The Ultimate Hack To Limitless Thinking w/ Jim Kwik

27:25but one of the reasons why is most people could type pretty fast. And you could probably type and transcribe as fast as Ed and I are speaking, but nobody can handwrite notes that fast. So part of handwriting notes, one of the reasons why it's more effective is it forces you to filter the information, to organize it, and prioritize the information because you're not writing every single word down. Even when university students are tested, the actual worst way of taking notes besides not taking notes is full transcription. The best way is having key ideas and key thoughts, you know, and maybe putting it and capturing it in a way like more whole brain, like mind mapping is a very famous way of using both your left and right brain.

28:08I have a very simple way that anybody, a lot of people won't, they won't grasp mind mapping because it has colors and it looks a little bit too creative. So if you're not a dolphin, maybe it doesn't really mesh with you. then I would say simple way of taking notes is take a piece of paper. And if people happen to be watching this video, I'll just illustrate it, but just, you don't even have to see this, put a line right down the page. And on the left side, I want you to capture on the right side. I want you to create now that's very, very subtle. So on the left side, the things we're talking about here, what are the best brain foods?

28:40What are the top entropics to boost your, your focus and your productivity? How do you read faster? Right. That would, that's your capturing. but if your mind is going to wander your right brain is going to search for entertainment elsewhere i'd rather it go on the right side of the page instead of thinking about other things so what you're going to write on the right side is you're going to write your impressions of what you're capturing so i'll say it in a different way on the left side you're capturing your note taking on the right side you're creating your note making and so it's very very subtle difference but you're on the right side you're writing your impressions of what you're capturing So maybe you're putting things like, how does this relate to what I already know?

29:21How can I use this? When will I use this? What questions do I have about this subject matter? And so that's a very left brain, right brain, more whole brain way of taking notes. It's very simple. And I feel like it's so important nowadays. Most of your listeners have forgotten more about personal growth and wellness and success than most of their friends and family have, right? And they're probably thinking like, you know, but you still need to keep it elegant, taking complex information. I'll read all the white papers, but I always realize that education doesn't really get the result. If you can make it super simple, like what is the tiniest action I could take right now that will give me progress towards this goal where I can't fail.

30:03And this is something so simple. And the return is so the reward is so huge. What about teaching something? So when you leave an event, is it healthier for retention? Say you go home and your boyfriend or girlfriend or your spouse says, hey, what did you learn there? To actually download and teach them what you learned? I've always felt like I retain more when I teach, or is that a fallacy? Or is there some accuracy to that? Yeah, it's absolutely true. They call it the explanation effect. The explanation effect basically states exactly what you said. When you learn something with the intention of teaching somebody else, you're going to learn it so much better.

30:40and so even when people are listening to this episode why wait do it right now think about if you had to think about somebody you wish was listening to this and obviously they should post it and share it and and spread your podcast you know uh i mean i think everyone listens to your podcast already but if they had to give a tedx talk the following week would their would they focus better of course they would would they take better notes of course they would would they post more questions on social media. Of course they would. They would own that information. So when you teach something, you get to learn it twice.

31:12And that's the explanation effect. It's a wonderful way of accelerating your learning. Okay. So I'm going to ask you a dual question. I want to go back to something you said earlier because you finished it and then I was so excited to ask you the next question. But this nootropics idea, there's a couple of things in the book that are new. The nootropic stuff I'd like you to talk about. And this is going to sound disconnected, but to me it's like nourishment. So I'm going to ask both questions together and then you can go. You also talk about the second brain in the book, the second brain being the gut.

31:43So talk about nourishment, and I'm just going to throw the ball at you and let you kind of kick it around and answer it back, but you know why I'm asking them together. One, what nootropics do you recommend if you do? I know you do, but if you do. And then tied into that, because it's like kind of nourishment for the brain, so to speak. What about this second brain aspect as well with your gut? So, I mean, everyone can imagine like their brain is the leaves of a tree and then going down in the soil and the roots are coming from your gut. And so your second brain is incredibly wise. But if it's clogged up with all this processed foods, high sugar food, refined foods, lots of ingredients that we don't even know how to pronounce, then there could be some issues there.

32:31There are certain foods, every ingredient that we talk about, we talk about the best brain foods, but also we added a new chapter. The new book's all about momentum. You know, it's all, we talk about mastering your mindset, your motivation, how to overcome procrastination, I have a formula for that. And then also the methods for accelerated learning, speed reading, memory enhancement, focus flow, and all that. And the focus of the new book was really about momentum. And so knowing your brain type gives you momentum, right? and knowing the brain type of other people allows you to sustain it uh ai we talk about ai improving your hi your human intelligence and different ways you could do that to create momentum and nootropics is is and this whole area of science called neuro nutrition so there's certain things that ingredients that your brain is only two percent of your body mass but requires 20 of the nutrients and some of those nutrients are different than the rest of your body and so in no particular order and i would always prefer people get it from foods but we know how depleted foods are.

33:29And sometimes when we're traveling and eating at hotels or fast food, we don't get those nutrients. So for example, there are brain supplements and they're nootropics. And I'll go through some of some of each. So choline would be a brain supplement. It's an it's a nutrient, you know, it's usually found in eggs and soybeans, it plays a vital role in brain health. It's a crucial component of acetylcholine, which is a neurotransmitter that supports things like memory, things like cognitive function. And so, you know, if you're not getting it from your eggs, then you could supplement with it. Another brain supplement are omega-3 fatty acids, particularly DHA, because your brain is mostly fat.

34:10And DHA is the primary, it's the structured component of the brain that plays a key role in memory and overall brain health and function. And so if you're not getting it from wild salmon, sardines, you might need a supplement. So a nutrient profile, because I talk about in the book, meta learning, the art and science of learning how to learn, but that's the software, we still need to take care of the hardware that three pound matter between our ears called our brain. And so if you're lacking vitamin D, your B vitamins, so important, especially B6, B9, which is folate, B12, it's vital for brain health, you're not going to be able to get it affects your mood, it affects every brain function, magnesium, I mean, these are the basic supplements.

34:54It's so important. It's literally responsible for hundreds of physiological processes, but it affects your learning, your memory, your mood. And it could also affect your sleep also as well. Magnesium threonate has been shown to help people to sleep better. But going into the nootropics, some of my favorites, ashwagandha, it's an adaptogenic herb. And again, I'm not a nutritionist or a doctor. You could just, but everything we put into the book, I reference all the human studies. I've noticed, I just jump in, ashwagandha has helped me with anxiety as well. Yeah, it's incredible. It improves mental and physical resilience.

35:31It can help, as you mentioned, reduce stress and anxiety and also improve cognitive function. There's a nootropic, it's a whole coffee fruit extract. So whole fruit from the coffee plant is usually a byproduct that they throw out, but it's an extremely strong antioxidant. It has a positive impact on cognitive function. There's something called phosphatidylserine, which is a phospholipid, and these are big words, but it is so important for brain cell membranes. It's been shown to improve memory, learning, cognitive function. L-theanine is an amino acid. It's often found in green tea. It's a very popular nootropic.

36:13It promotes relaxation without the drowsiness, and it can enhance brain function. What I like about it is if you pair it with caffeine, for me, I'm very sensitive with caffeine personally, and it really could affect my sleep and give me the jitters. But L-theanine helps to mitigate that. And so if you pair it with caffeine in the morning, I have to do it in the morning because I can't do caffeine past like 12 or 2 o 'clock. It gives you more of a relaxed alertness, if you will. But something that I think that people don't realize is a popular workout supplement called creatine. It's a substance that's naturally produced in our body.

36:53It's primarily found in meats and fish. But if you're not getting enough of it, it plays a crucial role in energy metabolism specifically, not just for your muscles, but also your mental muscles. So it helps you to create more energy, more brain energy. So if people suffer from mental fatigue, a little brain fog, it could improve your cognitive function, especially in tasks that require a really strong short-term memory and quick thinking. So creatine is a fun one. We talked about last time some of the foods, turmeric was one of the brain foods, but it's the curcumin. That's the active ingredient that has potent anti-inflammatory and antioxidant benefits, very neuroprotective.

37:38Many people know I had a traumatic brain injury when I was five years old. I was put in special education because I had learning difficulties. I had migraines every single day. I just thought it was normal for kids to just kind of be in chronic pain. And I had balance issues and took me three years longer to learn how to read. And then the last one I'll mention is lion's mane mushroom. It's getting a lot of, especially the past few years, a lot of attention. It's a unique nootropic. It has neuroprotective effects. Whole area of science we're talking about. It's called neuro nutrition again. But it's been shown to stimulate the synthesis of nerve growth factor, which could enhance cognition by reducing inflammation and promoting overall good brain health.

38:18You said something about trauma when you were young. And I'll let you in on something. Both Jim and I are shy. I think we bond over it. So when we're in green rooms or there's lots of speakers around, Jim and I usually try to find a way to be alone together or we actually get alone because we're both extremely, I think it's safe to say, extremely introverted, both of us, which surprises people because we're both speakers. We're in public all the time. But it's definitely true for me. And I think people are surprised to hear that if they're hearing that from you the first time because you were like the best speaker on stage.

38:53and I think people but you have to be that expressive because otherwise you want your stories wouldn't land right um or you won't have the impact that that you're you desire and that you know people deserve thank you um but yeah well I think they'd be surprised at that with you and I think one of the reasons I love Jim one he's just a kind gentle generous brilliant man he'll give you the shirt off of his back he's done things for me you guys just so you know like on short notice, moved things, moved his world around to be there for me. And it's something I've told him I'll never forget and I will never forget.

39:26But the other thing that I've never forgotten, if you just share it for a minute, you should talk about trauma when you're young, is I picture little Jim in school and he's not doing very well. So he gets a chance. I think the story is do the extra credit and to do an extra work. But this notion of, I think every human being can relate on in their way to this moment that happened to you in your life. And I I don't want to tell the story. I want you to tell it because you lived it. But I actually was telling my children because they knew I was interviewing today for Thanksgiving. I was talking to him about, hey, what do you have coming up?

40:00I said, I'm excited I get to talk to Jim again. And I said, my son really loves Jim's speaking style. It fits my son's personality very, very well. For memory, I want a memory hack here. And I think my new favorite is the storytelling element of remembering things because I, for some reason, it just works with me. I'm sure you know the reason. But everyone here would love to be able to remember words better, names better, whatever it might be. And, you know, there's an exercise in the book with 10 words and then telling a story. So would you just give us that? I call it a hack, but it's a strategy for recall and memory.

40:40because Jim can go into a room and remember 200 people's names like that. It's just insane. But give them that strategy or a strategy you think that they probably have not heard before. Yeah. So the story method here, let's make it interactive. We can just like until a little kind of like I'll test everybody right now. I'll give everybody a list of, let's say, a list of random words, right? Because if you want to remember languages or vocabulary or speeches, it comes down to words. Can I push you and I'm going to have you do it with Sasha? Can we do it with Sasha right now? Yeah, let's do it. Come on in here, Sasha.

41:15Sasha's getting on my show. Come in here. I'm going to put Sasha on. I'm going to watch you do it with Sasha. So Sasha, we're going to use a story method. We've done the previous episode, How to Remember Our Eyes, like foods and speeches. This is a way, and Ed is a master storyteller. One of the reasons why, one of many reasons why he just crushes it on stage and makes everyone knows the stories because they stick in people's minds i mean before we had printing presses and everything else we would remember things through stories right through on sitting around campfires before all the external technology so let me let's i'm gonna give you 10 words to memorize you can do the best you can don't write them down but um just just however you would normally memorize these 10 words right you ready Ready.

42:00Awesome. Fire hydrant, balloon, batteries, barrel, board, like a surfboard, diamond. Okay. Sir Lancelot, mask, toothpaste, sign. Okay. All right. So those are 10. Let me actually memorize this with you. Okay. Those are 10 words. Now notice, and you're thinking, Jim, shut up so I could write these down. Nobody gets all 10. Very, very, very rarely. I'll tell you some kind of technique, but do you remember some of the words? Fire hydrant. Yes. Battery. Balloon. Board. Sir Mix-a-Lot. Balloon again. um that's it for me all right so this is interesting because the other thing i'll teach everybody here when you're listening we tend to remember so the first word was fire hydrant i'll give you the list of words fire hydrant balloon batteries barrel board diamond sir lancelot mask toothpaste sign so and i'll tell you this is i'll even give you more than just this method if you if people listening here and i hope they did it with us if you tend to remember fire hydrant it's a principle of memory called primacy we tend to remember things in the beginning of something if you tend to remember the last word which was sign then that means recency so if you go to a party and you probably remember the first people you met and the last people the most recent people right um what other words did you remember balloon balloon why did you why do you think you remember balloon um i think i was like oh all these bees so i locked that one another principle So what we're pulling out of here are principles of recall.

44:19So the first one was primacy. The second one was recency. The other thing is chunking. When you organize, because it went balloon, battery, barrel, board. And some people remember four or three of them because it's the alliteration, right? So it's chunking and organizing. We tend to remember things. So if I gave people a list of 20 random words and see how well they did, but then I said, okay well now these are presidents state capitals fruits and colors you probably remember more because there's an organization you're looking for um any other words that stood out for you i said sir mix a lot but it was sir lance a lot that could have been maybe you didn't you know hear it because i was going yeah quickly or you know there's always this deletion and a little distortion we never even when they take expert witnesses you know not everybody experiences the same thing but um other things you might remember are things that you pictured i don't know if you pictured any of these images or some people would remember something like uh toothpaste because they it's something they use every single day and that's a principle for memory familiarity you tend to remember somebody who uh has the same name as someone familiar to you right um if you remember something like a diamond some people there's some emotional content there that people associate to it so they're more likely to remember it or if i said mask maybe because people remember mass with the the pandemic or something right so my point in bringing this up and i'll tell i'll give you the method is that when we remember something it's not random there are there's a principle that's being in play and if you use those principles for the other things you want to remember you'll remember a whole lot more so i'm going to take like you notice that did you any of these you put together did you remember like two of them because they kind of like you linked them together a little bit um you know like uh like maybe there was uh you saw them the two of those objects together I tried to link the first two balloon and fire hydrant because let's do it so let's everybody do this this is so remember this everyone and do this with me and you could close your eyes if it's safe to do so if you're not working out or driving a car and take a deep breath, breathe normally, helps you focus a little bit.

46:34There's no such thing as a good or bad memory. There's a trained memory and an untrained memory. So let's do this. I'm going to walk you through this, take the principles of recall and turn it into a story. And I want you just to imagine this. And if you can't imagine it, imagine you can imagine it. We'll do it very quick. All right. I want everyone listening, imagine a fire hydrant in your neighborhood. Even notice what color it is. what color is yours red great it's red and i want you to imagine tied to it is a gigantic helium balloon a gigantic helium balloon or many many big helium balloons tied to it so many that it lifts and tears the hydrant from the ground and water spews everywhere and you look up in the sky and there's this fire hydrant going up in the sky like like kind of up and all these balloons tied to it.

47:24Now, out of nowhere, a barrage of batteries come and pop the balloon. So just imagine it. Keep your eyes closed if you want. It helps you focus. But imagine all these batteries. Notice what brand of batteries. What brand of batteries are popping the balloon? Duracell. Duracell. This is a branding question. So it could be C batteries, Ds, double As, but it's Duracell batteries. And the batteries are coming from this guy that's hiding in a barrel. So just imagine this barrel that all the batteries, full of batteries and the guy's just chucking these batteries out what makes this barrel unique on the side of it is a surfboard a board right right on the side and rolling down the board is a diamond but not like a half a carat or one carat diamond it is like a 128 carat diamond it's like the size of a let's say a basketball and it's rolling down the board and it falls off the board the diamond and it hits a knight in the head in his helmet sir lancelot all right sir lance a lot and it knocks him out cold and you go to save sir lancelot by bringing him a mask an oxygen mask but before you put on the oxygen mask so imagine you're taking off his helmet you're putting an oxygen mask but before you do you notice the mask is dirty so you clean it with toothpaste you're cleaning it with toothpaste before you put it on so mask toothpaste and when the toothpaste is done you throw it and it goes to a big neon sign and it explodes toothpaste everywhere on this neon sign right and maybe the neon sign says uh limitless all right and just explodes all right now that's a story we're using some of the principles of emotion making things a little different.

49:09And now what I love for everyone to do is start with a fire hydrant. And when I say fire hydrant, what was attached to the fire hydrant? The balloon. The balloons. And what pops the balloons? The batteries. The batteries, the Duracell batteries. And the batteries were, there was a guy hiding with the batteries in a what? Barrel. A barrel. And on the side of the barrel was this the surf board right and rolling down the board was a what diamond gigantic diamond and the diamond fell off the board and hit who in the head sir lancelot yes and then you bring him in oxygen oh wait mask mask yeah yeah it's all good toothpaste and then sign perfect and And then you have all 10.

50:00And I bet you could do it backwards too, right? You could go from the neon sign and right before the sign was what? Was it toothpaste? Toothpaste, mask. Mask. Uh-huh. The Lancelot. So great, great job. Thank you. Thank you so much. That was a lot of pressure right there. Yeah, that was definitely not planned. That was pretty good. So I'm back there going, I have some of this. So I could even hear all of them. You got fire hydrant, balloons, batteries, barrel, board. I'm skipping some, I'm sure, but I didn't even get to hear all the barrel. You're right on. Barrel, board, diamond. I think diamond ends up with Sir Lancelot.

50:48That's crazy. The mask and the toothpaste and the sign. The toothpaste explodes into a neon sign that says Limitless on it. And here's the thing. Crazy. I was just in the background. I got the headphones on. Ed, like how you could use this in every day. Yes. Let's say let's, and it only takes a couple minutes, but let's say that you wanted to memorize something that was just back in school, right? Something that's very boring, non-relevant to your life, technical, like what was a class that you had to do with some, some of that memorization back in, let's say high school, like what are some classes that just a lot of technical, technical stuff?

51:24Oh gosh. Algebra. yeah like algebra or math or science yeah right so if you take something like um i don't know what science did you study back in high school or take biology biology lots of things there right or bio was it biology chemistry chemistry like in chem and chem let's say chemistry right what was something that people needed to memorize in chemistry there was that big thing on the periodic table yeah so people want to apply to memorize a periodic table right using this story method where you could see it, feel it, some emotion and hear it, then all you have to do is take the things that you want to remember and turn them into a picture or a sound alike.

52:05And so if you know what that element happens to be and what it's used for, you could picture that or something that sounds like it, kind of like you're playing Pictionary. If you got people to say a word and you draw an ear and it says sounds like, so even like this, so the elements are hydrogen helium lithium beryllium boron carbon nitrogen oxygen fluorine and neon and i could be making this up for people but they're absolutely true okay jeopardy is my my plan b if this whole speed reading everything doesn't work out so hydrogen like just think of something that sounds like hydrogen or sound or like close enough that will remind you of like a picture that you could picture something that sounds like so for me hydrant would be like a hydrant right so everyone can picture that as the first element and then uh helium is the second one so what can you picture for helium what's a picture like what can you what's helium when i say helium what do you think of oh you're asking me uh i'm thinking of a athlete that i know named theelium you can do something sound like or for most a lot of people listening helium like is used like for balloons, right?

53:13Helium balloon. So all the story method is, is taking the fire hydrant and attaching it to the balloon to help you remember the periodic table. And then some people are thinking like, oh, this sounds familiar. The next element is lithium, which is used in batteries. So all you have to do is attach batteries to the balloons. So imagine a lot of barrage of batteries popping the balloon. And the batteries, the next one is a beryllium, beryllium. So for me, I picture a beryl. So imagine a barrel full of batteries popping the balloon that's holding the fire hydrant, right? And for people listening from before, that's the same exact story that we did.

53:54So, so good. By the way, beryllium, the board is boron. What was going down a diamond made of carbon that's a sixth element it falls on a knight's head that's nitrogen you bring him an oxygen mask oxygen is the eighth element on the periodic table and then you clean it with toothpaste fluorine like fluoride fluorine is the ninth element and then the toothpaste goes into the neon sign and neon is the 10th element on the periodic table jim quick what the heck i gotta I got a D in chemistry in high school. And by the way, I'll never forget this. Where were you in my life? Do you know how much, you would have just saved me so much stress.

54:40I'll never forget this. Anecdotally, everybody, Mr. Park, God bless him, I don't know if he's still alive or not. I remember Mr. Park would sit there because I was an athlete and he would say, Mr. Milet. I remember the direct quote. You were unequivocally the dumbest student I've ever had in chemistry. He would say this to me and my buddy Rich Fry, if he's listening to this, Rich Fry and Ed My Letter, unequivocally the two dumbest students I've ever had in my class. The truth is I wasn't dumb. I just had no memory skills that I hadn't developed. And I got to tell you something, brother. Every time I'm with you, I learn.

55:15And I told you guys this in the beginning. He's the smartest guy in the room who never feels the need to let you know that he is. He makes you feel smart. And so just to think that the boy with the broken brain becomes this expert is just, it's mind-blowing to me. And I hope you guys today, like for me, I've never had Sasha sit in this seat before and put her on. That was incredible. I'm off. I'm off. By the way, I always say that I know I shouldn't say so loud, but I don't have a great memory. So I'm off camera. I can't even hear all the words. And I can go right now to the fire hydrant with the balloons all the way up to the battery in the barrel with the surfboard.

55:48and then all the way down to Sir Mix, Sir Lancelot, who's got the mask on. I mean, it's just crazy that I can have this memory. And this is, regardless of people's age, we have students in every country in the world. You know, I've been doing this for three decades, and I realize that it's, again, when you understand how your brain works, you can work your brain. When you understand how your memory works, you can work your memory. And there's no such thing as a good or bad memory. There's really just a trained memory and an untrained memory. And it's so important in life. you know i believe two of the most costly words in life sometimes are i forgot i forgot to do it i forgot to bring it i forgot what i just read i forgot what they said i forgot what i was going to say i forgot to go to that meeting i forgot that person's name and so the reason why we made the largest chapter in the book on memory improvement there's simple techniques to be able to remember client information product information give speeches without notes and and so so so much more because i think memory is a multiplier it can make every area of your life better.

56:43And, um, yeah, it's a superpower we all have. I'm just curious. This isn't in the book. Jim's a new dad. He's got a 10 and a half month old at home. Is there something you're doing with your child that we should all know you're doing to give this person the quick brain, the super brain that there's just something you're doing or things you're doing to cultivate this young brain that's developing right now that someone should be doing with their child, their children, they could be doing for themselves. Future children are going to have grandchildren. I know you're doing something that we should know about as you've entered.

57:21I think baby development, and this is a new field for me. I'll pull back and say that I'm in my fifties. This is our first child. And I was ready to just teach everything. And I realized that I'm learning so much more than I feel like teaching, at least at this stage of, of his of his life um you know the act of being present like this child this child is like so curious he just always looking and trying to figure things out um also the importance of movement you know because that crawling motion is so important for brain development because as your body moves your your brain grooves so you know i i would say in no particular order okay movement I just mentioned.

58:06So that's important for sensory integration, important for motor skills, important for cognitive development. Even there are studies done in the area of educational kinesiology, simple things like if people take their hand or elbow and touch the opposite knee and just kind of raise your knee and go back and forth. They're called cross crawls by Brain Gym. I'll do this with him, you know, first few months, just kind of taking his hand and touching the opposite leg and go back and forth uh helps with cognitive development you know but my ideas i'm thinking about is social emotional growth uh which is so very important um so practical things for movement or like things that we know that are proven like tummy time uh safe exploration space so they could just discover things and just be fascinated and curious interactive play uh so very important.

59:01Think about how fast children learn because they play so much. And sometimes I said this to an audience recently, and they're like, oh, some guy said, I stopped playing because I grew older. But it could be the opposite. Maybe you grew older because you stopped playing, right? And I like adding play so much to my speeches and presentations, because I feel like we learn best when we don't even realize that we're learning, that we're willing to make mistakes when we play, as opposed to, oh my goodness, what's everyone going to think? Children have a lot of these mirror neurons and just like adults have it and mirror neurons like a mirror that gives you a reflection allows you to imitate it creates empathy so these kind of mimicry games that you could play like clapping hands or making faces uh or babies could could learn um i'm a big fan of spending more time outdoors also as well and doing some baby yoga or something but um frequent talking verbal interactions so very important for the baby if they're not talking and speaking yet in the beginning, giving them exposure to different vocabulary, not just the simple stuff, but I feel like it's also very stimulating.

1:00:08Singing songs, it also introduces the child rhythm and can enhance an infant's ability to distinguish sounds, which is a key component to language learning. My wife speaks Korean with the baby, so exposed to both languages could help differentiate languages. And even there have been studies shown that you could even teach potentially where I believe genius is not born, it's built because everything, nothing's fixed. We stimulate learning all the time. I mean, there's interactive engagement, but you don't have to make it so like, because nobody's gonna do it perfect, right? It's messy, just like learning is messy, life is messy, but repetition, positive reinforcement, getting on a good routine, especially sleep routines.

1:00:55Let me tell you where he's helped me a lot. His work has this new work and I'm processing it because I want to use it. And then, you know, I want to be able to teach it as well. I'll give Jim credit when I do it, but that's getting into flow state. We've all had into flow. We've all had those moments in our life. You've had it on stage, Jim. So if I were like, wow, this is just better than I feel like I really am. We've all had those moments. If you're an athlete or as a mom or a dad or at your work, it's you're just in that flow state. and I've never really been able to describe very well publicly I do it privately with my one-on-one coaching but like how do you get in there what is it what's the what's the process what's a hack and you do and so I feel like one of the great gifts of my podcast is that people get access to information they should be paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for and I feel like this bit right here goes you know right to that point so let's talk I'll just turn it over to you talk Talk about flow state for us.

1:01:49Yeah, there's a whole chapter in the new book on accessing flow states. So let's define it. Your flow states are the state where you feel your best and you perform your best. I mean, who doesn't want to spend more time there, right? People call it like the zone, where it's just like the three markers for it, to keep it simple. Just remember set, S-E-T. The S is self. We lose our sense of self, our ego. we're not thinking about ourselves or how we look or anything like that the e really is effort and there's very little effort to get this incredible reward right for this activity and finally the t is time where we lose our sense of time so we lose our sense of self we lose our sense of time and things almost feel almost effortless because you lose your sense of time where it's like you don't know five minutes or five hours went by and i'm sure some people listening they've had this experience it.

1:02:46And, uh, and I realized that with all kinds of, with everything, there's always, what looks like magic, there's always a method behind the magic. Always. When people are to succeed in their relationships or their health, they look younger, they feel great, or they're making money, they're doing something other people aren't doing. Right. You said it like this genius leaves clues, success leaves clues. Right. And so my work is really trying to figure out the method behind what looks like magic even at events where i memorize 100 people's names or 100 random words or numbers forwards and backwards i always tell people i'll do this impress you i do is to express you what's possible because the truth is we all can do that it includes flow states so so the three factors again lost us you don't have a sense of self it's very low effort and you lose your sense of time now one of the ways to get into flow state is understanding challenge and capabilities right the two c's because we won't get into flow state if for example the challenge is too big and the capabilities to meet that challenge is too low right because then you're just going to be stressed out of your mind challenge is too big but your competency is too low your capability now if you reversed it you're also not going to get in flow state because the challenge is too low it's easy and your capability is way too high so you're just bored right so it's not going to get you into that flow state, that zone.

1:04:09So what we're looking for is a closer match where your capability and the challenge is there because it forces you to raise your alertness, right? You have to pay attention. You can't mail it in, but it's not so overwhelming because chronic stress will shut down different parts of your brain. It'll keep you from not being creative and not flexible, not be able to tap into your executive functioning. And so one of the ways to access flow is to challenge yourself in a way that your capabilities and sometimes you have to lower your challenge or up your challenge and up your capabilities also as well but it can definitely be done by design and there's also brainwave states that could also support this so we have if you're hooked up to an EEG to measure your brainwave activity there are four primary brainwave states there's beta alpha theta delta delta is your sleep right beta is when you're most alert you're awake what's interesting is in the two the two brainwave states in between so theta state is a state right before you go to sleep so it's slow wave state but not so slow you're you're resting right you're asleep and so theta state is a state of creativity and so by design you could get into a theta state and be more creative to come up with ideas to be able to solve problems in fact einstein and at princeton would sit outside of his home and sit on a rocking chair and he would he would hold a rock or something like that and he would do these thought experiments right where it's you know sitting on a beam of light and heading towards a clock and is the clock you know what does that look like from that beam of light kind of thing but he would hold a rock why because he didn't want to fall asleep because he fell asleep he wouldn't be able to do access that theta state but he just wanted to be right on the edge you know what puts you in a theta state showers water running water have you ever noticed like when you're taking a shower you come up with some more ideas and insights very much so yeah i took six showers ed right before just to prepare for this i can tell brother it's obvious but but the water would put you in that theta state and that's a relaxed state so you don't have to wake up and say oh i hope i'm creative so i could write today or do my music it's it's you know what it is it's about taking the nouns in our life and turning them into verbs so you don't have flow there's a process for getting into flow you don't have motivation there's a process for motivating yourself you know our mutual friend brendan bouchard says you don't have energy you generate energy there's a process for generating energy and you don't even have focus there's a process for focusing it's a verb and the benefit of taking nouns and turn them into verbs it gives you your agency back because you don't have to hope because hope is not a really good strategy you hope you wake up energized or motivated or focused you don't even have a memory there's a three-stage process of encoding storing and retrieving that you could actually memorize right and so we have more power than we think the last phase though alpha is really interesting when it's related to flow because the alpha state where theta is where you're most creative where the information is coming out alpha state is a state of accelerated learning so it's a state of relaxed awareness and that's where they've done studies in russia where they can learn languages faster and just by getting accessing this alpha state and even that's how hypnosis works like a good hypnotherapist will put you in a relaxed state of awareness where your critical mind is set aside and you're just more susceptible and to be influenced by positive affirmations or new belief systems right and so that would put you in alpha state three things that everyone could do to access that brainwave state it's visual auditory and kinesthetic so visualizing and using your imagination will put you into an alpha state um auditory music there's certain music that will put you into an alpha state it's not heavy metal and rap it doesn't put you in a relaxed state of awareness but classical music specifically we talk about in the baroque like some of my favorite if you're going to make like a you know a playlist uh baroque music from the baroque era it's uh baldi handal it's 60 beats per minute so it it harmonizes with the resting heart rate so visual visualize auditory music and kinesthetic uh feeling based breathing so rhythmic breathing with with a longer exhale will put you into an alpha state and isn't it interesting that some meditation processes use all three you could visualize this mantra or this word that you're or the candle whatever you're visualizing a good hypnotherapist will take you down an elevator or a set of stairs visualization and then they'll have people relax and do the breathing and maybe they'll have sounds of nature or class in the background to put you into that deep state.

1:09:03But instead of this hypnotherapy, to be able to install new belief systems, which is extremely relevant and powerful and rewarding, you could do this for accelerating your learning. So you could put yourself in this state, so whatever is going on, you're listening to an audio book or reading, processing something, all that information will be better retained because of it. You guys, I love Jim Quick. I think I've said that today several times, and now you all know why I love him so much. I want you to go get Limitless, the expanded edition. He's given all the money away that he told you from the book.

1:09:36It's Jim Quick, which is K-W-I-K. Make sure you're following my dear friend on social media, and everything that he creates and innovates is worth your time. That's why the most famous people in the world, he's their coach. Thank you so much. You know, I love – we have to have you back on our show also as well. I would love that, man. Our podcast. and yeah it's just I believe there's a version of everyone listening that's patiently waiting and the goal is we show up every single day until until we're introduced that person bro I love you thank you so much all right everybody share today's episode max out your life god bless you this is the Ed Milad show