The School of Greatness - Upgrade Your Brain And Become Limitless EP 1378

Episode Date: January 14, 2023

https://lewishowes.com/achieve - Join my FREE upcoming Webinar, "4 Keys to Overcome Your Fears and Achieve Your Biggest Goals!"Jim Kwik is an entrepreneur, business coach, and literal genius. He is the Founder and CEO of Kwik Learning, an online brain training and learning firm where he teaches people how to get the most out of their minds. Jim suffered a brain injury at the age of five, which led to slow brain performance and left him struggling in school. As the years wore on, he undertook a journey to learn about his brain, why it was “broken”, and what he could do to fix it.This episode was one that resonated the most with you guys in the past and I’m excited for the value it’s going to bring you. I hope you enjoy it!In this episode you will learn,The three most important questions to transform knowledge into power.How to learn any skill faster.How to unlearn limiting beliefs.How questions are what drive the positive or negative answers you’ll find in your life.For more, go to lewishowes.com/1378

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You can rewrite the story in 2023 and stop living out the same fears and self-doubt that has held you back for years. And you can take a major leap towards multiple areas of your life. But first, you just got to make sure you click the link and show up. Join me for this upcoming free training, The Four Keys to Overcome Your Fears and Achieve Your Biggest Goals by going to lewishouse.com slash reprogram. Make sure to click the link to sign up and I can't wait to see you there. The Limitless Model is an explanatory schema, a framework for learning anything faster. And not only that, but really for accessing our human potential.

Because I think if there's one infinite, limitless resource on planet Earth, it's you. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. Welcome to today's special episode. Over the last 1300 plus episodes, there have been so many impactful interviews that I've been lucky enough to have, and I always like to reflect on some of the most powerful. And this episode was one that resonated with most of you guys in the past, and I'm excited for the value it's going to bring you today as well.

So I hope you enjoy today's episode. You have been impacting so many people's lives over years, decades. You've been working with massive celebrities, massive CEOs, helping them become limitless in their mind, helping them really capitalize on the tool, the technology that we all have, which is our brain, to remembering things more, learning things faster, accelerating all these things in our lives so that we can maximize the impact we have

in our businesses, our careers, our relationships, everything, and I'm so excited you're here. I've been telling you to do a book for five, six, seven years now. You finally got it out. It's called Limitless. Make sure you check this out. Upgrade your brain, learn anything faster,

and unlock your exceptional life. This is going to be amazing. And it's really like three books in one. And there was a model that you give that I think we should start with yeah there's a method that you give or a model for how to become limitless and if we don't follow this model then something's gonna be broken in our life isn't that right yeah there's this model really is a framework for learning anything faster so for people who are listening and watching and they want to learn a language, they want to learn Mandarin, music, martial arts, management, marketing, math.

Any skill. I think if there's one skill to master in the 21st century, it's our ability to learn faster. Like if there was a genie and a genie could grant you any one wish, but only one wish, what would you wish for? If it was only one wish, what would you wish for? You know, most people would say money or this or that but you think learning is the I mean I think a lot of people think being the matrix like downloading the matrix yeah it's where I could learn jiu-jitsu in a second exactly learn a language yeah if I have this skill so I think did the hack a lot of people would do is if it

was any one wish they would wish for more wishes right you know that's for infinite wishes so the equivalent if I was your one wish, they would wish for more wishes. Right, exactly. They would ask for infinite wishes. So the equivalent, if I was your learning genie and I could grant you any one wish to learn any subject or any skill, just become a master at it, what's the equivalent of the answer of asking for infinite wishes? It would be learning how to learn.

Because if you can learn how to learn, the world is yours, especially today. Because nobody who's listening and watching gets paid for their brute strength. It's their brain strength. It's not your muscle power. It's completely your mind power. And the challenge is your brain doesn't come with an owner's manual. It's not user-friendly, and that's the reason why I wrote this book.

But the Limitless Model is an explanatory schema, a framework for learning anything faster, and not only that, but really for accessing our human potential. Because I think if there's one infinite limitless resource on planet Earth, it's human capability. There's no limit on our determination. There's no limit to our imagination. There's no known limit to our creativity.

And yet, we're not shown how to be able to access that. And so this framework is a three-part framework. And what I would offer everyone to do is, I love to turn this into like a little masterclass, make it really engaging. And so don't listen passively, because we don't learn through, the human brain doesn't learn through consumption,

it learns through creation and creativity and getting involved in things. I know a lot of us learn faster when we actually roll up our sleeves and do it. So I would encourage everybody as they're working out or cleaning the house or whatever they're doing at the same time to try to get involved in this. Well, I think as an athlete, I can speak to that because for me in school, it's really hard to remember or learn things because I didn't feel like I was participating in a

way that worked for me. But as an athlete playing basketball, when a coach would tell me, okay, I want you to watch this video and then automatically shoot in a certain way with your hand positioned this way and follow through this way, just by watching a video and not actually implementing and practicing it, he would take me out on the court and we would practice it

and do it over and over again and he would correct me and I would learn through muscle memory as opposed to just watching something and then thinking I can do it without actually practicing. So putting it into practice quickly for me is how I learned sports and it's how I try to apply it in other areas of my life as opposed to just, I'm going to learn and then, okay, I know it. I feel like I need to work in it. I feel you. Get dirty. You know what I mean?

I do. I do. I think a lot of people, this is the thing. It's not how smart you are. You know what I mean? I do, I do. I think a lot of people, this is the thing, it's not how smart you are, it's not literally not how smart you are, it's how are you smart. It's not how smart you are, or how smart your kids are, or how smart your business partner is,

it's how are they smart, or how are you smart. What's the difference? So you are smart through experiential learning. Like in the book we talk about- Oh, how are you smart, gotcha. Exactly, it's not how smart somebody is, like their IQ or the intelligence How are they smart and it's always context dependent and so some people learn we talk about learning styles in the book

It's like it have you ever been interested just like you were saying you're interested in a topic But you're not getting it because you know sometimes the way you prefer to learn is different than the way the teacher prefers to teach And it's like your two ships in the night and you pass each other and you don't even realize there's no connection you don't even realize the other one is there and it feels uncomfortable like if i asked everybody as an exercise to take out a piece of paper i encourage everyone to take notes because i'm going to drop a lot of like practical methods uh when you're taking if you were to write your name first and last on a piece of paper actually you could do it right now first and last and everyone piece of paper. Actually, you could do it right now, first and last. And everyone, I encourage you to do this. Or imagine you're writing your name first and last on a piece of paper.

And then when you're done, I want you to switch hands. And in your opposite hand, right below it, write your first and last name with your opposite hand. I don't even know if it would take me 10 minutes. And so while people are doing it, you'll notice when you're doing it with the opposite hand, as we're doing it, that's actually pretty good. That if I was to ask you which one was easier, first or second, and you would say the first was easier, which one is more comfortable, first or last?

The first one. The first one. So not only was it faster, it was easier. And then which one was higher quality? Let's check that out. Hopefully the first one is higher quality also as well. And so here's the thing. That means the second time it took longer.

The second time it also was not as comfortable. And the second time also the quality wasn't quite as good. And here's the thing, when I'm saying it's how you learn, some people are trying to learn something with the opposite hand. So it takes longer. quality wasn't quite as good. And here's the thing, when I'm saying it's how you learn, some people are trying to learn something with the opposite hand. So it takes longer, it feels weird, and the quality is not quite as good

as opposed to if you're using your dominant hand. So how do we know how to learn with our dominant hand as opposed to the opposite hand? Yeah, and that's a metaphor for how we like to take in information. Some people like to learn by reading. Some people, they just cannot get through a book though. They have to listen to that audio or that podcast. Other people- Or watch someone lecturing it or talking about it.

Exactly. And so we all have different styles and it's not right or wrong. Now we can actually improve our ability to read. We actually can improve our ability to listen and apply. So if there are areas where we feel weak, you know, this book is a guidebook to be able to level up those areas. So you could be more of a whole brain learner also as well. But really when it comes to accelerated learning, it's not again, how smart you are, it's how are you smart? And that honors us. And it takes the judgment out. Sometimes in school, it's like the top 10% get A's, another 10% get B's, and then 80% were like you and I. It's like we're failing school as opposed to the way school maybe is failing us.

Because school teaches you what to learn, what to focus on, what to think, what to remember, but not how to learn and how to think. Well, it teaches you how to think and learn in one way. Exactly. and how to think. Well, it teaches you how to think and learn in one way. Exactly. And when I talk about in the book, I talk about the four supervillains that are holding you back in your work,

in your schooling, in your life, is driven by technology. But one of them is digital deduction, where we're depending on technology to tell us what to think. We're not even using the children right now. They're finding that their reasoning abilities, their ability to analyze critical thinking is not as sharp as where it should be because of technology, because technology is doing the thinking for us. And our mind,

I'm going to say this repeatedly, is like a muscle. It's use it or lose it. And just like when you have your personal trainer to make your muscles stronger, more energized, more flexible, more pliable. You want your mental muscles to be stronger, more energized, more pliable, more flexible. Yeah, of course. And so many people refer to me as a brain coach because what I do is I train your brain because I think we're in the millennium of the mind. I mean, it's really about mental fitness, Our ability to adapt, our ability to think, our ability to solve problems, and this really is everything.

When people see me wearing brain shirts all the time or pointing to my brain, the reason why I do that is because what you see, you take care of. You see your hair, you take care of your hair. You see your skin, you take care of your skin. You see your clothing, you take care of your clothing. You don't see your brain.

Exactly. And that controls everything. And so when I point to the brain or how honored what they're sure it's just like people have their emotions on their sleeve you know I have my brain on my chest because I want to put it forefront to remind people to love their brain to care for their brain yeah I think it's I mean that's why a lot of people doctors and nutritionists are talking about gut health it's like we can't see it but yeah I can start to feel rashes or we can start to feel the effects of it. I think it's also heart health is

a big thing right now. It's just like the emotional health, self-care, self-love, mental health and emotional health kind of tie together. And I love your work because you bring that to everybody, to the world. And it's all connected. I talk about in the book, there's this heart intelligence and also your gut as you mentioned a lot of people call it your second brain it's the second highest concentration of nerve cells really and so and it there's and it's connected to and then sometime in your what you eat affects what how you think we know that because of the guests we've had on our shows and everything else that when you eat junk food which

is not just not really a thing there There's junk and then there's food. There's sugar and there's food. Exactly. And what you eat matters, especially for your gray matter. I remember in our previous episode we did years ago, I showed people how to memorize the brain foods and all of the best neuroprotectants, area of neuro nutrition. It's really fascinating that your brain has different nutritional requirements than the rest of your body. But I'm going back to the limitless model.

There are three keys to reaching your goals. And this is my distinction here because originally, I remember years ago when you prompted me to write this book, you're like, Jim, it's been over two decades. You put something in this book. Because fundamentally, I'm a reading teacher. over two decades you gotta do something put something in this book and um so because you know fundamentally i'm a reading teacher and you know somebody has decades why i love reading if somebody has decades of experience and they put it into a book like you and all of a sudden people could read that book in a few days they could download decades into days and readers are

leaders we know that reading is to your mind what exercises your body. It's the best mental fitness. And so the limitless model as an exercise, what I want everyone to do, so it's not hypothetical, because in part of the book, I demystify the seven lies of learning. There are seven lies that hold you back to learning. And one of them is knowledge is power. We hear that all the time. I've even said it also as well. But when we think about it, is it really true? Is knowledge, just knowing something, give you power? No, not unless you act on it, not unless you apply it. So knowledge times action equals power. you to ask as you're listening to this episode to make it very valuable and I would encourage you to write these down three master questions you know we were talking about some of the famous actors that I work on before we started filming and we're you know Will Smith did the cover endorsement of the book that says

you know Jim quick you know it gets the maximum out of me as a human being I've learned so much from this this man just being around, so many around clients. What have you learned from Will? So one of the things is this idea of, we were in Toronto, and I help actors speed read scripts, help them to memorize their lines faster. I mean, you imagine like 30 pages of scripts, there's a lot of lines.

I can't remember a sentence. There's a lot, right? And some of them have their strategies, and no matter how great somebody is, you know this because you make your life about studying and researching greatness. They always know there's another level. And they get really good at the fundamentals and the basics. But one of the things when we were there, we spent the day together, and it was wintertime in Toronto. They were filming from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., which can you imagine?

So hard. Like at nighttime.m., which can you imagine? So hard. Like at nighttime, that's very difficult. But during the day, we went through an exercise, and I believe, so in there I talk about how we have 50,000 to 70,000 thoughts a day, right? And these thoughts are controlling our lives. And a lot of those thoughts are questions that we ask ourselves. You know, thinking is that process of asking and answering questions. And if people are asking,

is that true? Notice you had to ask a question to define if it's true or not, right? And there's certain questions we ask more than any other question. So, so here's the thing. I talk about dominant questions that you have one, two, three questions that you ask a lot. And I want everyone to think about what your dominant questions are, including you. And I'll give you a couple of examples to get you started. So, for example, one of my friends, we went through this exercise of meditating and writing journaling down. We found out her dominant question is, how do I get people to like me? How do I get people to like me?

Now, she asks that question all the time, and you don't know anything about her. You don't know her age. You don't know her background. You don't know what she does for a living. You don't know what she looks like. You don't know where she lives. You don't know anything about her. You don't know her age. You don't know her background. You don't know what she does for a living. You don't know what she looks like. You don't know where she lives. You don't know anything about her. But you know a lot about her.

If you asked yourself, how do I get people to like me hundreds of times a day? What's her personality going to be like? What's her life going to be like? Well, I guess it could be either side of the spectrum. She could be super outgoing and super adventurous to try to get people to be more attracted to her. Or she could be super shy and introverted because she's so worried about what people think about her. So that's the first thing I thought of, but I'm not sure if that's true.

And it's absolutely true. She actually does both of those things. I mean, if you ask yourself, how do I get people to like me? Then what are you doing? You're people pleasing all the time. You're a sycophant. Saying yes to everything yeah you people take advantage of you because you're margarine yourself because they're always trying to do but they're making themselves less than or or their their

personality is never consistent because their personality changes the chameleon the exact for people exactly and you know all that about her and you only know one question she asks herself. And that's one of her dominant questions. I would offer everybody who's listening to this, what do you think your dominant question is? Because questions are the answer. You know this from the work that you do in high performance and greatness, that the questions you ask determine what you focus on. You have part of your brain called the reticular activating system, RAS for short, and it's your filtering system. So at any given time, there's a billion stimuli

that we could be paying attention to. And primarily, your brain is a deletion device. It's trying to keep information out. Otherwise, you would go crazy, right, if you paid attention to everything. So what gets in? So for example, years ago, my little sister started sending me emails and postcards and pictures and photographs of a very specific kind of dog. It was a pug dog. You know those little dogs? Exactly. You meant a black dog, right?

Yes, exactly. Very smushy faces. They're very compliant. You could dress them up as ballerinas, and they don't care. And I didn't know why. So my question was, like, why is she sending me these pictures all the time? That became a dominant question of the day. And then I realized her birthday was coming up.

So she's a smart marketer, right? Planting those seeds. And here's the magic, though. I started seeing pug dogs, Lou, everywhere. I would go to the grocery store. I'd be checking out. And I swear to you, a woman's carrying a pug dog at the register. I would be running and jogging in my neighborhood and somebody's walking six pug dogs. Now my question for everybody is, did these pug dogs

magically appear all of a sudden in the world? No, they were always there, but they were not, I wasn't paying attention to them because they weren't important because I wasn't asking that question. Once you ask a question, you start to pay attention to those things. And that focus determines how you feel, determines behaviors and primarily it's so interesting it's kind of like social media there's an algorithm to your mind like there's an algorithm to Facebook and Instagram that what you engage with the most you like and you share you comment you start seeing more of those kind of things right and so just like your mind what you start engaging with

if you start watching all this news about fear and all the things that are going on, you start paying attention. And your mind just starts focusing automatically. It becomes a reaction, a reflex. And you start to attract more of the fear and anxiety or worry that's in the world that's being posted. Very much so. You start to subscribe to whatever that is

to receive more of it. Exactly. That you're thinking about. So just like on social media, if you start just liking all the cat stuff and everything else, they'll just start feeding you cat stuff. And same thing with negativity

and same thing with opportunity also as well. So the questions make a difference. So questions are the answer. What are the two questions you've been, that are dominant in your mind over the last five years the most? Yeah. So for learning,

because I grew up with the broken brain, many people know my story from the last episode. When they see me do these demonstrations at Summit Series or, you know, events you and I have. Remembering a thousand people's names. Right. Ten minutes. All of that kind of stuff. I say that I don't do this to impress you.

I do this to express to you what's possible. Because the truth is we could all do that and a whole lot more. We just weren't taught. If anything, we're taught a lie that somehow our intelligence is fixed, like our shoe size. But I do it as a demonstration because I grew up with learning difficulties, right? I had my brain injury when I was five. I fell, had a very bad fall when I was in kindergarten,

rushed to the hospital. Before I was curious and very energized, my parents would say, but then I became very shut down. And my superpower growing up was being invisible. It was shrinking, because I didn't want the spotlight. I didn't want to be called on. So I was literally, physiologically, I was always trying to look smaller to protect myself

so teachers wouldn't call on me or I wouldn't be bullied or something like that. I would do that as well, except for I was just a giant in the class. So I didn't know how to do that. I was always picked on. So for me, I would actually be sitting behind you and i'd be guaranteed no one would be able to see me but going back to my my question my question became all the time first of all when i was nine years old i was

slowing the class down and the teacher pointed to me and said that's the boy with the broken brain and that label became my limit and so we have they think about when you're listening to this, what are the labels that we put on ourselves? It's like we're not born. We're born with a blank slate, right? But through experience, through expectations of other people, through our environment, we learned that we are limited. And the good news is we can unlearn it. And that's the point of the book. But because I was in the broken state, I would always ask myself, you know, why am I broken?

Why am I the stupid one? And I started getting answers of why I'm so stupid, right? Every time I did badly on a test, I would be like, oh, because I have the broken brain, right? If I was in sports, I would be like, oh, because I'm the broken one. And that became my self-talk. One of the most exciting things about a new year is you have no idea what adventures are in store for you. From travel experiences to picking up new skills, there's no better way to prepare for 2023 than by learning a new language with Babbel,

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Adults have to be very careful with their external words because they become a child's internal words. But later I started to get so frustrated, I started asking, getting curious. And when you're curious, you start to ask different questions. I was like, why is that person so, why are they so smart? And how come I'm studying three times harder and getting less grades than them? And I started getting answers. My primary question started, my dominant

question ended up being like, how do I make this better? But the three questions that I focus on, and let me tell you first what Will's is. Will Smith, one of his dominant questions when we went through this exercise is, how do I make this moment even more magical? How do I make this moment even more magical? It used to be... Every moment or like an acting moment? This moment. Any moment. And it shows up, right, in his life. Because later that night when we're filming, it was like two o'clock in the morning and his family, we're all outside for the superhero movie that many people know of. And it was really cold because it was

in Toronto and it was wintertime. And we're all just waiting and just waiting and waiting and waiting. Because people think that, and you meet all these people all the time on your show and they think it's so glamorous. No, it's hard to wait. Exactly.

And I asked him this question because I believe genius leaves clues. I was like, you know, how do you prepare? How do you get ready when the director, you're just sitting here for hours and then the director calls on you how do you get ready and he was like jim i don't have to get ready i stay ready and i'm like wow that's good to be will smith it's hard to stay ready for six hours yeah exactly but that's just who he is because i believe the life you live are the lessons you teach the life you live are the lessons you teach others

going back to his dominant question his family was there also at the same time visiting the set are the lessons you teach. The life you live are the lessons you teach others. Going back to his dominant question, his family was there also at the same time visiting the set and you know, from West Philly, you know the song. And we're all outside and shivering and when he wasn't shooting, he would bring us blankets. He would make hot chocolate and bring it to us. He would crack jokes.

He would live that dominant question because the life he lived, he's like, how do I make this moment even more magical? Now, before it was like, how do I make this moment magical? Then we played with it like even more magical, presuming it is already magical and amazing. And so these questions we ask are very important. Now, there are three questions when I said there's turning knowledge into power that I want everyone to obsess about. I mean, this will make you a master. And if you get a, this is it, three questions to turn knowledge into power because knowledge alone is potential power. Number one, how can I use this? When you're listening to this podcast moving forward, every time you listen to it, I want you to ask yourself, how can I use this? Get obsessed about this, like even write it down.

And this is where your mind can be very creative because in here I teach a power of note-taking because people don't realize this. When you listen to a podcast or you go to a summit or an event or have a great conversation with somebody, within two days, 80% of it is gone. We forget it. They call it the forgetting curve.

And one of the ways to retain it is by taking notes, exactly what you're doing. Now, I encourage people to take notes a very specific way, is to put a line right down the page. And on the left side of the page, I want you to take notes. And on the right side, I want you to make notes. So on the left side of the page, you're taking notes. You're capturing.

So they're going to list the quotes. Right, you're capturing information. You're like, this is how Jim remembers names. This is how Jim reads a book a day or whatever it is. So on the left side, you're capturing. But on the right side, you're creating. Now, that's a subtle difference. On the left side, you're note-taking.

On the right side, you're note-making. What's the difference? Again, on the left side, you're taking notes. You're writing down the quotes and the strategies, the processes, but on your right side, what you're doing, the right side creativity, instead of your mind being distracted when you're listening, have it be distracted on, focused on, how can I use this?

On the right side is where you're writing your impressions of what you're learning. How can I use this? Another great question, second dominant question I would ask is not only how can I use it, because you come up with all these answers, just like I see, you start seeing pug dogs everywhere. It's like, oh, this is how I could use this in my relationship. This is how I could use it, you know, in my career. Second question I would ask is why must I use this? Why must I use this? You know, we know one of the people that endorsed my book, he's on your show, is Simon Sinek.

And one of my favorite books, I'm going to mention a lot of books, including your own, his is Star With Why, right? And so why must I use this? So once you have all these ideas of how can I use this, why must I use this? Because if you don't have the reasons, you won't get the results.

Right, you won't care enough about it. Exactly, reasons reap results. I'm going to give a lot of people a lot of quickisms here because it goes from your head to your heart to your hands. You could affirm things in your head all day, set goals in your head all day, but if you're not acting with your hands, you're procrastinating, putting things off, check in with your second H, which is your heart, which are the emotions, right? Because we are not logical. We are biological. Dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, endorphins. This chemical soup drives us to act.

Just like people don't biologically, they don't fall in love logically. They do these things emotionally. So find your emotions. And in this book, we really uncover and I decode motivation. Not motivation getting hyped up and dancing on chairs and then the next day not changing. We figured out this formula of sustainable motivation in this book.

But the second question is go back to why must I use this? Because if you don't have the why, you won't do the what. And then finally the third question, first question, how can I use this? Write all the answers down, think about that. Second question, why must I use it? Gives you the energy and the fuel and the drive to do it. And finally, when will I use this? When will I use this? Because we know that one of the most important performance productivity tools that we have is our calendar, right? If it's not in our calendar, it just doesn't get done. How many people will go? You put doctor's appointments there.

You put PTA meetings. You put meetings with your investor there. But are you scheduling your workout? Are you scheduling your meditation time? Are you scheduling your journal or your white space just so you can be a creative thinker? And if we don't write it down, it comes at the end. And then you just never get to it. And so those are the three dominant questions that you want to ask to take knowledge

and turn them into power. So as you're going through this, ask those questions, you'll get better answers and you'll learn it deeper. It'll deepen into your nervous system so much more. And what are the two questions you ask yourself beyond this that have been dominant in the last few years for you? So I would say...

Personally. Personally, okay. Okay, so this is interesting. In the book, for the first time, I really reveal like one of my kryptonites. Growing up, I had my two challenges, which were learning and public speaking, because I was always shrinking. If I was called to do a book report, like I would get nauseous. Like my heart would be out of my chest. I'd be perspiring and I would just lie and just say I didn't do the book of war,

even if I spent weeks on it. And so it's interesting that learning and public speaking were my challenges. But now you're a master of public speaking. You speak in front of... Because that's what I do. And so it's interesting. The universe has a sense of humor

because all I do is public speak on this thing called learning. One of the things that I reveal in the book is one of my challenges, as you've known for 10 years, has been sleep. You sleep like two hours a night on average. For the first five years of those 10 years, it was about 90 minutes to two hours, very interrupted, not even solid. And I later found out, I got diagnosed, I did a sleep study because I was misdiagnosed,

but I did a thorough overnight study and I have very severe sleep apnea, which means I stopped breathing over 210 times a night. And each time is at least 10 seconds. What is sleep apnea caused by? So sleep apnea for me, it's obstructive sleep apnea. And so... Physical. It was obstructive. Not mental or emotional or... No, my mind, I've meditated for more than half of my life. So I fall asleep within four minutes. Wow. So you can fall asleep quick. Yeah. You can't stay asleep. Like I don't ruminate. I'm not thinking about things because I have that... Anxiety or worry. No, because you and I have, we've done the practice, right? So I can fall asleep fine. But what happens is the airway gets shut down.

And so I had a surgery five years into it after I was diagnosed. I realized, yeah. It helped a little bit, I think you said. It did. It did. It made a marked difference. It took me up to about four hours, which is not a lot, but it was a big difference for me. I later found out I had my parents tested, my siblings tested.

They all have obstructive sleep apnea. So I went through a very painful procedure down the street at UCLA, head of throat. They cut out my uvula, my soft palate, my tonsils. So more airway. So there's more space. Airway created so that I can breathe easier. Because I was using a CPAP and a dental device, all these things, but nothing was really moving the needle. That happened. And it's tough because when I say 200 plus times a night, that's like doctors were like, no wonder you can't sleep.

Somebody's coming in and imagine someone putting a pillow on your face 200 times a night. Oh my gosh. And you wake up suffocating. So I'd wake up nine to 14 times at least a night over a quarter, and only get about two hours. So I never get the deep sleep, which helps with your body recovery. The bench sleep. How were you able to function though?

How were you able to memorize everything and speak in front of everyone? Yeah, and so nobody knew I was struggling with that. Only an intimate group of friends that I was relying on for emotional encouragement and support, which we all need. But I found out that, I mean, that's why this book actually took longer. I didn't want to

put out the book unless I could really dedicate full resources into it and then be able to do book signings and tours and all of that. And so that was one of the things that delayed it. But I realized just like with my learning and my public speaking, one of the questions I ask is, what's besides, okay, my two questions, how do I make this better? Right? Because I'm obsessed with fixing these things. That's something like I ask it all the time, how do I make this better? Right, because I'm obsessed with fixing these things. That's something, like, I ask it all the time. How can I do this better? How can I do this better?

You know, who can I learn from to do it better? With everything in your life. With everything. How can I make my sleep better? My relationship better? Exactly. My health better? My brain better?

How do I help reach more people? I'm always thinking about how do I make it better? And the second thing is when I go through challenges like sleep every single day, it's like, you know, it could be like, here we go again. It's not a pleasant, where most people look forward to sleeping and resting. You know, even if I'm exhausted, I couldn't get that recovery, right? So that's why, you know, I have a float tank and all these recovery devices and I meditate. Meditation twice a day changed my life, right?

Like those kind of things, but nothing replaces sleep. But the other question I started asking besides how can I make this better is what's the gift in this? What's the gift in going through this? And I started, just like magic questions give you magic answers that help you become limitless, because some people are asking very poor questions that limit them. Why am I so stupid? Why can I never learn this? And like, oh, here are all the reasons why you can't learn this. You know, why can't I learn Spanish? Why can't I learn how to dance like everybody else? Or whatever.

They start getting answers, and those answers aren't empowering, as opposed to, how can I learn this in a fun, enjoyable way? How can I make this more enjoyable? How can I simplify this? Those are more empowering questions. So my questions, two questions to answer your question. How can I make this better?

And when I'm going through challenges, where's the gift in this? And I noticed I started getting answers because a few gifts. Number one, when it came to my sleep. Number one, I got really good at what I teach. Like I could roll out of bed and have this conversation with anybody because this is what I live. Because all like, you know, when people see the tens of millions of views on my morning routine and everything else like that that we've talked about, you know, in prior episodes, like 10 things I do to jumpstart my brain every morning,

it's because I just, that's what I do every morning because it forced me to do what I talk about because otherwise I wouldn't be able to survive, right? And I also know, field tested for 28 years of working with children with ADD, learning challenges, dyslexia, to, you know, elderly. You know, I lost my grandmother. So my parents immigrated here, you know, my dad was 13. He lost both his parents, you know, pure, very below poverty,

very harsh conditions. And so when he came here, he lived with his aunt because they couldn't afford to feed him. And so we grew up very, you know, not very, a lot of external resources. There was a lot of love there because when you lose, now see how he learned his questions. Like I grew up hearing this phrase, family is most important, family is most important, family is most important. Because when you lose something exactly becomes important to you and then and then you start asking questions about how do i make the you know how i do this for the family preserve it people feel safe connected and loved exactly so a lot of our questions just like mine how can i make this better because i have these learning challenges came from my challenges right right

pain from pain discomfort yeah so he lost i mean imagine losing your parents when you're 13 years old right and then moving to a foreign country not speaking the language and leaving your younger brother and sister behind um and they passed away you know early because of the conditions so you make you prioritize family above everything so a big part of my values are love growth contribution adventure because you know i would do anything for my family and my friends because I grew up in that environment. So we didn't have money. We didn't have connections. We didn't have education.

They didn't have that, but they were really good people. And so they are my role models. They are my original superheroes. original superheroes. You know, my mother, like, you know, we grew up in the, they had many jobs, you know, and we grew up in the, family grew up in the back of a laundromat that my mother worked at. And it was, you know, it was difficult to say the least, but I think through adversity comes an advantage. You know, like the person that, the person that falls and gets up is so much stronger than the person who never falls. You know, that is just given just everything, you know. And so if you have to be able to work for it, you build those muscles.

But because they had so many jobs, my great aunt, who I call the grandmother, raised me. She was my caregiver. But when I was going through my learning challenges, she was going through dementia and early stages of Alzheimer's. And so we lost her to Alzheimer's. But to watch, you know, to go bring her when she's bedridden soup or anything, and then she calls me, you know, by my brother's name or says something that she just said 30 seconds ago is, you know, and so that leaves an impression, but that led me to be interested in memory at that age,

because you're very impressionable. And I've been called the boy with the broken brain. All that was going on at the same time. So I spent a lot of time in nursing homes helping them polish off their memories, but also hearing their stories, because there's so much wisdom that's there. What's the greatest lessons you've learned from your parents and family?

So the dominant question, you know, when we're talking about making family important and valuing it, they weren't extraordinary. They don't have the most money or the greatest health. They're not spiritual or anything, but they're just hardworking people who are kind. And so I would say hard work for my dad. Like by the time I was nine, I was pushing a lawn mower and shoveling and doing that in my neighborhood to earn extra money.

But every time I would, I don't know, talk about this. Like there was like, I was like, I was trying to do all this cause I have like these allergies. I was like, it's really hard in the summer to put lawns and stuff. And where was this, Wood City? So I have these allergies. I was like, it's really hard in the summer to mow lawns and stuff. Where was this? What city?

I grew up outside New York City in Westchester, New York, which is the home of the X-Men, which is the story of how I ended up working with the cast of the X-Men because the school was there. At nine years old, when I read in the comic books, I taught myself how to read by reading comic books. The stories brought hope in my life. I would escape in my imagination because my reality wasn't very comfortable.

But I would ride my bicycle. I found out this school for the X-Men, because they're not the strongest. They just didn't fit in. And I felt like I didn't fit in in school. And so I used to ride my bicycle around my neighborhood because that's where in the comic books where this Professor X's school was. So I used to look for it on the weekends because I wanted That's cool. Because I wanted to find my superpowers. I wanted to find my super friends where I fit in somewhere.

So the city that the school, what's it called? The School for X-Men? Yeah, it's the School of the Gifted. The School of the Gifted? It's the X-Men school. Was it actually in the city you grew up in? It's in my neighborhood. It's in Westchester, New York.

That's where it says in the comic books. Yeah, exactly. Wow. And so I used to, when I read that. That's crazy. I taught myself how to read by reading comics late at night when my parents thought I was sleeping. I'd be under the covers because I would want to escape into that world because that was much, you know, my, my, my external was very harsh. But what I learned from my parents was even when I was mowing the lawn, that quality matters. Meaning that my dad, I would

say like, why do I have to mow, like, behind this sign or behind this rock? Like, because no one could see that. Or perfect lines. Exactly. Exactly. Like, nobody could see that. And, you know, like, why do I have to do that? But he's like, you know, you know it's there.

And then how you do anything is how you do everything. So, you know, the discipline was hard work and family most important. So that became values for my dad. My mom is the kindest person on the planet you know she you know she had similar story where she lost her mom before she was married and everything and just losing that also gave her the value of family is most important and you know when my brother and sister and and there was so much love from her. She did everything.

So kindness and discipline and hard work is what I got from my parents. Wow. Yeah. And so, I mean, so that was my advantage because I won the lottery there. Yeah. You know, we didn't have the money. With love and connection and family. Very much so.

And it molded my values now. And so going back to like these, the power of questions, I would ask everybody to reflect on your questions that you're asking yourself on a regular basis. Because the second gift I got out of lack of sleep, first of it was doubling down on everything I teach so I could be productive because I was still, you know, very efficient and flying all over the world teaching. And I'm live in front of 200,000 people. When you have a phobia of public speaking and your energy, and I'm a very introverted.

You know that I'm very introverted. I was having this conversation with Simon Sinek and Susan Cain about introverts who wrote Quiet, which is the power of introverts in a very loud kind of society. which is the power of introverts in a very loud kind of society. And Susan explains introverts as someone who wakes up every morning with five gold coins, energy coins. But every time they interact with somebody, they give up one of their coins to that person. And then once their coins are gone, they have to go back and recharge.

But extroverts are different. They wake up with no gold coins, no energy coins, and they have to interact with people and gain energy. That's me. Yeah. So for me, I'm an extrovert. My girlfriend's the opposite. She wants to be at home all day. She doesn't want to see anybody. She just wants to focus on with her family only, work out, eat clean, like learn her stuff. And that's me because that's where I recharge. But do my my passion is learning right I love I love

learning now because it wasn't when I was growing up I love to learn but my purpose you know so learn again your passion is what lights you up learning lights me up and your purpose is how you light other people up my passion is teaching other people how to learn and that that's really my mission because I grew up with a broken brain is I want to build better brighter brains and everybody has this genius inside of them, regardless of their age, their background, their career, gender. None of that matters. What matters is choice.

I start the book with this quote from this French philosopher saying that, life, you'll love this, life is the C between the B and the D. Life is the C between the B and the D. And people listening thinking this guy speaks in tongues. This is like cool. I'll give you a hint. What's the B and D? B is birth. D is death. So what's life? It's the C, choice. Wow. Like let that sink in. Life is the C between the B and the D and C is choice. Life is all about choices because we are, you are sitting here right now,

the sum total of all the choices you've made up to this point. That's true. And I'm saying like everyone, you know, who are you going to date? Where are you going to live? Isn't it crazy that you could be, you know, you could be making all the right choices your entire life and make one wrong choice and set you in a prison

or make you go bankrupt or whatever. You can be making all the right choices your entire life and make one wrong choice and set you in a prison. Or make you go bankrupt. Or whatever. Or in the opposite. Right. You can make all the wrong choices and make one right choice to set you on a path of greatness. Because one step, if you're going this way, here to here, and you take one step in another direction, it completely changes your destination and your destiny. one step in another direction, it completely changes your destination and your destiny.

So the good news is, yeah, you could make one choice that takes you off tangent, but one choice for the right about who you're gonna spend time with. What are you gonna eat today? You know, whether you're gonna move today, if you're gonna listen to this podcast, if you're gonna look at, if you're gonna focus on crisis

and all the terrible things in life, are you gonna focus on like, wow, how people are stepping up and how they're doing other things? But the second thing I learned besides out of my sleep doubling down on skills and capabilities, you know, I always tell people, don't downgrade your dreams to fit your current reality. Upgrade your mindset, your motivation, your methodology to really meet your destiny, the things that you want most in life.

How important are skills? So important. Acquiring new skills at any level. Absolutely critical. Absolutely critical. Even coming back to the second gift I got from lack of sleep, the second gift besides doubling down on all my skills was protecting my time. Okay.

So here's something. When you have a finite amount of energy and you only slept two hours or three hours or four hours last night, you don't overcommit. And I find one of the things that drains energy from people that makes them stressed out of their mind is they are saying yes to way too many things. And when you lack sleep every single day and you're exhausted, you only do the things that you're supposed to do. Meaning that you don't have the luxury of saying, like right now, there's nowhere else I'd rather be, no one else I'd rather be with than right here with you. And there's a power in that.

So whether I got three hours of sleep last night or got off a plane last night or I'm still doing this, with focus, with energy, it's because I made the decision to do this and everything, as you've heard, everything is like heaven yes or heaven no, right? Like if you don't feel completely like yes, yeah. Then you say no. And here's the thing, a lot of people feel they're burnt out

because they're doing too much. I don't think you're burnt out because most people are burnt out because you're doing too much. I think you're doing too little of the things that make you feel alive. You're doing too little of the things that really matter in your life. And so you're saying yes to things that don't matter exactly so the second

gift I got out of years I'm not sleeping was you said no to everything yeah exactly and I only do the things that are important because one of the lessons I got from spending time with elderly because I lost my grandmother and I spent all the time in senior centers and nursing homes and training them and and helping with them the gift I got back I always get a gift back from working with anybody, is I heard stories and so much wisdom of generations that have gone through, you know, like real hardship, right? I mean, our lives compared to theirs is, you know, now there's no comparison.

But one of the things I do hear, because I do believe genius leaves clues, and when somebody asks me what's the definition of genius, I don't think it's IQ. It's not this number that you test at eight years old and that's your number when you're 88 years old. I demystify IQ and everything else in this book that everybody can learn to be better in all these areas, interpersonally, with their focus, with their memory, everything.

One of the things that I've learned is that with working with these seniors is that, you know, there's a lot of regret at that place. When you're taking your final breaths, you know, my definition of genius is pattern recognition, that you could see patterns. Like, you know, someone who's, you know, a genius at greatness, you see patterns in what, you know, everybody who sits across from you, you see like they're doing certain similar things, certain habits, certain mindsets, certain drives, or they're eating a certain way. There's a commonality with that. And so I believe genius leaves clues and geniuses can be built, not born. And that's a big part of my training. But the other thing I learned from these seniors

is these regrets, they come out. And the biggest regret always is that somehow they lessened or limited their life because of other people's expectations, because they were fearful of other people's opinions about them. They didn't date that person or marry the person because of what society would think. Or they started a career because their parents wanted them and expected them to do that. And I'm here to remind everyone, it's not a pleasant conversation, but, you know, when we're thinking about our mortality and, you know, one of the things that was the impetus for this book was, you know, I was, I had like a near-death experience, like a car accident,

and it made me think about legacy and ask a new question. I was like, wow, I want to get this book out because shame on me if somebody's struggling and suffering the way I was with distraction, with memory loss, with overload, overwhelmed, not feeling good about themselves, and I didn't help them. So I feel like what gets me on stage, even if I am an introvert and shy, is that I'm focusing help them. So I feel like what gets me on stage, even if I am an introvert and shy, is that I'm focusing on them, right? And that's my focus.

But the regret people have when you're taking your final breaths at the end of our life, none of other people's opinions and expectations will matter. What will matter, none of our fears will matter. What will matter is how we lived, how we laughed, how we learned, how we loved. That's really what fears will matter. What will matter is how we lived, how we laughed, how we learned, how we loved. That's really what's going to matter.

One of my mentors, Dr. Stephen Covey, another great book, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, one of the habits of the most highly effective people is begin with the end in mind. The ultimate end is when we're passing. Because when you think about being in that box, that coffin, there's no room in there for possessions. And I'm all for people having toys and everything else like that. But you can't take that with you.

And in that coffin, there's no room for regret. One of the things I learned from Jim Carrey, and I'm dropping a number of names, and the reason why is because when you see their movies, you see Sonic Hedgehog or you watch another another wills movie it reminds you of the lessons it triggers so that's how human memory works i was spending the day with him and he was like you know jim i want to get really smart before filming dumb and dumber i'm like that's that's that's ironic but that's really you know to play dumb you have to be really smart to do that right and so i spent the day with him

at his home and we take a brain break it was a a long time ago. Yeah, it was. And we were at his home, we were taking a brain break and we make all these brain foods during lunch. And I wanted to know motivation again. I want to get into this model about motivation because I'm always curious what drives people. And I found out, I was like, why do you do what you do? And he's like, Jim, he was like, I act like a complete fool on camera. So extreme because I want to give people watching permission to be themselves. He's like, my religion is to free people from the concern of others because that's what limits us. And isn't that interesting how adults, what keeps us limited are sometimes the expectation. It puts us in a box, right?

We don't want to look bad. We don't want to make a mistake. And yet children are really, they have this limitless mentality, right? Where they could do anything. You don't look at a child, you know, for people who have children and they're learning to walk or talk. How many times do they fall? Thousands. Yeah, exactly. And never after the 500th time they fall, do they say, okay. It's not for me. Yeah, exactly. I'm not going to walk. That's not, right. But as adults, they take a Spanish lesson fall one fall once and we stay exactly they take a salsa lesson and they're like okay this is not for me too much and I always

encourage people to at least you I'm telling you we have one life to be able to figure this out so you try new things the brain thrives on novelty right to build your brain cells two things just like your body novelty and nutrition and obviously rest and sleep novelty you give it stimulus you work it out and then you give it nutrition to feed that muscle same thing with your mental muscles to create neuroplasticity right you all you need to give is novelty you learn something new every single day and then you feed it the right nutrition so it can build but i would recommend everybody try something at least three times. If you feel called to it, I challenge everyone watching this and even post it on social media.

Tag us both because I'll repost our favorite. Try things three times. Number one, to get over the fear of it. Yes. Right? Number two, like, you know, karaoke or, you know, doing stand-up or something just to get over the fear of it. Number two, just to get a little confident at it. Get good at it.

And then try it a third time to see if you like it or not. Because we don't really find our passions. Like we have to put ourselves out there and give ourselves stimulus, just like with kids. You know, we have a bonus chapter on how to raise limitless children. But part of it is giving them enough opportunity by giving them stimulus to see what they get drawn to

and what they want to be able to develop. But my other thing with sleep is I just got obsessed about, like how do I honor my time and how do I say no so I can say yes to the great things, right? Good to great, I'm gonna recommend a lot of books, right? Because we have a book a week club because we teach the speed reading program. One book a week will change your life.

52 books a year leaders leaders are readers but yeah good to great say no to good so you can say yes to great and again i really feel like you say yes to great by saying no to a lot of things exactly because here's the thing especially for self-care a lot of people think that self-care is limited to body work and meditation part of self-care and self-love is when you say no, and when you say yes to somebody or something, make sure you're not saying no to yourself. I really want this to sink in for people that part of self-care is when you say yes to somebody or something that you're not saying no to yourself, right? Part of self-care is putting boundaries and borders on your time

borders and boundaries on your heart your emotions and everything because that it's so important and part of self-care is also self-love you talk about this so much right when you and i have had conversations about you know about your previous books and everything it's just you know how can we fall in love with that person in the mirror who's been through so much but is still standing, right? Because I feel like no external source of love is going to match what your soul needs from yourself. Yeah. Right? Yeah.

I mean, I've wanted to stop you nonstop for 20 minutes, but it's all so good. I wanted to go back to the choices we make. You know, we talk about choices. You talk about habits, mindset habits, physical habits in here with food, the way you think, all these different things. I really believe that habits allow us to make better choices automatically. As opposed to, should I make this choice today? Yes or no. Should I make that choice? You know, every day we have the opportunity to make different decisions. And habits keep us on the right path to making better decisions and choices every day.

The mindset, and you know, you've got mindset, motivation, and methods, which is your whole limitless mindset process. The mindset will keep you on the right path. For whatever reason, skills, I think, is one of the most important things. Yeah. More than habits in a sense because when you acquire new skills, you become bulletproof, limitless to any economic downturn, to any breakup in a relationship, to any career change. You become limitless when you have a tool belt of skills at your disposal. And it takes courage to create new skills. And it takes learning how to learn to get a lot of skills at your disposal. And it takes courage to create new skills. And it takes learning how to learn to get a lot of skills because it takes time to master a skill

if you don't know how to learn the right way. And I've learned all the wrong ways over the years and found out for me that learning the right way is throwing myself in immersion of it. Within three months, going all in physically, tangibly feeling it, emotionally connected to it, getting messy.

For me, that's what works for me. And when you have the skill, you have it for life. Yeah. You know, it's like you learn how to ride a bike. It might take you a few weeks. It might take you a month of falling a bunch of times.

But I haven't been on a bike in years, but I know I can go back on it. Maybe I'm not as fast as I used to be, or maybe I don't have as much control or maneuverability but I'm 80 90 percent of the way there yeah same thing with salsa dancing I learned it it took me three and a half months of misery of embarrassment of fear anxiety of stepping on girls toes constantly but now I can go anywhere in the world, not speak the language of the community, but I can speak the language of salsa and I have it. And I have that skillset where I feel motivated

to put myself out there. So same thing with public speaking, when you mastered it, it's like now you can go into a room and even if you're not prepared for the speech, you know you can do a pretty good job. Someone said, hey, Jim, come up here and teach us something for 15 minutes, you've got this skill set.

And I think that gives us confidence, that gives us self-belief with the more skills we have. And so how do we, what's the process of then learning how to master a new skill when it's challenging, when it's scary, when it's uncomfortable, when it's, I'm excited to learn Spanish right now, but I've tried to learn for 20 years yeah eight years of classes all right you know I've traveled the different Spanish-speaking countries it's just like man how do we learn how to learn something that we want but it's really challenging let's deconstruct this okay so this this is this is the key so you mentioned two interesting words with competence and confidence. Yes.

And in psychology, there is a competence-confidence loop, that the more competent and skilled you get at something, the more confident you get at it. Of course. And because you're more confident, you're more likely to do it, and you get better at it, and it gives you more confidence, right? Yes. And so if I could play golf like Tiger Woods, I would be playing a lot more, and I would get better.

I'd be more confident of it I remember um years ago I get a call on a Friday evening and I don't know the guy's voice I didn't know to see the number and I recognized so I pick it up and he was like you got you got to help me we have this mutual friend and this uh my speaker tomorrow in New York City canceled because of an emergency and I need I need a speaker. And I'm like, well, this is not usually how- The night before. Exactly. This is usually like a six month in advance process. But the mutual friend was a very close friend. And I was like, look, maybe I could help you, but what's the topic? And he tells me what the topic is. And I'm like, I don't know anything about that topic. Why are you

calling me? He was like, well, he wrote a book. I'm like, so? He was like, well, my friend says you're a speed reader. And I'm like, okay. He's like, well, can you come a little early and I'll give you his book. And then, you know, and I was like, I was like, this is going to completely,

I have to do this, but this is going to cost you, but this is going to make a great story. And what ended up happening was I show up at 10 o'clock, I read his book, and I give the keynote that afternoon. And humbly, it was the highest-rated talk of the event. Wow. And I take credit for that because I've never had training in public speaking, but when you understand how people learn, you can present it.

And so I read the book. I remembered everything that I needed to say because I train a lot of TED speakers how to memorize their speech, and I know how to be able to present it. And so I read the book. I remembered everything that I needed to say, because I train a lot of TED speakers how to memorize their speech. And I know how to be able to present it in a way that's interesting and also sticks with people. But I say that because that's what I mean about I don't have to, just like Will Smith, I don't have to get ready. I stay ready.

And that's the power of skill development. And if there's one skill to master, it's our ability to learn. It's called meta-learning. This book, was going to be called meta-learning, but people are like, oh, no, they're not going to buy it if it has learning in the title, right? But meta-learning is learning how to learn. And that's a meta-skill. And it helps you to learn salsa or Spanish or anything else better. And so let's deconstruct how to do that confidently. We'll start with the Limitless Model. So this book used to be a book completely

on skill development, which was all methodology. It was everything that I teach about how to read three times faster, how to learn a language, how to remember names, how to do the things that, how to get to inbox zero, how to do the things that, how to be focused, concentrate, critical think, solve problems, all the important things that really is our life. Right. But then when I finished it, you know, I talked to friends

like you and every, and everybody else. And it's like, this is a really good self-help book, but if somebody found it just on the street, they still, even they know what to do, they still wouldn't do it. Like how come you want to learn Spanish or something else and you put it off, or it takes longer than you should because method is only one of the three parts. And so this is the limitless model. And I want everybody to think about a subject or some area of your life where you're feeling held back. It could be your relationship. It could be you're not making progress in your career. It could be maybe in your physical performance or wellness. Think about one area where you're stuck in a box. All right. Now, a box is like a cage, 3D box. And 3D is three dimensions. What keeps you in the box?

Three forces. And these are the three M's. And I want everyone to draw a circle. And in that circle, we're going to draw a Venn diagram. You know what a Venn diagram? It's three intersecting circles. And the first circle is your mindset, three Ms. And I always alliterate everything because it helps you to be able to remember it better. First one is your mindset. Now, your mindset are your assumptions and your attitudes about something. Now, let's break that down. For me, functionally, what your mindset is about this subject, and I want people to make this very personal. Think about something, an area you're held back. This is what you believe is possible is your mindset. It is what you believe you are capable of.

It is what you believe you deserve is part of your mindset because that's a big thing. That's your thermostat, right? If somebody has a mindset of, like I could teach someone the method of how to remember names, but their mindset is I'm stupid. I don't deserve to remember names or I'm not capable of it exactly or exactly or i'm too old or whatever it is that's our mindset brain doesn't work that way exactly then the method won't have won't take hold it won't matter exactly so this is this is the formula here i've how do you learn how do you learn to believe that you are capable so we'll go into this so that's that's exactly what the book does i take people through a new process called unlimiting. It's a word that I coined years ago. Unlimiting is different than unlimited.

Unlimiting is like the process of removing limits. Limited beliefs. Exactly. Or behaviors or habits, right? So unlimiting is an active it's you're redrawing the boundaries and borders of your life limitless is not about being perfect limitless is about advancing and progressing beyond what you believe is possible that's what this book is about now I apply that towards accelerated learning so you can learn your languages and you know give speeches without notes and all that stuff but really it's a process of liberating yourself out of that box so one of the dimensions that yourself out of that box. So one of the dimensions that keep you in that box is your mindset. And we can go deep into how to

change negative beliefs and everything. I talk about the seven lies. Lies for me, again, is an acronym. Lie is a limited idea entertained. Because it's not true. It's not true that you don't deserve it. It's not necessarily true that you're stupid, but it's an idea we're giving energy to. We're entertaining that idea in that moment. I show people how to unravel it in the three-step process. But that's the mindset. Now the second M, you can have the greatest mindset

and believe everything is possible, you're capable, you deserve it. But if you don't have the second M, which is motivation, you're not getting out of that box in your career. I believe I can do it, but I'm going to sit here and eat chips on the couch. Exactly. And so your motivation for me is your drive, it's your purpose, it's the vitality that you bring to something. Now, most people think motivation, they'll say motivation is a lie. And in some respects it is because the way a lot of people perceive motivation is just rah, rah, get excited,

get hyped up, and next day, nothing changes. So my evidence, the evidence of motivation is something is happening. There's an action. There's a new action taking place. And if you're not doing that action, you're not motivated. No matter what you say, if you're not doing it, it's better well done than well said. Even like a lot of people on social media, they promise things, but prove it, right? Don't say it, show it, right? You take it to action because knowledge is not power. It's potential power. Applying it makes it powerful. So motivation for me is a three-step formula.

And here's the formula. And I go deep in this book because there's a chapter on each part. The key to sustainable motivation, how to overcome procrastination, if you're putting things off, this is the key. sustainable motivation, how to overcome procrastination. If you're putting things off, this is the key. It's this, P times E times S3. Now, this is a formula for sustainable, not just a surge in motivation, right? We've all watched the Limitless movie where he takes a pill and he can learn languages and read really fast and remember everything. And Dr. Mark Hyman, who wrote the foreword of the book,

who's a mutual friend of both of ours, and I know he's been on your show, he says that there is no genius pill, but Jim gives you the process for a brighter brain. I like it. It's the process. And there's no side effects, right? Yeah, that's good. But going back to this, when he had a surge of motivation, but then when the pill wore off, it goes back to no motivation.

But this is the key. There's no pill. There's a process. And these three things, P times E times S3, is sustainable for the rest of your life. Because I've lived on no sleep for over a decade. My sleep has gotten much better since of recent. Just some breakthroughs in medicine and everything else like that. But I had sustainable motivation.

I was still doing all the conferences, still doing my podcast every week, still speaking and traveling and doing all this stuff because I had these three things. Number one, so the P stands for purpose. Now again, if you feel not motivated in any area of your life, now some people could have motivation.

Now some people are very motivated to sit on the couch and binge watch Netflix. They're highly motivated to do that right but if you're if you're lacking motivation to work out consistently and now here's the here's the another lie limited idea entertained is that you have to enjoy the activity right like you know it doesn't mean that you have to do that like i was having this conversation with with uh tom bill you right and he was like i work out four o'clock five o'clock every morning. I was like, do you enjoy it? He was like, no, I don't like working out at all.

You know, but he's motivated, doesn't miss a day. So he has the motivation. So motivation doesn't mean you enjoy it. Like every morning I do my cold showers, you know, like Wim Hof, right? It's not fun all the time, but. Exactly. I grew up in the Northeast. I hate the cold, right?

But I do my cold showers or my ice baths. I post all the time on Instagram about doing it because I know I have a purpose, right? So I don't enjoy it, but the P in the formula is purpose. Reasons reap results. And if you get the reason, so even if I'm not getting my sleep, I have a purpose. I have a reason to help people every single day. I want every single person that comes in contact with me, whether it's on my podcast or a video or a book, their brain is better off because of it. And so that's my reason. And really, you know my story. My first student, three decades ago almost, she read 30 books in 30 days.

And what was her purpose? Her mother was dying of terminal cancer. Two months to live. 60 days. And the book she was reading? Health, wellness, energy, right? And she ended up saving her mom's life. And that's when I realized that if knowledge is power, learning is her superpower. And I dedicated my life to make that kind of difference.

And that's what, so I have my reasons to do something. So I don't have to pump myself up. So P is purpose. Tap into your reasons. And it can't be intellectual. You know you have to feel it. Of course. And you could even feel the pain.

Like who's counting on you to do this activity? Who's watching you? Who's role modeling you? Who's counting on you to show up today? It can be painful too, but if it gets you to move, that's what's important. Have that reason, the purpose. This E, now my mind does this thought experiment, scientific experimentations, right? If somebody just has a reason, are they always motivated?

Are there any cases where they're not motivated? And I said, yes, if they're lacking the E, energy. So somebody could have a reason to work out or they could have a reason to read or learn Spanish, but if they're trying to do it late at night and they didn't sleep the night before or they had a big processed meal. It's hard to have the motivation.

Exactly, and they're a food coma. They can't be motivated because they lack energy. So in the book, I talk about 10 keys for brain energy, the 10 things that I do to light up my brain. And one of them is our brain foods. Another one is optimizing your sleep. So I do a whole area of what I've learned really moves the needle for maximizing your sleep. Because how's your thought process if you don't sleep? How's your focus? How's your memory? How are you making good decisions? I heard that that was the advice presidents give other presidents. Don't make a big decision if you didn't get a good night's sleep.

So I talk about sleep. So in the book, in Motivation, we do a whole section on finding your purpose and even life purpose and passion and a whole area on optimizing your energy. Now you have energy to do it. I ask myself, okay, you have a purpose for something to work out or whatever, you have, or to start a business, you have the energy. In what case, if you're like doing this critical thinking,

in what case won't you be motivated? You like, let's say you wanna start a business or whatever. You're just procrastinating on starting that business. Number one, you have the motivation, you really need it, and you know why. You have the energy, because you're eating the right foods, you're maximizing your sleep, you're with not energy vampires.

Yes, there is. S3, what the problem is, is you're making it too big in your mind. That will keep you from being motivated. Starting a business, like where do you even start? Or getting that perfect relationship, or having perfect health, that's way, way too big. So what do you do? Small, simple steps.

That's what will keep people unmotivated. They could have the reasons and purpose. They could have the energy, unlimited energy, but they don't know where to start because they make it too big in their mind. And a confused mind doesn't do anything confused mind doesn't do anything so clarity is power i like that so small simple step all you have to do is ask a magic question what is the smallest action i could take where i can't fail it allows me give me some progress but i can't fail what's the smallest step And I cite the work in here of the habit experts that you and I have interviewed, Dr. B.J. Fogg's or the James Clear's Atomic Habits, and really my take on how

to make sustainable habits, because what you do repeatedly becomes that habit. But it starts with a small, simple step. What's an example of that? I want people to read a book a week. It will change their life. I think if there's one thing people could, that would change their life immediately, long term, it's just read every day. Reading is to your mind what exercises your body even more than audio. And my podcast, and I do everything on audio. I still encourage people to read because it activates a different part of your brain. Also, and I listen to audios when I drive, when I work out, but when people are tested in terms of what they read, in terms of comprehension, what they listen to,

reading will be more and they'll understand more. You know why? It's not only does it activate a different part of your brain because it's active. Because listening can be passive. Like watching a movie or anything can be very passive. You don't have to get involved, but reading forces you to get involved. But the second reason why is because usually when someone's listening to something,

they're doing something else. And they're trying to multitask. They're cleaning their house, they're working out, they're driving. So their attention is not fully on what they're listening to. So that's why the comprehension is down. But reading every single day is a great activity. But I don't tell people, you know, read an hour a day. A small, simple step to get someone reading is read one sentence. That's a small, simple step. Open up the book. That's a small, simple step to get someone reading is read one sentence. That's a small, simple step. Open up the book. That's a small, simple step that you can't fail, right? And nobody's going to stop at one sentence. You know, the example Dr. BJ Fogg talks about with tiny habits is, hey, we know flossing is good for your longevity. Just do one tooth. One tooth. And who's going to stop at one

tooth, right? So how do you break it down? And really motivation is energy management. It's really about energy management, meaning when you have clarity and purpose, it gives you energy, right? When you have energy, like if you activate the right foods and everything else, vitality, you have energy and small, simple steps requires very little energy, requires very little effort output. And there's something in memory called the Zeigarnik effect. It's by a psychologist, a woman who in Europe noticed that at the cafe she frequents, that the waitstaff would remember all the orders until they were delivered. And once they were delivered, they would forget it. And the Zeigarnik effect, which is her last name, means that the mind doesn't like open loops.

So like, oh, and all of the series on, that you binge watch knows this, because at the end they open up a loop. And you're like, one more, who does that? Like one more, and you end up watching until like 2 a.m., 3 a.m., because it doesn't like the open loops. Well, starting something, like an order, remembering someone's order, and then it delivered, it closes the loop.

Well, when you start something anywhere, your mind still keeps an open loop about it, so it's more likely to finish. And that's another way to overcome procrastination, break it down into small, simple steps, where you can't fail. That's the three-step formula. So I do a chapter, so this is really three books in one.

It's a whole book on mindset, on how to eliminate negative self-talk, how to be able to get rid of negative beliefs that you don't deserve it, you're not capable of it, how to have optimization. So a chapter on purpose, a chapter on energy, a chapter on small, simple steps. And then I added a chapter on habits and flow because the ultimate state, and you've had Steven Kotler and all these amazing people on here talking about flow state is when you're in the zone. Where you lose flow states is you lose your sense of self, you lose it's effortless, and

you lose your sense of time, and there's no motivation required because you're just in the zone. You know that as an athlete when you're in the zone or you're on stage and it's just coming through you, right? We all have those moments. So we debunk and apply this method for a whole chapter on flow. And then finally, you could have the mindset and motivation and still be stuck in that box. Because again, let's say you believe everything is possible and that's your mindset and you're capable and you deserve it and you're motivated. But if you don't have

the last M, which are the methods, then you're stuck in that box okay you could have be believe that you deserve this income you could you could work hard motivation but if you're doing the wrong things then you're not going to get the result if you're doing the wrong marketing tactics or if you're doing the wrong things in a relationship right if you're using bad advice and in here i document the example of learning because we learned very, antiquated methods of learning in school. It was repetition. To learn something, repeat it 100 times in your mind. And the problem is, it just takes a lot of time. That's not the optimal way the brain learns. The human brain doesn't learn through consumption, it learns through creation, right? The human brain does not learn by consuming, it learns by creating.

And so we also learned a bad habit, a method of reading, which was sub-vocalization. Sub-vocalization is, have you ever noticed when you're reading something, you hear that inner voice inside your head reading along with you? Hopefully it's your own voice, it's not like somebody else's voice. The reason why it keeps you reading slow is if you have to say all the words in this book, you can only read as fast as you can speak. That means your reading speed is limited to your talking speed, not your thinking speed. How do you limit the conversation in your mind? It's interesting, right?

Because the question becomes, everybody reads about 200, 250 words per minute because that's how the average person talks. But do you have to say, the question becomes, do analyze it, common sense. Do you need to say all the words in order to understand what those words mean? No. The truth is no. Like when you see a stop sign, you don't say to yourself stop, but do you comprehend what that means?

Of course. It's a symbol. Exactly. And just like symbols in the book, periods, punctuation marks, you don't say question mark when you read or comma when you read. So the and there because of all those are sight words and you don't have to pronounce them by sound you pronounce you do them by sight and the fastest readers actually only sub vocalize the more difficult words and so i'm not saying you really i know you just kind of skip through and just go through you go you

you read all the words no you read all the words but you don't have to say all the words and so that that sub vocalization is my example of an old method, an antiquated method that will keep you in that box of learning slow. So let me do an example. Here's a sentence from your book, part two, about mindset. And if I were to read this, I would read it slowly, just because that's how I'm used to it. I would say, and I already get nervous reading out loud from my childhood fears of stumbling.

The deeply held beliefs, attitudes, and assumptions we create about who we are, how the world works, what we are capable of and deserve, and what is possible mindset. So let me show you how to actually. So one example, and there's a link in my Instagram for a free masterclass on reading,

like a whole one hour tutorial in real time. Here, when people are reading, what I recommend is sub-vocalization. The key here is first acknowledge that it's there and don't try to fight it. Don't try to not sub-vocalize,, you know this from your study of the mind, you can't not do anything. You can't not think of a purple giraffe because you have to do it. So the more you try not to say the words, the more you're gonna do it.

Plus you're gonna be talking yourself. Am I really understanding this? And you're not gonna understand it because you have two things going on at once. Right, exactly. And so the goal here is when you read past a certain speed, 400, there's a sub-vocalization threshold where you can't possibly talk any faster than that, but you can understand it. Oh, perfect example. When you listen to your podcasts or audio books, many people... Like double the speed or one and a half. Exactly, and you can understand it, but you can't speak that fast. So that's proof you can think that fast but not understand it. And so here, one of the hacks that we teach in the book is to use a visual pacer. Like when you use your finger while you read, most people think this is an old antiquated method.

They say don't do that because that will slow you down. But in actuality, I challenge everybody to take that master class on that link. But in actuality, I challenge everybody to take that masterclass on that link. And what you'll find is test yourself. Read without your finger and then read for another minute with your finger. Count the number of lines. Just underlining it. That second time will be 25, 50% faster.

And just kind of what? Forcing your finger to go a little faster than you would normally? You could actually go regular because what happens is you don't regress. A lot of people have another bad method, going back to limited methods, and we want to unlimit their methods of regressing and backskipping. Have you ever found yourself rereading words? All the time. 25% of our time can be wasted doing that,

and that's a bad habit that we learned when we were kids. Why do we do that? Why do we repeat a sentence or a word? The same reason why we sub-vocalize, because we were taught that. Remember back in school, we were taught public speaking. When we got in those circles and we had to pass around that book, and that book comes closer and closer and closer.

The fear and anxiety of, ah, they're calling my name. Exactly. And that's where I believe we learned that public speaking was something to be feared. And that's where it was imprinted on us for some people. And it was good intention. But people can be sincere teachers, but be sincerely wrong. And I got that. I couldn't even read at that time. So when I, when that book came to me, I would just look at it and it would look like hieroglyphics. Exactly. And I would do that. And I would, I would like cry. Like it would be so embarrassing because everyone's looking at you

and you have to perform. And that's where I think my fear of public speaking, why I wouldn't do the book report or speak on it and everything came from. The other thing teachers had you do is once they know you could pronounce... You had to say it out loud to make sure the teacher knows you're pronouncing it phonetically. But later on, your teacher taught you the limit with sub-vocalization because he or she said, all right, read quietly to yourself or read silently to yourself. And that's where you took that external voice. And you're like, in order to understand it, I have to hear it. If not outside, then inside. And it's been there ever

since. So this book is about on limiting those bad habits of learning of rote memorization of bad habits we make about decisions. Like why are make about decisions. Why are people dating the same people or making the same financial mistakes and everything else? It's not insanity doing the same thing over and over again. It's a bad memory. And we weren't taught decision-making. So in the book, I talk about four supervillains that hold us back. And it's really because I talk about superpowers.

Four supervillains, and I'll go back to the model and make this very aha to everybody. Four supervillains that I'll go back to the model and make this very like aha to everybody. Four super villains that are holding you and your team back, your children back, your team back, your employees back, your spouse back, number one, and they're all driven by technology. Digital deluge. Digital deluge is this information overwhelm. It's like, do you feel nowadays like you can't keep up? It's like taking a sip of water out of a fire hose. And here's the thing, people buy a book, but they don't read the book, right? It just sits on their shelf.

It becomes shelf help, not self-help, right? And here's the thing, buying a book is a different skill set than reading the book. I'm really good at buying books. I'm not that good at reading the book. I can buy books all day long. Exactly. But reading is a different skill set. But digital deluge is a real medical condition.

They call it information fatigue syndrome. Higher blood pressure, compression of leisure time, more sleeplessness. And this is happening if you own a business or you have managed a team, four or five hours a day on estimate are we spending processing information. Just think about your team, how much they have to process. A lot. Right? on estimate, are we spending processing information? Just think about your team, how much they have to process. A lot. Right? That means half of their salary is being paid to process and learn and read.

So if someone's being paid $80,000, $40,000 is just to read something. Oh my gosh. So if I could double their reading speed, that's a huge amount of time. If it normally takes four hours to read something and you read it in half the time, two hours, what's two hours over the course of a year? That's like on math. And we can't even do the math because that's another one of the digital challenges. But that's too...

Even if you save one hour a day, 365 hours a year. Forty hour work weeks. How many 40 hour work weeks? Nine. Two months of productivity we get back just saving one hour a day on something ubiquitous like reading. That's why this book will help you read every other book. It'll save you time.

So digital deluge. Number two, digital distraction. With every ring and ping and ding, every app notification, social media alert, it's training our distraction muscles. And we are so good at being distracted. That's why so much of my morning routine that people do, like something simple like brushing your teeth with the opposite hand, right? Because it engages the opposite side of your brain, which is good for making new connections neuroplasticity But it's also good for making you present you have to focus right it forces you to be in the moment So it's something you do every day that little things where get novelty, where it focuses you to be here as opposed to about everything else, right? And how you do anything is how you do everything. So if you wake up first thing in the morning and

touch your phone, I think you should have a to-do list. I think you're not to-do list. Don't touch your phone. Yeah. Don't touch your phone first hour of day. It rewires your brain to be distracted and also it rewires your brain to be reactive. I can't stress this enough. When you pick up your phone the first hour of the day, and a lot of people talk about this, and we have videos. My video with Simon Sinek has 28 million views on just this thing on Facebook. It literally just says, don't touch your phone because it rewires your brain to be distracted

and reactive because you're fighting fires. You're on the defense. Why are you going to check your email and voicemail and it takes you off tangent and you're not even focusing on what's most important, like in terms of your win? Our friend Brendan Burchard says this exactly. And you're like, you have a lot of quotes that you remember.

But he says, your inbox is nothing but a convenient organizational system for other people's agenda for your life. Boom. Wow, Brendan Burchard. Your inbox is nothing but a convenient organizational system for other people's agenda for your life. Boom. Wow, Brendan Burchard. Your inbox is nothing but a convenient organizational system for other people's agenda for your life. So don't go on the defense. So don't pick up your phone because when you wake up, you're in this relaxed state of awareness.

You're very suggestible. So you're training your distraction and your reaction. You have to be proactive. You want to be a thermostat, not a thermometer. A thermometer reacts to the environment. A thermometer sets the environment. So digital distraction, second. Third super villain that's driven by technology that's potentially holding you back, digital

dementia. Digital dementia is where our phones become an external storage device. It keeps our to-dos, right? It keeps our phone... How many phone numbers did you know growing up? Still a lot growing up, yeah. Yeah. How many do you know now? One up? Still a lot growing up, yeah. Yeah. How many do you know now?

One. Like, is there one person... My own. Is there somebody you can text and call all the time? Two, maybe. I know my mom's, because I've had to write it down as emergency contact. Exactly. But if you don't have your phone with you, or the phone's battery's dead, you can't...

Now, here's the thing. Nobody wants to memorize 200 phone numbers. I don't want to do that. But isn't it concerning that we've lost the ability to remember one or a passcode or a conversation we just had. I believe two of the most costly words in life. Yeah, in life or business, I forgot.

Every time you say the words I forgot, you lose credibility, you lose trust, you don't show you care about the person, you lose a sale. I can't tell you how many clients come to me saying, look, I forgot, I called this person by the wrong name, and he was so offended that he didn't do the deal with me. I lost a million dollar commission,

like those kind of things, right? And how are you gonna show somebody you're gonna care for their future, their finances, their health, their family, if you don't care enough just to remember their name, right? So we do 13, 14 tips on just how to remember people's names. We covered it in the previous episode also as well. So digital dementia is where it's a real source.

I mean, Dr. Daniel Amen has talked about it. Other people have talked about, don't be over-reliant on technology to do everything. Memory is a muscle and it's use it or lose it. That's why I'm such an advocate for mental fitness. I remember I walked into the office one day, I picked up the phone first thing in the morning and a woman's voice was like,

I love you, I love you, I love you. I'm like, whoa, who's this? She was like, I found it. She went through our online memory course, and she was given a family heirloom, a necklace by her grandmother. It didn't go to her mother or her three sisters, it went to her, and she hid it somewhere in her house.

She forgot. She forgot, and she thought for three years, she thought it was stolen. She felt so much guilt, and she got so much shame from like her family. And she just, you know, passed on for generations. And after going through this course and she, she woke up at 2am in the morning, ran down two flights of stairs, went behind the boiler in her basement, pulls out this crevice, the necklace. And I was like, I didn't teach you a method on how to find lost items in this program. She was like, I don't teach you a method on how to find lost items in this

program. She was like, I don't know what it is, but my focus, I'm just remembering this without even using a method. It's just, he was like, thank you for giving me my brain back. She felt like her brain was 20 years younger because it was fit. And that's what I'm talking about. Mental intelligence is very important. Yeah. Facts, figures, foreign languages. You learn how to do that in the methods of the book, mental fitness and mental health, that's also very important. Where if you're physically fit, right? So if you were going to go up Runyon Canyon or wherever, if somebody is not physically fit, they're going to have to use more effort, more energy because they're not trained. And so if you're an athlete, you could train, you could help them as a coach in two ways. You could show

them the strategies, like how to do a forehand or a backhand or hit a golf ball. And you could train you could help them as a coach in two ways you can show them the strategies like how to do a forehand or a backhand or hit a golf ball and you can take them in the gym and optimize their fitness you know the heart rate variability their their foods and everything so get people mentally fit digital dementia and finally the last one that we talk about in the book digital deduction right i always iterate ddd So digital deduction is where our phones and our smart devices are doing the thinking for us. Because it's just spoon-feeding you. And I'm not just talking about fake news. I'm talking about algorithms that just give you everything. But you don't have to think anymore.

And we've lost our thinking abilities. To the point where you look at a menu and you're like, I don't even know what to eat. Because normally an app tells me what to eat or what to watch next or what to do everything. They're seeing kids, they have lower ability to critical thinking abilities, analysis ability, reasoning ability because of phones, because our smart devices are making us stupid.

So in the book to overcome these four digital super villains, we teach for digital deluge, speed reading, and study, like how to study anything. Whether you're a student or not, students absolutely, technical material will help you overcome digital deluge. Digital distraction, we do a whole chapter on focus and concentration. Literally, how to functionally improve focus. Digital dementia, the biggest chapter in the book is memory training.

Like how to learn languages, how to remember names. And then finally, digital deduction, we do a whole chapter on how to think clearly, how to make good decisions, how to really solve problems, step by step, how to solve problems, how to make good decisions. Because as we talked about, you know, your life is a C between the B and the D. How do you make those choices choices who taught you how to make choices right like and how to see it from different angles and so we teach that to alleviate those so you can not only catch up but you could actually get ahead and that that's really the goal I want to talk for like five more hours but you guys just need to go get this

book go get limitless right now, upgrade your brain, learn anything faster and unlock your exceptional life by Jim Kwik. This is a resource that you're gonna wanna make sure you pick up, buy, like most of us are champions of buying books, but you wanna take action on, because that's how you'd have to learn faster and really unlearn certain things so you can, or what do you call it, unlimiting?

Unlimit, great memory, yeah. Unlimiting things so you can become limitless call it on limiting unlimited great memory and limiting things So you can become a realist because here's the thing when you look at the model everyone drew out when you look at mindset Motivation and methods where mindset crosses over with motivation you have inspiration, right? So there books on mindset Yes, one of my favorite books mindset by dr. Carol Dweck their books on motivation Yeah, and now you motivation and courses on motivation. Where they intersect, you have inspiration. So I'm going to give you three I's.

Inspiration. Where you have mindset and methods crossover in the Venn diagram, you have the mindset, everything is capable and you deserve it. And you have the methods, you know what to do. So you have ideation. But without the motivation, you're not going to do it. And where you have motivation crossover with methods, you're not going to do it. And where you have motivation crossover with methods, you're motivated and you know what to do, but you're still in that box

because you don't know what's possible and you don't even believe you deserve it maybe, and then you're missing the mindset. So where that crosses over, you have implementation, right? Three I's. And where all three circles come together you have a fourth eye which is integration integration that's the limitless state because it is who you are you are limitless because you've unraveled yourself you've liberated yourself out of that box because you have the right mindset you have the sustainable motivation and you know exactly the methods to get the results i don't know how you remember all this. I was like, is he going to remember all the different parts of his Venn diagram? It's amazing.

Yeah, in the book, actually, we have full-size diagrams, color, everything like that for it. And we do something really special right now. And I know you're a big proponent and champion for this. We want people to get a real big experience. So people that want to be able to listen to this, because it's not out on audio, we made a 10-day program video series for literally one day on each of these aspects. And we do one day on speed reading, one day on changing your negative beliefs, and we gift it to you when you get the book.

Where do they go to get the book so they can get that? Limitlessbook.com. And they'll have this program on there? And they'll have all the links to all the Amazon and then you put the receipt number in there and then you'll get immediate access to what I call quick start. How to be mentally limitless. How to unlock your limitless brain. And so we do one day and I coach you for 10 days. So when the book shows up, you're already speed reading, you're already remembering things, you're already fixed your mindset and you know you deserve all of that. Get this book for yourself, get it for at least three of your friends, something you want to see grow and improve in their lives, get this for them as well.

Limitlessbook.com to get the bonuses and everything else you're going to be talking about there. This is going to be a game changer for this year and many years to come. So make sure you get a few copies of this. I've been telling you to do this for years. Yes. I'm super glad you did because... No, I even put you in the acknowledgments when I was saying like, I was like, thank you so much, Louis, because everybody needs somebody.

My message to everybody is this. Everybody needs somebody to encourage them, to challenge them, to support them, to cheer them on. And if you haven't found that person yet, I would say be that person for somebody else, especially right now. And especially be that person for yourself. Yes. You know, I challenge everybody because I remember I said that learning requires action. If you want to learn something, teach it to other people.

I would challenge everybody to do this action step. Take a screenshot of this episode or this video or of your notes, tag Lewis, tag myself, and post it on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and share your big aha, just one idea, one idea, and I will actually, I'll repost some of my favorites, and I'll actually send the book out to just to someone, a signed copy of the book, an advanced copy of the book, just as a thank you.

But I would challenge you, if you want to learn something, the best way is to teach it. When you teach something, you get to learn it twice. Yeah. My girlfriend is learning English right now. She's really good at English, but she's trying to master it. Yeah. I would say she's 70% of the way there. And so she just started teaching me Spanish, but she has to teach English as well to teach Spanish.

Wow. So she's learning faster by teaching me Spanish. Even though she's already fluent in it, she's learning English in the process. We do a whole section in memory on how to remember vocabulary words and foreign language words using just even a simple tip. We go way more in detail in the book, of visualization. We tend to remember things better that we see than what we hear.

So you're much better with faces than you are with names, right? You see somebody and you say, I remember your face but I forgot your name. You never go to someone and say the opposite. I remember your name but I forgot your face. There's a Chinese proverb that goes, what I hear I forget,

what I see I remember, what I do I understand. What I hear, I forget. What I see, I remember. What I do, I understand. What I hear, I forget. I heard the name, I forgot it. What I see, I remember. I saw the face, I remember. Going back to doing thing in practice, practice makes progress, right? Not perfect, but practice makes progress. But that visualization, sometimes you could hear it. And so, you know, with your girlfriend, you could say the words, but they might lose it. When you see it, it helps you to remember it. She draws it all out on a big whiteboard. Exactly. And I would say even visualize it.

Even like if you want to learn Spanish, like, you know, we were talking about eggs before, whether it's a brain food or not, right? Huevos. If you just use like a Pictionary method where you said, oh, I'm eight years old. What does that sound like? Like Pictionary, you have to draw it out. Wave and O's. And so if you just imagine waves with O's in them and you're throwing eggs in them,

huevos. It creates a visualization. I like that. Mariposa, like a butterfly. It sounds like me, Mary, posing. And what she's posing, imagine you're taking a picture and then all of a sudden a butterfly comes and carries Mary away. So quick things like that, and obviously way deeper in the book, help you to be able to learn. Even if you wanted to take English words and turn them into something, you know, sycophant, sycophant, or supercilious means arrogant, super silly ass, right? Make a picture. When you make stories like kids, you remember it because you utilize your imagination. And imagination, as Einstein said, is more powerful than knowledge.

Even music. We talk about music in the study section. If you listen to classical music, specifically from an era of Baroque music, like Handal, Vivaldi, when you listen to it in the background, it actually puts you into an alpha state. We talk about brainwave states in the book. And it actually helps you go into a meditative state where you learn the language faster Because your mind your critical mind goes aside television puts you into an alpha state

Meditation puts you in alpha state and so you have you're tired to talk to us try to talk to somebody when they're watching television Sports or something and they don't hear you because they're in that alpha trance state zone So you could actually listen to certain music their breathing techniques put you in opposite visualization puts in opposite state and you could actually listen to certain music, their breathing techniques put you in opposite state, visualization puts you in opposite state, and you could combine and stack them to learn languages, English or any Spanish or anything else. I'm putting classical music on, I'm breathing, I'm going to do it all now. Space repetition, we talk about all of these studies. I love this stuff, man. It makes things so much easier.

I love this, man. I'm going to ask you one final question. Sure. I don't know if I asked you this the last time, so I'll ask you now. It's called the three truths. Imagine you've written every book you want to write in the world. You've put out millions of pieces of content. You live till a thousand years old.

But eventually, the brain's got to shut off. And you've got to go into the next world, whatever happens next. But you get to leave behind three things you know to be true from all the lessons you've learned that you would share with us. And this is all we would have to remember you buying are these three truths. What would you say you would want to share with the world? Okay. I would start with responsibility.

I tell this story when I took Stan Lee to meet Richard Branson for dinner, and we're in the car, and they wanted to meet each other, and I like to connect people. I asked Stan I was like you know you've created some of the best the most amazing superheroes my heroes who's your favorite here's a spider-man right right now his so his was Iron Man and when he asked me who mine was I was at spider-man because I post this picture on this room a big spider-man tie and when I said spider-man he said with great power comes great responsibility yeah and I you know still died three brain injuries and you know, I reverse things a lot

I was like you're right with great power comes great responsibility and the opposite is also true with great responsibility Comes great power when we take responsibility for something We have great power to make things better and a lot of people think responsibility is something that jails them But if you don't take responsibility for something then you can't fix anything so when you take responsibility for your finances or the state of your relationship and you don't blame when I talk about mistakes you know you we don't make you know we don't make mistakes mistakes don't make us this the idea here is the second thing I would say is take responsibility so you

can fix it the second thing I would say is take responsibility so you can fix it. The second thing I would say is forget about the concerns of others. Make your mistakes. Because here's the thing when you make a mistake, just you are not your mistakes and mistakes don't make you. The three keys for making a mistake, make them old. O, own that mistake. Don't blame other people, right? You know, apologize if you've hurt someone, you own it. Fix it if you can, right? You own it, you take responsibility. And then the L in old mistakes, learn from that mistake, right? You want to make sure you learn from it because that's the point of making mistakes. There's no failure, there's only feedback. And feedback is the breakfast of superheroes, right? You know, and if failure is not an option, then neither is success.

Seth Godin said that. Failure is not an option, then neither is success. Seth Godin said that. Failure's not an option, neither is success. And finally, the D in old, don't repeat it. A lot of people, if they learn it, they'll repeat it and they start doing the same mistakes over and over again. So I would say take responsibility so you can change things.

Don't be afraid of making mistakes. Don't fear other people's opinions because they don't matter at the end, as we talked about. And when you're taking our final breaths, it's going to be how you lived, loved, lived, learned. That's what matters. And then the third thing I would say, commit yourself to lifelong learning and learn how to learn. The number one superpower I believe on the planet is uncovering, unlocking the human brain. It is the most powerful tool that you have to fix your life and move forward and study meta-learning. And this book really is a book on learning how to learn anything, you know?

And so I would say those three things. Love it, man. I'm really grateful for you because you've helped so many people just accelerate their life and learn things that are very challenging and hard for them. You've helped a lot people just accelerate their life and learn things that are very challenging and hard for them. You've helped a lot of people just overcome the fear and anxiety around the struggles of their life.

And I think the challenges you've faced in your life have given you a superpower to do that for people. And the ability to ask your own self a certain question, right, of how can I make things better? How can I do these things? And listening to other people's questions I think you said will Will Smith's was how do I make this moment even more magical because it's already a magical moment you ask really good questions and there was a question you asked me at my last book launch I don't know if you remember this let's

test your memory if you did maybe you might ask me a couple questions was a CFD you remember one that you asked me you were in the back of the room at the Wunderlust okay and you asked a question any chance you remember okay I remember a lot of questions that I ask you like I ask you there's a specific question you remember I'm not gonna put you on the spot no no no I mean I remember I remember a number of those questions I asked you things like how you want to be remembered uh-huh because you asked a bunch of questions yeah which one which are you? There was a question you asked me that most people don't ask.

And you asked it and it really was like, you know what, more than your brain, I appreciate it, I appreciate your heart. Because you really come from a powerful place of love as well. And I want to acknowledge you for your heart because I think you've talked about the brain a lot, you talk about the mind, you talk about learning, memory,

but you have a powerful heart and that's a superpower for you as well. You asked about the mind. You talk about learning, memory. But you have a powerful heart, and that's a superpower for you as well. You asked about my father. You said, how is your father doing? Can you tell a story about your father? Because I never really talked about it publicly until I started to write this book, my last book. And in the documentary that just had come out recently, we show my father for the first time. No one really ever knew what he what he was like

and so i want to acknowledge you for that question because most people you know ask great questions but you asked a meaningful question it was really powerful and i still remember it to this day because you're the only one that asked about my father and the whole book tour that i had so i was really really grateful for that and um yeah, I acknowledge you for your heart, man. You've got a great heart and your heart is more powerful than your brain, in my opinion. And that's saying a lot. So thank you for this book. Again, make sure you guys get the book Limitless. I'm not sure if I asked you this the last time either. So I'll ask you the final question, which is what is your definition of greatness? Wow. Okay'm gonna iterate really fast because it's my my thing

4g's to greatness there you go i've learned a lot from you four four g's um growth yeah you know that that's a if you don't grow you're dying and that's what meaning of life you got to give you know and you you you're a giver and I appreciate everything. And even your coaching on, on just a lot of what we did around this book and I call them grow givers, put those two together. You grow, so you have more to give because if you're just, you know, go not go getting here where you're just taking, but you're just giving, but then you don't have enough to give, you martyr, but you grow so you can give, a grow giver. The next G for besides growing and giving, the next one I would say is grit.

We go through hard times, and difficult times that we're going through right now, especially difficult times, they could define us, they could diminish us, or they could develop us. We decide. We're in a cocoon right now, like a butterfly. And while the beauty is in the butterfly, the growth happens in the cocoon. And it's in this cocooning time when we could level up our skills, our competencies, our

studies, our discipline, and get really, really great. It's harder in there, but grit gives you perseverance, gives you our ability to handle difficulty. That adversity, like we talked about, my adversity was learning, you know, sleeping, public speaking, and they become my advantages. The things I was most ashamed of, Lewis, like, you know, coming to this country and or being born, you know, immigrants or not speaking the language or, you know, not be able to learn and those are things I'm most proud of right now. So it's interesting that our struggles could be our strengths. And if anyone's struggling right now, my heart's with you. And I would say that people are watching. You inspire people with your grit and grace. And then finally, the last G besides growth and giving and grit, gratitude. And you talk about this in every episode practically.

I would say that gratitude rewires your brain for positivity peace of mind and performance gratitude this thought experiment Try this what if the only things you had in your life tomorrow were the things you express gratitude for today? What if the only things you had in your life tomorrow? Wow, where the things you express gratitude for today that if you truly want to feel wealthy even in dark times Just just make a list of all the things you have in your life that money can't buy. Think about all the people. Think about your senses, any part of your health. If you want to feel wealthy, that's what you focus on because gratitude, that's greatness for me.

Greatness is like, I use the analogy of an egg. That if an egg is broken by, we talk about eggs a bunch, if an egg is broken by an outside force, life ends. But if it's broken by an inside force, it begins. Greatness begins from the inside. And you have greatness inside of you if you're listening to this right now. You have genius inside of you. And now is the time to make that choice to let it out. Boom, my man. Appreciate you, brother. Thanks, Jim. I hope today's episode inspired you on your journey towards greatness. Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a rundown of today's show with

all the important links. And if you want weekly exclusive bonus episodes with me, as well as ad-free listening experience, make sure to subscribe to our Greatness Plus channel on Apple Podcast. If you enjoyed this, please share it with a friend over on social media or text a friend. Leave us a review over on Apple Podcast and let me know what you learned over on our social media channels at Lewis Howes.

I really love hearing the feedback from you and it helps us continue to make the show better. And if you want more inspiration from our world-class guests and content to learn how to improve the quality of your life, then make sure to sign up for the Greatness Newsletter and get it delivered right to your inbox over at greatness.com slash newsletter. And if no one has told you today, I want to remind you that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter. And now it's time to go out there and do something great.