just gone through life telling myself that I just have a bad memory we can turn this into a little master class go ahead so the three keys to a better memory are Jim quick in the house they globally recognize leader in memory improvement training your brain to work better if you want to learn faster you want to retain that information you are in for an absolute treat Google Virgin Nike why are they coming to you they're struggling with distraction memory loss it's affecting their performance their productivity our mind controls all the treasures of our life yet it's not user friendly the reason I'm so passionate about it is because I grew up with a broken brain I was five years old and I had a traumatic brain injury I didn't understand things like everybody else I was being teased pretty bad a teacher pointed to me and said leave this kid alone that's the boy with the broken brain that was the darkest time of my life and in that moment I learned my mission to build better brighter brains memory retention is getting worse and worse we live in an age where the amount of information is doubling at dizzying speed the higher Reliance of technology to store information that you would normally have to store in your brain means that not everybody is exercising those parts keep her memory sharp the other dip in cognitive performance often when people retire they mentally retire the body is not too far behind there's a study done on these nuns they're living 90 and above and because they were learning all the time it had a year to their life surprises a lot of people because they have this thinking that their intelligence is fixed the truth is there's no such thing as good or bad memory there's a trained memory and there's an untrained memory I'm gonna give everybody right now the 10 keys and this is how real transformation happens the boy with a broken brain that's what his teachers called him after Jim had a tragic accident at a young age that left him with a permanent brain injury and he believed it he lived it he embodied that identity he believed he was broken and then because of a chance experience which we can all choose to have right now that limiting belief was unlocked and he realized that the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves about who we are and what we're capable of achieving and what we're capable of doing are exactly that stories I've spent decades telling myself that I have a bad memory so much so that at 30 years old it's just part of my identity and after this conversation I realized I'm wrong if a man like Jim the boy with a broken brain can go from that poor memory low potential self-doubt to being a memory expert and becoming Limitless then that says something about who any of us can become if you want to learn faster if you want to become more persuasive better in business work creativity podcasting whatever it is you do then knowing how to retain important information might just be the key to becoming Limitless that you've been looking for Google Nike they all use gym to improve their team's memory and brain power and today he'll be coaching you for free [Music] Jim before we started recording you used a curious word you said mission yeah what is your mission what is the mission you're on and why is that mission important to you but also to the world our team is small and people but we're big in purpose our mission is to build better brighter brains no brain left behind I feel like we live in the Millennium of the Mind where our mind controls so much in our lives our relationships our health our careers our schooling and uh yet our mind it doesn't come with an owner's manual and it's not user friendly uh yet it's our number one wealth building asset like nobody listening is paid it's not like it was 100 years ago where it's your brute strength today it's your brain strength it's not like it's your muscle power today it's your mind power and I do believe the faster you learn the faster you can earn because knowledge today's not only Power knowledge is profit and I don't just mean Financial that's kind of obvious but it's all the treasures of our life and um the reason I'm so passionate about it is I grew up with a traumatic brain injury as a when I was a child and uh and I just things didn't work for me like everybody else and through those struggles you know I developed some strengths over the years and and I always thought it was interesting that there's no class on focus on concentration on on recall right and so I I put the schoolwork aside because I wasn't getting gains there anyway and I start really focusing on this learning how to learn and so I put my focus in those areas start studying a little bit about adult learning theory I got introduced to uh mnemonics which is you know memory techniques um speed reading the Art and Science of reading for better comprehension understanding and about two months into it a light switch like flipped on and I just started to understand things in school for the first time and it was so pronounced that I felt two emotions I felt like this is awesome because with my grades improving my life improved and I started it started to affect my identity and how I saw myself and how other people saw me but other the other emotion I felt if I'm honest was anger I I was so upset that I spent my entire childhood struggling every single day unsure about myself doubting myself and there were simple things that I could have learned that would have made my life a lot easier and I realized that in school it's not how smart you are it's how are you smart it's not how smart you are how smart your significant other is your kids are your teammates it's how are they smart and and I do believe that that we have this if knowledge is power then learning is our superpower it's the superpower we all have and so from there I couldn't help but help other people and I'm kind of agnostic how it happens whether it's our books or podcasts or YouTube or courses but I want to have a positive impact on people's brains as it relates to memory I think I've just gone through life telling myself that I just have a bad memory you know I'm the type of person that forgets names instantaneously um and I've just I've just come to believe that that's just me right and I I've almost resigned to that so I I'll be honest I don't think I really try that hard anymore because I just think my type of brain is the type of brain that can't retain most information especially if I don't consider it to be important information am I bullshitting myself you are it's complete BS um belief systems if you want to if you want to give it a label BS belief systems I believe our brains are just incredible super computer and our self-talk our thoughts our beliefs are the program it will run so if you tell yourself I'm not good at remembering people's name you will not remember the name and next person you meet because you program your supercomputer not to and it's more than anecdotal I really do believe people at events will see me do these demonstrations they're surprised to hear that grope is learning difficulties and put in special education but before I go on stage people invariably in the lobby pull me aside and the whisper to me when no one's listening Jim I'm so glad you're here I have a horrible memory I'm getting way too old I'm not smart enough and I always say stop if you fight for your limitations you get to keep them if you fight for your limits they're they're yours if people truly understood how powerful our mind is they wouldn't say or think something they didn't want to be true and that's not to say you you have one negative thought it ruins your life any more than eating that one donut will ruin your life but you ate those donuts every single day consistency will compound you know and it'll change the the direction or the destination I have to zoom in there so four years old were you 44 years old when you had a brain injury uh yeah if I was five years old in public school um Elementary School I was Kindergarten here in the states had an accident where I lost my balance and I went head first into the radiator uh separating the window in me there's a lot of blood and there I was I was rushed to the hospital where I really showed up though was my parents said where I was very as a child very energized very like the most kids very playful very curious um very excited I became very shut down my processing issues they said I didn't understand things like everybody else teachers would repeat themselves over and over again and later on when I was nine years old I remember I was being teased pretty bad for slowing down the class and a teacher came to my defense but she pointed to me from the whole class and said leave this kid alone that's the boy with the broken brain and that that really became my identity you know I she was sincere like but she you know like all like she was trying to help but that's all I remembered was like oh I didn't know I had the broken brain and so that became my explanatory schema for everything every single time I did badly in school which was daily I did barely on a test or report or I would say I have the broken brain or if I wasn't picked for sports which was all the time I was just this little kid I would say oh because I have the broken brain and that label became my limit you know it's um you know I do believe that we have to be solely responsible you know for our lives you know so I don't want to say that was a victim but you know we are shaped by our environment by our experiences by our external and uh and that was the that was very that was something that I really struggled with you started the um quick learning in 2001 when you're 28 years old and if you think about the clients you have there I mean I read about a lot of them Google Virgin Nike Etc they clients of yours yeah at the very heart of it the core of it why why are they coming to you what is the benefit the why is you call it yeah that people are seeking I think people tend to come to us because they are they're struggling with distraction with memory loss with uh overload right in anxiety from information anxiety they're drowning information I think people who come to me realize that their ability to learn and translate that learning into action is an incredible competitive Advantage you know in a world where there's lots of distraction there's lots of overload there's lots of technology that will make our life easier but it also in some ways while it's convenient could also [ __ ] us in a way that we're not using our mental faculties as much as just like uh you know my shirt here says use it right it's like use it or lose it it's like our body if I put my arm in a sling for a year it wouldn't grow stronger it wouldn't even stay the same it would atrophy and the high Reliance on technology like using your phone as an external memory storage they call digital dementia it's a new term in healthcare digital dementia is the higher Reliance of technology to store information that you would normally have to store in your in your brain but now that you don't have to do it not everybody is exercising those parts of our brain to keep our memory sharp is there science that shows we have to exercise our brain you know the two biggest uh two dips cognitively in terms of cognitive performance in people's life cycle usually happens when people graduate school because somehow they associate education along with learning they think they're traditional education is over so they're learning is they're not learning right and that could be an unconscious belief but the other dip in cognitive performance is usually when people retire often when people retire out of their career their job sometimes they mentally retire and it's interesting that Once the mind kind of retires the body is not too far behind there's a study done on these nuns I was a longevity study called Aging with Grace great a great title they're living 80 90 and above and they wanted to find out what was uh what was the cause of their longevity and they said half of it was their emotional Faith or gratitude the other half they were lifelong learners and because they were learning all the time on the daily it added years to our life but also life to their years it made the cup the cover of a Time Magazine but I I do really do believe that you know that we have to keep our minds active as much as we have to keep our and keep our bodies active there's a lot of talk and um there is a narrative that says when people retire they die there's like a a long-held thing where there's a seems to be a startling correlation between when someone retires and then them passing away soon after there's also quite an interesting correlation between elderly couples and when one of them passes away the other one often passes away suspiciously soon after yeah do you think that's linked what you're saying that cognitive sort of stimulation is Central to our physiological longevity yeah I mean this the study aging with Grace you know what would be would be evidence that you want to keep your mind active you know till the day you you die at every age or stage right that you could actually Stave off brain aging challenges much like you know an atrophy of the mind if you will just like you would keep your body active I mean I think most people would have the same understanding if they stop moving their body you know over you know at the retirement years then um you know it lead to probably unfavorable results it's the evolutionary reason for that you know could you take could you have a hypothesis as to why from an evolutionary perspective yeah the body would decide to you know the um everyone we talk about a mind-body connection we hear we hear that a lot you know so the primary reason you have a brain is to control your movement that's the number one reason mammals have brains is to control movement and it's not just a one-way connection that it's um that as yes your brain controls your movement but actually moving actually stimulates different parts of your brain um before I do this podcast I do exercise yes very much so and even and develop I had a we had our firstborn recently a few months ago you know so crawling you know as you look at the study of of brain development that cross lateral is very important even we do that in our events when we do our our brain conferences and such we get everybody standing up and doing these uh the in this area science called educational Kinesiology popularized by brain gym where you have you take one knee as you're standing and lift it and touch it with the opposite hand and you go back and forth it's things that are crossing the midline forces left and right brain communication so you have left brain and your right brain and separated by that is a bridging station called a corpus callosum and by doing these exercises it increases communication between left and right brain and this is an oversimplification left brain is if someone's left brain they're they they're said to be more logical right how do we know how do we know if someone's left brain left brain or right brain yeah how do we know yeah we have we have a couple Assessments in Limitless but you can find it online you know free assessments for brain dominance left and right brain and in there we have multiple intelligence theory a study at a research out of Harvard University by Howard Gardner says that there's not in the U.S in a lot of westernized societies they tend to emphasize two kinds of intelligences verbal linguistic and mathematical here in the states we have the SATs right it's just verbal you know reading comprehension and mathematical Howard Gardner says they're actually not limited to two intelligences and so they're more and each one can be developed and so for example kinesthetic intelligence you know great your great choreographers great dancers athletes um interpersonal intelligence people who have this innate talent that could to relate to people on connect uh visual spatial intelligence people who are incredible graphic artists Architects right musical intelligence it just goes on so um there are these other assessments and I really the reason why I put so many of this in Limitless in our podcast and we created our own assessment uh recently this year we haven't talked about it we're just launching it now called cognitive types and these are I use animals as a metaphor because I think so much of us for happiness for me has always been having the Curiosity to know yourself right that's why you go to therapy or you journal or you meditate or you you know you read about that inter intra personal intelligence self to self as opposed to interpersonal self to others but once you have the Curiosity to know yourself Having the courage to be yourself is a different game too because so many people mitigated you know like their expression of who they are because of looking bad or how people would perceive them and so on but this cognitive type and I'll go back to answer your question we've found in delineate I pulled from you know Myers-Briggs and multiple intelligence theory introvert extrovert ambivert uh lateral thinking styles to realize that they're about four buckets of cognitive types and I used animals to as a metaphor to represent them so this full cognitive types and it what's the acronym sorry her code c-o-d-e c-o-d-e so what does the C stand for so very briefly the C and as you're listening this you could see which one kind of hand raised for yourself even take a snapshot of this and post you know which one you think you are or will we have an assessment online also as well that's free the C is cheetah and these are your your intuitives and you might know you might have someone on your team or your family member that are cheetahs they're fast acting they're just always moving they they they thrive in fast-paced environments right Sophie I reckon that's my assistant Sophie maybe me as well Jack what do you think do you think I'm a cheater fast acting thriving fast-paced environments does that sound like me you think so okay the uh and the O is the is the owl and you might know people the hours often link to logic uh critical thinking they love data uh facts formulas figures right they they lean into that information sounds like Grace Miller on our team Charles we have a data scientist in our team as well very nice yeah Michael as well yeah okay lean into information so that's the owl the D is are your dolphins and your dolphins are your creative Visionaries uh these people love problem solving they love to be creative expression uh create a pattern recognition right they they see patterns that maybe a lot of people don't see as as easily or naturally dolphin so they're the creatives amongst us yes and I think a lot of the future belongs to the creatives you know the creators if you will you're thinking about AI aren't you yeah that's an interesting conversation also as well and finally the E are your elephants and your elephants I chose them because uh I use them as representative symbol for like empathy uh they love collaboration tribes right working team environment so we we created these models because you know yourself right even even in the Matrix when when he's going to see the Oracle and the sign right above in the kitchen was and you know know thyself and then we could be ourselves but one the more you know about yourself and then you have a way of filtering the world and then not being judgmental of yourself or even others is just how people are organized you know some people are just right-handed or they're left-handed right they have certain preferences and so these are it can help you inform you based on like yourself if you're if you know like you thrive in certain environments and then we give you know in the report careers that you would excel in and this is kind of obvious right if somebody's creative certain career paths what if you're a couple of these things yeah so we have when you go through it there's a primary and there's a secondary you know and so the these are usually I mean very very few people because we have all the back end stats we have you know is is completely even 25 and so on but we usually have a place where if I ask everybody to write their name on a piece of paper you could do that but if I ask you to switch hands and un below it write your first and last name below that that second time is gonna feel it's gonna take longer it's gonna feel awkward and the quality is probably not going to be as good as the first one and have you ever been in a situation where you're learning something and it's a subject you're you're interested in but for some reason you're just not getting it because you're just not connecting with the instructor it's kind of like the way that they prefer to teach is different than the way you prefer to learn and it's like you're two ships in a night and you're passing each other and there's no there's no connection yeah that's there and so it feels like you're learning with the opposite hand so what happens it takes longer the quality is not as good it feels a little weird and uncomfortable so I feel like when you know what your strengths are you can lean into it and then further refine it and we get people suggestions if they want to improve areas that they're not as strong in to be able to boost that but this is weighted right because because you named a couple of those there and I thought you know I'm probably a cheater I've got a little bit of a elephant in me as well no pun intended and I you know I like to think I can be a dolphin once in a while so yeah they can express each other in different contexts also as well you know and it's it's nice to have uh a level of cognitive flexibility you know and because that increases your learning agility it's one of the things that we teach in Limitless is uh as six thinking hats it's uh created by Edward de Bono and it's this idea that if you are facing a decision or difficulty or a dilemma in your life one of the reasons why we can't always think our way out of something is because we see something from a set point of view and what six thinking hats does it gives you permission to step out of yourself and try on another lens meaning imagine this table here has six color hats right yeah and I want everybody to think about who's listening or watching this right now a decision you need to make or difficulty doesn't have to be like life and death but it's just something that you know that where to live I'm thinking about that's perfect where to live and then you have these hats so the first hat is the white hat I'm in no specific order so imagine you're reaching out and you're putting on the the white hat okay right and the white hat and I'll give you a mnemonic because I'm the memory guide to help you remember what each one symbolizes the white hat imagine a white scientist's lab coat like a white lab coat that's data that's information that's facts right so now you can only look at the situation or this decision tree through the ACT Through The Eyes of logic okay sorry all right I'm doing that now so me and my partner are actually looking for someone to live at the moment and we're we've been looking it was really about which area to live in in London or maybe we'll live in Portugal or maybe Dubai so we're kind of trying to figure that out okay so I've got my white hat on and my lab coat and I can only think about logic surprise I'm thinking about is it a good time to buy what's the graph saying I'm thinking about renting versus buying commute and travel and amenities that are thought yeah that would be all the factual and then so you could take off the white hat and now look for the red hat so you grab the red hat you put it on and the red hat is symbolizes heart is emotions so this is where you're going more with your gut you're feeling you're putting logic aside and just like what what feels right for you her family lives in Portugal so that's the first thing that came to mind when you said about feelings of being close to family yeah absolutely and this is this is good I hope everyone's doing this also so you take off the red hat and you could put on let's say the the black hat and the black hat think of a judge's robe and the judge's robe this is where you get a little bit you could be judgmental you could look at the the risk or the or the uh The Devil's Advocate you could look at the the other side you know in terms of what could go wrong you know like you might hate living there you know you know the places we're considering we've never lived in before so what if we buy a place and then we immediately don't like it maybe we should stay where we are not by anywhere maybe interesting the housing market will collapse and it'll be such a bad investment that will will regret it so you're shining a spotlight so the idea here is that the information is out there but where are we choosing to put a spotlight and acknowledge and be aware of so you could take off the Black Cat and we're doing this abbreviated right and then uh look for like the Yellow Hat you put on the yellow hat and the yellow is like the sun and that's like optimism and this is like all the things opposite of the the black hat going wrong what could go right like the upside and even you know and even all those things are just named we'll figure it out yeah we'll figure it out if we live there we can always move somewhere else and um we'll make it work and Dubai's lovely it's hot yeah so is Portugal nice and those are four hats and the last two take off the yellow hat and find their green hat and so you put on the green hat and the green is possibility it's like New Growth if you look at the plants that are green imagine new new foliage new new growth and these are like maybe thinking outside the box like maybe it's not I go to you know I go to this job or this job maybe it's I go back to school or maybe it's something I'm not entertaining so that's possibility so that would be in the context of me moving house what is that that's yeah the possibility of so if it was like between this and this it could be like a choice three or Choice four or third option so maybe we'll try America or we'll try another place to live in the world or um maybe we'll just Airbnb in all these places and we can live in all of them yeah okay so that would be green and then finally the last hat so it could be done in any order but the blue hat is always you end with so put on the blue hat and the blue imagine the sky overlooking everything it's kind of like the uh the manager Hut it listens to all the conversations with all the other color hats and then it helps you make a decision because it informs because here's the thing you can only make decisions based on what's in your conscious awareness and so many people live with a certain hat on like 24 7. they are just that logical facts prove it to me and they see through a certain lens but if they're not you know looking at the emotional context or other possibilities or with the downside of you know Branson's very good at that right he's very good at looking at everyone looks at him as very very risky you know like you know do all these crazy things but he's you know you have conversations with him he looks at like from the blackout look in terms of risk management right and and many gaining the downside and so like but if you just looked at everything through the Yellow Hat investing optimistic you think everything's in the Bitcoin everything's going to be good and you go on that and you're ignoring the other points of view and so this allows you to have more information and so hopefully with that more information you can make a more a wiser Choice with something and that's kind of you literally recommend people in chapter 15 of this book to buy multi-colored hats this is um if you wanted to be able to do that we could do this we do this with our team where we'll go through with our team and say either one of two things as a team building exercise or like we're facing this you know initiative we're launching a new book or we're doing this whatever uh like a social media challenge or whatever and we'll have people like everyone put on the same color hat metaphorically like literally physically go like this and put it as if you know so they get their body into it also and we're all looking at it through the same point of view or we'll assign different hats for different people and we'll have this big kind of you know court case and conversation and now the rule is you have to talk as if you're from that you know point of view and that allows us to get outside of ourselves it's similar to Innovation where there's a there's a book called the structure of Scientific Revolution it's not not really fun read but the the essence of it is a lot of innovation uh and progress comes from people outside of that industry because it takes somebody from the outside to have a different lens or hat to that didn't have the same learned helplessness and taught the same limitations of how things should have been done so maybe an Elon outside saying well if we're gonna make a car today with today's technology how would we go about doing that instead of doing just incremental improvements on you know what they have existing right and I think you ask a new question and you get a new answer and part of these you know 60 000 thoughts we have a lot of them are informal questions but all those questions getting a shining a light we have something called a reticular activating system which we talk about a lot that the brain primarily is a deletion device deletion deletion is where we're trying to keep information out yeah like because if we let everything in overload yeah of course that would be that way and you'd be stressed right and so we're primarily but what we let in we have part of our nervous system called the RAS that determines this is important to us so if you're going around in the city and somebody shouts out your name you're going to turn around even if you know logically you don't know that person but you're wired your Ras is wired for your name right because and think about how it got there it's probably one of the first words you learned how to be able to write and and say and and how much praise you I mean how much love is associated to be able to your identity around a name but also what also helps us to channel our Ras in terms of our Focus are the questions we ask so a part of the book I talk about a dominant question that I believe that everybody has a question that they ask more than any other question and that question could determine a lot of your focus and because your focus determines how you feel what you do and what you're experiencing life and the results so for example a friend of mine you know we talked about this dominant question we found out her dominant question the ones he's thinking about consciously or even unconsciously throughout the day is how do I get people to like me and now you don't know her career what she looks like you know what you don't know anything about her but you probably could guess a lot of things about her if somebody was obsessed with answering the question how do I get people to like me what would you say her personality is like insecure very she's a a martyr a lot of people take advantage of her some people call it a sycophant or a people pleaser maybe her personality and I've seen this Dynamic changes depending on who she's spending time with you know because she likes whatever they like and does whatever they do so you don't know anything about her but you know a lot about her and you only know one question she asked herself you know I'd use the story with Will Smith in the book I help a lot of actors to you know um remember their lines or be focused on set or speed read their scripts or whatever we're in Toronto and they're shooting uh we're training during the day doing some brain training at night they're shooting 6 p.m to 6 a.m and it's very cold it's February Winter Toronto at night and a lot of people think it's very glamorous Hollywood but a lot of it as you know it's very hurry up and just wait right this is waiting all the time and it's an outdoor shoot and his family happens to be visiting and they're all just watching the monitors and there's a big break and during that they he brings them he makes out chocolate and brings it to him to all of us right even though there's a crew that would do that he's there um cracking jokes and and telling stories because we realized that his dominant question earlier that day is how do I make this moment even more magical he asked that unconsciously wherever it came from how do I make this moment magical and I realized that he was living that question his dominant question which determines the dominant thoughts and actions for me I grew up with a broken brain so I was like I didn't have answers so I was like how do I be invisible and for years I would just like shrink down and get sick psychologically before I had to take a test so I get to go to the nurse instead of having to perform but later I switched it to like how do I fix this and then my dominant question ended up being how do I make this better and I'm obsessed you and I were talking before we started recording this idea of being the best version of yourself and at some level you must have thoughts or a defining question that says how do I make this better because that's probably because how do I convince the world that I'm enough oh I think that's probably that's definitely what the dominant question started with in my life now it's not that as much and I look at my behavior as evidence so I don't look at my words because I think my words and my thoughts have often deceived me going back but I look at my behavior and the choices I make and they seem to be more intrinsically motivated than extrinsically motivated so they seem to be more about um doing things for me not for the approval of someone outside of me is there something that's more recent or was there some inciting something that kind of put you on that where you went for how do I prove to the world I did the things that I thought would prove it oh yeah and you know it's interesting because I I've never really talked about this before but I know a lot of people close to me that grew up with that feeling of like they didn't feel like they were enough and so they committed the next with a decade of their life to proving that they were in some way whether it's business Sports Athletics often to their parents whatever and this might be wrong but my observation is they had to do that and then have the evidence let them down or they had to do that in order to kind of change the question so it's funny because you'd hate to say to someone listen the only way you're gonna believe that you are actually enough is if you go and become really really successful right and then you can stop buying all that stuff you don't actually like and stop showing off or whatever you that's the only way you're going to be able to do it but that seems to be the case for a lot of my friends that are I've got one friend that's the son of a billionaire he went and built a billion dollar business himself and until he did he was one of the most insecure materialistic superficial people I've ever met and then once he had built that tremendous business and established his own identity kind of gotten out of his father's Shadow then he sold all the [ __ ] he sold everything he sold the nine sports cars he sold the house just wears all black now doesn't seem to give a [ __ ] anymore and I and I I can kind of relate without making a billion I can kind of relate to what he's saying um or that experience I think my question changed uh um what is my potential hmm that seems to be my dominant question yeah and I would invite everybody everybody has a question and not only for yourself because you just just sometimes we're silent or we're under stress we realize that those questions come out of us we start asking questions um and you know especially if we're face difficulty and we go mine is like how do I fix this or how to make it better some people because some people ask questions like you know why can't I do this or why why don't I why can't I ever have this whatever it is and they're getting answers that aren't very supportive right it's this equivalent when people read and they want to understand more of what they read right A lot of people read a page in a book get to the end and just forget what they just read or not even understand it because they didn't have any questions to begin with and so I think that a lot of times we get used to just listening to a podcast or watching a YouTube or reading a book and then we feel like our lives are different because of just that process and I just want to remind everybody for every hour you spend listening to a podcast I would challenge everybody to spend an equal hour putting that into play and one of the ways you could do that as you're listening something is ask yourself three dominant questions for me or is how can I use this so I I'm obsessed with this question how can I use this you know because then I start saying there's the answer there's an answer there's an answer second question why must I use this because common sense is not common practice your listeners have probably forgotten more about life-changing transformation Health Wellness business that most people in their lives come across that's just the truth right they're probably like why are you always watching you know Steve's podcasts and videos and all this stuff you know because sometimes family and friends don't want to lose you and they want to kind of keep you in a certain place and and but if you ask yourself why must I use this and you get into head heart and then hands then you have this incredible purpose and drive and then another question I ask besides how can I use this why must I use this is when will I use this I think one of the most important productivity Performance Tools we have is our calendar but you'll see people will schedule investor meetings they'll schedule team calls sales meetings whatever doctor's appointments but they're not always scheduling their execution of things that they read from that business book or something that they watched and so I just want to encourage everybody that you know it's better is better well done than well said you know and and the practice what we post and the way we do it is I think the life we live are the lessons we teach others the life we live are lessons we teach because you're absolutely right that people could say something but that does it's better to show it you know it's not and one thing the promises it's another to prove it right you know especially in the in the world that we are today quick one before we get back to this episode just give me 30 seconds of your time two things I wanted to say the first thing is a huge thank you for listening and tuning into the show week after week means the world to all of us and this really is a dream that we absolutely never had and couldn't have imagined getting to this place but secondly it's a dream where we feel like we're only just getting started and if you enjoy what we do here please join the 24 of people who watch this channel regularly and have hit the Subscribe button means more than I can say and if you hit that subscribe button here's a promise I'm gonna make to you I'm gonna do everything in my power to make this show as good as I can now and into the future we're going to deliver the guests that you want me to speak to and we're going to continue to keep doing all of the things you love about the show thank you thank you so much back to episode I've been thinking a lot about this in um in the book that I've been writing coming out soon called The Diary of a CEO 33 laws um for business and life and in chapter one which is law one of the book I was playing around with this idea of Knowledge and Skills and all of these things and the relationship they have between them and really was trying to find advice for young people that want to get to a point where they have reputation and a big Network and lots of resources right and I was trying to figure out the order so I almost visualized it like five buckets in the first bucket I wrote down as knowledge that's the first one right and these are sequential buckets so they go from you know this is bucket one and then once you fill that bucket when you apply knowledge it turns into a skill and then once you have knowledge and applied knowledge which I call skill then you'll get these other things then you'll get resources you'll get a network and you'll get a reputation but it's those first two buckets you can't have skills without knowledge really and knowledge is certainly the first one but just having knowledge and alone without that applied skill without that applied knowledge which we call a skill you'll never get the reputation the resources and the network and the only two buckets that no one ever can take from you the only two buckets that anyone can never unfill is the knowledge bucket and also the skill bucket people can take away your reputation they can take away your resources they can take away your network but they can never unfill these two buckets and these two buckets are the first two buckets which go on to fill the other three um and that's why I think more recently in my life I've I've become obsessed with learning am I a great learner no I don't think I am because I sit here you know I sit here with the greatest Minds in the world and I remember very little of it and it's funny as you were saying I was like I've been thinking this over the last couple of weeks I've never really shared this with anybody but I thought gosh you're in such a privileged position to get to meet all these incredible people I should be like a human Encyclopedia of information and wisdom and I don't think I don't think I am you know I meet people that are I sit here with them I think you're one of them I give this guy is everything and he's remembered everything he knows the names of studies and he can recall name I can barely recall names of people so I'm like where where do I start because look I'm in a privileged position meeting all these wonderful people and our listeners are too if anyone's you know loyal to this podcast you're like me I actually wrote something down as you're speaking I was thinking what we need to do here at the diver CEO after the episode ends is we need to set the audience some homework yeah and what I mean by that is say Okay Jim said these three core ideas after the episode I want you to go and Implement them and then I want you to like tag me on social media of you implementing them the action after the episode and share it with me and that's what I think we should all do because then not only are we going to listen yeah we're going to learn and those are two very different things yeah and I feel also when we teach something we get to learn it twice meaning you share that with your friends your family your followers your fans it takes advantage of something called the explanation effect the explanation effects says that when you learn something with the intention of explaining it to somebody else you're going to learn it much better and that's kind of obvious right if you you know if we talked about speed reading or the best brain foods or changing your habits optimizing your sleep the kind of things that we specialize in and somebody listening had to give a tedx talk about it the following week would they focus better they would have a better concentration would they take more notes when they ask more post more questions online right they would own that information and so I think that learning with the intention of teaching helps you to be able to certainly learn it better I mean that that's even how you could even use uh you could explain it to somebody I mean the whole Richard Feynman method was you know take this difficult subject Neuroscience quantify whatever it happens to be like social media marketing Ai and explain it to me as if I am a six-year-old you know right and that can you know and I can open up a whole thing with with this conversation in terms of artificial intelligence you know and creatives but I really feel like all these tools are there to augment I don't even think it's artificial intelligence for me it's obviously machine learning but it's it's augmented intelligence and I'm thinking like how do I use this tool like I would use a book or computer in the internet whatever to AI to enhance hi like human intelligence I'm very interested in that people I think mean you know the framing technique well but I when I came across it it really was a game changer for me because it explained why I'm some I have good comprehension on certain subject matter and then I'm quite loose on others um could you explain it in a simple way I know you have a you speak to a version of it in the book but for anybody that isn't aware of that technique so the idea here is any anyone can make things more complex but the the idea is when you really understand something you could simplify it in a way that makes it usable for the end result right and and not only the end result but the process of learning it so meaning I I love reading the Neuroscience papers and having deep conversations and I think where where if we have had any level of success is Translating that in a way to people where it's conversational where they see the relevance in their daily lives in the application and uh and and as results oriented and how does that impact our ability to to learn the subject this Fryman technique because stage one is of the fireman technique from what I remember is you learn something and then stage two is I believe you simplify it and then you share it and then if you can't share it to the six-year-old you go back to learning it right and that that's a great synapses of it and I would say that so how how it builds so every single time you have a new there's a Oliver Wendell Holmes quote that says a person's mind one stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions and so when we have so neuroplasticity happens when we experience novelty so we learn a new idea or something happens in our environment it's neuroplasticity allows learning it allows adaptation it even allows recovery from traumatic brain injury right it like I had these deficiencies if we calm that and I was able to compensate by creating workarounds like somebody would do in in some kind of program you know and then you start building paths another way of neuroplasticity it's kind of like if I walked through a field and there are lots of bushes you know I walked through it once and I didn't know not much changes but if you take that path and you reinforce it through repetition or space repetition interval training then all of a sudden it becomes more of a path and eventually becomes a road and it becomes a highway and we've made that connection so I like I like pulling on things that are natural as as metaphors but we learn through metaphors because all of learning is taking something you don't know and connecting it to something you do know people say learning is repetition like they just say do just say it loads does that work it it does but when we're looking at methodology repetition the problem with repetition and certainly it leads it gets a result it's rote learning it's like when the when the churches started universities and how people would teach would be the teacher or Professor would say a fact and to the class and the class would repeat it and then the teacher would say it again and the class would repeat it and so I'm making on video if you're watching this a circular motion like rote like rotary like a rotary club their symbol is a wheel the first half of the wheel is a teacher saying the fact the second half of the wheel is the class repeating the fact and you do that 50 times and then you build that pathway and you have quote-unquote learning the problem with that is it takes so much time and now we live in an age where the amount of formations it's like doubling at dizzying speed right there's more information today in the newspaper than somebody in the 17th century ever came across in their whole life right when you think about also blogs and social media and podcasts it's just like it's overwhelming so we can't be learning the same ways okay so I've got a book coming out as I said and there's 33 laws and I've been saying to myself listen you're gonna at some point start really promoting this book um so you need to memorize all 33 laws yeah like I actually don't need to yeah I mean so I need to remember what am I doing with my life 30 these 33 laws um I need to remember basically what the law is and then the gist of it yeah how would you help me do that I could do that heartbeat okay let's let's turn this into coaching and we we could we could use um just content that everyone could relate to because I don't know how much of the laws you want to share or how much you have insurance on top um okay so the method I'm going to share with you I call it Pi p-i-e that three ingredients for a better memory P stands for place we remember things based on where we put it like you put your keys in a certain spot each time you you're always going to find it because it's organized right you forget someone's name you ask yourself where do I know the person sometimes the context gives you the content so that's a place as a place to store the information the I is imagine we remember things better that we could see and imagine meaning um I bet as difficult as names are to remember you remember faces yeah so many people remember faces because you're more of your visual more of your brain is dedicated towards your visual cortex and takes up more real estate so we tend to remember things we see better than what we hear um so you see the face and you go to someone you know I remember your face but I forgot your that's me every day of my life never go to somebody say the opposite you never go say I remember your name but I forgot your face I wrote people inside hi nice to see you and then I realized I didn't remember their name well what help you with that okay so here here we go so the I is imagine we tend to remember what we see there's a proverb that says what you hear you forget what you see you remember what you do you understand what you hear you heard the name you forgot it but you see you remember you saw the face remember face so what you could see and we think in pictures when like when you got on an airplane it doesn't say no longer to say no smoking fasten your seat belts there's just pictures and we think in pictures the picture is worth a thousand words so you want to imagine those pictures and the Ian pie entwine entwine is where you're connecting and Twine means to associate or to connect and what are you connecting the p and the I the place in the image so let me give you an example five buckets low number one right yeah yeah and we could do the we could do the five buckets also um I was gonna teach these people do quickly 10 things that they could do to upgrade their brain let's do your 10 things but certainly we could apply this towards buckets too um all right so there are so are our we're blessed that the the book was heavily endorsed by like the Cleveland Clinic Center for brain health the founding director there one of the top Alzheimer's research at a harbor Dr Rudy tansy and when I speak at these organizations we know that about one-third of your brain performance your memory is predetermined by genetics two-thirds is in your control um they say the metaphor is that for example Alzheimer's and this is like we donated a lot of the proceeds to alzheimer's research for for our book is in memory of my grandmother they say that your genetics will load the gun but your lifestyle will fire it right it kind of kind of makes sense and it's not like all metaphors they're not absolute they're not absolutes but there's an idea to connect something you don't know to something you you know so going to this um two-thirds I'm going to give everybody right now the 10 Keys as you know it in the book but I'm going to show you how to memorize them but what I liked it to do whether or not people memorize them or not and I find that people will be able to do it pretty easily and effortlessly is at least rate yourself 0 to 10 how much energy and effort and tension are you putting towards this area because everyone wants to know the one thing they could do for an incredible memory there's just not there's not a magic pill but there is a process right so we'll go through them fast number one good brain diet so everyone on a scale of 0 to 10 10 being the best how much energy attention time are you putting towards a good brain diet so there's certain foods that are very neuroprotective and I would also say I'm not a doctor or nutritionist everyone's bio individual so do allergy testing do functional medicine testing in terms of microbiome test nutrient profile food sensitivity so everyone's a little different in general some of my favorite brain foods avocados the monounsaturated fat is good for the brain blueberries I like to call them brain berries very neuroprotective broccoli good for your brain olive oil good for the brain if your diet allows eggs the choline and eggs is good for cognitive Health green leafy vegetables like kale and spinach and now again some people are allergic to kale so that wouldn't be for you another one I would say uh wild sardines or like wild wild salmon or sardines like your brain is mostly fat so those fish oils turmeric is a great brain food meaning it helps to lower inflammation you can use that while you're cooking walnuts everybody's just waiting for you to say chocolate yeah here you go walnuts and dark chocolate dark chocolate not milk chocolate so those are some of the brain foods so zero to ten on the other side that's not so good processed you know thing foods high sugar what does it do to the brain so sugar is highly addictive right you've had guests on you're probably talking about how it's more addictive than a lot of drugs right there are certain things that are not good for the brain and I I don't know again people like we've had on our podcast or we've interviewed for the book like people like Dr Dr Mark Hyman Dr Daniel Amen you know sugar alcohol marijuana certain things so just certain things like alcohol could some people say they use it to help them sleep but there's a difference between getting knocked out and actually getting good deep sleep getting good REM sleep uh sleep is just personal focus of mine but sure is highly addictive not good A lot of people are also hyper you know the ADHD the hyper Behavior a lot of times you could eliminate sugar but in the U.S schools it's tough you know we're having vending machines there with all the pop and the sodas and the just yeah but to get through the list zero to ten how good is your diet number two and I'll go through these fast killing ants uh ants uh killing ants actually a claim to be proven to be good for your brain ants I get this from Dr Daniel Amen automatic negative thoughts remember we talked about the the power of your thoughts and just keeping it even if you say I don't have a great memory just add a little word like yet at the end it just changes you know the potentiality of that statement um so in zero to ten how encouraging uh optimistic um are your are your thoughts and those beliefs number three in no specific order again is exercise okay there's so much research talking about the power of movement and the brain when you move by the way studies show that when you listen to your podcast when people are listening to this podcast and they happen to be doing something rhythmic going for a nice walk with the dogs or on an elliptical they'll actually understand the information and retain it better when your body moves your brain grooves just remember that when your body moves your brain grooves when you move your body you create brain derived neurotropic factors bdnf which is like fertilizer for the brain it's like fertilizer promoting neuroplasticity number four brain nutrients and this is I always prefer people get it from Whole you know their own foods but you know I again you could get so much data nowadays you could do a nutrient profile because if you're lacking if your vitamin D levels are low you're not going to perform your brain's not going to perform at its best you know if you're not getting your Omega-3s your brain is mostly you know made out of fat or dhas your vitamin C your vitamin B's everyone comes here and talks to me about Bloody vitamin D and Omega three yeah everybody says the same two things supplements work for that right do supplements work for vitamin D quality supplements yeah you know I would again prefer people get it from sunlight and prefer people get it from natural sources like everything fish or whatever time I don't go out in the sunlight enough I need to fix that yeah you've had guests talking about the power of sunlight first thing in the morning to reset their circadian rhythm to help them sleep you know for me in the morning I try to do I try to get the elements in my life so I think about thousands of years ago they thought the four elements made up of made everything up that you see so it's like you know in Babylonian times in Greek times you know four elements of air water fire and Earth and so like I don't know I take this approach in the morning you don't have to biohack everything you can do for free go out there outside and get some Earth get your feet on the ground right really simple to do um and just to feel more grounded and more connected and there's also and I think an energetic and people talk about pulse electromagnetic fields and everything but I don't know I feel more grounded when I just walk in the grass simple thing people could do and then I'm thinking about air I could do my my my deep breathing or some people do fire breathing Alpha breathing Wim hop breathing first thing in the morning clear the cobwebs of the night and then some water drink some water or take your cold shower you get to integrate it however whatever your morning routine is and then fire is the is the sunlight for me you know first first thing in the morning but I just find that any of the biohacking stuff and people follow me on Instagram you know I have my toys and everything else they're just to mimic nature you know a lot of the times you know the the red lights and the the the the cold plunges and all that all that stuff Nature Point number five is a clean environment yeah so after brain nutrients zero to ten rating yourself five is a clean environment and I this is for everything and including the quality of the air that you're breathing some you know like I had somebody on our podcast talking about the neurotoxins and brand new carpets or Furniture you know in terms of what they're sprayed with um and the off-gassing that comes from it and how it could have a Toxic effect you know on on your brain you wrote air pollution is a massive and underrated health risk they um they cause up to 30 percent of all Strokes life expectancy is appreciably lower in cities than in the countryside even accounting for differences in wealth and lifestyle yeah I mean we saw we sorted through a number of research in talking about air pollution of water pollution also as well um you know in terms of the CERN residues that happens to be in in whether it's in tap water or what have you or some people are concerned about Plastics that come from bottles um also as well and other people are concerned about we've had a couple episodes uh talking about emfs you know just the how does that impact my brain though I don't think we know you know all I know is that the brain hasn't changed a lot in the past hundred thousand years but technology certainly has and you know and we we talk about you know these these videos that we make about morning routine and evening routines and millions of views just simple things like don't touch your phone the first 30 minutes of the day or the last 30 minutes of the day something's so simple and then Seven's brain protection brain protection so clean environment even just cleaning your desktop you know your external world is a reflection of your internal world are making your bed just helps you get how you do anything is how you do everything um numbers number sorry that was number six yeah number seven is is sleep so very concerning with sleep and and brain performance we know when you don't sleep how's your thinking the next day you know how's your ability to solve problems how's your ability to focus remember things when you sleep if you have long-term memory issues get a sleep study done that's where you consolidate short to long-term memory is during sleep when you sleep the sewage system in your brain kicks in um because as you know energy to do so also as well and your brain doesn't it's not it doesn't stop at night if anything it's it's sometimes in ways more active it's consolidating short to long-term memory it's cleaning out beta amyloid plaque that can lead to brain aging challenges often a lot of the studies show that with a lot of disease there's a kind of a sleep deficiency component also as well sometimes I'll wear a device to monitor it because it's not that people ask the quantity of sleep what's the perfect amount seven eight nine hours it's absolutely not the quantity it's the quality of your deep sleep and your REM sleep your deep sleep you can imagine is where you're recovering your body your REM sleep is where you're restoring your your mind so some seven is sleep zero to ten you know how much Focus energy attention are you putting towards it we've done Stress Management which we talked about how stress impacts the brain um we talked about sleep there we've talked about yeah yeah the last three really quickly are uh protect your brain yeah wear a helmet zero to you know your brain's very resilient but it's very fragile so I get to work with a lot of sports figures that have post concussions or tbis yeah you know and so we have protocols for for that and obviously see a doctor uh zero to ten rate yourself new learnings is Big we talked about the power of learning novelty and for me reading reading is to your mind what exercises your body I think it's the best people that you get all fancy apps and everything else I think look someone who has Decades of experience like yourself or your guests and they put into a book and you can sit down and read that book in a few days you can download decades into days that's the biggest Advantage right and reading is incredible exercise for your mind especially the way we we teach it and then finally Stress Management which you mentioned you know zero to ten how well are you mitigating stress and coping with stress What mechanisms and tools uh rituals or practices do you have you know my go-to is meditation a quick word on heal as you know they're a sponsor of this podcast and I'm an investor in the company and I have to say it's moments like this in my life where I'm extremely busy and I'm flying all over the place and I'm recording TV shows and I'm recording shows in America and here in the UK that heal is a necessity in my life I'm someone that regardless of external circumstances or professional demands wants to stay healthy and nutritionally complete and that's exactly where heel fits in my life it's enabled me to get all of the vitamins and minerals and nutrients that I need in my diet to be aligned with my health goals while also not dropping the ball on my professional goals because it's convenient and because I can get it online in Tesco in supermarkets all over the country if you're one of those people that hasn't yet tried Hill or you have before but for whatever reason you're not a real consumer right now I would highly recommend giving huel a go and Tesco have now increased their listings with huel so you can now get the RTD ready to drink in Tesco expresses all across the UK how is our gut linked to our brain you know people often on this podcast have said to me that there's a really significant link between the two yeah they call your your gut your second brain right and so there's a lot of neurotransmitters there you create a lot of your uh your serotonin there also as well what you eat matters especially for your gray matter which we matters especially for your gray matter there's a lot of microbiome tests also that you could test for food sensitivity that exists in the market you know we had Naveen Jane on our podcast and he has a company called biome and they do that test you know also as well but it shows you green yellow red you know Green you could eat pretty much as much as you want of it yellow eat it sparingly and Mild red ideally avoid but um but imagine your gut is kind of like the roots of a plant that's feeding this the stem and the stock and the flowers of your brain so what you want to eat it should nourish you because you are what not only you are what you eat you are what you absorb frankly and so gut health is is extremely important that's why you know we talk about the power of probiotics for people you know that taken on uh maybe they do it first thing in the morning but good bacteria my friend turned around to me this weekend only stag do I was at and he said because we were talking about a book we'd read and he said to me does it matter that I don't read he doesn't read yeah he's dyslexic um I think he struggles with reading a little bit yeah and he asks me does it matter that I don't read yeah she's not interested in it so we could consume information however we consume it Some people prefer to read it Some people prefer to watch it some people prefer to listen to it and we all have different styles because in your book chapter 14 it says there is a direct relationship between our ability to read and our success in life readers enjoy better jobs higher incomes and greater opportunities yeah I I do believe so if people have seen photos of me with Oprah or Elon or these individuals you know people invariably ask you know how did you connect how did you we bonded over books you know you and I were geeking out over some of our favorite sci-fi books right and then you know he brought me into the SpaceX I did training for their their rocket scientists but it was um leaders or readers you know you read to succeed you know I talked about earlier that someone's decades experience and they read it you could read in a few days you could download decades into days it's a huge Advantage right and they say Warren Buffett reads 500 pages a day um so you want to read to succeed because you know you learn from other people's experiences you don't want to spend the same time money trouble stress from from somebody else now now I have my reading has changed you know for four years I read a book a day because I was just so most people don't read because they're not good at it so if I'm not very good at golf see so like you don't find me on the courses on the links too very much because I'm not very good at it so I don't really want to do it and most people don't read because they're not good at it because reading is a skill and like all skills they can be developed through training but when's the last time you took class called reading how old were you when you took a class called not a college literature Club but a reading class yes so most people are still reading like they're seven or six so the difficulty in demand has increased a whole lot but how people read it is from the last time they they learned it and people think just because they've been doing something for so long they're better at it that's absolutely not true right somebody even somebody's the other day said I have 30 years of experience in sales I'm like and then but if you talk to them you're like not really with the results he has like one year of experience that's he's repeated 30 times there's a difference between growth and somebody's just kind of stalled right and same thing with reading if you're just doing the same thing just because you're doing the same that's like typing if I'm typing with two fingers there's a cap in terms of how far and if you're doing this for 30 years or three years it doesn't matter you're only going to reach a certain point as opposed to people using more other faculties now I know people who are listening in Mass could triple their reading speed right not have everything like I can't how do I triple my reading speed so okay so what I teach is not traditional speed reading traditional speed reading is more associated with skimming scanning skipping words getting the gist what you read you know we train a lot of wealth managers and and doctors you don't want your doctor to get the gist of what she reads right so you want to be able to retain it so there's smart reading so most of the time when we when we have students in every country in the world online through our Academy we kind of build like a Khan Academy but instead of for math it's for Accelerated learning reading memory and so on so on average people with triple their reading speed how do you do it well I'll give you a couple of tips because there's different training is different than a tip right like we have time for a couple of quick tips doing a training would be skill acquisition and and but um if you allow like there's a link in my Instagram I put in for this public and there's a free one hour Master Class people could double their reading speed and bring whatever book they want and go for it and it's it's there did you say most of your your clients triple their reading speed on average it's about triple yeah at reading speed so so reading is very it's very measurable um now there's an upward cap like some people like think you could read 20 000 words a minute the average person reads about 200 words a minute on average you know and so um now by the way when you read it doesn't make if you can't understand a subject reading it faster is not going to help right if you if you don't if you don't if you don't understand Arabic speed reading is not gonna if you don't understand nuclear physics and reading it faster is not going to help right so there's there you need to you're not going to read any faster than you can understand but um I'll give you everyone a couple quick tips um number one when you're reading most people lose focus right and that slows them down their eyes Go in different places and so if you use a visual Pacer when you read you'll read faster what do I mean by visual Pacer if you're watching on video I'm using my fingered underline or a pen or a highlighter a mouse on a computer will help you to read faster and and don't believe everything I'm saying test this so what I would do is after this conversation grab a book that you're reading put a mark in the margin where you start and just read how you would normally read and time yourself on your phone for 60 seconds and then pick up where you left off give yourself another 60 seconds but this time just underline the words don't touch the screen if you're reading online or don't touch the book but just just go back and forth and a rhythm that's comfortable for you and then count the number of lines you read the second time that second time on average will be 25 to 50 faster and most people will say after they practice a little bit you know like practice for a few days that their understanding is actually better people feel more in touch with their reading I'll tell you why number one as hunter gatherers we are visual creatures that's our survival right if you are you have to look at what moves so if your finger is moving you're going to follow the visual Pacer because it's your survival like if something ran across this room you wouldn't look at me you would look at what moves because that's your survival right because if you're hunter-gatherer in a bush and you're hunting that rabbit or that care what whatever your diet is right and that bush next to you moves you have to look at what moves because number one it could be lunch or number two you could be lunch so either way you have to look at what moves so your fingers going across the page your attention is being pulled through the information as opposed to your attention being pulled apart right um the other reason why and I'll tell you neurologically certain senses work very closely together meaning you have your tasted a great piece of fruit like fresh from the farmer's market like a great tasting Peach you're not actually tasting the peach you're smelling the peach but your sense of smell and taste are so closely linked that your mind can't tell the difference you can tell a difference if you're sick if you can't breathe out of your nose and you're congested what does food taste like nothing tastes Bland right and so just as your sense of smell and taste are closely link so is your sense of sight and your sense of touch that people literally using their finger while they read will say they feel more in touch with their reading in fact when people lose their sense of sight how do they read touch right when you train people on this so that's the first one is usual Pacer visual Pacer is there another tip oh yeah I mean there are many I mean that will boost your reading speed and focus 25 50 across the board and then you'll learn so there's something called fixations and fixation is where your eyes will stop and how many stops you make across the page determines how fast you're going to read right so it's like in traffic if you're stopping if they're 10 words most people are stopping at every single word so they're taking 10 stops faster train readers will actually use their peripheral vision to pull in more than one word so if you look at a word on that page on your screen you could probably see the word to your left and to your right right and so that's a trained skill so a person seeing three or four words doesn't have to make 10 stops they can make two or three stops right so it's less taxing and you can go faster because that starts top you know and so there are all these different tips and the master class will walk people through so you actually get training on it and it's and again it's free 95 of what we publish is absolutely free because we want to democratize this to the world but for your comprehension key to comprehension though is asking more questions what we talked about most people aren't looking for the pug dogs so even when you're taking a test usually the questions are at the end right in my books I put the questions in the beginning so it charges your reticular activity systems when you read they're like oh there's an answer there's an answer there's an answer but the real culprit to reading faster is something called sub vocalization you ever notice when you're reading something you hear that inner voice inside your head reading along with you yes that's what was just happening hopefully hopefully you should not sure it's hopefully it's your own voice right it's not somebody else's voice yeah the reason why it is an obstacle to effective reading is if you have to say all the words in order to understand them you can only read as fast as you could speak that means your reading speed is limited to your talking speed and not your thinking speed so what we do is we train individuals to reduce the subvocalization because the truth is do you have to say all the words do you have to say New York City to understand what New York City is do you have to say the word computer to understand what a computer is the truth is you don't because 95 percent of words are what they call sight words they're words you've seen tens of thousands of times like a stop sign you don't have to say stop every single time but you understand what it means 95 of the words in your book that you're reading online emails are words you've seen before you don't have to say it in order to understand those words so we train people to reduce this sub-vocalization lastly on concentration and flow and these kinds of topics yeah what advice would you give me if I'm trying to get into what they call the Flow State more often and I'm trying to do deeper work and be less distracted I mean there's all these techniques there's one what's it the pomodo technique and there's all of these different techniques but what have you found to be most effective all right for those people who are struggling with concentration and focus and getting in the zone right um we've done a number of podcasts this whole chapter dedicated to flow the um the Art and Science of getting in the zone right flow is a state where you feel your best and you perform your best that's those flow States the the markers of it are usually three things number one you lose your sense of self right the second thing you lose uh it's effortless it almost feels like you're in that zone you don't have to exert a lot of effort and the third thing is you lose your sense of time you don't know if five minutes went by or five hours because you're in the moment you're present so you could actually here's the here's you like first principles one of my first principles is taking nouns and turning them into verbs I get in the habit every day of hearing it now and turn into a verb meaning I think a lot of people hypnotize themselves by the words that they use they say I don't have motivation today I don't have Focus today I don't have energy you do not have those things you do them so you don't have motivation there's a process for motivating yourself you don't have energy there's a process for generating energy you don't even have a memory you do a memory there's a three-step process for memorizing encoding storing and retrieving right and so I think a lot of what our podcast your mind and our work is is about transcending trans end it's about ending the trance ending this massive gnosis through marketing or media that were broken you know like I felt for so long that I felt like I wasn't enough like like for like like you did um or transcending our own thoughts meaning like I am a procrastinator right how do you change that if that's your identity right and so going back to the power of words and Turk taking nouns in terms of the verbs Focus you don't have Focus you do it there's a process for focusing right and so what I would do if I want to get into Flow State the trigger for for flow getting in the zone is when competence and challenge connect meaning that imagine imagine a diagram right and on one axis is challenged and one accesses competence and skill if something is too challenging and you have low competence that's just stressful right this bigger Challenge and you're capable of handling If the child if the capability is too high you're highly skilled and the challenge is too low then you're bored right you're too skilled and this challenge doesn't it's not even a challenge so no you're not going to get that flow State flow happens when you're at that edge where it's just challenging enough to keep you engaged and it's stretching you also as well so it's a state of mind that you could create and what I would recommend doing it with everything is a small simple step right and and when you're in flow the world kind of disappears so you have this natural focus is there anything that you have an activity like pricing writing make you lose sense of time and it's kind of effortless so people could create that in their job in their relationship on the on the field also as well so so obviously up level your capabilities right and then have an acceptable amount of of challenge there also as well also a lot of that comes through finding passion and focus so flow starts with focus and what I would say is focused activities of work eliminating distraction to the best your ability you know let's say you need to focus on this activity your phone is not there you people your family knows that not to be bothered right and then you're engaging somewhere somewhere meaning there's something called the zygarnic effect that I talk about in the book and the zygon this is Doctor she was a psychologist in Europe and she noticed that when she's having coffee out at the cafe outside that all the wait staff would easily memorize all the orders without writing them down until they were delivered then once the wait staff delivered that order they would forget right and she called it the zygarnic effect after her last name that our our ability when we start something there's a high propensity for one us to want to finish it right to have closure to have to close that Loop you know that's how people keep people coming back to every Netflix show or whatever because there's an open loop right some kind of suspense that they want to get closure on so you have to behave and and follow through the zygonic effect if you start somewhere anywhere because you procrastinate you're more likely to finish that activity because it's it's an open loop and that open loop will engage somebody to get into into flow okay what's the most important thing we haven't talked about in your view based on all of the the mission that you articulated so well at the start of this conversation what's the most important thing okay so I love this discussion about disrupting education you know in terms of the power of meta learning and learning how to learn if there was a genie right now could Grant you any one wish but only one wish everyone who's watching listening would ask for more wishes right um because then they cannot get money they get everything else they want if I was in your learning Genie and I could help you become a master and expert in any one subject or skill by the way everyone that thought food or something before he said one more wish you're not the only one so if I was your learning Genie and I could Grant you one wish to learn to become an expert in any subject or skill people could think oh I want to be a great dancer I want to understand money or invest in whatever it is the equivalent asking for Limitless wishes is learning what learning how to learn because we learn how to focus and concentrate read understand uh remember what can you apply that to everything yeah money Mandarin martial arts music management marketing everything it's so much easier right so it's sharpening this saw that to be able to you do that first and all the other everything after that cutting it's a lead Domino right and so I think that that Limitless is A Treatise on an owner's manual for a brain the best diet sleep everything else and the processes for focusing remembering learning how to learn I would say the thing that I would want on my professional Tombstone would be a Venn diagram with three things and this is the core to my work I realized Eve that a lot of people know what to do but they don't do what they know that most people have forgotten more about personal development and growth and transformation and money and wellness whatever they're hearing than most the people that they know because common sense is not common practice how do you get yourself to overcome self-sabotage procrastination and actually get something done and so I'll I can I would end with this Limitless enough I'm being perfect it's about progress but what in what area of your life if you're still listening to this do you feel like you're stuck that you're not making progress think you don't have to share this but I know you're very vulnerable but is there an area of your life you feel like you're in a box and it could be your learning you might be feel like yeah I wish I could learn faster remember better read faster I wish I was more organized if you could see what my suitcase looks like right now my cameraman walks into my room it's like a [ __ ] hurricane that hit the room right yeah that's embarrassing and the organization also will help with your focus and everything else because your external world is your internal world so imagine everybody right now listening let's make this practical where are you stuck I'm gonna admit something I've never made when I connect my airpods to my iPhone it says Apple airpods brackets 23. because that is my 23rd pair of Apple airpods so that's how unorganized I am that you know for me to keep hold of those little things it's the impossibility so anyway sorry no no and we can work on that also because I mean do you have expensive well the thing when I teach meditation or I do mindfulness it's not just about that 20 minutes you're in silence externally and internally whatever's going on you could bring mindfulness into your eating you know I I show people just just challenge them to brush their teeth with the opposite hand maybe engages a different part of your brain right the opposite side but it forces people to be present you know and I think flexing that presence muscles and the mindfulness muscles first thing in the morning is just very important especially when you can tag it to a habit that you're already doing and so eating so it's not just what you eat ask the other questions right it's why you eat it's where you eat it's when you eat it's how you eat also as well some people are so stressed out about their diet you know measuring every micronutrient and everything and so stressed out about some ideology that it negates any health benefit they're getting from it because there's so much anxiety around eating right but it's also not only why you eat but how you eat some people as they're eating they're working at the same time and you've heard about the sympathetic parasympathetic right in terms of our uh our nervous system the sympathetic is kind of like your your beta your your your fight or flight but your sympathetic is rest and digest but some people when they're working they're not even that parasympathetic place where they could rest and digest their food because they're also while they're doing this they're working and stressed out or on conversations or anything so you know going going back to this I want everyone just to imagine an area of their life this is what I would teach on my professional Tombstone is the Limitless model it's a Venn diagram three intersecting circles and I want to everyone imagine an area of your life where you feel stuck in a box your income your impact your learning your your Finance whatever it happens to be your relationships where do you feel like you're not making progress and by definition that box is a cube right and that cube is three-dimensional right so the three forces that contain that box like keeping you in there it's the same three forces that will liberate you out now the three forces that I'm talking about are the Limitless model and if you're watching this on video I'm going to make three intersecting circles on a pad of paper so three intersecting circles most people know this as a Venn diagram it kind of looks like Mickey Mouse two ears and a head and so these are the three forces that will liberate you to help you become Limitless in any area of your life and this works for a person a family a team a nation a world okay so it could be a micro macro and this is how real transformation happens so here's the thing you're taking something specific maybe your income or your reading speed or your memory let's say your memory you feel like you're in a box you can't get out of it right the first Circle the top left I'm going to give you three M's is your mindset all right so your first circle is your mindset and your mindset I am going to Define as your set of assumptions and attitudes you have about something your attitudes assumptions about me being unorganized yeah exactly and that's going to continue in that box right because it's defining the borders and boundaries of what's possible okay so if somebody could also whose finances their mindset and assumptions and attitudes about money if people think money is the root of all evil if money doesn't grow on trees whatever their mindset is it could contain them in that box if their memory if they feel like they're Limited in a box you know it could be I'm getting too old I'm not smart enough right that's mindset attitudes and assumptions about something especially added to his assumptions besides your attitude assumption about a relationship what does that mean that means I lost my freedom doesn't mean whatever it is that's going to affect your your quality of box but the other part of it is your mindset attitudes assumptions about yourself so three things I would put in mindset what I believe is possible so you can believe it's possible for you know Steve like millions of followers and make all this money or whatever but you might not believe it's possible for you so what I believe is possible what I believe I'm capable of is somebody could those could be different and the third thing is what I believe I deserve like people don't feel like they deserve to have this body or this business or they have imposter syndrome or they don't think they deserve to be happy in a relationship that's going to affect all behaviors belief driven right in order to get a result new result you have to do a new behavior in order to do that new Behavior you need a belief that allows that to be possible so that's mindset so that's Mickey Mouse's left ear right now Mickey's right ear is going to be the second M which is motivation okay huge because you could have a limitless mindset about money about about change about your health your memory and you're not motivated to get out of that box so you're not getting out of that box so motivation people talk about it like a warm bath for me motivation is very structured it's only three factors that you have to unlimit the formula for Limitless motivation to motivate yourself to work out to read to meditate or to motivate someone to buy or your kids to clean their room three things P times e times S3 the letter P times the letter e times S3 and what does this mean and now take now see yourself in that box if you're not motivated you're procrastinating the p is purpose start with why as Simon talks about but if you don't feel it like I had I saw somebody on the street the other day and he was I didn't even recognize them because when I knew him years ago he was so unhealthy I mean like the worst extreme and all friends would do intervention say give him suggestions he would ignore all of it he would take pride in being unhealthy right I see him on the street he lost all his weight he looks younger I didn't even recognize him and I'm just saying what have you been doing he tells me all this stuff I'm like we've been telling you for like 20 to do this stuff why are you all of a sudden and he's like I came home tell me about this work trip he came home and his daughter was like crying hysterically and he had a dream that he died right and wasn't there for him and I was and and that's that was purpose right so that's the thing we are not logical we are biological dopamine oxytocin serotonin endorphins we could get that through life circumstances or to focus on something that drives us so sometimes we need a rock bottom moment to to get a new purpose in life that kind of explains why that is the case so so many of my guests here when I hear about their life story say this particular thing happened and then my life changed what you're saying there is it was a increase in their purpose I would say there's some things in my experience that you could only learn through a storm like some some storms come to teach us things you know or to clear a path for us but certainly Rock Bottom is an interesting perspective we talked about the sixth thinking hats do you have a look at something from different point of view you know um so the purpose so feel the purpose and so just like people don't biologically they buy emotionally get them emotional right but then if you don't have an emotional reason to read that book emotional reason to remember that name is emotion right no the Eep is the purpose which is emotion the E is energy okay so some people are motivated because they're exhausted you know like so like the idea here is like like I mentioned newborn baby if you haven't slept for three nights in a row you're not gonna be very motivated to work out yeah right if you had a big processed meal and you're a food coma you're not gonna be very motivated to study or read that deck okay so like physiological energy perfect so and remember you don't have energy you do it so the things we talked about reducing stress getting good night's sleep eating the best brain foods S3 now S3 somebody could have Limitless purpose they know why they do it they're doing the right things for the right reasons and they can't have an unlimited energy and still not be motivated because they're overwhelmed or because they're confused maybe that goal is too big they want to meet their soulmate and live happily ever after that's way too big right they want to make the next unicorn that's way too big right on Dragon's Den whatever S3 stands for small simple steps because often what stalls us is we're intimidated or we're confused and a confused mind doesn't do anything right even if you're marketing to somebody give them purpose have them energy meaning having resources Capital but are you making it so simple they can't fail small simple steps right because if you make that too confusing they won't go do anything so a small simple step this is how you find it with a question I ask myself this question every day when I get confused or I get overwhelmed I say what is the tiniest action I could take right now that will give me progress towards this goal or I can't fail what's the tiniest action I could take right now that will give me progress towards this goal or I can fail so let's say somebody doesn't work out right because it's beyond that's too big of a jump a small simple step put on their running shoes maybe somebody leaders or readers they're inspired now to say that they're going to read every day for an hour that's too big maybe small simple step opening up the book reading one line can't get your kids to floss their teeth give them the floss one tooth right nobody's or put one sock in the hamper you know to get clean because nobody remember the zygonic effect nobody's gonna stop at one tooth they're going to go to completion so I believe little by little a little becomes a lot and that's the key for motivation mindset motivation and then the last things the head there is the methods and I put that last because a lot of people know the methods but they're not doing it because they'd either have them don't have the mindset or they don't have the right motivation now here's the reason why I share this and I'll put this on my professional Tombstone is because this is the gap between what keeps people limited to limitless meaning any area of your life you control the controllables right and what you could always control is your mindset your motivation and the methods you're using to reach that goal so what I would do with this is I would put like goal on top and then you could even use this as a role modeling I could listen to all your podcasts and discern and elicit what is their mindset what is their beliefs and attitudes assumptions about that topic money redalio whoever you're talking to right then I would say what's their motivation what's the purpose you know how are their small simple steps and then the methods that they're using because the methods that work today you know aren't they they want the methods I worked 10 years ago in marketing aren't necessarily the same methods that will work for today right or in investing or in Wellness because there's a big information upgrade so my message for everybody is the past few years has been very frightening for a lot of people and out of that fear I feel like they've downgraded their dreams to meet this current situation and I think that's the wrong approach you shouldn't be downgrading your dreams to meet the current situation you should be thinking how do I upgrade my mindset how do I upgrade my motivation how do I upgrade the methods I'm using to be able to meet those bold audacious goals right Jim we have a closing traditional in this podcast where the Lost guest leaves a question for the next guest not knowing who they're leaving it for okay the question that's been left for you is oh wow good question what is the last thing you did that you deeply regret okay I um I'll say this I without giving names I um I committed to an event to speak at out of this country in your neck of the woods and it's a vent I really want to go to and I put it off for years I do regret because I'm going to be missing Father's Day here in the United States and this boy I've learned so much from he's only a few months old but and I it's funny going into fatherhood the three growth areas I've had in my life were entrepreneurship and you can identify with that right like but it's all lies on you and we have dozens of people that rely on you to for their livelihood and the impact it's a lot of responsibility my personal relationship you know where you're intimate with somebody and you're that vulnerable and but the third thing is is fatherhood and I I went into this thinking I'm gonna I'm gonna upgrade this kid's brain and biohack the heck out of this kid I've noticed over the past few months that I've taken a different approach I'm just like loving this kid so much but just observing and I don't remember the times a lot of my childhood because of what I went through but just watching these Revelations that he has hands and that he can manipulate the world and I realize that my perspective has changed instead of me teaching him stuff you know I want to protect him and provide but I feel like he's reminding me of these these important core memories that I that I had forgotten Jim thank you so much Jim quick knows how to get the maximum out of me as a human being a wonderful quote that Will Smith has put on the front of his book and that's exactly what you're doing for so many people that's the mission you're on and that's certainly what you've done for me I've been a fan of yours for some time now um having struggled with a lot of the things you talk about in this book even the process of meeting you and getting to do the research is Advanced so many of those in critical areas of my life um really I think the key thing is it's let down a series of limiting beliefs that have held me prison prisoner and hostage you knew the first the left ear on that Mickey Mouse thing was was mindset that's probably where I'm struggling the most and from reading your book Limitless that's certainly the wall that has been left at that has been that has been um torn down so thank you for that and thank you for the mission you're on because I can feel in everything you say and all the stories you tell how internally motivated and how authentic you are about what you're doing and that's a service to the world that I think is incredibly necessary so thank you so much Jim thank you for your time thank you for your vulnerability and thank you for your wisdom can I challenge everyone to do something Steve please I would love everybody knowing their knowledge by itself is not power that the small simple step could lead to something big is to take a screenshot of wherever they're consuming this on social media and Spotify and iTunes wherever and um and tag you and I so we get to see it and I have a question for everybody because this will be my question for your next guest is my normal question is what are you gonna do for your brain today and I would love to hear that also but over the past 12 months what is a new Behavior or a belief or a habit an understanding that you've adopted that has served you this past year a new Behavior or belief that has been supportive of you and I would love for you to post that tag us so we see it I'll repost some of my favorites and I'll actually gift a few copies randomly for the book out to people and yeah signed copies or maybe we could do that also as well so also as well books books or or everything for me and then I encourage people to connect and again I put that link if that's okay to mention in our Instagram for the quiz for the brain animal mybrainonwell.com and to our podcasts and everything but I appreciate Steve I'm being a big fan and follower of your work impeccable the amount of so many shows like I'm you're on like somebody will say something so deep and then and I'll be so upset because the interviewer go on well my next question is this and I'm like whoa whoa but you're so good at being present you know and I since you create space for so many people to just be vulnerable and you know it's real it's raw and it's extremely rewarding so thank you thank you so so unbelievably kind of you to say that means the world to me Jim thank you so much pleasure to meet you and become friends thank you foreign some of you will know that this podcast is now sponsored by the incredible Airbnb I'm a huge user lover and customer of Airbnb every time I go away on a trip whether that's work related or it's a holiday Airbnb is always my go-to but have you ever considered have you ever thought about making some extra cash to cover some bills or to help pay off a holiday let me explain further perhaps people are coming to your town or city for a music festival for an event or a holiday and you have a spare room why not Airbnb it or your home office is free right now you're working away from home during the week you can Airbnb it honestly the possibilities are endless I've Airbnb one of my Apartments before and it's a great way to make extra cash I'd highly recommend you all to at least check it out that extra space you have that extra room it might be worth more than you think so to find out just how much it's worth search airbnb.co.uk host that's airbnb.co.uk host check it 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