Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 2207: Upgrade Your Brain With Jim Kwik

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Starting point is 00:00:27 If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind, pop, mind, pop, with your hosts. Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. You just found the most downloaded fitness health and entertainment podcast in history. This is Mind Pump. Today's episode we brought back Jim Quick to the podcast. Now remember, he had a severe head injury as a child

Starting point is 00:00:56 was told he would never succeed, but figured out how to maximize his memory, his fluency, and his brain power. Brought it to the masses. This guy is a brain coach. In fact, he works with some of the biggest celebrities ever, A.R.O.D. Jim Carrey, Will Smith. This guy will blow your mind with how he can improve your mind. Also, he has his free quiz right now online.

Starting point is 00:01:20 It's pretty cool. I found out I was a dolphin. I believe Justin was a dolphin. Can't remember what Adam was. I think he was a cheetah. Pretty interesting quiz. You can go to Quick Brain, Quick Aspeld with a K. So Quick Brain.com forward slash Animal, Dash, Quiz. Find out what you are. And then it's pretty illuminating. It helps direct you on how you should operate. It's pretty cool stuff. By the way, his book is the limitless expanded edition. So limitless went crazy gangbusters. Well, this is the expanded edition. Make sure you check out

Starting point is 00:01:52 his book. Now, this episode is brought to you by a sponsor by optimizer. So this company makes digestive enzymes help break down those foods into proteins, fats and carbohydrates that are usable by your muscles that help with digestion. They're amazing. And right now their Black Friday mega sale is in full swing. This is happening the entire month of November. Huge, huge discounts. Go check them out.

Starting point is 00:02:19 Go to bioptimizers.com. That's bioptitimz. dot com that's B I O P T I M I Z E R S dot com forward slash mind pump use the code mind pump 10 at checkout for those massive discounts. Also, we got a sale going on this month our beginner strength training program maps resistance is half off and then maps prime pro this is a pain relieving correctional exercise program is also half off. If you're interested just go to maps fitnessproducts.com and use the code November 50 for that discount. All right, here comes the show. Jim, welcome back to the show. Thanks for having me back, guys.

Starting point is 00:02:55 Always one of our favorite guests. It's been a little while. It's been a minute. Was it been four years? No, we did it over the phone for when limitless first, oh, first drop. Oh, yeah. So that was like a how long ago was it? It's been three years. Yeah, holy shit It's been three. Yeah, that's it's been a close three and a half years. Wow. Yeah, so I want to ask you because before you came on Yeah, your team sent us a A quiz to take yeah to tell us what kind of like Brain type you have brain type and then it used an animal to represent our brain type you have brain type and they use an animal to represent our brain type so which ironically matches Sal's lower back tattoo

Starting point is 00:03:32 I'm happy about this results Yeah, it's Dolphin jumping over it. It's you I'm the same. It's all this in I was a dolphin just and was a dolphin Doug was dolphin Adam was a cheetah What is all the like What is the quiz? Why do we take that? Yeah.

Starting point is 00:03:48 So, after 30 years of being a brain coach, I realized that everybody learns a little bit different. And everyone's brain has a different type in terms of how they think, how they lead, how they communicate, how they buy, how they invest, all these different things. And we found that they primarily found there are four buckets, four different animals types that your brain could represent. And once you know your brain animal, then you know how to study better, focus better,

Starting point is 00:04:16 improve your memory. And it's kind of like personalized medicine based on your genetics or personalized nutrition based on your microbiome. This is like personalized learning. So we created an assessment that I've been using with clients, one on one for a few years. And now we've offered it out to the public. It's a four-minute quiz, kind of like a witchery potter or Game of Thrones character, are you kind of thing? And yeah, it's very telling. Because once people go through it, they get a detailed report on how they could learn and lead and live just with greater ease and effectiveness. So I can go through it.

Starting point is 00:04:52 Yeah, yeah, people could take the quiz. It's at mybrainanimal.com. There's nothing to buy. But it's, and then you get a detailed report. So it's a brain code, C-O-D-E, and we'll turn this into a little master class for a brain fitness. So the C is the Cheetah. And these are your fast actors. And you probably could, you think about everyone listening right now, could think of like which one you identify with most. These are people who thrive in fast-paced environments.

Starting point is 00:05:21 They adapt very quickly. They're very strong intuition. And they are very direct. they're very strong intuition, and they're very direct. They may make things happen, they implement the O are your owls and your owls. If you think about them, they're just very logical. These are people who love data, they love facts, they love figures, formulas. These are people that would make decisions based on things like logic. And even if just based on those two, those two people would act differently.

Starting point is 00:05:50 They would relate differently. They would buy differently, invest differently. The D are your dolphins, which I'm surrounded by them here. I love you here. Yeah, these are your creative visionaries. These are people who have very strong pattern recognition. These are individuals that have a vision for something, a project or a business, maybe others dolphins can relate to or they can't see it quite as clearly.

Starting point is 00:06:12 And then finally, the E are your elephants. And these are your collaborators. They're extremely loyal. They hold groups together. They have high levels of deep empathy and interpersonal skills. And so once you understand your brain type, it allows you to kind of, you know, changes the way you could work and learn

Starting point is 00:06:32 and kind of operate throughout the world because it informs certain behaviors. And even when I mention this, you could take any, I don't know, let's take like James Bond, right? You know, James Bond would be a cheetah, right? The very fast actor, you're very preintuitive, you know, thrives in fast-paced environments, stay-handled difficulty.

Starting point is 00:06:52 Let's say you would have M, right, who's head of MI6, that she would be logical, extremely logical, organized, rational, mixed decisions based on her left brain. Someone he liked her right hand would be, let's say Q, Q is the creative visionary. He's the one that makes all the inventions. The inventions, right? So a lot of people believe the future belongs to those creators.

Starting point is 00:07:23 But you could take anything like Star Wars, which I love how this studio is evolving. But Leia Luke Skywalker would be a cheetah, right? The Chubaka would be an elephant, very loyal, key people together. Obi-Wan, I think, would be an owl. Leia would definitely be a creative visionary. It would be more like a dolphin. So you could kind of, you kind of, people could see themselves in this. Now when I took the quiz, I definitely did find,

Starting point is 00:07:52 I don't know, maybe half of them, I could have went either or wherever. I tried my best to like, just make the first reaction. Now, which is exactly what a cheetah would do. Exactly. A cheetah. Good point, good point. I just wanna over think it because I figured my gut instinct is probably what I cheetah would do. Exactly, cheetah. Good point, good point. I just wanna over think

Starting point is 00:08:05 because I figured my gut instinct is probably what I'll be most like, but I mean, do you find in the years that you've been coaching people and helping people that you've also had to figure out, like, oh, there's a little bit of this, and a little bit of that, and therefore certain strategies I would use

Starting point is 00:08:19 on the inverses of the... Without a doubt. So nobody's any one animal, right? We're a composite of all of them. Just like if you use your right hand, doesn't mean you don't use your left hand. Just when you're, you know, when you're using it, it just feels more natural. Sometimes when people learn the way the person teaches is different than the way the learner prefers to learn. And it's like two ships in a

Starting point is 00:08:39 night, you pass each other, and you don't even recognize that the other one's there, you know, the kind of experience before. And there's no connection, right? But we all have a primary and a secondary, you know, for me, you know, I'm a strong elephant, maybe because I grew up in my learning difficulties and I developed this kind of empathy of people suffering around me because I knew what it felt like, you know, kind of being marginalized and, you know, with my learning disabilities and everything. But I mean, I've also grown to be a strong owl like I love data. I love research. I love reading white papers But yeah, and you know, but the moment my team took it we found that is it's interesting how people find their elements in their life

Starting point is 00:09:17 It's especially roles in work. Hmm like our customers support team They're like nearly all elephants because they're there there. they're there. They have high levels of empathy, interpersonal skills. They're there to be able to serve and keep the community together. We have an accountant who took it and he's purely an owl. And you want your financial person to be an owl, right? You don't want them to be creative or maybe you do. And I'm not really sure. But you know, in my business partner, our CEO, Alexis, she's a dolphin. She has a creative vision for our business that, you know, it's very clear, right? You know, to impact, I mean, make better brighter brains, you know, no brain left behind. We want to

Starting point is 00:09:57 impact a billion brains, so. I actually see where this could be a really cool, like interview strategy, like to, I wish we had this tool before we hired a lot of people, because I think it makes sense that you would like every representation of every animal in a business like this, where you kind of need all those different personalities. And what a cool idea to do. How did you put this together? Because you created this.

Starting point is 00:10:22 Yeah. I draw, you know, I realize that people are asking the same question. But when I give people protocols, and I don't know if it's the same in fitness, but, you know, not everybody embraces everything, right? Not everything's for everybody, just, you know, whether it's with maybe it's diet or workout strategies.

Starting point is 00:10:38 Same thing with reading, memory, everyone once, like, this is the process. But I realize that it worked for a handful of people, but not everybody. And so this was my way of personalized learning for people. So I drew on psychologies and sciences, like personality types, like Myers-Briggs, what was an inspiration, left brain, right brain, lateralization, dominance, like, you know, we built that in, introvert, extrovert, ambivert, pulled from multiple intelligence theory, Harvard, Harvard, Harvard University.

Starting point is 00:11:08 So we pulled from a lot of different disciplines and just made it incredibly simple. I think one of our superpowers is taking very complex information and making it very relatable and usable and effective for people who use it. Introvert, extrovert, ambivert? Introvert is kind of like a combo of like for me, I'm very introverted, you know, and then I became painfully shy with my learning disability, not be able to read like all the kids. My mom became a special ed teacher in the public school system just helped me with my learning difficulties. But yeah, I'm very introverted, but there's some people, I was interesting, I was having a

Starting point is 00:11:43 conversation with Susan Cain who wrote, Quiet, quiet. This is like the book for introverts and Simon Sinek, you know, start with the course. And they were saying, you know, we're having this meal and she was saying that introverts are people that wake up with five gold coins, like energy coins. And every single time they interact with somebody, they give up one of their coins that person until they're depleted and they have to get by themselves and recharge, but extroverts, they wake up with no-goal energy coins and they just want to interact with people so they could get energy, they could get coins. It's interesting, but before it's a combination of the two, somebody who can express an extrovert, but also they recharge like an introvert.

Starting point is 00:12:26 That's me. Yeah. When they meet me or they see me on the show, they think of an extrovert. Yeah. I'm extroverted in certain situations that also introverted in other situations. So like if I'm doing this, very extroverted,

Starting point is 00:12:40 especially when I'm talking about things I'm passionate about. Otherwise, I'd rather not be around lots of people. Yeah, me on stage is the same thing. I have in front of a good 250,000 people a year. Just speaking, I can be on three continents, but I do it. It's just not my nature. My two biggest challenges who are learning and public speaking when I was a kid,

Starting point is 00:13:00 life has a sense of humor because that's like learning. It's wild to me because you wouldn't guess that if you only caught you on like your YouTube TED talk stuff, like you wouldn't realize it. Because I know if I'm an introvert on stage, I'm not going to be very effective, right? You have to bring a certain level of energy, a certain level of interactivity to get people to touch.

Starting point is 00:13:22 How did you work through that? Because public speaking is always top three. Number one fear. Yeah, so people. Yeah, depending on different things, I've heard it, I've heard a rating where it's number one is fear of public speaking. Number two is fire.

Starting point is 00:13:37 Number three is death, which is pretty crazy. The old joke is that if you're out of funeral, somebody rather be in the box than then giving the eulogy. Because they're so fee, if you're of opposed speaking. I think it came from those. You know where I think it came from. I think it came from those book reading circles.

Starting point is 00:13:54 I don't know, when you first learn how to read, did you do that? I was like, teacher made you do it. Yeah, and you had to pass around the book and then you had to read out loud like a paragraph or a page. When I had my head injury when I was five years old, it took me three years to learn how to read. And that was very embarrassing, right?

Starting point is 00:14:10 And so every single time that thing got closer, you know, when I would be even talking about it messes me up right now, I could feel like my heart rate going up and like my mouth can't dry, just thinking about it, but I would get the book. And the words didn't mean anything. And I just, you know, I was so embarrassed and had so much shame. I just passed the book on. But I think that association got associated to public speaking. And I think that's why,

Starting point is 00:14:33 because who's really good at that, you know, in the beginning, right? And so, yeah. And so my superpower, I talk about superpowers a lot is because I learn how to read by reading comic books. You know, I'm, you know, an uncle gave me a comic is because I learned how to read by reading comic books. I'm an uncle, gave me a comic book when I was a kid and I would have this one comic book. My parents immigrated to the States. We live in the back of a laundry mat. I didn't have a lot of resources. At night, I would be underneath the covers reading this comic book. Something about the illustrations brought the story to life. That's's why I talked about Super Prousers. My super power growing up as a kid really was being invisible, you know, it was because I never had the answer, so I didn't want to get called on.

Starting point is 00:15:13 So think about how that informed my behavior. I would sit behind the tall kid, I would sit all the way in the back, I would shrink down all the time. And when I was nine years old, I was slowing down a class pretty more than usual and I was being teased more than usual. And a teacher came to my defense, pointed to me in front of the whole class, and said, leave that kid alone.

Starting point is 00:15:31 That's the boy with the broken brain. And that label became my limit. I remember I was failing freshman high school English. And they were so embarrassing, because they brought my parents in from work and they had that parent teacher meeting and she laid it out for us and saying I was going to fail this class and gave me an opportunity to do a book report to pass and it was on Albert Einstein. She chose this genius and I spent weeks and weeks at the library before there was internet

Starting point is 00:16:04 right. And I spent weeks and weeks at the library before there was internet, right? And the day it was due, I actually felt proud for the first time, you know, being one of my 14 years old or whatever. And my parents had it professionally bound and surprised me with this. I couldn't wait to hand it in. The day it was due, I'm sitting in class towards the end of the class. I can't wait to hand it. I'm so excited to show her my work. And the teacher said, hey, class, I can't wait to hand it. I'm so excited to show her my work. And the teacher said, hey, class, we have a surprise. Jim come to the front of class and give your book report. And I

Starting point is 00:16:32 freaked that out. You had no idea you were going to read it. I had no idea. She never said I had to be like presenting. So I am like dying inside. And I can't even catch my breath. And I like stutter out. I didn't do it. I just looked her in the eyes and I lied to her because that was so terrified. And you can see the disappointment in her face. But after the class let out, and I was the only one in the class because I couldn't even get up.

Starting point is 00:16:57 I got up and then went into my book bag, took out this professionally-bound book report that I spent weeks on. and on the way out, I'd probably the door, there was a trash can, I just threw it out. Oh, shit, you know? And give it to her? No, because I just, you know, that's how bad I was. You know, so how I got over it, though, was, you know, after I learned these skills, when I was 18

Starting point is 00:17:20 years old, to read two or three times faster, prove their memory, all that stuff that I teach. I just felt the moral obligation, you know, to help other people because it's kind of like shame on you if you know something that could help somebody who's suffering and then, you know, offer that, you know, available. And so I started to teach and one of my very first students, she read 30 books in 30 days. Like, how crazy is that? Not scan first students, she read 30 books in 30 days. Like how crazy is that? Not scan scan, but read him.

Starting point is 00:17:48 And I wanted to find out not how, I know how I taught her, but I wanted to lie. I'm always curious like why people do what they're supposed to do, what they know they should do and why some people don't. Most people don't, right? His common sense is not common practice. And I found out that her motivation, her mom, I think I choke up thinking about it, her mom was dying of terminal cancer,

Starting point is 00:18:09 was given two months to live, and the book she was reading were books to save her mom's life. And that's a big drive, right? And so I wish her luck prayers, six months goes by, I don't hear from her, I get a call one morning, and she's crying hysterically, like just for, I don't hear from her, I get a call one morning and she's crying hysterically

Starting point is 00:18:26 like just for, I don't know how long, but when she stops, I find out their tears of joy that her mother not only survived, but is really getting better, doctors don't know how, they don't know why, they called it a miracle, but her mother attributed 100% to great advice she got from her daughter who learned it from all these books. You know, and in that moment, I was only 18 years old. In that moment, I realized that if that if knowledge is power, then learning is our superpower, and it's a superpower we all have, you know, and that really gives me the confidence, the end of the moral conviction to go on stage and do things that are difficult even being on video, because it's very the opposite of like what's comfortable for me.

Starting point is 00:19:04 Jim, when you look at the way that we teach children conventionally in schools, do you see a lot of things wrong in the way that we do it? Yeah, so, you know, I've had conversations with people at high level in government here. They use our systems and, you know, in school systems and some of the top school systems, like Finland and South Korea. Things are slow to change. I don't think it's teachers so much as the system.

Starting point is 00:19:32 My mother, again, is a school teacher. She recently dedicated her whole life to public school system and recently retired. The world has changed so much, but the classrooms haven't. They say, have Rip Van Winkle. I slept for decades. If he woke up today, the only thing he would recognize are our schools. You know, we live in an age of autonomous electric cars just going out right around here, right? Spaceships that are going to Mars, but our vehicle choice when it comes to learning and education is more like a horse and carriage. You know, and so I do see some issues.

Starting point is 00:20:05 I mean, they don't even teach a lot of, like what a lot of your guests speak on, with the weather, whether it's health and wellness, fitness. I can speak personally to this gym, because I got diagnosed with ADHD as an adult. So neurodivergent, love learning. I love learning.

Starting point is 00:20:24 I consume information like crazy. It's one of my favorite things to do. I know it's one of the things I bring to the show, but I hated school. This is a place where I'm supposed to learn, where I'm supposed to get information. And it was painfully unstimulating and boring, which is sad when I look back because I was a kid that loved learning. You of a bit more of a bit more of a bit more of a bit more of a

Starting point is 00:20:46 bit more of a bit more of a bit more of a bit more of a bit more of a bit more of a bit more of a bit more of a bit more of a bit more of a bit more of a bit more of a bit more of a bit more of a bit more of a bit more of a bit more of a

Starting point is 00:21:02 bit more of a bit more of a bit more of a bit more of a bit more of a bit more of a bit more of a bit more of a to you Adi or so I could go learn on my own is actually what I used to do. I'd go and read things I want to read and learn things I want to learn. So I know this, I know it's for a stand and I wonder how many, thankfully I grew up with good parents and I developed a good work ethic and I was able to come in on a tour and develop my own success outside of that system. But how many kids you think were, were screwing up or just, they just believe that they're not smart. You know? Yeah. I mean, that was definitely me.

Starting point is 00:21:27 Every single time, you know, I was labeled broken. Every single time I did badly in school, I would always say, which was all the time, I would say, oh, because I have the broken brain. You know, every time I was in pick for sports, which was often, I would say, go, because I have the broken brain. So, you know, adult tests, they have to be very careful. They're external words because they often become a child's internal words, you know, adults have to be very careful their external words because they often become a child's internal words, you know. But going back to the school system, yeah, school teaches you a lot about what to learn,

Starting point is 00:21:51 like math and history and science, Spanish. But there are zero classes on how to learn those subjects. There's no class called focus, right? Or like go into a kid and saying, focus or study. That's like going to somebody say, play the ukulele. It was never taken any kind of training or class and how to do that. It's just kind of expected. So I feel like, you know, schools, you know, they teach you what's learned but not how

Starting point is 00:22:14 to learn. And I think the how is more important than the what? Because the world's always changing, the half-life of information, new research, you know, keeping current with everything. You know, there's no class called memory even. They teach you three hours in school and traditional education, reading, writing, arithmetic, obviously spelling is not what I want to want to. But what about retention?

Starting point is 00:22:37 Socrates said learning is remembering. Going back to your example, Sal, there's this Mark Twing quote that said, don't let school get in the way of your education. So you left school and then you started doing your own personal education. I think now it's more important than ever that people are always learning, listening to podcasts, like yours and ours and reading books, getting their education to kind of compliment what they're not getting in traditional education. Now, didn't you develop a curriculum around this in terms of how to learn, how to retain information, how to read, you know, a little more effectively? And when did you start that? How did you put all that together?

Starting point is 00:23:17 So when I was 18, okay, I don't, I'm in share of this. I don't share this very often. But when I was 18, I was lucky enough to get into a local of college, you know, and I chose one that I knew other people from my school wasn't going to. So because part of that keeps you stuck is like the expectations of others. And if they see you in a certain way, you kind of feel like you have to stay in that kind of box. You have to see yourself that way.

Starting point is 00:23:39 Yeah, very much. I knew I was a way of self-guarine enough to know that I didn't want that influence, right? I want to start fresh. I thought being a freshman meant I could make a fresh start. I took all these classes and I did worse, like really worse, because the university is a lot harder than high school, right? So much is on your own. And so I was ready to quit because I didn't have the money to be in school.

Starting point is 00:24:01 My family didn't have that. And I'm the oldest of three kids, and I want to be a good example. And I rather than use the money, honestly, for my younger siblings. And because I felt like I was just too dumb. And so I said this to my friend, and he was like, well, you know, tell your parents you're going to quit. That's a big life decision. Why don't you come home with me this weekend?

Starting point is 00:24:20 I'm going to visit my folks, get some perspective. So I do. And the family is pretty well off, and they just hold home on a water. And the father's walking me around the property before dinner and asked me a very simple question. He's like, Jim, where's question? How's school? And I just start bawling in front of this complete stranger because I have all this pent-up angst right in shame and tell him my whole story, broken brain, quit school.

Starting point is 00:24:44 And he's like, well, why are you in school? What do you want to be? What do you want to do? What do you want to have, Cher? And honestly, no one's ever asked me that question before. I thought, you know, like, I'm in school because that's what you're supposed to do, right? I didn't know. And when I start to come up with some answers about what my goals would be, he stops me

Starting point is 00:25:00 and takes out a piece of paper out of his back pocket and makes me write them down. Like, I don't know if you guys write your goals down or like a bucket list, right? And it's my first time doing that exercise. When I'm done, I start folding it up to put in my pocket and he rips it out of my hand, this list. And he starts reading it and I'm freaking out because this guy is obviously pretty successful. And he's looking at my goals that I haven't shared with anybody. And I'm afraid of being judged. I'm an 18 year old kid and very insecure. And he says, Jim, when he's done, he's like, you are this close to everything on that list. And if you're not, you know, watching this

Starting point is 00:25:32 on YouTube or somewhere, I'm just spreading my index fingers like a foot apart. And then I was like, no way, give me 10 lifetime. I'm not going to crack that list. And then he puts his fingers to the side of my head, meaning what was in between was the key. And he takes me into a room a little bit bigger than this and it's wall-to-wall sealing the floor, carbon and books. And remember, I've never read a book, you know, at all, right? And so like, being a roomful of snakes, right? That's how intimidated I am. But what makes it worse, he starts grabbing snakes and handing them to me. And I start looking at these titles of these books, and there are these books of amazing men and women in history and some very early personal development books that you guys

Starting point is 00:26:10 are familiar with. Norman Vincent Peale, the power positive thinking, thinking rural rich, Napoleon Hill, you know, zig-zagular, those kind of things. And he's like, Jim, he said leaders are readers. I want you to read one book a week. And I'm like, what? I was like, and I'm telling him, like, I can't, I have all the school work.

Starting point is 00:26:26 And then he said that, that Mark Twain quote, don't let school in the way of education. And I was like, wow, that's so inspiring. And I can't, I can't do this. Like if I say I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna do it, but I can't, I don't know that ability. And he's very smart. He takes out my bucket list.

Starting point is 00:26:42 And he starts reading every single goal and dream of mine out loud. And I don't know guys like it's like imagine you're like very insecure 18 years old and like you hear your dreams and another person's voice like out in the you know it just mess with my mind and my spirit something fierce. And a lot of things on that list were things I wanted to do for my for my folks things they would never do for themselves even if they had the resources. So with that motivation, and I talk a lot about human motivation and how to design and overcome procrastination personally and also with other people around you, you know, in the book,

Starting point is 00:27:16 but I say, okay, I'll do it. And then fast forward, I'm back at school. I'm at say to my desk, I have a pile of books I have to read and a pile of books I promise to read, right? I don't want to read. And I couldn't get through a pile. So where do I get the time? I don't eat, I don't sleep, I don't work out, I don't go out with friends. I just live at the library and for a couple of months and not very sustainable. I end up passing out two o'clock in the morning in the library. I fall down a flight As stairs, I hit my head again and I woke up in the hospital like two days later. And I was down to 117 pounds, I lost all this weight, I took up to all these IVs, I thought

Starting point is 00:27:53 I died the scariest time of my life. And at that time, the nurse came in with a mug of tea, and on it was a picture of Albert Einstein, the guy did the book report on, which is interesting because he had learning difficulties also. He didn't learn like everybody else, so I identified with him. But the quote on the mug was, the same level of thinking that has created your problem won't solve your problem. And made me say, like, what's my problem? Well, I have a broken brain. I'm a very slow learner. Well, I was like, well, how do I think differently about it? Well, maybe I could fix my brain, maybe I could learn how to learn. And then I dive into these books,

Starting point is 00:28:29 then ancient mnemonics, speed reading, all these different areas, 60 days into it, a light switch flipped on. And I just started to just understand things for the first time, sitting in class, my grade shot up, and then my life got so much better. Did it really feel like that? Like a light switch, like one moment,

Starting point is 00:28:46 like struggling through a, treading water, then all said boom. Yeah, it was because I felt like my brain was like kind of dormant the entire time. And then after a couple of months, just things started come to me with ease. You know, I don't know if the same thing happens with people's bodies after they work out a certain amount

Starting point is 00:29:03 and they kind of get to work, but I'm more second nature and they start kind of owning it You know and you know recognizing you know their strengths and what they could develop with their discipline And then I couldn't help but help other people but how I did it this goes back to the public speaking because I was very fearful of it I was broke right and I wanted to help people so I was like okay I'm gonna tutor right I'm and this bolt for me because I was broke, right, and I wanted to help people. So I was like, okay, I'm gonna tutor, right? And this is bold for me, because I was always being tutor, but I was never like, how could I tutor, right?

Starting point is 00:29:29 Because my friends, I was helping my sweet mates, and they were doing better. They're like, you could make money doing this and help people. And I was like, I don't know how, but I was having that thought. There was a classroom that wasn't being used on a Thursday night. And I was like, okay, next week, I'm gonna put five or 10 people in that room, teach them free for a couple hours and maybe afterwards one or two of them wanna be tutoring,

Starting point is 00:29:47 you know, and I can help them. This is 18, 19 years old. 18 years old, yeah. So I'm 15 now, so I'm 32 years ago. So I go and back to my dorm room, I take a magic marker, I put on a like simple piece of paper, free speed reading memory class, get better grades less time Thursday,

Starting point is 00:30:05 seven o'clock that room, right? And then next morning, I make some photo copies put around campus, not a lot. Fast forward to next Thursday, seven o'clock. I'm just walking down the halls to lecture center. And I just, I hope just like five people show up. And I turn the corner and I swear to you, there's a whole crowd outside the classroom and my honest reaction was like oh shoot i hope whatever is going on and soon so i can do my thing right this is because this is my mindset right and then i can't even get in because there's people in the door way i was like what's going on inside and there's this tall kid he was like there's a speed reading class and i was like wow what a coincidence what are the odds yeah where the odds the odds the same room, the same night, the same time, there's another speed reading

Starting point is 00:30:48 class, right? That's how slow I am. Because I realize in life, if you don't believe it, you just can't see it. Yeah. And so I go in and every seat is taken, people standing in the back. And then I realize how, why they're all there, because there's's nobody teaching and then I freak the heck out because I'm 18 years old I look really young t-shirts shorts. I'm nothing prepared to talk about Because I'm just gonna have a conversation with like four or five people and and I'm phobic of public speaking And I do a headcount instead of five or ten people. There's a hundred ten people a hundred and ten people showed up first time

Starting point is 00:31:23 Wow, and then so I'm so terrified. I'm gonna pass out from high-profile, I leave. Because I would love to say different, but I just leave, right? And I go by these fountains because I can't even go back to my dorm room, because I know my sweet mates are gonna make fun of me and everything. And I just kind of meditate, kind of call my heart rate.

Starting point is 00:31:44 And I hear this voice, and it's my mom's voice in my head. And I want to of meditation, kind of call my heart rate. And I hear this voice, and it's my mom's voice in my head. And I want to tell you exactly what she said. But the essence is 100 people came out, you promised to help them, disappointing them, disappointing me kind of message. And I'm doing this walking meditation back to my dorm room, and I take a step, I stop, and I take a step back to the classroom and I go back and I realize that one step in another direction in our life can completely change our destination. When we say yes to something, like a little bit of courage to do something to take us into some new area. I talked for a couple hours and I apologize and I honestly don't remember what

Starting point is 00:32:22 I said. I had some memory expert. I have no no idea, but afterwards I come out of this kind of flow state, you know, I kind of felt like I was just channeling, I don't know if you guys are like just kind of cubs through you. And then I was like, I don't have help you, but I just need like 10 hours to teach you what I know. And you know, I just made this up. I was like, I get $30 an hour, if you want to be tutored, I'll be in the student center tomorrow noon, I can answer your questions. And I swear 100 people get up and they all leave. Not one person talks to me that night.

Starting point is 00:32:51 And I'm 10 o'clock at night or whatever in this classroom, all alone, and I'm so exhausted, I end up falling asleep on the carpet, you know, because even when you do something you never thought you could face before, and I feel mentally, emotionally, just spent. Dreamed, yeah. Yeah, and I, and I waking up from the class coming in the next morning, eight o'clock in the morning, I'm like on the ground drooling on myself, and I run, I've startled, I run back to my room, shower, go to breakfast, go to class, twelve o'clock comes up, I was like, oh, shoot, I was supposed to meet, you know, anyone at the student center.

Starting point is 00:33:24 I run there, hoping just one person, I'm validated by one person being there. And that same crowd of people are waiting for me. And at the end of two hours, 71 of the hundred kids signed up for a course that didn't even exist. And I didn't even do the math beforehand, $30 an hour for 10 hours, 300 bucks, because I didn't realize kids could go to an ATM machine because I didn't have an ATM card or anything. And so 300 times, so I'm not even 19

Starting point is 00:33:52 and I have $21,000 cash in my pockets and my book bag. And I go back to my mentor thinking, like, what am I gonna do with this besides eat? You know, not letting school get in the way of my education. I use all of it, nearly all of it, to buy a way of education. No, you did buy a whip. I travel around, I buy all these audio cassette tapes

Starting point is 00:34:13 and everything and learn what I now teach. And one of those 71 kids was this freshman, who read 30 books and 30 days. Did you, at that point, did you finish school? Or were you like, did you get the, did you like get the message like, why am I in my business? I'm serious demand here.

Starting point is 00:34:31 Yeah, that seems like, to me, that's like a clear message like, this is what I need to do. Yeah, I didn't quit, but I ended up going to school, to school with other, you know, other people posting me to speak and started doing this at universities. So we started, we did it dozens and dozens.

Starting point is 00:34:46 I would go to UCLA and Harvard and bought BU and Fordham and NYU just doing these courses. And I self-published something back then, which was just like taking money orders and going to it sending to a PO box. There was no email or websites to send people to. I created a manual and I was very passionate. What happened with these kids, amazing results. I imagine having these tools back when you were in school. The parents took note.

Starting point is 00:35:17 Some of them were found out about me and I started doing the company trainings for where they worked. Wow. And then eventually, I met my co-founder Alexis, 17, whatever years ago, and then we took everything online because we had a full-time learning center and was trying to figure out how we could reach more people. Jim, I'm the son of poor immigrants. So I know the feeling that you have where you really want to make them proud.

Starting point is 00:35:47 You really want to, you know, you know what they sacrificed to bring you to a new place and speaking language, they worked really hard, did everything for you, how proud are your parents of your life? Yeah, I wrote the original book of Limitless, really dedicated to them. You know, I realized that, you know, their sacrifice

Starting point is 00:36:03 was, you know, all, you sacrifice was all our ancestors, their sacrifice are blessings, right? That's a big motivator. I updated the book, the new book that just came out because I had a son this year, my first. Oh, congratulations. Thank you. So, at 50, having a baby now, but I want it's deep in our commitment, our team, and especially mine for the next generation, so they feel prepared. So the book really gives all the essentials from the first one, and then so much more on momentum, especially in a post-pandemic AI-rich world.

Starting point is 00:36:40 But that's the big impetus, like, you know, being a good, uh, being a good, good, good, good parent. What was, what was the first thing you did for them? I know at one point you reached the level of success that you could do something for them. Did you do something for them? Yeah. Um, even when I wrote the original book, I, um, you know, years later, I brought them to Greece, the largest chapter in the book is on memory enhancement.

Starting point is 00:37:03 Mm-hmm. And I found out that, uh that there's a goddess of memory and nimonides and she's the mother of the nine muses of science, literature, and art. And I was like, wow, and then I, you know, I found out that what did ancient Greeks do to memorize things 2,500 years ago before there were computers and printing presses. And I found all these amazing tools. And so I took them for a month to Greece. And that's where I wrote most of the book.

Starting point is 00:37:31 I was very inspired there. And they never really, they don't really travel a lot. I find it interesting because we outsource so much of our ability to find information to remember things. I can't remember any remember the phone number anymore, because it's all my phone, whereas I was a kid, and everybody's phone number. And the ways that they learned thousands of years ago,

Starting point is 00:37:53 I think there's a lot of hints in terms of what works with our memory, what works with our ability to learn. For example, before we really did a good job of recording things, we sang stories. because what role does music play in our ability to retain information and to just learn? Yeah, huge. I mean, perfect example. I mean, how many lyrics to songs do you guys know? How many did you go to class and really study, and go all night just to learn? None, none, right? So music has an amazing ability to enhance learning. We had, we do an annual brain power conference

Starting point is 00:38:30 and we had Quincy Jones attending in the audience, the famous music producer, and I couldn't help at Pullman stage, because like, I mean, come on, there's what are the opportunities? The ruler, come on. Yeah, and exactly, and that was one of the questions I asked. I was like, everybody knows your achievements, the ruler, we are the world, all the stuff.

Starting point is 00:38:48 I want to know about your problems. Like, what are the big problems you're facing now or in the past and how did you overcome them? Good question. And he literally looked at me. It's like, I don't have any problems. This is Quincy Jones. And I'm like, and he's like 90 years old now,

Starting point is 00:39:01 but the impact, he was like 11 years ago. And I was like, everybody has problems. So I mean, what are you talking about? And he was like, no, I don't have problems. He's like, Jim, I have puzzles. And I was like, wow, he like reframes problems into puzzles. And I was like, wow, that's so elegant because often the problem is not the problem.

Starting point is 00:39:21 Often the problem we're facing is our attitudes and assumptions about the problem itself. And the fact that he calls them puzzles that for some reason it just makes it more fun. It makes it like there's a solution to it and that's how he's approached his whole life. But the reason I bring it up is he also speaks no joke 23 plus languages. Yeah, people don't know this. And he always says you have to go to know. So he travels a whole lot with what he does. And he says he can learn things from their food, their art, their language, their music.

Starting point is 00:39:58 And I think there's a correlate between going back to music, because obviously he's one of the most iconic music producers in the world and language learning also as well. But even think about like, we talked about lyrics and how you know hundreds of songs after just hearing a couple notes, like the ABCs, right? You go, A, B, like, can you say it without the music, right? Like in your head. And I think it's like Twinkle Twinkle little. Like it's the same notes. But yeah, absolutely. There's so many different ways.

Starting point is 00:40:30 Actually, we talk about in the book using various music like when you're studying. Now, some people, it's distracting. So like again, going back to your brain animals, some people, you know, everybody learns a little bit differently. But having music that doesn't have lyrics to it, especially classical music, it help you get into a brainwave state called alpha, and alpha is a state where other relaxed awareness

Starting point is 00:40:52 where you just absorb information more easily where your conscious mind is not critiquing you and it's kind of set aside, specifically from the Baroque era, the Valdee, Handal, because it's 60 beats per minute, the notes, and it harmonizes with the resting heart rate, 60 beats per minute. So research has shown that listening to Baroque classical music in the background when you're studying, let's say you want to prepare a presentation,

Starting point is 00:41:19 you know, you're going on stage, or you're learning some facts or a language. Jim, have you ever listened to what it sounds like? Because you're making me think of this. I wonder if this is a connection. Maybe this is it there. You ever hear what it sounds like in the womb? What babies here in the womb? They hear the mother's heartbeat.

Starting point is 00:41:35 Yeah. Do you think maybe that's what primed us to learn to maybe music that induces that effect in us? I would imagine that the place, a significant role. I mean, I don't know any research that packs that up, but that would anecdotally, I would imagine that makes sense to me. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:41:51 I'm sure that's all that either. So right now, well, speaking of the, let's go back to the four types, animal types that we started this conversation, off the top of your head, like what are some strategies for each one of those animal types? Let's say to learn how, since they're dolphins, I'm a cheetah, is there a different reading strategy

Starting point is 00:42:10 for being compared to them? Yeah, so cheetahs tend to read in sprints because they're really fast. So someone to think, and by the way, remember that I believe genius is built, it's not so much born, right? And genius can be learned because genius is built. It's not so much born, right? And genius can be learned because genius leaves clues.

Starting point is 00:42:28 So I also believe with the animals that, yes, we can switch our animals through dedication and training, right? So anybody can become more of an owl by leaning into a critical thinking and rational, any kind of training and books around that. So you're not limited to that, but most people stay in that. What's interesting is seeing people is like having your significant other take the quiz, because it also informs your communication style also as well, which you'll see in the report.

Starting point is 00:42:57 But yeah, Cheetah's tends to scan and skim. I recommend using a visual paste or while you read, it'll help maintain your focus through the information. Bees your eyes are naturally attracted to motion. If somebody just like walks, which they are outside there, I naturally look because it's if you're a hunter

Starting point is 00:43:14 gatherer and you're hunting you're in a bush and you're hunting lunch in front of you like say, Serabit or Karen, you know, depend on your diet, right? It's probably rabbit. But the bush next you move, you have to look because number one, you know, it could be lunch or number two. You could be lunch.

Starting point is 00:43:32 Yeah, you could be lunch. So your eyes are naturally attracted to motion. So when you're underlining the words or even the screen using a highlighter or your finger, not touching the screen or the book, you'll actually read better because your focus is on there. Even with creatives, they remember stuff very well like dolphins using visualization. They think a lot of times in pictures. Using a memory palace, which we talk about, which is the ancient Greeks are attributed.

Starting point is 00:44:02 2500 years ago in ancient Greece, the story goes, Simonides was a poet, and he gave a poetry reading in this building, and when he left, and when he was done, something really tragic happened, the building collapsed and killed all the attendees. And because he's the lone survivor, he was responsible for helping family members identify their loved ones, right? And they didn't have DNA testing and stuff like that. But he was able to, because he remembered where each and every one of them were sitting. And that's to go back to your brain. We remember things based on where things are, because the context gives us the content.

Starting point is 00:44:39 Even when you forget someone's name, you probably ask yourself, where do I know this person from? Right? And think about it. Hunter Gather is going back to, you know, evolutionary, like how things develop. We didn't need to remember a lot of numbers and, you know, definitions and stuff. What we needed to remember was where things were. Where's the enemy tribe?

Starting point is 00:44:59 Where's the fertile soil? Where's the clean water? That's everything. So the technique, you know, that- So everything's in context of that? Yes, very much so. And so we remember things based in space, you know, even, you know, and even how we code the past, like if everyone's listening to this, like, if it's safe and you could, you're not, you know, you're not lifting something, you're not driving, just kind of close your eyes and just, you can, you can humor me with this. I haven't done this on a podcast before, but if you can

Starting point is 00:45:28 remember something in your past, like a past memory, as you're just kind of thinking, you get a sense of where that is around 360 around you, just point in that direction. Where does that feel like that specific incident that happened a week ago, years ago, maybe you could just kind of point a finger in that direction. Where do you feel intuitively? Just, it's different for every person, right? And then think about something in the future

Starting point is 00:45:54 that you, it hasn't happened, but you know will happen. So then this is another way of coding a future memory. Where, think about something that you know is gonna happen a week from now. You're gonna get on a plane, you're gonna go to London, where, think about something that you know is gonna happen a week from now, you're gonna get on a plane, you're gonna go to London, you're gonna do something, and if you have a presence of that image, point in that direction. Where does that feel like that is?

Starting point is 00:46:17 And so for most people, it's a different direction. And so we learned even store time based on, we understand time based on where we have these memories You know, there's something called timeline therapy where if you connect those two points Let's say your past was this way and your future was this way that line becomes your timeline Or some people their past is behind them and literally if something is going on the future is in front of them And that's their timeline and then what that allows them to do is in their timeline, kind of put their goals that they want to achieve, or maybe even the back, like put things in the past that they want

Starting point is 00:46:51 to kind of forget, or kind of fix the past, like maybe even change some of their thoughts that by their back there. Interesting. Not just what the thoughts are, but how they're thinking about it, like how they're seeing it, maybe making it smaller, bigger, those kind of things. But the idea here is we remember things in space. So the dolphins in the room, which definitely I'm outnumbered by,

Starting point is 00:47:12 they would remember things really well using this memory palace. Like Sherlock Holmes talks about it in his writings, and if you were watch like elementary or some of the movies and television shows, where he would take on an enormous amount of information and data, and he would just store it in different places in his living room. So he would think about like his kitchen. Imagine your kitchen, right?

Starting point is 00:47:33 Let's say if you're going clockwise in your kitchen and you have going clockwise, the microwave, the stove top, the refrigerator, I'm making this up, the dishwasher and the sink, right? And you needed to remember five points to a speech or five things you need to do that day. Dolphins tend to think really well in pictures and images and pictures worth a thousand words. So a lot of people are better with faces than they are with names because you see the face and you heard the name. And then so all you do is come up with an image of that thing you want to remember to do or say or whatever and put it in that first place. And then, like in the order of the kitchen. Yeah, you are.

Starting point is 00:48:08 So let's say we were talking about how to have the best brain possible. And I talked about some of the best brain foods, right? I talked about bone broth, and I started talking about blueberries and avocados, whatever. Eggs, which is like the most one of the most amazing brain foods. And I put all that in my first place in the microwave.

Starting point is 00:48:27 If I'm going to give a TEDx talk and my first point is brain foods, I could see that in the first place in my home. Then I go over to the second place, which is my stovetop, and let's say the second key to a better brain is killing ants. I had this conversation on our podcast with Dr. Daniel Aiman, the brain doctor, and he talks about killing ants, automatic negative thoughts. That's what ants stands for. You know, so I just imagine I'm killing ants on my stovetop, and that's my second point to my speech. Right. The third thing that's really good for your brain is exercise. You know, and I look

Starting point is 00:48:58 forward to having you on my show and talking about the power of fitness, right? BDNF, lowering systemic inflammation, right? All these, all theseF, lowering systemic inflammation, all these amazing benefits that come helping with your insulin sensitivity, all the benefits that come to your brain from working out. So my third place is my refrigerator, and I imagine I open it up and I'm working out with the four of you guys in the refrigerator. And I don't have to rehearse it many times because that's so ludicrous.

Starting point is 00:49:27 Be aware of it. I can see it, yeah. And that's what's going on in the refrigerator. And if I wanted to talk about brain nutrients, which I talk about in the book, like all the nitropics and supplementation, potentially if you're not getting from your whole food diet,

Starting point is 00:49:39 then I put all those supplements in the fourth place in my dishwasher. So my dishwasher saw clogged up because it has lines made in there and has cretin in there. And it has, you know, Bacopa, you know what I mean? And then my fifth place in my kitchen going clockwise is my sink.

Starting point is 00:49:55 And let's say the fifth place, the fifth key to a better brain, a limitless mind is a positive peer group. So I just imagine like all my positive friends doing dishes there, you know, cheerleading them on. And then if I want to go into the next room, a Jason room, like the dining room, I'll do that for 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 for my 6 to 10 points of a talk. Wow.

Starting point is 00:50:15 So it takes more time to explain it, but we are a lot of times visual creatures. And, you know, we tend to remember what we see and what we feel when we hear. The challenge is most of the time we're learning by what we hear, and that's only using one of our senses. But if you could also see it in your mind and feel it emotionally, like killing ants on a stove that kind of get a chuckle or like a little cringe, you're gonna remember it because we remember things

Starting point is 00:50:38 that make us feel, you know, a certain way. It's so brilliant because you're attaching it to something that you see every single day, 50 times, so everybody can memorize parts of their house where a piece of furniture is, where the television is at, where is this. And so you could start to string together 15, 20 points that you have to cover a speech or something. Unless you're leaving in like a studio apartment in your city and you have like one room, but then you can always go to your past homes that you have. Or yeah, work, school, your favorite place to go.

Starting point is 00:51:07 The mall, you know, whatever, any place, and then just using this. And that's what a mind palaces, you know, for people who want to pump up their mind. Yeah, that's awesome. I've done that with, I have a really good long term, I'm even not short term, but long term. And when I remember a study or something to bring up on the show,

Starting point is 00:51:26 I always picture it. I'll literally picture the study, the webpage, or the place that I read it. It makes it very easy for me to recite and talk about. Also because you're in your element, as a dolphin, a lot of dolphins think in pictures. If I was asked you to describe your car to me, right? Like tell me about your car. Yeah, well, it's blue. It's SUV. Yeah. And you probably don't see the words blue SUV. No, you see an image of, right? Even when you're on airplanes, right? You don't no longer say no smoking or you know, fasten your seat belts. There's just an image, right? Well, you know, original writing was where really pictures representing objects. I don't, only people appreciate just how abstract modern writing is to create letters that

Starting point is 00:52:11 represent sounds, put the sounds together to make words and so on. Very abstract, like, you know, breakthrough of being able to record things, but really it's representing pictures. Very, very much so. If you think about hieroglyphics or a lot of the, even ancient languages or like that. Yeah, even a lot of ancient languages, the characters represent.

Starting point is 00:52:30 This is what a house looks like. You said genius is not innate, but rather cool to explain that. Yeah, I think genius, I think. Well, there's like, you know, like, there's athletics that are at the top of level. Yeah, one percent. Genetics play a big role, right?

Starting point is 00:52:43 Certainly. Yeah, I feel like for the most part, genius can be built and it's not always born. I mean, when it comes to our brain, research suggests about one-third of it is predetermined by genetics and biology. So that leaves a majority of it? But two-thirds is in your control, at least influence. The five things that I mentioned move the needle, but so does a clean environment. That would be number six for me, a meaning clean environment. When

Starting point is 00:53:11 you organize your computer or you just have clarity of thought, so your external world is a reflection of your internal world. Another thing I would fall on me if those two-thirds, if that's number six, I'm just going through my home right now. Number seven would be sleep, right? You know, just like, I mean, how's your brain functioning on a poor night's sleep? How's your ability to focus? You have a baby. Well, how old is your kid now?

Starting point is 00:53:34 Nine months. Okay, so you just got through the toughest part, but what's it like? We're still going through it. How much of that effect you're thinking? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, so any tips you guys have, not. Just hang on.

Starting point is 00:53:47 Just a nice, nice, nice, nice, good investment. Yeah, very good investment. It's better. And that's the thing. And then I talk about human motivation. A big part of human motivation besides having purpose is having energy. If somebody did a big process meal and they

Starting point is 00:53:59 wanted to motivate themselves to study or to read, then they're probably not going to be very motivated. If someone has a slept in four nights for me with the baby, but it lowers your motivation, grace, friction for you working out. So the energy is big deal. But sleep, I don't know your favorite sleep tips, but for me getting sunlight first thing in the morning

Starting point is 00:54:19 is so very important. You know, go outside. I need 15 minutes outside as soon as I wake up. I try to get the elements. I don't talk about this a lot, but, you know, while there's fancy biohacking and I have the sun and the cold plunge and the float tanks and everything, you know, for me, when I was talking about ancient Greece,

Starting point is 00:54:36 when I was doing a lot of study there, a lot of ancient cultures believe that everything was made up of four elements, Babylonian times, Greek times, air, water, fire, earth. Right. So I just, it just nurturing for me to have the mindset is like, okay, when I wake up, I want to get those four elements in my life. So I'll go outside, I'll get grounded on the earth.

Starting point is 00:54:55 Some people say there's an electronic change, helps you feel grounded, reduce stress, and so on. For me, it just feels anecdotally, just feels like I feel solid. Number two, I'm getting the fire from this from the sun, right? Your eyes are the only part of your brain that's outside of your skull and helps to reset your circadian rhythm, helps you sleep better at night. The third thing I'll do is hydrate because we can lose up to a pound of water when we sleep through respiration and perspiration. Even a 2% dip, like a dehydration, could dramatically affect your cognitive performance. So, you know, we're all doing, do you drink

Starting point is 00:55:30 that water? Your brain is mostly water. I read, I had someone on our podcast, Dr. Lisa Masconey, she's a neuroscientist and nutritionist, and she said that upwards of, you know, staying hydrated will boost your reaction time. And thing is, beat upwards of 30%. Wow. You know, which is amazing. So that's water. So I have earth, I have fire, I have water, and then air.

Starting point is 00:55:49 I just do some breathing. They get rid of the kind of mental cobwebs. If I feel like I have to take a little bit of stuff to be, tell me sleep at night and just kind of low groggy. I find the breathing helps. You know what I like about what you're doing? Is that you're marrying wisdom with current science and technology. I think that there's a lot in both.

Starting point is 00:56:11 I think there's a lot of value in both. I think sometimes you brought one of them up, one of them up, grounding the trade of electrons. I think we know that studies show that walking barefoot on my grass or dirt seems to have this positive effect. But then I think what happens is we try to explain it with, you know, these really, okay, well, it's a trade of electrons. You know what it probably is? It's probably, like, there's a lot of nerves on the bottom of your foot. They're covered by shoes, all the, it's like having gloves on all the time. So then you take your socks off and you walk on a

Starting point is 00:56:40 on a grass or dirt, which, I mean, that's, you think it's just your foot that's getting steamy lady, that's your brain that's getting steamy lady. So, I feel like it's a lot more simple than we try to go so far. Oh, well, there's a little acrostic poem. Yeah, there's always weird, like, no, I think honestly, your feet just, we cover them all the time. Yeah, no, I like that. I mean, there's this whole kind of grounding culture, just our barefoot culture. Yeah, for me, I, I, I love it. It just, even anecdotally, it just makes me feel good. And that's kind of where I go. And, and, and this stuff also, I mean, I'm talking about like 12 minutes in the morning.

Starting point is 00:57:12 It's not like a three hour biohacking, you know, routine. And it costs nothing for anybody who's listening to this right now. You mentioned utropics. Our audience is going to want, of course, certainly a matter of fact, I don't ask you about this. And so, let's talk about the, the, the tropics that you know that seem to actually have an effect. And how much of an effect do they have in comparison to lifestyle changes? Yeah, I mean, for me, I'm a big get it from my diet kind of person.

Starting point is 00:57:37 And again, there's a quote in limit list from a French philosopher and he says, life is the letter C between B and D, where B stands for birth, D stands for death, life's C choice, right? And you know, our lives are some total of all the choices we've made up to this point, right? Who are we gonna marry, who are we gonna spend time with, or are we gonna live, what are we gonna do, what are we gonna eat, what are you gonna feed our mind,

Starting point is 00:57:58 all that stuff? You know, and so I believe these difficult times, they could diminish us, these difficult times can develop us or You know or or diminished us, right? It's just how we decide Including the choices we make when we put in our body So you know, but the problem is a lot of stuff we can't get through food like but you could supplement someone you could supplement with Colleen which is really good for cognitive health But I'd rather people get it from their eggs or somewhere else another source

Starting point is 00:58:24 I mean my my go-to's for this I want to make sure the foundations there for cognitive health, but I'd rather people get it from their eggs or somewhere else, another source. I mean, my go-to's for this, I want to make sure the foundations there, that I have my omega 3s, my DHAs, my vitamin D levels, or our check, and everyone can also go to functional medicine doctor and have these, get to do a nutrient profile and see which might be lacking. But all the essentials, the Colleen and eggs, the precursor for aceto-colleen, which is very important. So if that people can eat eggs, then they could supplement with it also as well. Some of my go-tos, I mentioned Cretin. Obviously, it's very, very popular for people who do, who are exercise on a regular, incredible cognitive effects.

Starting point is 00:59:06 You guys notice that also? Oh, no. We try to do it all the way. We try to do it all the way. It's the ultimate longevity supplement effect. Yes. So, yes. So, the some of the things that we highlight there are some basic nutrients.

Starting point is 00:59:16 And then some of the, the nitropics would be some things like a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a Ashwaganda, some things also that come through, might go to, especially if you want to get in for performance, alpha GPC, and we put a whole bunch in the book. Also, we're going to put that actually put, by the time this airs, we'll put all the recommendations on our website, freebrainnutrition.com. What are the things that you expanded on? Because your first book was a hit.

Starting point is 00:59:49 Yeah, this expanded edition. So what did you add? What did you change? Yeah, so it's really all about momentum. So like once you, the three sections of the book, when I was first writing the book, it was all methodology. 100% methodology, how to read three times faster, how to learn languages, how to remember speeches, build your busy book, or whatever.

Starting point is 01:00:09 And before I hit send to my publisher, I asked myself this question, I don't know where it came from, but it was like, will everyone who reads this book get what they're hoping for? And my honest answer was no, because a lot of people know methods, right? I don't know how the guys with your listeners with your clients. It seems like a lot of people know what to do, you know, especially your listeners. They probably forgotten more about, you know, personal transformation and fitness, the most their friends and family, right? But are they doing what they learned at the time? Why aren't they doing it?

Starting point is 01:00:39 Yeah, and I really think for every hour you spend listening to a podcast or reading a book, we should dedicate an equal hour to putting in to play. Otherwise, somebody reading a book, someone who has decades of experience, you put into a book and somebody can sit down and read that book in a few days, they can download decades in a day. That's the biggest advantage. Besides the benefits of reading, reading is to your mind what exercises your body. If you're looking for brain training, reading is especially the way we teach it is very active and so very important. But going back to the, you

Starting point is 01:01:11 know, what we're talking about here in the context of reading in the context of what's new, there's three areas, there's two areas that have to come before methodology and there's three M's, mindset first, right? So the mindset is your set of assumptions and attitudes about something. So somebody learns a great method for making money, but their mindset is money is a root of all evil, or I have to hurt people to make money. They're still gonna be stuck in that box.

Starting point is 01:01:36 So mindset has to be addressed. People, I just did this talk at Google two days ago, you know, and somebody before I went on stage like I was like, well, I drew hear your memory expert, I'm really stupid. I don't even know. This person had a lot of imposter syndrome for being there, and I was like, wait, stop. If you fight for your limitations, you get to keep them. If you fight for your limits, they're yours.

Starting point is 01:01:56 I don't know if you have clients or you have people talking about what they can to, and they're trying to sell you on it, because I believe your brain is this incredible supercomputer and yourself talk is a program It will run so if you tell yourself I'm not good at remembering people's names You won't remember the name of the next person you made because you program your supercomputer not to so mindset has to be addressed So that's the first section the second section is motivation We've talked about that throughout this conversation. It's like what was that young ladies who are at 30 books and 30 days What was her motivation?

Starting point is 01:02:25 Right? Because then you don't have to use willpower or pump yourself up because you're tapping into a deep purpose. For me, motivation is three things. If you want to motivate yourself, if you want to have, motivate somebody else, the formula is P times E times S3. You need purpose, you need energy, and you need small, simple steps. Like somebody could have, if you don't have purpose, you feel, because a lot of people,

Starting point is 01:02:48 they have it purpose here in their head, but not in their heart, and they're not going to follow through, because it's just intellectual. Because we are, you know, we are not logical, we are biological. You think about dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and dorfins, we are this chemical feeling soup, right? So you have to feel it. But someone can have purpose to work out and still not do it because they lack the energy because they're not sleeping

Starting point is 01:03:11 or whatever. That's why we talk about so many tips on how to box my energy because I don't believe you have energy. You generate energy. You don't have focus. You do focus. You don't even have a memory. There's a process, three stage process

Starting point is 01:03:24 for remembering something. So sometimes we trick ourselves into submission by what we say. You know, and when you take the nouns in your life and you turn them into verbs, you have power. So you don't have energy or you don't have creativity. You do it. There's a process for creating.

Starting point is 01:03:40 There's a process for energizing yourself. It's also empowering. Incredibly, because it gives you back your agency, right? Like, so you're not waiting, you're not waking up and hoping, oh, I hope I have creativity to make videos today and write my book. I had to make creativity. Exactly. And you turn into a verb and then you have your power.

Starting point is 01:03:56 So this book is full of the methodologies, the processes, right? So you don't, you don't have focus. You do it. You don't have a memory. You do it. And so that that's the purpose. But I realized that post pandemic AI world and then with the impetus with, you know, turning 50 and having my first born, you know, I realized the importance of the fourth

Starting point is 01:04:16 them, which is momentum. And so the book is really the core of the book, this new version, the updated version. Not only does that have lots of new science and case studies from our previous readers, so you could kind of follow their track going through their hero's journey like Star Wars, but also there's new chapters, so there's chapters on Neutropics, which everything is human studies and every, if you like to nerd out over that stuff, it's highly reference. The chapter we talked about on my brain animal, right, like, you know, your cognitive types, and I walk you through examples of how teams play out and how they communicate and how they learn differently, you know, and how to create a learning

Starting point is 01:04:55 organization. So that that's very powerful that the another chapter's brand new is learning agility. Like how do you, with people working hybrid in offices, remotely, how do you, like you teach people how to, you know, you have the amazing gym outside, you know, to be more physically agile, right? They're fast, flexible, they're pliable. But I also want people to be mentally agile, right? I want their thoughts to be faster, right?

Starting point is 01:05:21 They're, they're, they're, they're, they're problem solving to be quicker, more agile, they're thinking to be more pliable. And so we talk a lot about that in the workplace specifically. And then, you know, chapters on AI, on how to use AI to enhance your HI. That's my driving question when it comes to AI. I don't see it as artificial intelligence.

Starting point is 01:05:42 I see it as more as augmented intelligence. Is there to augment you? Is there to serve and support you? So how do you use AI to improve your HR, your human intelligence? So in there are a series of prompts, how we work with coaching clients on how to learn anything faster, utilizing AI. So for example, we have a podcast. Sometimes I don't get the book in time, male to me.

Starting point is 01:06:05 And I don't like reading stuff on screens because I'm looking for, I don't need another reason to be on a screen. And because also visual fatigue, leads to mental fatigue. And sometimes screen time could do that. But also, so now I'll go on on an AI chat program and say, hey, summarize this book for this. Or give me some thoughtful

Starting point is 01:06:25 questions that this author hasn't been asked before that our audience would appreciate. Right. You know, something like that. And I don't always use it for beta, I rarely do, but it gives me some kind of spark or foundation. I'll go through it. And AI could help you with being incredible learning, buddy. It can not only summarize books, right? But you say like, hey, Jim mentioned this thing, neuroplasticity. You go in there and say, explain to me neuroplasticity as if I'm eight years old.

Starting point is 01:06:53 And you'll get this nice little summary comparing it to a tree or something else like that that you just get this aha, right? I'll go through it and it could rate your reading speed, your reading comprehension. Every principle that we talk about in limitless, we show you how to use it using AI. So if I talk about retrieval practice, when you learn something brand new, you encode it, you store it, you retrieve it, but also testing yourself and asking questions to see if you

Starting point is 01:07:18 know it. It has very thoughtful questions to see how much information you really retained on a subject. And it retained on a subject. It goes on and on. We have dozens of different strategies to use AI to enhance your human intelligence. All these, neutropics, understanding your brain type, AI, all of it could help you have greater momentum, greater velocity with less effort and more, certainly a whole lot more enjoyment. Just to back you up on the energy thing, you know, when you say you have energy,

Starting point is 01:07:48 logically you would think like a machine, right? You have a car, you put gas in it. Anytime I turn it on, anytime I drive it, I'm gonna waste gas, I'm gonna waste energy. Human body doesn't work that way. If you sit still, you don't necessarily conserve energy if anything you start to produce less of it. So this is why moving an exercise makes you more energetic.

Starting point is 01:08:08 You're not wasting the energy you have, you're creating energy. So just kind of back you up to kind of what you're saying. Yeah, I want to geek out over that on my podcast. This is what everyone wants, right? And so exercise is one of the most important things that people could do for their brain performance. Totally. months, right? Yeah. And so exercise one of the most important things that people could do for their brain performance with them at that time. Totally.

Starting point is 01:08:27 On that note, I know, obviously, you've probably spoken to a lot of high performing executives and business people, people in academics. I wonder if high level athletes have reached out to you to talk, because I mean, we know this now, but your ability to think is such an important aspect of high level athletic performance. Have you worked with athletes? Have they come to you to say, hey, I need to get better at this, whatever. Can your technique help me?

Starting point is 01:08:54 Yeah. The book is endorsed by a number of athletes, Gold Medalists, from Apollo, Ono, to Novak Chakavitch, to others, just very blessed. I help athletes with everything from post-concussions, for in terms of not only balancing back, but bouncing forward. You could help them to be able to remember playbooks at rapid fires, also a reaction time, thinking speed, focus, memory. All of this, it doesn't matter where your stadium or your arena is, right?

Starting point is 01:09:28 It could be in a classroom or it could be in an office or it could be on a field somewhere on a court somewhere. Carry on everything. Yeah, your brain, I just want to remind people who are listening, you know, I love the name of your podcast. I wish I could thought of it. My mind popped honestly. But if you want to pop up your mind, you know, it's a reminder that you are the pilot

Starting point is 01:09:50 of your brain. You're not the passenger, right? And so many people act as sometimes that they're on the receiving end and they're victim or it's happening to them. You know, I just want to remind people, I told, I mentioned this on a previous podcast that I was on your show with. And I got to spend some time with Stan Lee. And we're going to dinner Stan Lee who created it and all the Marvel Universe co-created it.

Starting point is 01:10:12 And I was like, I need to know this. I'm so nervous to ask him. But I end up like, Hey Stan, I've always wanted to know you created all my favorite characters, which ones are your favorite. And he goes, Iron Man. And he's like, Jim, who's your favorite character? And he had this Stanley tie, like Spider-Man tie, right? And he said, and I say Spider-Man. And without a pause in his iconic voice, he goes, with great power, comes great response. And we all know that everyone listening knows that. And it's amazing because I sometimes reverse

Starting point is 01:10:41 things when I hear it. Maybe because I had a few head injuries when I was a kid, and sometimes when I read I reverse things, and I heard something different. I was like, stand you right, with great power, it comes great responsibility. And the opposite is also true. With great responsibility comes great power. When we take responsibility for something,

Starting point is 01:10:59 we have great power to make it better. And I feel like sometimes in this culture, there's a lot of people making excuses, a lot of people that complain, and my thing is as a coach, it literally complains in ways time, it was energy, and nothing changes. We can't be upset by the results we didn't get from the work we didn't do. It's just a truth. And so what I would rather people do is to take ownership, and we hear like, Chaco, discipline equals freedom and be able to get yourself to do these things.

Starting point is 01:11:33 But, you know, and we hear people say all the time that you have to choose your heart, right? Not knowing is hard and knowing is hard. We choose our heart. Being broke is hard, making money can be hard. You know, we choose it. Being sick is very hard. You know, making money, it can be hard. You know, we choose it. Being sick is very hard. You know, working out, eating right, sleep is hard.

Starting point is 01:11:49 But we have to make that. But I really think life is difficult for two reasons. Either because we're leaving our comfort zone or because we're staying in our comfort zone. You know, that's why I love your community. You know, I was engaged in like, in all your social media, I listened to your shows,

Starting point is 01:12:03 you know, listen to what people call in and talk about because they're they're leaving their comfort zone, right? They're not settling. They don't want to just have mediocrity and it's a choice that we always have so awesome Jim It's been nine months how has fatherhood changed you Besides a lack of sleep Yeah, this is it's been the, it's been the biggest blessing. This is something. I'll say this, it was interesting going through it because as a man, I don't have to do nearly as much work or effort or anything.

Starting point is 01:12:41 I wasn't pregnant. I was there to be able to support my wife. And, but, you know, even post, you know, she's absolutely amazing. But I will say, I went in with the attitude. I was like, oh, I'm a totally like educate this kid. I'm going to biohack that. I'm just like, I'm training, doing all this stuff and reading it. And while I still plan to do a lot of that, um, it's been the opposite.

Starting point is 01:13:02 Instead of teaching, I've been learning so much. You know, the, I'll tell you, the teaching, I've been learning so much. I'll tell you, the biggest growth I've had in my life with all the influence that books have had and people I've had the opportunity to meet, it's come from three things. Number one, intimate relationships. We could go down a whole rabbit hole about how they're a mirror and how vulnerable you are and how everything comes up and so reflection, so that's been a big growth for me.

Starting point is 01:13:29 Number two, entrepreneurship, I don't know how you guys feel, but I feel like you guys own your business and it's different than just relying on a paycheck. And so everything falls on your shoulder. In our team, their payroll, everything to your responsibility. And I just feel like I've grown a lot as an entrepreneur through entrepreneurship. And then the third area is now just being a father, you know, in terms of growth.

Starting point is 01:13:55 You, you wait, I waited long, I waited till I was 40. You waited till 50. Why? It's been, you know, my career is pretty intense. You know, and I want my parents work the whole lot as immigrant parents do, many jobs. And, you know, I really want to be there and be more readily available.

Starting point is 01:14:20 Also, you know, with the focus with our team is really on the mission. We feel like that the world is in a little bit, there's a lot of crazy going on in the world. We feel like we get that value. I feel like limitless, this book, the original book, overtook Obama's book for six straight days to be the number one book of all nonfiction globally on Amazon. But I feel like it was beginning, it was in the beginning of the

Starting point is 01:14:45 pandemic and people felt the opposite, they felt limited. Right? So I think limitless was something that was inspiring for them. And I believe we also live in the millennial of the mind. And you know, but nobody shows us how to do that. So then we wrote the book to be an owner's manual for your mind, you know, because once you understand how your brain works, you could work your brain, you know, incredibly, you know. And so, you know, a lot of it was my own, you know, career and everything, but I'm, things

Starting point is 01:15:14 are happening at the right time. With immigrant parents, let me guess, like you success, make it money, mom and dad are like, so proud of you, but they probably are like, what do you have a baby? Yeah, for her, for my wife's siblings and my siblings, they all have their kids, or so. We were the last ones. Like, oh, Jim doesn't get the job. I thought like I was misunderstood about that.

Starting point is 01:15:35 Were you misunderstood about that? People thought I was scared of commitment and all these things, and had nothing to do with that. No, no, it had nothing, not for me. I've always known, wanted to do with that. No, no, it had nothing. Not for me. I've always known, one of the, one of the, to grow the family. Yeah, me too. That's why, I mean, I was misunderstood by that's what people,

Starting point is 01:15:51 other people thought were you misunderstood? Like people. Yeah. Yeah. I'm sure, you know, and that, that doesn't have so much of effect, you know, for me, just because I'm very, my values are, people ask, this is a great question to ask everybody is, and I would love for people to post it,

Starting point is 01:16:11 and maybe tag us all in as we get to see it, what's most important to you in life. So once you understand your values, going back to motivation, purpose, energy, small, simple step purpose, once you understand what motivates you in your life, small, simple step purpose. What you understand what motivates you in your life, like for me, it's love, growth, contribution, adventure, which I had it just recently, because I just want to enjoy this process too. I would do anything for the people that I care about.

Starting point is 01:16:36 And so I feel like, you know, and all the other noise and expectations and opinions, the other thing I have references, like my dad lost his both his parents when he was 13. So that's why he came to this country because he was in poverty and they couldn't afford, you know, to feed him and everything. So I grew up with this mantra that family is most important. So it was like, you know, and then my mom lost her mom when she was a teenager and it was just this whole thing. So, you know, it formed who we are. And I honestly, I respect, you know, so many people that are strong because I have never met one strong person that had an easy

Starting point is 01:17:12 life, you know. And, you know, this is, I just want to remind people if they're struggling right now, you know, there's some things we can only learn in a storm, right? You know, and some storms come because they clear our way. And I just want to say, to ourers going through that right now that you inspire people around you, whether they're acknowledging or not with your with your grit, you know, and your grace. But I spent a lot of time with senior centers because I lost my grandparents and I really really got to know them. And my grandma died of Alzheimer's. And so I'm just very conscious. And we donate the proceeds.

Starting point is 01:17:48 And my author proceeds to build schools for children. I wanna go on a malachemia for Alzheimer's research, in memory of my grandmother. But spending time in senior centers, I help polish off their memories. But I also hear a lot of great story and a lot of wisdom that is previous generations like they had. I mean, we just don't have it tough. No matter what's going on, we just don't have what they, and so I like to learn a lot selfishly.

Starting point is 01:18:13 But also I hear a lot of regret, you know, somehow this person, you know, they didn't pursue this relationship because what other people would think about that, or they pursued a career because it was expected of their parents or whatever. And I just want to remind people that what we're taking our final breaths is not like a fun conversation. But when we're at the end, none of other people's opinions and expectations

Starting point is 01:18:38 are going to matter. None of our fears are going to matter. What's going to matter is the things that matter to us. You know, I always say the most important thing is to keep the most important things, the most important things. Right. And so those are your values, the things that you hold. And it's different for every person. Some people value freedom, some people, whatever, you know, safety or whatever it happens to be. You know, but I would just say sometimes we feel burnt out, not because we're doing too much. Sometimes we feel burnt out because we're doing too little

Starting point is 01:19:04 of the things that make us come alive, right? The things that light us up, you know. And so I just, maybe it's just kind of a, you know, for me, it was a wake up call. Like I, I, I got into a car accident. Like I, this, this limit list in 2020 was my first book out of a 30, you know, 30 year career. People think I have like a dozen books, but I waited to do my mind, my mind, because I'm out of my, my, my opus here, for my work, but it was part of life. I didn't want to be famous. Like I, like I don't think I'm famous now, but, but it's tough when you want to help people and not be known for it. And I was in this car accident,

Starting point is 01:19:42 and I should have died. And it gave me perspective right about legacy. And so, you know, that week I signed the book deal that was, I've had for years, you know, offered, you know, because it just makes me think. So, yeah, this is a, this is a big year, 50 newborn, new book, you know, but I just, I'm, yeah, I just want to, I want to be a useful one here. Yeah, you do a great job. You're, you're interviews that do really well with our audience. They take a lot. And your book is, they, we get messages from people saying

Starting point is 01:20:15 they got a lot from your book. So thank you. I, I, I, I let our whole audience read, read his book. It's exceptional. We'll definitely improve your life. Yeah. You take the animal quiz, too. Yeah. My brain animal.com is a great place to start. And then post your animal. Get this nice AIR that we made and then tag us all in as we get to see it. I'll repost a few and then give a bunch of signed copies out to your audience. Awesome. And then the book's at LimitlessBook.com. Thank you. And if you like podcasts, you know, ours is 15 minutes long. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, different.

Starting point is 01:20:46 I think you're doing salary for this, right? You guys, you guys, yeah, yeah, yeah, for 15 minutes, 15, 20 minutes. You ever heard me tell you a good luck. That's the room of quarter and he'll go. Jim God bless. Thanks for coming on the show. Yeah. Thank you guys so much. Thank you. 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 Superbundle at MindPumpMedia.com. The RGB Superbundle includes maps and a ballad, maps performance and maps aesthetic. Nine months of phased, expert exercise programming designed by Sal Adam and Justin to systematically

Starting point is 01:21:24 transform the way your body looks, feels and performs With detailed workout blueprints in over 200 videos, the RGB Superbundle is like having Sal Adam and Justin as your own personal Trainers, but at a fraction of the price. The RGB Superbundle has a full 30-day money-back guarantee, and you can get it now plus other valuable free resources at MindPumpMedia.com. If you enjoy this show, please share the love by leaving us a five-star rating and review on iTunes and by introducing MindPump to your friends and family. We thank you for your support, and until next time, this is MindPump. support and until next time this is MindFomper.

Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 2207: Upgrade Your Brain With Jim Kwik

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