Smith and some individuals that I've been just very public about. Some of them, it's like with anybody coming to a coach, they have their stuff and it's a little bit more personal and such. But really, in the book, you guys know the hero's journey, right? From Joseph Campbell,

he's really popularized the hero's journey, the thematic themes that are consistent between like Star Wars and Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings and stuff like that. I take people through those stages, so I really make them the star of it. So when we're talking about famous individuals, I know people are watching that video, but these are the four stages of the hero's journey that if you take the matrix, it's the program where they take people from the ordinary, they take them in the extraordinary, and I take people to these four phases where I make them Neo, or they are Luke Skywalker,

and I'm like Yoda. I mean, Mr. Miyagi, or whoever the mentor is, Hollande the journey, that they fight these dragons, and they level up skills. And then it's interesting, because the last phase is then going back into the Matrix or back into, from the extraordinary back into the ordinary. And even when you think about Matrix,

when Kenna Reeves goes back into Matrix at the end, and he makes that phone call to the Matrix and says, let me get the facts like,'m going to show everybody what you don't want them to see. I'm going to show them a world without limits. I'm going to show them a world where anything is possible and they bring that elixir, that treasure back into the ordinary. And so it's kind of similar to what I talk about.

You learn so you can earn, so you're return. You learn, so you can learn so you can return. You learn so you can benefit from it, but then you also learn so how you can teach it to other people and share that strength. Jim, I want to take you back to the parents. You glazed over something earlier about service. I really like this because I've talked to a lot of people that are struggling with work right now and they're doing things at a desperation to try and generate revenue and you kind of alluded to the importance of getting back to how can I serve, right?

And I really think that will serve you in business. But what about those that are facing unemployment and may not have a job right now? What are some tips that you can give to these people? Yeah. First of all, for people who are struggling right now, I mean, again, I would start with kindness. First of all, study is done in self-compassion, or beating ourselves up, and feel hopeless, that does no one any good.

And so when I say life is a seed between B and D, to get B is birth, D is death, C is choice. Like making the choice of what to focus on right now is so important. So I'll just state that. It's just that kindness. Instead of beating yourself up and going into that spiral of hopelessness, that doesn't benefit anybody and doesn't change our circumstance. That being said, I know people are struggling and it is extremely difficult times.

And I know that through everybody has survived. I want everyone to think about that time when we didn't think we were to survive, and yet we did. And so just remember how far you've come, and that you are stronger than anything you're facing. That's easy to hear. And I'll be the first to say that. And I hope everyone listening to this, I send you strength and safety and security and buttons, whatever it is you need right now. What I would say is small simple steps

is that thinking is good, but overthinking it and trying to get it, like trying to get from where you are right now to absolutely perfect, this is very difficult. The key really is to break things down in the smallest, simplest steps so you're not overloaded and overwhelmed. Right now, if you lost your job, you don't know, you're home with your car, you have your job and you have to watch the kids, you're me stretch, your resources are being, you know, you're in gym, like how are you going to be limitless in a limited world? And one of the ways we do it is we do it together,

right? Like right now, and this is another thing with labels is like we aren't the words we use affect our brain and affect our performance. And right now we aren't socially distancing, even though that's the phrase we commonly use, we're being socially, you know, all of us right now, we're physically distancing ourselves, but we're not socially distancing ourselves. I get concerned when these individuals, you know, people are mentally distancing themselves, or they're emotionally distancing themselves. I think more than ever, it's important to have community, and that's why, and also, it's very important to feed your mind, positive things, to drown out, you know, all the negativity

and everything that's threatening. So listening to this podcast would be a small, simple step for people because as viruses are contagious and as fear is contagious, so is positivity, so is performance. And so I would feed your mind good things and then I would literally break things down into the smallest, simplest, stepped right now.

And one of the things that you could, questions that you could put towards it to get you out of paralysis are fear, fight, flight, freezing, which is not gonna help anybody, is saying, what is the tiniest action I could take right now to get me progress towards this goal? So tiny I can't fail. You know what I mean?

The small, I call this three, small, simple steps, because little by little, a little becomes a lot. And so, if your goal is, right now, you lost your job, I'd be thinking about, it's hard to talk to somebody about, when we're talking about the Maslow's hierarchy, self-actualization when people don't have survive. So let's make sure we're taking care of. And that we can do whatever we can to get the bills paid and food on the table

and roof over our head. And I would say, okay, get clarity because it can be very threatening. And when you're in fight or flight, you go, you're not thinking really well. You're not making your best decisions. And so take care of yourself. All the stuff we do five sees, we talk about care,

you know, how do build all this stuff. And it doesn't have to be a lot of time. It can be like 10 minutes on care. You know, 10 minutes for going for walk and meditating, you know, or doing an ice bath or doing something for help reset yourself, managing your state throughout this entire thing. Knowing we always can decide and have a choice about how we think about things, what things are meaning right now, and what are we going to do, you to do in terms of what I talk about this limitless model. And so manage your state most importantly, because everyone's watching you, right?

Your kids are watching you, and ask yourself, who's counting on me to be at my best today? Who's counting on me to show up with my A game today, reconnecting with your purpose, and then making sure you're cared for so you have plenty of energy to follow through, and then breaking it down in the small simple steps. And so, like, let's tackle the problem. You have this bill or you want to start this business, what is a tiny domino, one thing that you could do to be able to create a momentum or change. And then you could break it down into small things, even like if you're breaking down things that are good for your care,

we know exercising for everybody. But some people have never exercised before, maybe that's too big. So maybe their small, simple step is not exercising an hour a day, or sales calls an hour a day, fill in the blank reading, studying an hour a day. Maybe it's putting on your running shoes. That's the small, simple step. Maybe it's opening up your book on marketing.

That's a small simple step. All right, and so I say manage your state because that's all learning is state to penance, so it's life, and then break into on a small simple steps to get you there. So it's not overwhelming, and where you're not frozen. Now oftentimes, situations like this leave people thinking that they may need to learn new skills Maybe the job market's gonna look different

When things reopen or things get more you know kind of backs normal We see this in the fitness space a lot of brick and mortar gyms are having to change the way that they operate So people may be thinking that they need to learn new skills so that they can, you know, become relevant in the workforce as things start to change and morph. What are some ways people can learn new skills quickly? Because I feel like there might be a time crunch for some people. Yeah, I mean, without a doubt. And so I believe that the goal is capability going back to to that fifth C, that it's not about shrinking our dreams or our goals to meet this current situation, about upgrading our skills and capabilities and our determination, our face, our patience to be able to meet

those goals. And so this is an opportunity to do that. And again, going back to opportunity, first of all we have to ship our focus from fear to opportunity because that mindset shift changes a lot. And then I would go into thinking about what are the skills that I need to be able to achieve that goal or to be relevant today. I mentioned one of the master skills is learning how to learn. So how can you learn how to learn a new skill?

And so one of the keys is you work backwards and then you break things down into chunks. Because what I do is I'll take a, you take a skill, you can take a skill called dance, you can take a skill called coding, even video game, you know, trainer, like what we're doing. It's interesting, people are in our community, you know, we have students in every country in the world online for the past 10 years. So it's interesting how people are using these methodologies to train, even things like chunking, breaking things down in space review, to help you to consolidate short to long-term memories.

So focusing on even gamers, they've broken it down nowadays where before it was just, it was like all of you, just doing do, you would do, you know, this is people break it down, you know, now they're breaking down into these micro movements, these micro trainings or these hand-eye coordination drills, such it's doing with joystick and reaction time and optimizing their sleep. I would say two of the things that are really important for skill development are space repetition that we know that it's not, that you can go fully immersed in new deep practice and in terms of your learning curves, there's a forgetting curve and that within 48 hours,

you can lose up to 80% of something that you learn. And so the space review will help you to be able to retain it. And so reviewing something in hour or a day, a few, three days, a week, days a week, you know, a month afterwards up you to ingrain that skill. We also know that that also optimizing obviously your brain health is key, that sleep is a wonderful time to be able to reflect. We're actually experimenting with some friends where we're doing this lucid dreaming experiment where, you know, when you will spend 20 years of your life sleeping, probably three to five years fully dreaming, and that creative state of three to five years,

you know, it's with when Paul McCarty created yesterday and you know, the lifestyle creative sewing machine, Mary Shelley created Frankenstein, I was one, that's a lot of athletes actually, like Jack Nicholas was in the slump and he was shooting high 70s and he just couldn't get out of it and he had to, he was obsessed about it during the day and his brain worked on it at night, it is vivid dream about changing his grip and the next day, Sean, like 65. And so like, you know, like if someone think people would do for skill development, it's gonna be interesting, it's to practice that skill and then introduce like a question right before you go to sleep. Have you guys had to get up the next morning, one time especially early and you said in alarm and you're thinking about it, why don't you have the 430, it catches lighter or

whatever, and you wake up within a minute or two minutes of when that alarm goes off. That's amazing, that's the power of your human mind. I mean, think about the complexity. You gave it an intention and you're able to like wake up within minutes or seconds of that time. Like why not before you go to sleep introduce the creative question or spill the filming question. And so that way when you're actually dreaming

you could actually come up with solutions for that. How do you do that, Jim? actually come up with solutions for that. How do you do that, Jim? Do you just say it to yourself? Okay, I need to figure out how to get better with my nutrition or I need to, like how do you just, you literally, do you just repeat it to yourself as you're sleeping?

Do you write it down? What would be a technique to do this? How would you do this exactly? So for me, when we talked about in the previous episode, my morning routine ox, right, we've heard you won the one-in-day at the win that first hour of the day, I just spent a good focus on the last hour, focused on sleep, and then also the last part of that is creativity. So what I'll do is the night before, you know, I tried to my slice, sleep hygiene and everything else, and I go into like my meditation, I do this kind kind of like mindfulness thing and then I go into meditation. I just go to write the bed

I'll introduce a question that I want you know, and this is kind of like an affirmation But our words have a lot of power to it our brains are like these super computers and our self-talk are the programs It's gonna run and especially when you're in that altered state of consciousness in terms of dream state You know, it has it takes off a lot of the limits of our imagination. And so I actually say something verbally. Now I happen to keep a dream journal right by my bedside. And I use it, it dubs also as a gratitude journal. So before I was part of my sleep routine, I'll rehearse the world that I was grateful for that day. It also is a great practice for episodic memory to review like your day throughout, like I'll rehearse what I was grateful for that day. And also it was a great practice for episodic memory

to review like your day throughout. Like I'll take five minutes before I go to bed and just mentally rehearse what I woke up, that interview that I had, a little bit of comfort writing what I ate that day, just to build my sensitivity of that, the episodes of what I went through my day, because I feel like if your life is worth living, it's worth remembering.

Sometimes these days, I don't know how you guys feel, but these days are like blending together a little bit. They're all melty together. They are, right? And like what's like the weekend and what's like every day is like the same for a lot of people. So I'm making more of a conscious effort than I have done before, like making it distinctive, because the reason why people feel a time distortion, like maybe it's going too fast, is because there's nothing distinctive that's happening in their life.

Like, if you go into a restaurant or you want to a play, or if you want to go see a movie, there's not these little milestones that make it distinctive, so it's all blending together, right? So what I do before I go to bed is I'll go through a gratitude thing, but before that, I'll go through a memory recall exercise. And this is actually like, like, but I'll, before that, I'll go through a memory recall exercise. And this is actually like you guys are with physical fitness. This is my way of mentally making me more mentally fit when it comes to my memory as trained as it is.

I'll go through and I'll just kind of go through some of the, how I spent, you know, these hours of the day, just kind of rapid review. It doesn't have to be in deep detail. And then I'll go through and just saying, one of them, I'm grateful for, like what are three wins that day? As little or as small, because that puts me in that gratitude mode, which is where a lot of people are on their phones and are looking at how many people die today, or like they're looking

at all these crazy stats. That puts such a cognitive load, emotional load on you before you go to bed. And then you're expecting to be able to perform the next day. So I feel like what I do is I go through my memory, I pull out some gratitude, I'll write some of those things down, and then I'll introduce a question, just something for me to meditate on,

before I be mindful about. And I don't obsess about the answer. That's a thing. And so an example could be, who someone here is, like in terms of learning, is just like getting curious about this skill called sales or negotiation, right? Maybe putting a thought like, you have a mentor of your mind, somebody that represents that skill, like really well, because then I'll find that I'll have like a dream about meeting

that person, you know, and having a conversation. And we're not getting into like lucid dreaming and becoming aware of your dreams, controlling your dreams. I'm just saying, as you would, saying, oh, I have to wake up at 4.45 tomorrow, and you happen to do that, putting in introducing a question and then just, you know, meditating on it for a few minutes, you can write it down certainly, you know, because that makes it more taken invisible and make it invisible. And then going to that soft dream state, and I find that if you remember your dreams, which is a whole different area, then a lot of that focus actually happens around that theme.

And then when you are unconscious and you're in that dream state, you don't have the limits in the constraints, and you can go and explore and learn the experience and you come out with an insight the next day and come out stronger. But to sleep, and even just physiologically, we know how important that deep sleep and that REM sleep is for skill acquisition can solidate and short to learn long-term memory and so on. Jim, you said something really powerful that I want to take you back to and I'd like for you to elaborate or maybe share a story or an example because I think it is so powerful and a lot of people don't understand how to do this and that was

shift the mindset of fear to opportunity Can you can you go a little deeper on that or maybe even share an example? So because you said it real real quick and I know how powerful it is and I know that most people don't understand how to exactly do that. Yeah, so it starts in the book and I want to definitely need to go over like the three part framework for becoming limitless in the book on mindset. I talk about these lies and I say these seven lies to learning and the potential that are globally accepted.

And nobody really questions them. It's just like this is how things are. An example of that lie, for example, is that genius is born. Right. Like if you believe that lie, and a lie for me stands for a limited idea, entertained, limited, because I mean, I'm so, I mean, I'm literally, I literally make everything acronym so people can remember it. Hey, it works, man. Those are called quicky-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y. Yeah, these quicky-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y- as the truth, and then I help people to install a new belief, because if you believe geniuses are born, then what are you going to do? If you're just financial geniuses, you're just born with it, or you don't have it, then

you're just screwed, right? So I show people how it's actually the opposite, which is actually geniuses built. And I give people examples of why that's the case. Going back in terms of fear, again, your brain, as a hunter gatherers, hardwired, your migtail is getting hijacked all the time about what's the threat thing you, and it has to, otherwise you want to, you people back then want to survive. The challenge is, is when there's no immediate threat, and we're just obsessing about it. And here's the thing, what controls our focus are the questions that we ask.

And I know there's a couple of our videos that we put out with our interview talking about dominant questions and will Smith's dominant question and everything. I would focus, if you start asking and training yourself what it hurt me or what's threatening or how many people die today or how is this going. Then you're going to get, then your focus is going to be narrow on everything that's threatening

and you're not going to be focusing on the opportunity. So how do you put shift your focus is going to be narrow on everything that's threatening and you're not going to be focusing on the opportunity. So how do you put shift your focus from what's beautiful to possibility and opportunity, you shift your questions. Now, it's not, I'm not saying it's easy. I'm saying it's that simple and it's that difficult at the same time because you're literally rewiring your brain and training your brain to have a new dominant question. And instead of like, oh my God, how is this and the spiral is down, all the things that's going wrong. Everything that's going wrong, your focus goes there

and you create more of those behaviors that make that self-fulfilling. Now we know your thoughts are the language of your mind and your feelings are the language of your body. So you need to control your psychology and your physiology to be in that state because opportunity really luck, as people call it, is when opportunity appropriation meet. Now you're not going to be prepared or even see that opportunity because you're in new speed going back to that algorithm. If you're just engaging with

everything that's bad and dark, you got to start retraining your brain to see opportunity in times of crisis. That's what leaders do. We know that all the huge amount and disproportionate amount of millionaires were created during great depressions and everything else like that because they look forced for opportunity. When they're looking at opportunity that also mitigates the fear of taking action. I really do believe that if failure is not an option then neither is success. Meaning that I think Seth Godin said that, that failure is not the opposite of success, failure is part of the success.

And but if you're just looking at what could go wrong or what you're risking, then you're never gonna be able to make a change in this new environment. And I'm using this metaphor of cocooning, like we're going through this mass transformation, because again, we're alone with our thoughts, we're alone with our fears, we're alone with our doubts.

And if we indulge in those things, then we're in fight or flight, we're not gonna take action. How do you get out of it? You change your psychology or physiology. So make sure you have your soundtrack, imagine people are cheering for you in a big stadium, you have to play the music to whatever you're rockin' music or whatever you get to pumped up, because every life like learning is all state dependent as

we've discussed. And then control your psychology with the power of your questions and train yourself to say, you know, where's the gift in this? You know, where's the silver lining? So it puts you in a more, you know, state that you can respond to as opposed to react to. And then where's the opportunity in this? You know, and then you can look at things through good analytical ability

and see the trends of where's the future of work? Where's the future of learning? Where's the future of this? And you know, things are moving in this direction. So, you know, and then you can forecast like Retsky, right? He's not going to where the puck is. He's going to where the puck is going. Then you can forecast to where these trends are going

and then put your laser focus on, where can I serve? Because the idea here is, if you want to become, my mindset is, if you want to become a millionaire, then you have to be able to serve a million people. And whether that's, like, correct, like, it's exactly one to one, the idea here is, like, how can you add massive value to people struggling, suffering, what problem can I sell? That's all an entrepreneur is. He's a professional problem seller.

They're offering a creative solution to something that keeps people up at night. You isolate saying, what are the conversations that are going? These are questions I'll be asking to put an up to. What's keeping people up at night? In my industry right now, where does the opportunity lay? And your mind might come up with, I don't know. But then they're like, OK, then I'll say, I said, no, if I did know, and I was looking at this,

where is the possibility? Where is the opportunity? Where can I add value? Where are people struggling? What are my, and do a SWAT analysis? What are my strengths? What are my weaknesses? What are theAT analysis. What are my strengths? What are my weaknesses? What are the opportunities here?

What are the threats here? And then you've seen things through a new point of view and you're empowered by asking questions saying, what do I need to focus on right now? That's gonna give me the highest return. What do I need to shift in my business, my time, my talent, my investment, my treasure, to be able to mitigate the damage here and also take care of

my bills right now and then build something also for the future. Now I know it sounds like a stream of consciousness rant, but my main idea here is you're asking new questions so you get new answers. As opposed to asking questions as far as you doubt into hopelessness, saying why is this happening right now, why is this happening to me? Because none of that's going to serve anybody. Those answers. Now, you mentioned focus a lot and had a focus

on the right things. But a lot of people are having trouble just focusing period right now. Life is distracting to begin with. But I think that when we're stressed out, we're probably easier to be distracted, probably, because it maybe gives us a temporary sense of, you know, we feel a little better while we're distracted in the moment. Are there some real simple practices? I mean, you mentioned focus being a muscle that you can train. I know with exercise, you have

to practice an exercise many times before you get good at it. How do you practice focus? Well, I know you had, you and I had an individual on our show, our podcast, Don DePonny. Right. Right. And it's funny. You know, I know that because your background is so recognizable there. Those clips and those things that go viral. And I talk about him in my book a little bit on the chapter of focus. You know, I asked him why he moved here in New York City for the very reason he might hear sirens in the background because I also live here. I was like, all the places you could live, it was like, you know, New York City, like anybody could be focused when they're living in like this rural community, mountaintop, but, you know, where's the most density of distractions and noise and people and energies. And it was like New York City and he used an opportunity

to practice his concentration You know, and that's one of the reasons why simple practice was like meditation work Like I don't meditate to get into a zen light state. That's not my purpose for meditating I do it because every single time my focus goes somewhere else That's an opportunity for me to be in the mental gym, take a breath, bring it back to my breath, bring it back to my mantra, I'll bring it back to my mindfulness and the present, and it builds my focus and concentration muscles. So that's something very simple to be able to do. Another way of building your focus is there's two

ways, right? You first of all, stop building your distraction muscles because that's a problematic in self. Because that's the strongest muscle, that's where everything you're always going to go. Right, so we talk about the touch of phone, the first hour, the day, and all the things that are distracting us, right? The other way of doing it is there's two ways.

Stop building your distraction muscles because whenever you're constantly doing, you're getting better at. Second way is to actually build your focus muscles. How do you build it? You give yourself opportunities to be distracted and you still yet focus. So when it really matters, you could focus at will, if you will. The other thing you could do is just a simple practice of presence. The reason why I create these morning routines where I'm making my bed is I'm just using it as an opportunity for saying the morning to focus for two minutes straight.

And so I'm making it, I'm making it immaculate because how you do anything is how you do everything. The reason why I brush my teeth or I eat with the opposite hand in the morning is it forces, not only does it challenge a different part of my brain because most people can't do it and think about other things

because they is novel to them, it forces them to focus. So these are little things that you can build into your day like eating with the opposite hand, abortion to you, the opposite hand, the change of focus, maybe even first thing in the morning, because how you do anything, how you do everything, so that that focus shows up when you need to read or the focus shows up when you need to be in a zoom meeting and pay attention to things. I do believe it's a muscle and the way to do it, you can do it in meditation or you can make your life a daily practice of meditation and bring that kung fu into, you know, working out into brushing your teeth. And one of the ways you get presents that's really simple

exercise to do is just come up, take a breath when you need to be able to focus and then point out three things that you hear right now. Three things that you hear in the present. It could be like someone honking in the background, it could be the air conditioner, it could be the some person sitting next to you and then think about three things that you see.

If you open your eyes, what are three things that you see right now? What are three things that you feel in your body? Either internally or you feel like you know, you see yourself sitting on this on this couch or you're something that's this external And then three things that you smell three things that you might be tasting and it brings your focus into the present And that powerful presence tends to improve your focus and it tends to improve your comprehension, tends to improve your memory because you have that forced multiplier focus coming first. I like that. That's something very applicable.

I find for myself the, I could see how that could help, but I also find sometimes just recognizing that I'm distracted, it could be difficult. Like by the time, oh crap, I'm distracted right now. How, but I also find sometimes just recognizing that I'm distracted could be difficult. Like by the time, oh crap, I'm distracted right now. How long have I been distracted for, you know, 15 minutes? Does that get easier? The more you practice this? It's just like building your body and you guys know the answer to this in the beginning

when you're doing a new routine or a new exercise, it feels foreign, it feels novel. But then as you get stronger things and get easier. You know, this is something even when I want to talk about the lies that use 10% of your brain because you see it on television shows or Netflix, but whatever, that we actually use 100% of our brain just because our brain's part of our body and we use 100% of our body too. It's just that if somebody has to hike up a big hill, you know, or they're going through they, somebody who's physically fit, like you guys, you could do it without much effort or they're spending a lot of energy

and it could look like ease to somebody else who is not has that level of mental physical fitness. You know, they're going to have to be able, they're still using 100% of their body, but they're not, they're not strong in those areas and they don't have the strategies and the conditioning. Same thing with mental fitness. We still use 100% of our brain, but some people, you know, when they those areas and they don't have the strategies and the conditioning. Same thing with mental fitness. We still use 100% of our brain. Some people, when they're reading, they don't expend as much energy because they're just

mentally fit when they're normally named for anything else. Same thing with focus. So the reason why I'm always wearing a brain shirt, I'm always pointing to my brain, is not only is it a great branding, and I know that. And just go my whole brand on like $20 shirts and people point to the head. But I do it because what you see you take care of. But you guys can see your bicep, you can see your ad, you can see your hair, you can see what you see you take care of. In general people

take care of their clothes, they take care of it, but they don't see their brain. So I put it on my shirts, I point to my brain because I'm just reminding people, hey take care of this too. This controls everything. Going back to self-awareness, I agree that a big part of transformation is just self-awareness of our thoughts, having awareness of our habits, and not just the habits of your behavior, the methods, having in terms of what triggers you in relationships or self-awareness of your self-talk or self-awareness of your identity.

If I was to say, I am, what's the first words that come out of your mind when you say, I am this. But most people aren't conscious of those and you can't make a transformation, you can't change something unless you know where you currently stand. Just like your money, you can't manage something or your body, you can't change something unless you know where you currently stand, right? It's just like your money, you can't manage something or your bit, your body, you can't manage something unless you can measure it, but most people aren't measuring like these they're their thoughts.

You know, I've taken it and audit on like what they're saying to themselves, what they believe is possible. Very good. Are you familiar with the quote, the man in the arena? That long one, right? It talks about how it's not the critic that counts, right? It's the person in the arena, that long one, right? And it talks about how it's not the critic that counts, right? It's the person in the arena doing all the work. And something that we dealt with as trainers a lot of times

was people's own inner critics, their own, you know, negative thoughts about themselves. I can see that probably being more common nowadays. How do you fight that? Because oftentimes, the most difficult, you know, obstacle to overcome is yourself. It's that inner person saying, you can't, you're not good enough. Do you have any practices that can help with that?

Okay. So, one practice is a practice and perspective. I do these thought experiments constantly. And I really think that more people should schedule some white space in your life to be creative and to do not just input stuff, but actually create. And so we've talked about note-taking and note-making, but a lot of people are always listening.

And I'm all for it, podcasts and videos and reading books. But also, it's not just input is what you're outputting. Like you're taking what you already know in that wisdom and using your imagination. His knowledge is right. We know that imagination is more powerful than knowledge. That knowledge is what is. Imagination is what could be. So taking time to be creative in that space. And I think when you're doing that creativity, you could do these thought experiments. Part of my thought experiments are like fast forwarding

to the end of my life. And you know, especially with what's going on in the world, it makes you more cognizant of your mortality. You know what I mean? In terms of like when you sing like how things are connected and how you know you don't take things for granted with challenges that people are going through. And one of the ways to get rid of the external critics tactically is to fast forward to end your life and like when you're taking your final breaths in your life and you can it's not a pleasant conversation so it's a little bit and you know it's not like positive thinking but imagine you like we're taking our final breaths what's most important to us in that time and it's not going to be I promise you it's not going to be the

expectations of other people you know it's not going to be our own fears. What's going to have mattered in our life is how we lived, how we laughed, how we learned, how we loved in that moment. So, I'm saying, allow yourself to go through this thought experience and feeling that and go into the end of our life and saying, what do I want people to talk about in my eulogy? Because, what are they going to say about me? And I spent an inordinate amount of time at senior centers, as you know, I train up the Cleveland Clinic, the center for brain health, for people with early stage dementia. I do that because I lost

my grandmother to Alzheimer's and I do it all. And also because I'm polishing up their memories, but I'm also like learning a lot because there's so much wisdom there in other people's lifetime of learning. And then I also hear a lot of regrets. And that comes out so often when people are just like at that stage and the regret everybody has in some form is that I lessened or I limited my life because of the expectations of somebody else. And I know it's, why do we know that? But to be able to feel that and we don't usually have, like for example, I wrote this book, I don't talk about this, but I got into an accident

and I almost died, right? And that puts things, that ship's things perspective wise. And I honestly asked myself, like, what am I leaving behind here? And one of the biggest regrets that I thought about me is that I didn't write a book. Fundamentally, I'm a reading teacher. And I was like, wow, and then right away, I signed that book deal and everything else like that, because I was just like, and that forced me into a new

in terms of a new path. I waited three decades for it. I had this experience and I was like, oh man, regardless of what people think about it or say or critics or anything else, I'm going to do this because I want to be able to pass this on to my grandchildren eventually to be able to read this book. That purpose was so big for me. What I would say is the critic stuff, we know intellectually, but if you feel your life on other people's expectations, you're going to run out of gas. And that that that would be a horrible way to live. I would say that really sensitize yourself that we have

one life here. We have like one life. Why aren't we running towards our dreams like we're on fire at this point? Because everybody is always going to have an expectation of, and that's what puts you in that box. And I'm not saying it's easy. I'm just saying that if you could free yourself from the concerns of others, then you'll truly be liberated to be able to not dim your light because of shining in somebody else's eyes. Like when I hear these stories at the senior centers,

it's like, I didn't pursue this relationship because of what other people would think. I went into this career because my parents expected me to. I went to this school because they, you know, whatever. And so that would be the thing that would learn the earliest. And the best time to do it is early on, but the second best time is now. It's just less and less. Think about, like, for focusing on the things that really matter most.

Jim, you just mentioned self-awareness. I just recently did an episode, a full episode on self-awareness. And I attribute much of any success that I've had in my life to this. And one of the questions I got asked was, you know, what are some ways that I have developed self-awareness? Do you have some tips on how to develop self-awareness? So I think success comes in two areas. It's having the curiosity to know yourself, which is self-awareness. And then once you know who you are, the second part is, have you have the curiosity to know yourself, is how the courage to be yourself, which we're talking about.

Like some people are self-aware of who they are, but they are not being themselves because of other people's expectations or opinions and what are people that are thinking so on. And so I think those are the two keys. Going back to self-awareness. What for me helps me to be more self-aware. It's not only the meditation, the journaling, the talk therapy or whatever. You know, first of all, usually self-awareness for me is triggered by external stressors.

We know who we are. And you know how other people are based on when they're stressed. Everybody can be positive and kind when everything's going good. But more core when things are being difficult, more of that shows up. There's this idea that when you squeeze an orange, what comes out orange, you use wipes. That's what's on the inside.

But it's usually the stressors that show you what's on the inside and what you've developed in terms of character and confidence and consciousness. So besides the obvious things like journaling and therapy and meditation that can be self-awareness, what I use is the limitless model, because it's to set the distinctions to show you really who you are and how you're operating. And if I could just walk you through it right now, really quickly, this is a free part framework

for doing the impossible. And that sounds pretty audacious. I'll just break it down for people. Limitless again, is this book was mostly a book of methodology on accelerated learning, speed reading, learning languages, change your habits, all that stuff that we've talked about in your previous episode. I realized that 100% of people won't get the results because they're only focused on methods and a lot of people know how to work out.

A lot of people know what they should do, they're not doing those things, it's common sense, it's not common practice. So, where I want to build self-awareness around are the two areas that come for the methods. What keeps us from doing the methods? Because self-awareness is part of like, why am I procrastinating? Why don't I believe in myself? And so here are the three forces. I want everybody to make this interactive with us and everyone listening.

You can keep it to yourself. But I want to think about one area of your life where you feel limited. Where do you feel like you're in a box? Because limitless is not about being perfect, it's about progressing and advancing beyond what you believe is possible. So it is in a relationship, is it in your career, is it in your impact, is it in your physical strength and vitality? Is it in your learning, your memory, your reading, your ability, your identity about how to find a smart one? Where do you feel like you're in a box? Now, that box, as everyone's listening, I want you to think about a specific box

where you're not getting traction, right? You're not making progress. And even if you're putting an exerting effort. Now, that box, by definition, is three-dimensional, right? Every box or cube is three-dimensional. And the three dimensions that keep you in that box are the three elements to the limitless model. And how I'm going to represent it for everybody's three

simple circles that intersect. So I want you to imagine, or even very yet if you could write it out on a notebook, draw three circles, and they all intersect in the overlap. It's a bend diagram for the people are familiar with bend diagrams. What it looks like is Mickey Mouse two years that cross over, and then a face that intersects with all of those, right?

So there's overlap between the three circles and then the middle point are all intersecting, right? So three circles now the last circle three M's obviously The last M is methods, right now the methods I teach in the book are the focus speed reading memory critical thinking studying and so on, but you need to write a limitless mindset or limitless, the first step is mindset. So the first circle is your mindset. So it's not abstract. Your mindset, as I'm defining it, is your set of assumptions and attitudes about something. It can be your attitudes and assumptions about the world.

It can be your attitudes assumptions about politics. It can be attitudes assumptions assumptions about politics. It can be attitude assumptions about entrepreneurship or money. It can be attitude assumptions about what's going on right now with what's going on in the world. It can be attitude assumptions about education and attitude assumptions about learning. It can be attitudes assumptions mostly about self-awareness yourself. So what would fall in that category? Here are three areas of self-awareness. What do you believe is possible? What do you believe you're capable of?

What do you believe you deserve? So somebody could believe that it's possible to remember 100 people's names, because they've seen me do that live in an audience, but they might not believe they're capable of it. Or people could believe that somebody could make a lot of but they might not believe they're capable of it. Or people could believe that somebody could make a lot of money, they could believe they're capable of it, but they might not believe they deserve it, right? So they're still gonna be stuck in that box,

even if they have the best investing methods, the best memory methods or anything, they're still stuck in the box because the mindset doesn't allow them outside that box. The second M, right, the third M is methods, the first M is mindset, the second M that will keep you in that box. The second M, right? The third M is methods. The first M is mindset. The second M that will keep you in that box, if you don't unlimit yourself, is your motivation. Motivation. Now, here's the thing. You can have a mindset that anything is possible. You're capable

of you deserve it, and you get the methods for building that body or the right methods for learning three times faster. But if you have zero motivation, you're still stuck in that box. Now, most people are talking about lies. Their lies around mindset, and I talk about the seven lies that hold us back, and we disrupt them through a process of unlimited. Like, unlimited is what the book's all about.

Unlimiting is a word I coined years ago, and it's the active removal of limits. Has it supposed to unlimited? You can say somebody's unlimited, but once you're unlimited something, you're active removal of limits. As opposed to unlimited, you can say somebody's unlimited, but once you're unlimited something, you're actively removing the limits. And where do you want to remove the limits in your mindset, your motivation, and the methods?

And now when you unleash those, then you can become limitless. Let's go to the lies, limited ideas, entertain around motivation. Just like in mindset, intelligence is fixed, genius is born, you use 10% of your brain, all things that limit us, there's lies around motivation. And one of the things, honestly, is that you have to enjoy that thing because the evidence,

now I'm talking to everyone who procrastinates, that's what keeps them in the box. You know everything is possible, you don't even know what to do, but you still talk to the box because you're procrastinating, right? The evidence that someone is motivated is not what you say, it's not what you feel, it's what you do.

If you are consistently motivated, your kids aren't motivated unless you're consistently cleaning their room or they're consistently studying. You're not motivated if you're not working out consistently. It doesn't matter what you say or feel or anything, right? So let's say I have a friend of weeks of 4.30 every morning, what do they do, they work out. And I was like, that's interesting. And I was doing the research for this book. I was like, you know, you're obviously very motivated. You never miss it in a day or working out at 4.30 in the morning. He's like, no, absolutely not. I'm like, okay, I was like, can I ask you a question?

Do you enjoy waking up at 4.30 in the morning? He was like, no, I really, I really actually hate it. I'm not a morning person. I'm like, that's weird. Because then you must enjoy working out. That's why you wake up so early. He's like, no, that's actually hate working out more than I enjoy waking up early in the morning. And I'm like, okay, so then it's alive that this person is very motivated in doing that for most of their life. So motivation doesn't mean you enjoy the process. Now, I would always choose going back to our own person power, to bring joy into a workout, to bring joy into studying,

to bring joy into whatever I have to do consistently, because if I'm gonna do it, I might as well enjoy it, but it's not a requirement. And then I might win like this. Let's go back into my white space. I schedule time in the day, just to be creative, to create.

And I was like, okay, let's do this thought experiment. If we were gonna build the ultimate motivated human being together, what does it take? What are the elements for ultimate motivation? Where it's not just, rather, the Cooper-Taken-Apillowies, Surgeon motivation, but 24 hours later, it's like a warm bath. It just cools down and you dive yourself up. And I was like, here's the formula for ultimate motivation. It is P times E times S3. P times E times S3. And I realize

that, you know, the book is based on, you know, the latest neuroscience applied towards accelerated learning and cognitive performance, but it's also based on 28 years of working with everyone from children with learning challenges to seniors or dementia to athletes and actors, and business owners, and so on. And you see that genius leaves clues, and you need these three elements there. And if someone's not motivated,

usually one of these three things are missing. So what's P? The P stands for purpose. Now, I don't mean your life purpose, although I do address it in the book. I mean a reason, right? Purpose means, if you look at a definition, it means a reason to do something, a reason behind something.

Most people, they know cognitively, let's use the example of working out for your listeners or maybe it's a reading 45 minutes a day. We talked about last time that if you want to read a book a week, the average person in us to read about 45 minutes a day, you can triple your reading speed, it's 15 minutes a day, like reading our leaders or readers, right? And so let's say it's reading or it's working out, something simple that we'd all know it's good for your your your your your thing. I did that in this story, I showed you guys with Will Smith, I was like what are two things you do to every day to perform at your best? Because I run, I read, you do something

physical, you do something mental, do something mental in terms of exercise. I'm like, that's cool. So running or reading, right? Or exercising and then reading. But if you're not motivated to do it, you're not doing it consistently. Even though you know it gives you big results. Like if you're reading every day, you learn new things.

Somebody wrote a book that compressed decades in the days and you save all this time. You can make more money and so on. Knowledge is the only power. It's the profit of the faster you're learning, the faster you're going to earn. You have all these reasons intellectually. But if you don't feel those reasons, you're still not going to work out.

You know what I mean? If you don't feel the benefit because my friend who works out knows, feels viscerally in his body because of his life experience, like the rewards that come from St.Fid, right? And also the consequence of not doing that. Like I have an acquaintance, not a friend, but a acquaintance that would change his lifestyle for any reason. You know, all the bad stuff, right?

The smoking, you know, all the stuff, right? And everyone around him said, you know, hey, you should really do this, this, this, this, and nothing, all the methods, right? And then one day he has a heart attack and almost dies. And triple bypass surgery and everything, kind of open 12 hours on the table, whatever. And still goes back to smoking and doing

all the things he was doing. And then I see him on the couple of years later. And he's like picture of health. I didn't recognize, right? And he looked so much younger and everything. And I was like, dude, like what happened, man? I was like, you know, you didn't change. Like I changed my lifestyle.

I was like, well, why? I mean, you didn't change. Like I changed my lifestyle, this is like, well, why? I mean, you didn't even do that after you had a like a heart attack. Because like one day I came home and my daughter was in hysterics. She was crying, crying, crying. And we didn't know what was wrong with her. And then she was like, she had this dream that her dad wasn't going to be there to walk her down the aisle and just be with her grandkids, like all that stuff. And once he heard that, he found purpose.

And it wasn't intellectual because he knew all the, everyone knows Jesus to do these things, but he felt it. So the pee in motivation is purpose. That if you're not starting that business, then your fear is overriding your purpose in terms of benefits or everything else like that. So the pee was like vacation. So tap in your purpose. Now I go back to the thought experiment,

we're building the ultimate motivated human being. I was like, okay, someone just has purpose. Will they always be motivated? Will they always consistently act? And I was like, no, they could be missing the E, P times E times S3, and the E stands for energy. So like this is not usually talked about when we talk about the power of habits

and routines and everything, but somebody could wanna work out, but if they haven't slept, let's say they have a newborn, they haven't slept in three nights, they're not going to be very motivated to physically exercise, right? And let's make a simple example. Let's say somebody wants to study their craft, learn a new subject for a new job, or whatever 45 minutes a day, but they ate a big crappy meal and they're in a food coma. They, you know, or they're around energy vampires are stealing their energy, you know, their batteries and everything else.

They're not going to be very motivated to start the business or to read because they're energy. You know, so that's why we talk about 10 keys for mental vitality, the derivative, you know, brain fatigue and everything. And then my mind was like, okay, somebody has purpose. They have limitless energy also. They feel the purpose. They have limitless energy.

They slept really well. And everything else that we teach in the book, will they always act and be motivated? I was like, no, one more thing is missing. S3, right? 3S is small, simple steps, which we've talked about already. That a lot of people won't be able to motivate it because that thing is just too big.

It's too intimidating. They're not motivated because it's too abstract. And a confused mind doesn't do anything. So again, it's not working out an hour a day for somebody that's too big for someone who's never worked out, getting on your running chooses we talked about. Maybe it's not reading, it's like studying an hour a day, maybe it's a small, simple step opening the book, reading one line, flossing one tooth, nobody's in this stop there. And again, the key to get your small, simple step, ask yourself a question. Questions are always the answer. What is the tiniest action that I could take, do you mean progress towards this goal, or I can't fail? Because it requires so little

energy, so little effort. Now here's the aha guys. These three circles, mindset, motivation, and methods. My, what I'm saying to everybody who's listening is that if you are in that box, those three forces are keeping them in that box, and you have to narrow down and unlimited yourself in that area, otherwise if you don't have the mindset you're stuck in that box, you know the motivation you're stuck in that box, or if you're using old methods of starting a business or old methods of working out or old methods of nutrition or old methods of reading, you're still me stuck in that box, right? Now, here's the aha, where mindset crosses over with motivation, right?

I'm going to give you three eyes to match the three M's. Where mindset crosses over with motivation, you have inspiration. Now there are mindset experts. There are mindset books, great book by Dr. Carol Dweck called mindset, right? They're motivational speakers, motivational books, motivational experts, right? Where they cross over, you have inspiration, and you have inspiring speakers, inspiring books, inspiring movies, inspiring movie will change your mindset, you know, it'll give you some energy and motivation, right? But it's lacking people be inspired, but they're

not including the methods, so they have inspiration, but they don't know what to do, be inspired, but they're not including the methods, so they have inspiration, but they don't know what to do, right? Where mind set crosses over with methods, you believe everything is possible in your mind, you know what to do in your methods in your mind, that's ideation. And it just stays an idea, incubating as an idea, you're ideating, because you lack the motivation, still stuck in that box. And finally, where motivation crosses over with methods. Motivation, you have the purpose, you have the energy,

you know what to do, the methods, the process, for marketing, for starting a business, for being fit, for reading faster, whatever it is. That's implementation. Implementation. Yet you can still be stuck in that box, because you're only gonna implement to the degree you believe is possible,

to believe what you believe you are capable of, what you believe you deserve. The fourth eye, and this is the goal of the book, is the middle. We're all three M's and all three M's intersect. That sweet spot is the fourth eye integration. Integration like interger or intergural means your whole, like a whole number, right? Integration is just who you are, And that's the limitless state. Now this framework here is what I offer to people when they are stuck to take the judgment out of themselves

and the self-critic and just say, hey, like look at it through this lens. Am I not achieving a progressing in my finances, in my impact, in my energy level, my fitness, in my learning, my memory, because it's my mindset? But not believe it's possible, not believe it and I'm capable of not to believe deserve it Because then you then you can address the bottleneck or the limitation or is it my motivation? Do I not do I know the purpose but I not feeling the purpose or am I lacking energy?

You know, it's just like I'm around the family members are just stealing my energy my dreams or my stress It's where it's taken a lot of my energy. Or am I not getting good and good and deep sleep? And then you get your stress in there. Or am I not taking small, simple steps? Or am I just having those in place, but I'm using really old methods. And so my method, and this applies for yourself and as an explanatory scheme for your kids. Because if they're not achieving, do they not have the mindset or the belief? They don't have a growth mindset, they have a fixed mindset or they're not

focused to study the period on a table. Like they don't find relevancy to it or they just really tired because they're playing video games on whatever, right? Are they not breaking down small, simple steps to clean the room, putting one sock into the hamper or something like that or making their bed, one's most simple step, or are they using old methods for your team, for your kids? Or if you're going to role model somebody who's a genius, most, most simple step. Or are they using old methods for your team, for your kids? Or if you're gonna role model somebody who's a genius,

then go through a financial genius, business genius, learning genius, whatever. What is their mindset? What do they believe is possible? What do they go with? What are their small, simple steps? What is their purpose? And just creates a model, a framework,

that I really feel like this should have been required reading back in school, because it just gives you a blueprint for how your mind works so you could work your mind. Excellent, that's a lot of great information, just like the last podcast. Can I give people a quick action? Absolutely.

I challenge everyone. Well, first of all, the book is available at limitlessbook.com with all the bonuses that we give. We're getting 100% away of author proceeds to charity. And so know that when you get in education and you help your brain, it's helping other brains throughout Alzheimer's research

and education for kids. So limitlessbook.com and I would challenge everyone to take a screenshot of this episode like you did before and tag like everybody here and tag myself at JimQuick, KWIK, post it and the fastest way to become limitless to be able to learn something is to teach it to somebody else.

So share one new small simple step or one idea or take a picture of your notes, post it on social media, tag us all so we see it, and I'll repost some of my favorites because I think we learned to earn, to return, to be able to give back. And I think when you're sharing with your friends, your family, and your followers, it'll help them also as well. Because as fear is contagious, and you know, virus is contagious, so is wisdom, you know, and so is kindness,

and be able to share that. And I'll actually be posting my favorites and I'll actually give the copy of the book to one random person just for fun. And so I appreciate you guys. This is so great to talk to you guys again. Awesome. Congratulations on everything. I did your show quite a while back. And I see you guys everywhere. And it's well, well deserved. Thank you. We're having a lot of fun. And I'm

glad to see that you're healthy and safe, even though you're at the epicenter of this whole thing right now. Right. Hearing all those ambulances, I was like, man, what's going there? But my final words for everybody here is this again do not downgrade your dreams to meet this current situation Upgrade your mindset your motivation your methods be able to meet those dreams and you know be too optimistic to scare to do be too confident to doubt and And let's just stick together on this Thank you, Jim. Much appreciated.

Good talking, brother. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Superbumble at Mind Pump Media dot com. The RGB Superbumble includes maps and a ballad,

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