Jim Kwik:
You know it’s not our muscle power, it’s our mind power and really the faster you can learn the faster you could earn. Not just financially, that’s obvious but all the treasures of our life.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Welcome to Doctor’s Farmacy, I’m Doctor Mark Hyman and that’s Farmacy with an F. F-A-R-M-A-C-Y. A place for conversations that matter and if you care about learning, if you care about your brain, care about getting smarter, faster and better and being a superhero then our guest today is one you’re going to love, Jim Kwik. Who didn’t make up his name. His actual name is Jim Kwik and his company is Kwik learning which is fantastic.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
He’s been a friend of mine for a long time. He’s a really extraordinary, humble guy who’s helping the world fix their brains in ways that I can’t as a doctor but are essentially needed for us to live in an engaged fulfilled way.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
He’s the founder of Kwik Learning which is an incredible company educating people from all of the world in how to be better with their brains. How to speed read, how to improve their memory, how to enhance their brain performance. How to accelerate their learning.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
For two decades he served as a brain coach to many of the world-leading C-suite executives, celebrities, just the who’s who of people. Actors, actresses. It’s been an astounding career for you, I’ve watched you grow over the last 10 years that we’ve known each other.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
And like many of us in this field, we came through a crucible that wasn’t fun. That taught us what we know so that we can go teach others and you were a kid who had a brain injury and it left you really challenged. You couldn’t learn and you had to adapt and you created strategies that enhanced your mental performance and you’ve dedicated your life to helping other people unleash incredible brainpower.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
To learn faster, perform smarter. You’ve got incredible techniques for doing this. You have an incredible entertaining presentation style. Your kind of shy in person but then you get on stage and you just kill it. You actually can go into a room with 100 people and remember everybody’s name, it’s pretty impressive.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
You’re a trainer for clients like Google, Virgin, Nike, Zappos, SpaceX, NYU, GE, Fox Studios, Cal Tech, USC, Harvard, Singularity. You’re the host of an incredible podcast called Kwik Brain which everybody should subscribe to and it’s pretty much the number one training show on iTunes and your courses on Kwicklearning.com have been used by students in 180 countries and I’m so excited to have you on the podcast, Jim.
Jim Kwik:
Mark, I’m so excited, thank you for that introduction and before we begin this and we talk about all of these ways of becoming limitless I just want to thank you for the work you do.
Jim Kwik:
I remember one time we were playing tennis and this was years and years ago.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
I’m much better now.
Jim Kwik:
Yeah, so we have to resume that. But tennis is an interesting metaphor for life because those who serve well tend to win and you’re winning because of your-
Dr. Mark Hyman:
My serve wasn’t that good back then, it’s much better.
Jim Kwik:
Yeah but you’re serving so many people and even with Food Fix, you know I know we’ve had this conversation on my podcast you are an unstoppable force of nature. You’re a force for good so thank you and thank you, everyone, who’s listening to this because like attracts like and yeah I’m excited to have this conversation.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Thank you. So the reason I wanted to have you on this podcast was because you wrote a book called Limitless. This is it, Limitless, Upgrade Your Brain, Learn Anything Faster and Unlock Your Exceptional Life. And as a quote from somebody on the front, there’s no genius pill.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Jim gives you the process for unlocking your best brain and brightest future. From none other than Doctor Mark Hyman. I feel honored to be at the top of your book. And this book is the first book you’ve written.
Jim Kwik:
It is. 28 years.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
28 years of learning, work, study, practice for finding your techniques and you simmer it down into this incredible soup of knowledge that is a map for anybody who wants to live their life better because in order to live your life better your brain has to work and it has to work well. And you’ve been part of my broken brain docuseries and that’s about fixing the biology of your brain.
Jim Kwik:
Yes.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
But once you do that how do you get a better brain in every other way. And that’s what limitless is. How do you take off the limits that limit you from having the love you want, from doing the work you want? From being on a mission, from the limits of your health, because you do talk about food. You do talk about lifestyle as a way to upgrade your brain.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
So you got started on this not voluntarily, you were, you told me this story many times, and I’ve heard the story about this teacher that was so terrible and rude. And he’s like, “That’s the boy with the broken brain.” And it really was traumatic for you but tell us about the accident, how it impacted your cognitive function, your memory, your focus, your concentration, and then-
Jim Kwik:
Let’s go into this.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Flunked out from college, so tell us about all of that.
Jim Kwik:
I mean the “Kwik” of it.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
The Kwik story.
Jim Kwik:
The Kwik story. Kwik really is my last name. It’s my father’s name, my grandfather’s name. I didn’t change it to do my dharma, my mission.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
K-W-I-K.
Jim Kwik:
That’s correct. You know I had to be a runner back in school. I have to be careful of driving because you don’t want to get pulled over for speeding because the worst name to have on your driver’s license is Kwik because you’re not going to talk your way out of that speeding ticket. And I get to do my mission which is teaching people.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
But you talk slow. You’re the opposite of what I think about when I think of quick.
Jim Kwik:
You know so it’s teaching people how to learn quickly. Focus more rapidly, remember things better, solve problems more rapidly and it’s absolutely true. When I was five years old I was in public school, in kindergarten. I had an accident, a very bad fall and I was rushed to the hospital and my mother said I was never really the same afterward. Whereas before I was very energized, very curious. I was shut down and I was not understanding things. Teachers would talk to me and I would pretend to understand but in reality, I didn’t understand. I had poor focus, poor memory. It took me an extra few years to learn how to read and that was a big challenge.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Now you read a book a day or something.
Jim Kwik:
I mean for four years I read a book a day. Now I’m doing about a few books a week. Online we have thousands and thousands of our students reading one book a week, hashtag one book a week because I believe leaders are readers.
Jim Kwik:
Because if somebody like yourself, you have decades of experience and you put it into a book like Food Fix and somebody could sit down in a few days and read that book, they could download decades into days and that’s the biggest advantage I could think of in the 21st century where knowledge is not only power, knowledge is profit.
Jim Kwik:
And it’s like this knowledge divide, those who know and those who don’t know. I mean how can you make good decisions if you don’t have all the information.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
It’s the new wealth really.
Jim Kwik:
It really is and not just financial wealth, I mean all of the treasures of our life. So I had these challenges. My teachers back then wouldn’t think I would finish reading a book much less write a book so I’m really excited about this.
Jim Kwik:
Basically, what had happened through school is I hit a tipping point at 18 where I just couldn’t take it anymore. I worked harder than anyone I knew and I still wasn’t having the grades to show for it and I was living the library. I wasn’t eating, I wasn’t sleeping, I wasn’t working out.
Jim Kwik:
I wasn’t having any time with friends and I was just wasting away and it’s not very sustainable. I ended up passing out as a freshman in the library. I fell down a flight of stairs. I hit my head again. I woke up in the hospital two days later and at this point, I thought I died.
Jim Kwik:
And it was the darkest time in my life. Maybe part of me wished I’d did. I was down to 117 pounds, I was hooked up to all of these IVs, I was malnourished. I hit a wall but it made me ask a new question thinking about what am I even doing all of this for?
Jim Kwik:
Why am I such a slow learner? And I was like, well maybe because I have this broken brain I don’t learn like everybody else does and I started. It’s like well maybe I could learn how to learn.
Jim Kwik:
And I thought how do I do that? Well, maybe school could teach me. So I asked the nurse for a course bulletin, I started looking through all the pages and they’re all classes on what to learn and what do think and what to focus on and what to remember. But there are zero classes on how to learn. How to focus.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Yeah, I actually took an extracurricular class when I was in high school. It was offered in the community on speed reading.
Jim Kwik:
Right, right, right. I mean those would have been useful skills to have back in school because school teaches us what to learn but not necessarily how to learn those things. So I started making that my study. I started studying adult learning theory.
Jim Kwik:
I wanted to study what intelligence is. Multiple intelligence theory. How does my brain work so I could work my brain? I started studying ancient pneumonics. I wanted to know what did ancient cultures do before there were printing presses where we have external storage devices for our memory before there were smart devices.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
And I used to remember so many telephone numbers, now I can’t.
Jim Kwik:
Yeah and we talk about this in this book where technology is driving amazing innovation, amazing evolution and progress, communication. And also it’s also amplifying some of the challenges that we’ve always had. Like information overload. Now we have access to the world’s information. We have more information on tap than Clinton did when he was in office right?
Jim Kwik:
We have so much information but it feels like it’s taking a sip of water out of a fire hose. So one of the supervillains is digital deluge. It’s like we’re drowning in information but we’re starving for practical wisdom on how to keep up with it all.
Jim Kwik:
Besides that, technology also is creating this digital distraction. Think about all of the app notifications, social media alerts. We’re getting all of these dopamine fixes that goes along the learning motivation centers of our nervous system and it’s hard to have a conversation nowadays without us being distracted.
Jim Kwik:
I’m sure a lot of people can identify, you read a page in a book you get to the end and then you forgot what you just read. We can’t have the focus and the concentration, so that’s digital distraction.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
You talk about the four super villains in your book that stand in the way of learning and how actually to overcome them.
Jim Kwik:
Yeah. Digital deluge is one, digital distraction is another. I would say the third one is this thing called digital dementia which you just mentioned. Digital dementia where yeah, how many phone numbers did we know growing up? We knew all of them right? But how many phone numbers do you know now?
Dr. Mark Hyman:
It’s true.
Jim Kwik:
And it’s hard and people listening are like, “Well I don’t want to memorize 500 phone numbers.” And honestly, either do I but we’ve lost the ability to remember one.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
I mean even directions. I mean you have to find your way through a map, you’d figure out where you were going and then you would actually memorize the route.
Jim Kwik:
Right.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
And I was just in New Zealand visiting my wife and I like to play tennis every day, so I was playing tennis every day and I had my Google Maps and I just stick it up and I went to the same place every day but I actually needed a map because I wasn’t really paying attention except to the map. And I easily could have found my way around. It wasn’t that many turns but I didn’t really care to pay attention and it does have an effect because unless you use it, you’ll lose it.
Jim Kwik:
And exactly because our brains act more like a muscle than anything. It’s use it or lose it. If I put my arm in a sling for a year it wouldn’t grow stronger. It wouldn’t even stay the same right? It would atrophy and a lot of our brains, digital dementia is where we’re outsourcing our brains to our smart devices. It’s keeping our calendars, our to-do’s it’s telling us how to get from here to there.
Jim Kwik:
I heard recently that we’re not getting early detection of brain aging challenges and one of the reasons why is GPS. Like if you’re relying on a technology to take you from here to there you’re not realizing when you would have a memory lapse so you’re not going to get checked out and get looked at.
Jim Kwik:
So these are the challenges, digital dementia. And I’m not saying-
Dr. Mark Hyman:
And by the way, in terms of medical research on actual dementia people who use their brains get less dementia. People who are learning and lifelong learners who read, who do mental puzzles, who do brain learning exercises, who follow the work that you do don’t get dementia at the same rate as everybody else.
Jim Kwik:
And it could stave it off because you know what it is, it’s not just about mental intelligence. In this book, I show you how to learn languages, how to be able to focus, how to read faster, remember facts, figures all of that information. But it’s also about mental fitness and mental health and that’s a conversation that I’m glad that we’re having because more and more people because our brains control everything, right?
Jim Kwik:
You know you write whole books on brain health and optimizing our brain’s potential. So digital dementia is a challenge that wasn’t there in previous generations and the last one I would say is this thing called digital deduction. Meaning that now with technology, and again technology is not good or bad and in a lot of ways, it serves us. It helps us to be able to connect. It helps us to be able to learn, to be able to inspire. To be able to educate ourselves but digital deduction is where technology is just doing all of the thinking for us.
Jim Kwik:
We no longer have to use critical thinking or use our own reasoning or using our own analysis because everything’s being spoon-fed to us. Everything is like this is what you should be buying or reading or anything. It’s all of these algorithms that are there and so in this book, to overcome those four super challenges that we have, and I think through challenges could come change and positive progress.
Jim Kwik:
Where sometimes in the hero’s journey and this book is written in the hero’s journey as an homage to Joseph Campbell’s work where there is a call to adventure and we leave the ordinary world that we are in to this more extraordinary world and we face trials and we find mentors and you learn techniques and strategies and you come home and then you bring that back in the return with this magical treasure of elixir.
Jim Kwik:
Because I believe the life we live are the lessons that we teach. But it starts with the brain and you and I have had this conversation where metaphorically our brain is like a computer you have the hardware which is you want to optimize that because more people upgrade their phones than they upgrade their brain. You need stress management, you need to sleep, you need to be around positive peer groups.
Jim Kwik:
Because as you’ve mentioned it’s not just your biological networks or your neurological networks, it’s our social networks. Because who we spend time with is who you become which is why it’s so important to really do an audit around the people that you give them the power over how you feel and how you think because you have these things called mirror neurons where we’re always imitating the things that are around us.
Jim Kwik:
When you watch a movie or you watch sports you can feel what the players or the actors are feeling because that’s how we learn things and whoever we’re spending time with on a regular basis-
Dr. Mark Hyman:
That’s why I watch tennis a lot so I can get better to beat you.
Jim Kwik:
Through osmosis. Because we’re always adapting and adopting the language patterns of people around us. The habits, the routines, the behaviors. They say who you spend time with is who you become. That be careful if you’re spending time with nine broke people you’re going to be number 10. But all of these things play a role and especially the thing that you’re on a mission for is food. Because what you eat matters especially for your gray matter.
Jim Kwik:
So that’s all on the hardware part and what a lot of the book is about is really the software of it and how to be able to read faster. How to be able to pick up another language. How to memorize poetry or that Ted Talk or that toast you have to give at the wedding or give a sales presentation, or how to have laser focus so you can get through you’re to do list. All of the things that we’ve really honed over the past three decades.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
I mean that all sounds find, people are like so why should I care about speed reading or my to do list but there’s a bigger framework here because everything that happens in our life is a result of how we grow. And how we grow is connected to how we learn and learning literally physically changes our brain. It changes our intellect, it changes the possibilities we have in our life and there’s an old Chinese proverb that says, “Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.”
Dr. Mark Hyman:
What we learn becomes part of who we are and the tools that we can access them are so important and you teach those tools. You know I read an article in the New York Times recently about the Jewish community and why there’s so many Nobel Prize winners and scientists and leaders in society and part of the reason is that we were persecuted.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
We were slaves, we were chased around the world, there was an inquisition in Europe, we were chased out of Europe, we were chased out of Russia. So the only thing that we had was knowledge. No one can take that away from you. It’s portable, it’s in your head and it’s why Jews have focused on that. I remember my mother the drumbeat was education, education, learning, learning, learning.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Ask why and learn and learn and learn and I think that’s really what your gift is to humanity is reawakening people’s enthusiasm to grow and learn because the result is possibility. Is advancement in your life, is being able to actually have deep and connected relationships and do things you want.
Jim Kwik:
An investment in knowledge pays the most dividends especially in today’s age where we live in the millennium of the mind. Nobody who’s listening to this is paid for purely their physical strength, right? It’s our mental strength, our ability to solve problems, our ability to be creative. Our ability to imagine new things. It’s not our muscle power it’s our mind power and really the faster you could learn the faster you could earn. Not just financially, that’s obvious but all of the treasures of our life.
Speaker 3:
Hi everyone. Hope you’re enjoying the episode. Before we continue we have a quick message from Doctor Mark Hyman about his new company Farmacy and their first product, the 10 day reset.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Hey, it’s Doctor Hyman. Do you have FLC? What’s FLC? It’s when you feel like crap. It’s a problem that so many people suffer from and often have no idea that it’s not normal or that you can fix it. I mean you know the feeling, it’s when your super sluggish, your digestion’s off, you can’t think clearly or you have brain fog or you just feel run down.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Can you relate? I know most people can. But the real question is what the heck do we do about it? Well, I hate to break the news, but there’s no magic bullet. FLC isn’t caused by one single thing so there’s not one single solution. However, there is an assistance based approach. A way to tackle the multiple root factors that contribute to FLC and I call that system the 10 Day Reset.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
The 10 Day Reset combines food, key lifestyle habits, and targeted supplements to address FLC straight on. It’s a protocol that I’ve used with thousands of my community members to help them get their health back on track. It’s not a magic bullet, it’s not a quick fix, it’s a system that works. If you want to learn more and get your health back on track click on the button below or visit getfarmacy.com. That’s getfarmacy with an F, F-A-R-M-A-C-Y.com.
Speaker 3:
Now back to this week’s episode.
Jim Kwik:
The reason why I’m so excited about this conversation is because let’s say to the person who’s listening to this right now if there was a genie who could grant you any one wish, any one wish, just one wish what would you wish for? You would wish for millions of wishes, right? Infinite wishes, that would be the hack if you will. Well if I was your learning genie-
Dr. Mark Hyman:
But in Aladdin Genie says you can’t wish for more wishes.
Jim Kwik:
Right, right. But if I was your learning genie and I could grant you anyone wish to learn any subject or any skill but just one, what would the equivalent be for asking for infinite wishes? In that same spirit, I would want to learn how to learn because if you can learn how to learn everything gets easier. You could grant all of your own wishes. It could be Mandarin, martial arts, music, marketing, management, anything that you’re excited about.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
You could memorize the entire stock market.
Jim Kwik:
Exactly. Anything that would be able to serve you better. It’s a meta-skill. They call it meta-learning. Learn the science of learning how to learn and that really I believe that if knowledge is power, learning is our superpower and it’s a superpower we all have. So in this book, Limitless it used to be when I wrote this, a book purely on methods.
Jim Kwik:
All of the things I was telling you about on how to remember people’s names. On how to give speeches without using notes. On how to remember facts and figures and to advance your career.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
And why haven’t I hired you yet to work with me?
Jim Kwik:
Right. But what I realized was-
Dr. Mark Hyman:
I think Jim’s my friend, I’m like but I didn’t forget.
Jim Kwik:
We need to do this. So one of the things is people know what to do but they don’t always do what they know, right? And the reason I wrote this book is because just knowing something is not enough. I believe one of the lies, and I talk about all the lies in this book about learning. Like seven lies specifically that keep us from moving forward and one of the lies is that knowledge is power. People believe as we’ve heard this so long ago, that knowledge is power. I even said it just a few minutes ago.
Jim Kwik:
But if you think about it, it’s not really true. Knowledge alone is not power. Knowledge applied becomes power. Knowledge is potential power but when you use it, it becomes power and so here’s the thing, all the books, and podcasts, online courses, conferences, none of it works unless we work. And I’ve always been curious what’s the difference that makes a difference?
Jim Kwik:
What’s the difference that takes the common sense things that you know we should do, eating whole organic foods, meditating each day. Journaling, emotional bonds, and social connections, exercising, we know what to do but we don’t always do what we know because commons sense is not common practice. So after I had all these-
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Mark Twain said, “The problem with common sense is it’s not too common.”
Jim Kwik:
And that’s the truth. So this book was all techniques and I was like this is great, and I’ll keep these here because it’ll help people to advance their careers and do everything better but then I was like what keeps people from doing these things? And I created over the past three decades a model.
Jim Kwik:
A model that I call the limitless model that really explains how to learn and achieve anything faster and if everyone could picture a Venn diagram, three circles that are intersected. So you have three circles that intersect and there are three M’s. And this is the key to be limitless. Usually, there’s a gap between where you are where you want to be.
Jim Kwik:
Let’s say it’s your current reality and you have this desired reality for your health. Or in your relationship or in your career, whatever area it happens to be. If you’re not making positive progress toward it, and that’s how I define limitless. I do not define limitless as being perfect.
Jim Kwik:
I don’t believe in perfection. Limitless is not about being perfect, it’s about advancing beyond what you believe is possible. I believe the ultimate quest that we’re all on is to be able to realize, reveal our fullest potential. That’s what I think we’re here to do and I believe it starts with learning because learning is the grandmother, grandfather of all transformation.
Jim Kwik:
You know you can’t do anything unless you learn it first right? So three M’s and if you’re not achieving or making progress toward your goal usually there’s a constraint and it’s usually an unconscious constraint in one of these three areas or more.
Jim Kwik:
So I want everyone to think about the first circle. The first M is the M of mindset. Now I define mindset as these assumptions and attitudes we have about the world and ourselves. So what would fall under mindset is what you believe you deserve. What you believe you are capable of. What you believe is possible right?
Jim Kwik:
Now you could have that positive mindset, this growth mindset that you hear Doctor Carol Dewitt talk about versus a fixed mindset. Now, that alone is not going to get you your goals and your dreams just having an empowering mindset. You need the second M and the second M is motivation.
Jim Kwik:
Now, when I say the word motivation it’s a little bit loaded because some people believe motivation is they associate it to being hyped up. Getting excited for a couple of minutes while they’re at that seminar jumping to music right? And it’s kind of like the metaphor of a warm bath. It’s nice in the moment and yes I’m going to journal every day, I’m going to do Pilates three times a week, I’m going to eat the best food ever.
Jim Kwik:
And in the moment you feel like that’s the case but then it cools down. I’m not defining motivation like that. For me, motivation is having a purpose. And I’m not talking about a life purpose, I’m talking about having a reason. So for example, I was talking to an entrepreneur, Tom Bilyeu and he wakes up every morning at four something and he works out at 5:00 am and I was like, “Do you enjoy this every single day?”
Jim Kwik:
He’s like, “No. I hate, I hate working out.” Because some people feel like if they’re motivated about something inherently means you find joy in it and I haven’t found that to be the case. Like occasionally I do these ice baths or these cold showers to lower inflammation, it helps me reset my nervous system. I have a video online that has 10 million-plus shares just on my morning routine.
Jim Kwik:
I don’t enjoy, I hate the cold. Like I despise the cold. I grew up in the Northeast here and it’s not for me and I’ve done it for years and I still don’t find joy in it but I still do it and I’m motivated to do it every single day because I have a reason. So for me, motivation has a three-step formula.
Jim Kwik:
Motivation for me is not about being hyped up and excited for the moment. It’s about reason, purpose, yeah having a clear reason and purpose. Times energy, times small, simple steps. Now let me just break this down for everybody. I want you to think about something that you want to be motivated for.
Jim Kwik:
Where the opposite in the book is procrastination. I teach people how to smash procrastination. But think about something you want to be motivated to do. Something you know you should do but you’re still not doing it. Now, first, the reason is, like for example, remembering names. A lot of people do not remember names. Not because they’re not capable of remembering names, because the truth is if I was to ask your audience right now who has challenges remembering names? 99% of them will say if they’re honest, “I do. I’m bad at remembering names.”
Jim Kwik:
And then I will say, “Okay well let’s say Mark has a suitcase of a million dollars cash for you if you just remember the name of the next stranger you meet.” Who’s going to remember that person’s name for a million dollars cash tax-free for your favorite charity?
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Everybody.
Jim Kwik:
Everybody. So all of a sudden your whole audience is full of memory experts now. So it’s actually a lie, and these are the lies we tell ourselves. I’m not good at remembering names.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
You have to be present to it.
Jim Kwik:
Exactly. And you need a reason because here’s the thing, not everybody remembers everyone’s name but we certainly don’t forget everyone’s name either and if you reverse engineer it, you’ll find that there’s a method behind what looks like magic. You didn’t just happen to remember the person’s name, there was motivation, there was a motive for taking action there was a purpose.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
But you’ve got special tricks though, how do you remember 100 people in your audience?
Jim Kwik:
Well even here, and we’ll go through the methods, even here a simple trick would be asking yourself why do I want to remember the person’s name? Because a lot of people’s names you remember are people you’re attracted to. People who could be good for your brand or your business. There’s an inherent motivation and so when you’re meeting somebody and you want to remember their name ask yourself, why do I want to remember the person’s name?
Jim Kwik:
Because write this down as I know a lot of people are taking notes, reasons reap results. If you do not have a reason to do something you will not do it. Reasons reap rewards. And so the first part is, like a lot of people they can’t get themselves to read. They want to read a book a week. We know the average person reads two or three books a year but a book a week, 52 books a year that will transform your life but a lot of people can’t get themselves to read 10, 15, 20 minutes a day because they’re not associating themselves to the reason.
Jim Kwik:
But let’s say they do have a clear reason. The second part of the formula besides having a purpose is energy. What keeps people from, and this is never really talked about in books because you look at books on mindset, you’ll have books on motivation but a key element to motivation, your motive for taking action, like the proof that your motivated is your acting right?
Jim Kwik:
And so what I’m thinking about is energy. Some people could have a clear reason to read, to work out but they have no energy. Like they didn’t sleep the night before or they’re super-stressed so they lack the vitality to do that action and that’s keeping them from doing those sales calls or taking that road trip or to do the things that they need to be able to do.
Jim Kwik:
So you need to look at energy. So in here, I talk about 10 way of jump-starting your mental vitality which includes maximizing your sleep, stress management and I quote you in there also a lot about the brain foods. Because as we talked about on your show, what you eat matters especially for your gray matter. And then once you’re motivated, see my question is always critical thinking.
Jim Kwik:
I’m thinking okay is the person, if I’m programming this robot for example, if it has a reason is it going to do it? Not necessarily. It needs energy. Okay so let’s say it has a reason and energy, is it motivated yet? The one thing I could think of that it won’t take action on is because the thing that they’re thinking about is too big.
Jim Kwik:
Meaning that you think about, oh I want to start a business. Like that’s not a task or a step. So the third part are small, simple steps because motivation for me is about time management. This is energy management. Having a clear purpose gives you energy and clarity because something that’s not clear takes away energy.
Jim Kwik:
Having an energized brain gives you energy and then finally, small simple steps require very little energy. They require very little effort. So my thing with getting people to really make a functional change like to put down this junk and pick up this food is to break it down into small simple step.
Jim Kwik:
Meaning that instead of thinking your goal is to have the perfect relationship or the perfect body, how do you break it down into the smallest step where you cannot fail.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
It’s sort of like the BJ Fogg framework right?
Jim Kwik:
Exactly. So in here we talk about reverse engineering your habits and I take Doctor BJ Fogg who heads the behavior lab at Stanford University and he talks about tiny habits. He’s saying, hey flossing our teeth, we all know it’s good for your longevity.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Floss one tooth.
Jim Kwik:
Floss one tooth. Same thing with reading. If you want to read a book a week, don’t focus on that 45 minutes a day that it takes to read a book. Or if you learn speed reading do it 15 minutes a day. Hey, read one sentence. Because nobody’s going to stop after one sentence. It’s not like oh I’ve got to do this one-hour Soul Cycle. It’s like I’ve got to get myself out the door.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Well, I hated weight lifting and push-ups and all that stuff. I love to run and bike and tennis and stuff like that and I decided, okay I want to start doing more strength stuff so I’m going to start with push-ups. I can do that. I’m like well I really can barely do 10 push-ups but I’m going to start and I realized well what do I need? Well I’m motivated I have a reason, I’m aging, I want to age well. I’m motivated.
Jim Kwik:
You have energy.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
And I have the energy, so I realize I shower pretty much every day, and I turn the shower on and it takes a few minutes to warm up. So I do push-ups before I’m up so the trigger is turning the shower on and then I do my push-ups. And now I went from 10 to 50 push-ups. Just by these little steps and it works.
Jim Kwik:
And here’s the thing, it’s really if your persistent you could achieve it but if your consistent you could keep it. You know I believe consistency compounds. That little by little a little becomes a lot and that’s how you create a transformation in an individual or in a culture. Like the movement that you have with Food Fix, it’s these little things that add up that add up to big things over time, so that’s motivation.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
And the third part?
Jim Kwik:
And then the third circle on here, once you have the mindset and the motivation are you getting the result? Not necessarily. What’s the one thing that’s missing? The third M which is the method. The methodology. You need to know how to do it.
Jim Kwik:
So the mindset is the what, the motivation is the why you know your reason and then the methods are the how. Now here’s the thing, this is where the magic comes in. I want everyone to think about something they want to be more limitless about, meaning progress. Make progress, make some advancements that are measurable.
Jim Kwik:
Where mindset in this Venn diagram crosses over with motivation, that’s where you have something I call inspiration. And because I illiterate everything, three M’s, here are your three I’s. So mindset crosses over with motivation, you have inspiration.
Jim Kwik:
And there are books on mindset and there are books on motivation, right? And there are books in inspiration or social media posts or speakers or something, that’s inspiration. Now, that doesn’t mean that you’re going to have the result because what are you missing? You’re missing the methods.
Jim Kwik:
Now if you have the motivation and the methods then you have the second where that crosses over, you have implementation but the problem is your doing it right? You’re motivated and you know what to do but the ceiling in your results is your mindset. What you feel like you deserve. What you feel like you’re capable of.
Jim Kwik:
Because all behavior is going to be belief-driven. If your mindset is I have a horrible memory you could be motivated and know what to do and you still won’t remember because the behavior will be limited by the belief.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
So show me the money what are the methods?
Jim Kwik:
So in the book, we show people how to unravel these negative beliefs that hold them back. Now finally, where mindset crosses over with methods, this is where you have ideation. So you have inspiration, you have implementation and then you have ideation. You have the right mindset.
Jim Kwik:
You have this winner growth mindset, anything is possible, I deserve it all and you have the methods but you’re not motivated. So it just stays as an idea. This is ideation where people just analysis paralysis think about all of these different things. Where all three of these intersect, where mindset, motivation, and methods intersect, where inspiration, implementation, and ideation intersect is a fourth I which is integration.
Jim Kwik:
Because ultimately real transformation is a full integration. And that sweet spot where all three connect is that limitless state. And I believe this limitless model is an explanatory schema for anyone. For themselves, for their team, their family. If there’s a gap between where they are and where they want to be. This book is about redrawing the borders and boundaries of what we have.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
So give us some practical tips. How do you, for example, read 25 to 50% faster, remember names or numbers or bullet points and what are those methods?
Jim Kwik:
Let’s do it. So going to the-
Dr. Mark Hyman:
I mean I don’t want to get a free consult here.
Jim Kwik:
No, no, no, let’s do, we can do an actual coaching here. So the book is broken down into three sections. So it’s actually three books in one. Where we go through and dissect mindset and we talk about the limiting beliefs that hold us back and the truth. Because we talk about these seven lies and lie for me, is it’s a limited idea entertained.
Jim Kwik:
It’s not the truth, it’s an idea that we give energy to that we entertain that we picked up. Because here’s the thing when it comes to this because I’m going to talk about speed reading, some people I could teach them the method but they could believe they’re stupid or they could believe they are a slow reader or they could believe they are a procrastinator and they won’t do the method.
Jim Kwik:
So we debunk these lies because they’re really BS right? They’re belief systems. So assuming people have the right mindset and they’re motivated to read because some people you could teach them what to do, they still won’t do it because they know they could do it but they don’t feel it. Like the benefits of what it’d be like.
Jim Kwik:
Like for me, an example I share in the books is the reason I’m here today is because when I was 18-years-old I learned these skills, my life transformed and I couldn’t help but help other people and I started to teach this and one of my very first students, she was a freshman, she read 30 books in 30 days. Honest to God 30 books. Not skim or scan, she read and I wanted to find out not how.
Jim Kwik:
I didn’t want to know the method, I taught her the method, I wanted to know what her motivation was because most people who learn that same method did not do the same thing and I found out, I wanted to ask her how do you find out someone’s motivation, you ask them why.
Jim Kwik:
Why were you doing this and I found out, I always get choked up thinking about this. Her mother was dying of terminal cancer. Doctors gave her just two more months to live and the books she was reading were books that you write, books to save her mom’s life. Books on health, wellness, alternative medicine, energy, everything.
Jim Kwik:
And I was like, “I wish you luck, prayers.” And I don’t talk to her for months. Six months later I get a call from this young lady and she’s crying and she’s crying, crying. And when she stops I find out they’re tears of joy that her mother not only survived but is really getting better. Doctors don’t know how they don’t know why.
Jim Kwik:
The doctors called it a miracle but her mother attributed it 100% to the great advice she got from her daughter who learned it from all of these books and I get goosebumps.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Yeah, I got the chills when you talked about it.
Jim Kwik:
I call them truth bumps but I feel like-
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Truth bumps, yeah that’s good.
Jim Kwik:
That’s when I realized that if knowledge is power then learning is our superpower and it’s a power we all have, we just weren’t taught in this world. And I illustrate this saying that I’ll teach, right now I’ll share with you some great tips on how to read faster but you have to believe it’s possible and you need a reason to do so. It’d be just like going to the gym, you don’t have to enjoy it.
Jim Kwik:
And I feel like you’ll enjoy it once you get good at it. For example, a lot of people do not read because they’re not good at it and if somebody wasn’t good at tennis it wouldn’t be a very enjoyable process. Like I’m not very great at golf so I really don’t find a lot of joy in playing golf because it is a struggle right?
Jim Kwik:
But if I was great at it like Tiger Woods or whoever then I would be wanting to play all of the time it’s fun because your competence confidence is looped together. So that being the case, find your why to read. Now to read a book a week-
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Yeah, tell us how.
Jim Kwik:
Yeah, so this is the key. Having just written the book, the average book on Amazon has about 64,000 words. The average one. Now I know yours are larger but 64,000 words. Now the average person reads about 200 words per minute. Now, if you divide those two numbers together it takes about 320 minutes to get through one book. All right that sounds like a lot but break it down into seven days in a week, that’s about 45 minutes a day.
Jim Kwik:
So that means 45 minutes of reading a day, you could split it up. 20 minutes in the morning, 25 in the afternoon. You could get through one book a week, 52 books a year. That would transform… I mean what books would you read over the course of a year? That’s like having a Ph.D. in any category.
Jim Kwik:
You think about what you would study in terms of entrepreneurship or wellness or anything else like that. Now that’s 45 minutes a day. Now if you read, you know we graduate people, we have students 195 countries, they triple their reading speed on average. That means 15 minutes a day will get you through a book a week. Amazing.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
With the same level of comprehension and memory?
Jim Kwik:
Better. So it’s so insane because-
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Okay, I’ve got a lot of books on my shelf over there, I’m dying to get through them.
Jim Kwik:
So here’s the thing and it doesn’t even take time because that’s a mindset issue. Here’s the thing because I filter everything through these three M’s and so when you’re coaching your patients or somebody who’s listening to this their spouse or their teammates, whenever they’re talking you can see where the constraint is. Is it in a belief or is it in motivation?
Dr. Mark Hyman:
So what’s the technique to go from you know, 45 to 15 minutes.
Jim Kwik:
So this is how you do it. The faster readers tend to have better comprehension in actuality. That’s the truth. So if we’re going to unravel these myths, faster readers tend to have better comprehension and I know this because we have students in 195 countries so we have a lot of data and I’ve worked with kids with learning difficulties to seniors and so genius leaves clues and one of the keys are what keeps us from reading faster, I’ll tell you.
Jim Kwik:
Number one, lack of education. We’re not born with the ability to read, we learned it but the last time we took a class called reading how old were you?
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Third grade.
Jim Kwik:
Yeah exactly, you were seven years old. And so everything has changed since then but we’re still reading the same way. So that’s a challenge, so this is the education part. The second reason why is lack of focus. Some people will not read faster because they lack the focus. They’ll read a page in a book get to the end and then just forget what they just read. And then go back and re-read it.
Jim Kwik:
But if reading is done well it doesn’t take time, it actually makes you time because if I could double everyone’s reading speed and ill show you how right now, if I could double your reading speed that means what takes an hour only takes 30 minutes.
Jim Kwik:
The average person does about four hours of reading a day. Like think about it. Think about the text messages, the emails the magazines, the journals, everything you need to keep to process information. By the way, the reason why we do so much corporate training at Google and GE and WordPress and SpaceX and all of these things is because if the average workday is being spent four hours a day processing information.
Jim Kwik:
That means half of their salary is being paid just to read. That means if someone is being paid $50,000 they’re being paid $25,000 just to do something so ubiquitous like reading and they’re reading like they read when they were seven years old. So here’s the thing, if you could just double your reading speed instead of four hours to two hours-
Dr. Mark Hyman:
So how do you do it?
Jim Kwik:
I’m going into the motivation so people will do it because the strategy is really easy. If you save two hours a day over the course of a year.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
You’re not going to tell us you’re going to make us buy the book.
Jim Kwik:
No, no, no, I’m going to share with you. But the reason why I do this is because it’s not, I’ll tell you what it is and most people won’t do it until they realize they could save two hours a day over the course of… Even if they save one hour a day over the course of the year is 365 hours. That is nine 40 hour work weeks you get back. Two months of productivity. So I want that to be your why. What would you do with two extra months a year of saving that?
Dr. Mark Hyman:
So every company should send their employees to go through the training.
Jim Kwik:
Right and but everyone listening should make this a priority, what I’m about to teach you the method because the motivation is there. What would you do with an extra hour a day? Or an extra two months a year? Most people kill themselves to get an extra two weeks of vacation time a year. So that’s the why.
Jim Kwik:
Now, the technique is very simple. The faster readers have the better focus. The reason why, when you read slow you’re feeding the super brain one word at a time. Metaphorically we’re starving our brain. And if you don’t give your brain the stimulus it needs it’ll seek entertainment elsewhere in the form of distraction.
Jim Kwik:
And that’s why you distract yourself. It’s like driving. If you’re going 20 miles an hour in your neighborhood you’re not really focused on it, what are you doing? You’re drinking your coffee or your texting which you know you shouldn’t. You’re having conversations, you’re thinking about the dry cleaning because you’re going slow. That’s like reading.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
If you’re going 100 miles an hour your darn focused.
Jim Kwik:
Exactly. If your racing cars, taking hair pinned turns your only focused on two things, the act of driving and what’s in front of you. And you’re not thinking about the dry cleaning, you’re not trying to text, you’re not trying to check your makeup, you’re doing just those things that’s why just like with reading when people are reading fast they’re just focused on the act of reading and what’s in front of them.
Jim Kwik:
And I’m dispelling these mindset beliefs because if I don’t dispel them people will think like oh I’m not going to read faster, I’m not going to understand what I’m going to read. And if I don’t tap motivation they’re not going to do the method. But here is the method. One more obstacle that we’re going to fix with the method, sub-vocalization.
Jim Kwik:
Sub-vocalization is this act of saying the words as you read. You notice that when you read to yourself you hear that inner voice inside your head? Hopefully, it’s your own voice, it’s not somebody else’s voice. The reason why it’s a challenge is if you have to say all of the words in order to understand them you can only read as fast as you can speak.
Jim Kwik:
That means your reading speed is limited to your talking speed, not you’re thinking speed. I bet you a lot of people are listening to this show right now at 1.5 or 2x because they could understand it at that much but they can’t talk that fast and here’s the question, the question of mindset belief, do you have to say the words in order to understand them? The truth is you don’t.
Jim Kwik:
Anymore than you say comma, question mark, you don’t do those things. You don’t have to say a lot of words. The, there, and, because they’re filler words. 95% of the words you see are words you’ve seen before, you don’t have to pronounce them. So the fasted readers don’t pronounce all of the words.
Jim Kwik:
And then finally the last obstacle that we’ll fix right now is regression. A lot of people are slow readers because they unconsciously re-read words. Have you ever read a line and found yourself re-reading the line again or going back?
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Yeah.
Jim Kwik:
It actually 25, 50% of our time sometimes unconsciously upwards of could be spent re-reading words and it’s very taxing for the eyes. Because in speed reading there are these things called fixations. A fixation is a fancy word for an eye stop. When you’re reading a word your eyes fixate on the word and then the next word and the next word.
Jim Kwik:
And there are about 10 words per line in the average book. So it’s making 10 stops. Now, the equivalent would be for kids when they’re reading they’re very slow readers first learning how to read they don’t see words, they see letters and they’re looking at each individual letter sounding them out. So they’re making 40 stops going through the line that’s why it takes them so long to read.
Jim Kwik:
Now, the equivalent of how kids read that make 40 stops to adults reading 10 stops, speed readers actually make maybe two, three, four stops. Because they see groups of words like adults normal readers see groups of letters. So they’re seeing three chunks at a time so they’re eyes only have to stop two or three times and that’s the equivalent of driving in traffic.
Jim Kwik:
Having to make 10 stops instead of just two or three that other person gets there a lot faster. So the goal here to read faster, one of the ways of teaching yourself to read in groups and to sub-vocalize less, now this is the method part is by using a visual pacer. Now, this is so simple. When people read using a visual pacer it could be a pen-
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Like a pointer?
Jim Kwik:
A pen, a highlighter, a mouse on a computer, your finger, a pencil. When you underline the words, not skip anything because I bet in your traditional speed reading class-
Dr. Mark Hyman:
You skip words.
Jim Kwik:
You skip words or you go down the page or you make fancy S or Z forms but you miss big gaps that’s why you get the gist of what you read. So traditional speed reading people-
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Skim the gist of it.
Jim Kwik:
It’s not for comprehension, it’s skimming.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Yeah, yeah, that’s what I learned.
Jim Kwik:
Yeah exactly. But you don’t want your doctor to get the gist of what he’s reading right? That wouldn’t make any sense. So for me, what we’ve tested is if you just underline the words, don’t skip anything and test yourself-
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Not with an actual pen.
Jim Kwik:
Yeah your not actually inking it up or anything. If you’re reading on a screen, you’re not touching the screen or touching the paper you’re just underlining the words and then test yourself. Read for 60 seconds without using a visual pacer, count the number of lines you just read then set your timer to read 60 seconds using your finger while you read and count the number of lines you just read. That second number will be a 25, 50% lift across the board.
Jim Kwik:
And now if you practice it more it’ll get even better but here’s the reason why, and I tell the why to increase your motivation because some people are like oh that’s nice but you don’t understand why so adults won’t do it. Number one, kids do I. All children if you didn’t teach them to do otherwise, they’ll use their finger to help them to read because it helps their focus.
Jim Kwik:
Second of all, you do it and you’re thinking I don’t use my finger when I read but if I asked you to count the number of lines you just read, 100% of the people watching, listening will use their finger and use it as a pacer. One, two, three, four. Or a pen, one, two, three because the third reason why is because your eyes are attracted to motion.
Jim Kwik:
Like if somebody ran the cameras here nobody would look at us because your eyes are hard-wired as a hunter-gatherer, your survival. You have to look at what moves the most in your environment because it could be a threat. You’re a hunter-gatherer in a bush, you’re hunting lunch, a rabbit or carrot, whatever your viewers eat.
Jim Kwik:
If the bush next to you to moves you have to look because number one it could be lunch or number two, you could be lunch. So you have to look at what moves. So your eyes are hard-wired to look at what moves. So when you’re underlining the words your eyes are being pulled through the information as opposed to your attention being distracted and pulled out.
Jim Kwik:
And then the final reason you use your fingers while you read is because it’s how your neurology is set up. Your nervous system, your senses. Like have you ever tasted a great piece of fruit from the farmer’s market? Not something that’s been waxed and sprayed.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Yeah, a wild strawberry.
Jim Kwik:
Yeah, something right off the vine. Have you ever tasted a great tasting peach?
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Oh my God.
Jim Kwik:
In actuality, you’re not tasting the peach. Your tongue is not capable of tasting what a peach tastes like. It’s actually smelling the peach. But your sense of smell and your sense of taste are so closely linked that your mind can’t perceive the difference. It can perceive the difference when you’re sick because when you can’t breathe out of your nose-
Dr. Mark Hyman:
When your nose is stuffed you can’t taste stuff.
Jim Kwik:
… food tastes what? Bland. But that’s because your sense of smell and taste are so closely linked. Just as your sense of smell and taste are linked so is your sense of sight and your sense of touch. That literally when people underline the words as they read people will tell me all the time, “I don’t know what it is, I feel more in touch with my reading.”
Jim Kwik:
In fact, if you go to a child, a toddler and say, “Look at my keys, look at my keys, look at my keys.” The child will what? Reach out and grab and touch because in order for him or her to feel like they’re seeing it they have to touch it.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
That’s so powerful.
Jim Kwik:
It’s the equivalent to if somebody’s blind, another example if they can’t see, how do they read? With their sense of touch.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
So your book is full of these practical tips and it’s the whole megillah from mindset to motivation to method. Breaking it all down and helping people become really limitless and I always try to push against my limitations but I think I force my way and this is sort of like a way to shift that and actually make it easier and I’m so glad you wrote this book, you have so many great things in there.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
You talk about a not to do list, you have an incredible 10-day quick start challenge which I think people are going to love. So it’s about how but it’s also exactly the specifics of how to get it done which is what I love about and I’m actually… You know I don’t get excited about a lot of stuff and I’ve known you for a long time and I know your work and it’s one of those things I’m thinking it’s a nice to do someday and I’m like when can I get started on this because I’m really jazzed. Because my life is all about learning and it’s all about understanding and I feel like if I can accelerate that and read a book a week it’s the best news I’ve heard all week.
Jim Kwik:
I’m saying we show up differently when we have that level of confidence. When you can walk into a room, meet 20 strangers and leave saying goodbye to every single one of them by name you show up different. Especially in business. The number one business etiquette and networking skill is just remembering someone’s name. How are you going to show somebody you’re going to care for their health? Their wealth? Their finances? Their family if you don’t care enough just to remember them?
Dr. Mark Hyman:
So great. So great Jim. I mean this book everybody should get a copy. It’s on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, wherever there are books. It’s phenomenal. Limitless Upgrade Your Brain, Learn Anything Faster, and Unlock Your Exceptional Life. I wrote the forward, I don’t write forwards to many books, I wrote the forward.
Jim Kwik:
I appreciate that.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
It’s out April 28th.
Jim Kwik:
Can I give everyone a challenge? A quick challenge to leave them off on this. You mentioned the 10 day challenge. I created a brand new 10-day quick start program to really harness your brain, to get it set up to become limitless and we could gift that to everybody who’s listening for just as a thank you for getting the book. So people go to limitlessbook.com and just submit their invoice or receipt number and they’ll get access to that program so that they could be a speed reader and remember everything when the book is there.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
Super generous. Yeah, you want to get started on this before you get going so you can remember everything in the book.
Jim Kwik:
Yeah. And so people could take this episode and I do this in my podcasts, take a screenshot of it, this video or this podcast episode or take a picture of your notes. Tag Doctor Mark Hyman, tag me, post it on Instagram, Facebook, on Twitter and share your one ah-ha. If there’s one thing in this conversation, I believe we learn so we can earn so we can return. So we could be able to pay it forward and the best way to learn something is to teach somebody else. So post it and post your ah-ha in the description and tag us and I’ll repost some of my favorites and I’ll gift a copy of the book to some people also for doing that.
Dr. Mark Hyman:
That’s Jim, you’re so generous. Thank you for being such a great friend, for being such a contribution to humanity. For helping us all become smarter, learn better and faster and get quicker in our life. So if you love this podcast please share with your friends and family and social media, subscribe wherever you podcast. Thank you for listening and we’ll see you next week on the Doctor’s Farmacy.
