The Memory Expert: Do You Want A Perfect Memory? WATCH.

Steven Bartlett 0:00 I've just gone through life telling myself that I just have a bad memory.

Jim Kwik 0:03 We could turn this into a little master class.

Steven Bartlett 0:04 Go ahead.

Jim Kwik 0:05 So the three keys to a better memory are... Jim Kwik in the house. A globally recognized leader in memory improvement. Training your brain to work better. If you want to learn faster, you want to retain that information, you are in for an absolute treat.

Steven Bartlett 0:17 Google, Virgin, Nike. Why are they coming to you?

Jim Kwik 0:20 They're struggling with distraction, memory loss. It's affecting their performance, their productivity. Our mind controls all the treasures of our life, yet it's not user-friendly. The reason I'm so passionate about it is because I grew up with a broken brain. I was five years old and I had a traumatic brain injury. I didn't understand things like everybody else, so I was being teased pretty bad. The teacher pointed to me and said, "Leave this kid alone. That's the boy with the broken brain." That was the darkest time of my life, and in that moment I learned my mission: to build better, brighter brains.

Steven Bartlett 0:50 Memory retention is getting worse and worse.

Jim Kwik 0:52 We live in an age where the amount of information's doubling at dizzying speed. The high reliance on technology to store information that you would normally have to store in your brain means that not everybody's exercising those parts to keep our memory sharp. The other dip in cognitive performance: often when people retire, they mentally retire. The body is not too far behind. There was a study done on these nuns who were living 90 and above, and because they were learning all the time, it added years to their life. It surprises a lot of people, because they have this thinking that their intelligence is fixed. The truth is, there's no such thing as good or bad memory. There's a trained memory and there's an untrained memory. I'm gonna give everybody right now the ten keys, and this is how real transformation happens.

Steven Bartlett 1:32 The boy with the broken brain. That's what his teachers called him after Jim had a tragic accident at a young age that left him with a permanent brain injury, and he believed it. He lived it. He embodied that identity. He believed he was broken, and then because of a chance experience which we can all choose to have right now, that limiting belief was unlocked, and he realized that the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves, about who we are and what we're capable of achieving and what we're capable of doing, are exactly that: stories. I've spent decades telling myself that I have a bad memory, so much so that at 30 years old it's just part of my identity, and after this conversation I realized that I'm wrong. If a man like Jim, the boy with a broken brain, can go from that: poor memory, low potential, self-doubt, to being a memory expert and becoming limitless, then that says something about who any of us can become. If you want to learn faster, if you want to become more persuasive, better in business, work, creativity, podcasting, whatever it is you do, then knowing how to retain important information might just be the key to becoming limitless that you've been looking for. Google, Nike, they all use Jim to improve their teams' memory and brain power, and today he'll be coaching you for free.

Steven Bartlett 3:01 (instrumental music) Jim, before we started recording, you used a curious word. You said "mission."

Jim Kwik 3:07 Yeah.

Steven Bartlett 3:09 What is your mission? What is the mission you're on, and why is that mission important to you but also to the world?

Jim Kwik 3:15 Our team is small in people, but we're big in purpose. Our mission is to build better, brighter brains. No brain left behind. I feel like we live in the millennium of the mind where our mind controls so much in our lives: our relationships, our health, our careers, our schooling. And, uh, yet our mind, it doesn't come with an owner's manual and it's not user-friendly, uh, yet it's our number one wealth-building asset. Like, nobody listening is paid- it's not like it was 100 years ago where it's your brute strength. Today it's your brain strength. It's not like it's your muscle power. Today it's your mind power. And I do believe the faster you learn, the faster you could earn because knowledge today is not only power; knowledge is profit. And I don't just mean financial. That's kinda obvious. But it's all the treasures of our life, and, um, the reason I'm so passionate about it is I grew up with a traumatic brain injury as a- when I was a child, and, uh, and I just- things didn't work for me like everybody else. And through those struggles, you know, I developed some strengths over the years and, uh, and I always thought it was interesting that there's no class on focus, on concentration, on re- on recall, right? And so I- I put the schoolwork aside 'cause I wasn't getting gains there anyway, and I started really focusing on this learning how to learn. And so I put my focus in those areas, started studying a little bit about adult learning theory. I got introduced to, uh, p- mnemonics, which is, you know, memory techniques, um, speed reading, the art and science of reading for better comprehension and understanding. And about two months into it, a light switch, like, flipped on and I just started to understand things in school for the first time. And it wa- it was so pronounced that I felt two emotions. I felt like, this is awesome, 'cause with my grades improving, my life improved, and I started- it started to affect my identity in how I saw myself and how other people saw me. But other- the other emotion I felt, if I'm honest, was anger. I- I was so upset that I had spent my entire childhood struggling every single day, unsure about myself, uh, doubting myself, and there were simple things that I could have learned that would have made my life a lot easier. And I- I realized then in school that it's not how smart you are, it's how are you smart. It's not how smart you are or how smart your significant other is, your kids are, or your teammates. It's how are they smart. And, uh, and I do believe that- that we have this, if knowledge is power, then learning is our superpower. It's a superpower we all have. And so from there, I couldn't help but help other people. And I'm kind of agnostic how it happens, whether it's our books, or podcasts, or YouTube, or courses, but I- I want to have a positive impact on people's brains.

Steven Bartlett 6:06 As it relates to memory, I think I've just gone through life telling myself that I just have a bad memory.

Jim Kwik 6:10 Mm-hmm.

Steven Bartlett 6:11 You know, I'm the type of person that forgets names t- instantaneously, um, and I've just d- I've just come to believe that that's just me.

Jim Kwik 6:18 Right.

Steven Bartlett 6:19 And I, I've almost resigned to that, so I, I'll be honest, I don't think I really try that hard anymore.

Jim Kwik 6:25 Mm-hmm.

Steven Bartlett 6:25 'Cause I just think my type of brain is the type of brain that can't retain most information, especially if I don't consider it to be important information.

Jim Kwik 6:36 Right.

Steven Bartlett 6:36 Am I bullshitting myself?

Jim Kwik 6:39 You are. It's complete BS. Um, belief systems, if you wanna, if you wanna give it a label, BS, belief systems. I believe our brains are this incredible supercomputer and our self-talk, our thoughts, our beliefs are the program that will run. So if you tell yourself, "I'm not good at remembering people's name," you will not remember the name of the next person you meet because you programmed your supercomputer not to. And it's more than anecdotal. I really do believe, people at events will see me do these demonstrations, they're surprised to hear that I grew up with learning difficulties and put in special education, but before I go on stage, people invariably in the lobby pull me aside and they'll whisper to me when no one's listening, "Jim, I'm so glad you're here. I have a horrible memory. I'm getting way too old. I'm not smart enough." And I always say, "Stop. If you fight for your limitations, you get to keep them. If you fight for your limits, they're, they're yours." If people truly understood how powerful their mind is, they wouldn't say or think something they didn't want to be true. And that's not to say you w- you have one negative thought, it ruins your life any more than eating that one donut will ruin your life, but if you eat those donuts every single day, consistency will compound, you know, and it'll change the, the direction or the destination.

Steven Bartlett 7:51 I have to zoom in there. So four years old, were you four, four years old when you had a brain injury?

Jim Kwik 7:57 Uh, yeah. I was five years old in public school, um, elementary school. I was kindergarten here in the States. Had an accident where I lost my balance and I went head-first into the radiator, uh, separating the window and me. There was a lot of blood and there, I was, I was rushed to the hospital. Where, where it really showed up though was, my parents said, where I was very, as a child, very energized, very, like, like most kids, very playful, very curious, um, very excited, I- I became very shut down. I had processing issues, they said. I didn't understand things like everybody else. Teachers would repeat themselves over and over again, and th- later on when I was nine years old, I remember I was being teased pretty bad for slowing down the class, um, and a teacher came to my defense but she pointed to me in front of the whole class and said, "Leave this kid alone. That's the boy with the broken brain." And that, that really became my identity, you know. I- I, she was sincere, like, but she, you know, like, that all I, like, she was trying to help but, uh, that's all I remembered was like, "Oh, I didn't know I had the broken brain." And so that became my explanatory schema for everything. Every single time I did badly in school, which was daily, I did badly on a test, a report, or, uh, I would say, "I have the broken brain." Or if I wasn't picked for sports, which was all the time, I was just this little kid, I would say, "Oh, 'cause I have the broken brain." And that label became my limit, you know. It's, um, you know, I- I do believe that we have to be solely responsible, you know, for our lives, you know, so I don't wanna say that I was a victim, but, you know, we are shaped by our environment, by our experiences, by our external, and, uh, and that was the, that was very, that was something that I really struggled with.

Steven Bartlett 9:41 You started the, um, Quik Learning-

Jim Kwik 9:44 Mm-hmm.

Steven Bartlett 9:45 ... in 2001 when you were 28 years old and if you think about the clients you have there, I mean, I read about a lot of them, Google, Virgin, Nike, et cetera, they're clients of yours.

Jim Kwik 9:53 Yeah.

Steven Bartlett 9:54 At the very heart of it, the core of it, why? Why are they coming to you? What is the benefit, the why as you call it-

Jim Kwik 10:02 Yeah.

Steven Bartlett 10:02 ... that people are seeking?

Jim Kwik 10:05 I think people tend to come to us because they are, they're struggling with distraction, with memory loss, with, uh, overload, right, and a- an- anxiety from information, anxiety, they're drowning in information. I think people who come to me realize that their ability to learn and translate that learning into action is an incredible competitive advantage in a, in a world where there's lots of distraction, there's lots of overload, uh, there's lots of technology that would make our life easier but it also, in some ways, while it's convenient, could also cripple us in a way that we're not using our mental faci- faculties as much as... Just like, uh, you know, my, my shirt here says, "Use it," right? It's like use it or lose it, it's like our body. If I put my arm in a sling for a year, it wouldn't grow stronger. It wouldn't even stay the same, it would atrophy. And the high reliance on technology, uh, like using your phone as an external memory storage, they call digital dementia. It's a n- new term in healthcare. Digital dementia is the high reliance of technology to store information that you would normally have to store in your, in your brain, but now that you don't have to do it, not everybody's exercising those parts of our brain to keep our memory sharp.

Steven Bartlett 11:23 Is there

Steven Bartlett 11:24 science that shows we have to exercise our brain?

Jim Kwik 11:28 You know, the two biggest, uh, two dips cognitively in terms of cognitive performance in people's lifecycle usually happens when people graduate school because somehow they associate education along with learning. They think their traditional education's over so their learning is o- they're done learning, right? Um, and that can be an unconscious belief. But the other dip in cognitive performance is usually when people retire. Often when people retire out of their career, their job, sometimes they mentally retire, and it's interesting that once the m- the mind kind of retires, the body is not too far behind. There was a study done on these nuns, uh, it was a longevity study...... called Aging With Grace. Great, you know, it was a great title. They were living 80, 90 and above and they wanted to find out what was, uh, what was the cause of their, their longevity. And they said half of it was their emotional faith or gratitude, the other half, they were lifelong learners and because they were learning all the time, on the daily, it added years to their life, but also life to their years. It made the c- the cover of, uh, Time Magazine, but I- I- I do really do believe that, you know, that we have to keep our minds active as much as we have to keep our b- and keep our bodies active.

Steven Bartlett 12:42 There's a lot of talk and, um, there is a narrative that says when people retire, they die. There's like a-

Jim Kwik 12:52 Yeah.

Steven Bartlett 12:52 ... a long-held thing where there's a- seems to be a startling correlation between when someone retires and then them passing away soon after. There's also quite an interesting correlation between elderly couples and when one of them passes away, the other one often passes away suspiciously soon after.

Jim Kwik 13:09 Yeah.

Steven Bartlett 13:10 Do you think that's linked to what you're saying? That cognitive sort of stimulation is central to our physiological longevity?

Jim Kwik 13:18 Yeah. I mean, this- this study Aging With Grace, you know, would- would be, would be evidence that you wanna keep your mind active, you know, til the day you- you die, at every age or stage, right? That you could a- actually stave off brain aging challenges, much like, you know, the an atrophy of the mind, if you will, just like you would keep your body active. I mean, I think most people would have the same understanding if they stopped moving their body, you know, over, you know, at the retirement years, then, um, you know, it'd lead to probably unfavorable results.

Steven Bartlett 13:49 What's the evolutionary reason for that, do you know? Could you take, could you have a hypothesis as to why, from an evolutionary perspective-

Jim Kwik 13:54 Yeah.

Steven Bartlett 13:55 ... the body would decide to...

Jim Kwik 13:57 You know, the, um, everyone, we talk about a mind/body connection. We hear, we hear that a lot, you know, there, so the- the primary reason you have a brain is to control your movement. That's the number one reason mammals have brains is to control movement and it's not just, uh, a one-way connection. That it's, um, that as, yes, your brain controls your movement, but actually moving actually stimulates different parts of your brain. Um, I'm- I'm-

Steven Bartlett 14:25 I know that very well.

Jim Kwik 14:26 Mm?

Steven Bartlett 14:26 B- before I did this podcast, I did exercise.

Jim Kwik 14:28 Yes, very much so, and even in develop... I had a, we had our- our first-born recently, a few months ago, you know, so crawling, you know, as you look at the study of, uh, of brain development, that cross-lateral is very important. Even we do that in our events when we do our- our brain conferences and such, we get everybody standing up and doing these, uh, th- it- there's a area of science called educational kinesiology, uh, popularized by Brain Gym where you ha- you l- you take one knee as you're standing and lift it and touch it with the opposite hand and you go back and forth. It's things that are crossing in the midline forces left and right brain communication so you have a left brain and your right brain and separated by that is a bridging station called the corpus callosum and, uh, by doing these exercises, it increases communication between left and right brain, and this is an oversimplification. Left brain is, if someone's a left brain, they're- they- they're said to be more logical, right? Um-

Steven Bartlett 15:28 How do we know if, how do we know if someone's left brain?

Jim Kwik 15:30 Left brain or right brain?

Steven Bartlett 15:31 Yeah, how do we know?

Jim Kwik 15:31 Yeah. We have, we have a couple assessments in Limitless, but you could find it online, you know, free assessments for brain dominance-

Steven Bartlett 15:38 Mm-hmm.

Jim Kwik 15:38 ... left and right brain. Um, in- in there, we have, um, multiple intelligence theory, a study out of, um, s- research out of Harvard University by Howard Gardner says that there's not, in the US and a lot of Westernized, uh, societies, they tend to emphasize two kinds of intelligences, uh, verbal/linguistic and mathematical. Here in the States, we have the SATs, right? It's just verbal, m- you know, reading comprehension, and mathematical. Howard Gardner says they're actually not limited to two intelligences and so they're more and each one can be developed. Um, and so for example, kinesthetic intelligence, you know, great, you're great choreographers, great dancers, athletes, um, interpersonal intelligence, people who have this innate talent that c- could, to relate to people and connect. Uh, visual/spatial intelligence, people who are incredible, uh, graphic artists, architects, right? Uh, musical intelligence, it just goes on. So, um, there are these other assessments and I really, the reason why we put so many of this in Limitless and in our podcast and we ha- we created our own assessment, uh, recently this year, we haven't talked about it, um, we're just launching it now, called Cognitive Types and these are, I use animals as a metaphor 'cause I think so much of us, for happiness for me, has always been having the curiosity to know yourself, right? That's why you go to therapy or you journal or you meditate or you, you know, you read about that- that in- inter, intra-personal intelligence, self-to-self as opposed to interpersonal, self-to-others. But once you have the curiosity to know yourself, having the courage to be yourself is an, is a different game too.

Steven Bartlett 17:22 Mm-hmm.

Jim Kwik 17:22 'Cause so many people mitigate it, you know, like, their expression of who they are because of looking bad or how people would perceive them and- and so on. But this cognitive type, and I'll go back to your, the answer to your question, we found and delineated, I pulled from, you know, Myers-Briggs and multiple intelligence theory, introvert, extrovert, ambivert, uh, lateral thinking styles to- to realize there, there are about four buckets of cognitive types and I used, um, animals to, as a metaphor to represent them.

Steven Bartlett 17:51 So there's four

Steven Bartlett 17:52 cognitive types a- and it, what's the acronym? Sorry.

Jim Kwik 17:56 Uh, CODE.

Steven Bartlett 17:58 C-O-D-E.

Jim Kwik 17:59 CODE.

Steven Bartlett 17:59 So what does the C stand for?

Jim Kwik 18:00 So very briefly, the C, and as you're listening to this, you could see which one kinda hand raised for yourself, even take a snapshot of this and post, you know, which one you think you are or we have an assessment online also as well that's free. The C is cheetah and these are your f- your intuitives and you might know, you might have someone on your team or a family member that are cheetahs, they're fast-acting, they're just always moving. They- they- they thrive in fast-paced environments.... right?

Steven Bartlett 18:27 Sophie. I reckon that's my assistant, Sophie.

Jim Kwik 18:30 (laughs)

Steven Bartlett 18:30 Maybe me as well, Jack. What do you think? Do you think I'm a cheetah? Fast-acting, thrive in fast-paced environments, does that sound like me?

Jim Kwik 18:36 You are very much a cheetah.

Steven Bartlett 18:37 You think so?

Jim Kwik 18:38 Yeah.

Steven Bartlett 18:38 Okay.

Jim Kwik 18:39 The, uh... And the O is the, is the owl. And you might know people, the owl is often linked to, uh, logic, uh, critical thinking. They love data, uh, facts, formulas, figures, right? They, they, they lean into that information.

Steven Bartlett 18:55 Sounds like Grace Miller on our team.

Jim Kwik 18:57 Mm-hmm.

Steven Bartlett 18:57 Charles, we have a data scientist in our team as well.

Jim Kwik 19:00 Very nice.

Steven Bartlett 19:00 Yeah.

Jim Kwik 19:01 Michael as well.

Steven Bartlett 19:01 Michael as well, yeah.

Jim Kwik 19:02 Mm-hmm.

Steven Bartlett 19:03 They lean into information. So, that's the owl. Yeah.

Jim Kwik 19:05 Um, the D is, are your dolphins, and your dolphins are your creative visionaries. Uh, these people love, uh, problem solving. They love to be creative expression. Uh, great at pattern recognition, right? They, they, they see patterns that maybe other people don't see as, as easily or naturally.

Steven Bartlett 19:24 Dolphin. So they're the creatives amongst us.

Jim Kwik 19:26 Yes. And I, and I think a lot of the future belongs to the creatives, you know, uh, the, the creators, if you will.

Steven Bartlett 19:32 You're thinking about AI, aren't you? (laughs)

Jim Kwik 19:34 Yeah. That's an interesting conversation also as well.

Steven Bartlett 19:36 (laughs)

Jim Kwik 19:36 And finally, the E are your elephants. And your elephants, I chose them because, uh, I use them as a representative, uh, symbol for, like, empathy. Uh, they love collaboration. Tribes, right? Um, work in a team environment. So, we, we created these models because you know yourself, right? Even, even in The Matrix when, when he's going to see the oracle and the, the sign right above in the kitchen was, you know, "Know thyself." Um, and then we can be ourselves, but one- the more you know about yourself, and then you have a way of filtering the world and then not being judgmental of yourself or even others, it's just how people are organized. You know, some people are just right-handed or they're left-handed, right? They have certain preferences. And so these are... It, it could help you and inform you based on, like, yourself, if you're, if you know, like, you thrive in certain environments, and then we give, you know, in the report careers that you would excel in. And this is kind of obvious, right, if somebody's creative, certain career paths.

Steven Bartlett 20:35 What if you're a couple of these things?

Jim Kwik 20:37 Yeah. So we have, when you go through it, there's a primary and there's a secondary, you know? And so these are usually... I mean, very, very few people, because we have all the backend stats, we have, you know, is, is completely even, 25% and so on, but we usually have a place where if I ask everybody to write their name on a piece of paper, you could do that. But if I asked you to switch hands and w- un- below it, write your first and last name below that, that second time is going to feel... It's going to take longer, it's going to feel awkward, and the quality is probably not going to be as good as the first one. And have you ever been in a situation where you're learning something, and it's a subject you're, you're interested in, but for some reason you're just not getting it because you're just not connecting with the instructor? It's kind of like the way that they prefer to teach is different than the way you prefer to learn.

Steven Bartlett 21:31 Mm-hmm.

Jim Kwik 21:31 And it's like you're two ships in the night and you're passing each other and there's no con- there's no connection-

Steven Bartlett 21:35 Yeah.

Jim Kwik 21:36 ... that's there, and so it feels like you're learning with the opposite hand. So, what happens? It takes longer, the quality is not as good, and it feels a little weird and uncomfortable. So I fe- I feel like when you know what your strengths are, you could lean into it and then furni- further refine it, and we give people suggestions if they want to improve areas that they're not as strong in to be able to boost that.

Steven Bartlett 21:57 But this is

Steven Bartlett 21:58 weighted, right? 'Cause, uh, 'cause you named a couple of those there, and I thought, you know, "I'm probably a cheetah. I've got a little bit of, uh, elephant in me as well, no pun intended."

Jim Kwik 22:06 (laughs)

Steven Bartlett 22:06 And I, you know, I like to think I can be a dolphin once in a while. So-

Jim Kwik 22:09 Yeah.

Steven Bartlett 22:11 ... but I can't swi-

Jim Kwik 22:11 And they can express each other in different contexts also as well. You know, and it, it's, it's nice to have a, a level of cognitive flexibility, you know, and, uh, 'cause that increases your learning agility. It's one of the things that we teach in Limitless is, uh, is Six Thinking Hats. It's, uh, created by Edward de Bono, and it's this idea that if you are facing a decision or a difficulty or a dilemma in your life, one of the reasons why we can't always think our way out of something is because we see something from a, a set point of view. And what Six Thinking Hats does, it gives you permission to step out of yourself and try on another lens, meaning imagine this table here has six color hats, right?

Steven Bartlett 22:56 Yep.

Jim Kwik 22:56 And I want everybody to think about, who's listening or watching this right now, a decision you need to make or a difficulty. Doesn't have to be, like, life and death, but just something that, you know, that-

Steven Bartlett 23:06 Where to live, I'm thinking about that.

Jim Kwik 23:07 Yes. Perfect. Where to live. And then you have these hats. So the first hat is the white hat. Um, no specific order. So imagine you're reaching out and you're putting on the white hat.

Steven Bartlett 23:17 Okay.

Jim Kwik 23:18 Right? And the white hat... And I'll give you a mnemonic, because I'm the memory guy, to help you remember what each one s- symbolizes. The white hat, imagine a white scientist's lab coat, like a white lab coat. That's data, that's information, that's facts, right? So now you could only look at the situation or this decision tree through the oc- through the eyes of logic.

Steven Bartlett 23:39 Okay, so-

Jim Kwik 23:40 Right?

Steven Bartlett 23:40 All right. I'm doing that now. So me and my partner are actually looking for somewhere to live at the moment, and we're, we've been looking at... It's really about which area to live in-

Jim Kwik 23:46 Mm-hmm.

Steven Bartlett 23:46 ... in London, or maybe we'll live in Portugal or maybe Dubai, so we're kind of trying to figure that out.

Jim Kwik 23:50 Ooh. Okay.

Steven Bartlett 23:51 So I've got my white hat on and my lab coat, and I can only think about logic. So price.

Jim Kwik 23:57 Mm-hmm.

Steven Bartlett 23:58 I'm thinking about is it a good time to buy?

Jim Kwik 24:01 Yes.

Steven Bartlett 24:01 What's the, what's the graph saying? I'm thinking about renting versus buying.

Jim Kwik 24:07 Commute and travel and-

Steven Bartlett 24:09 Yeah.

Jim Kwik 24:09 ... amenities that are local.

Steven Bartlett 24:10 Yeah.

Jim Kwik 24:10 Yeah, that would be all the, the factual. And then, so you could take off the white hat and now look for the red hat. So you grab the red hat, you put it on, and the red hat, it symbolize heart, is emotions.

Steven Bartlett 24:24 Mm-hmm.

Jim Kwik 24:25 So this is where you're going more with your gut, your feeling. You're putting logic aside-

Steven Bartlett 24:29 Mm-hmm.

Jim Kwik 24:30 ... and just like, "What, what feels right for you?"

Steven Bartlett 24:32 Her family lives in Portugal, so, uh, th- that's the first thing that came to mind-

Jim Kwik 24:35 Mm-hmm.

Steven Bartlett 24:35 ... when you said about feelings and being close to family.

Jim Kwik 24:37 Yeah, ab- absolutely. And this is, this is good. I hope everyone's doing this also. So you take off the red hat and you could put on, let's say, the, the black hat.

Steven Bartlett 24:46 Yeah.

Jim Kwik 24:46 And the black hat, think of a judge's robe. And the judge's robe, this is where you get a little bit ... You could be judgmental. Y- you could look at the, the, the risk or the r- the, uh, the devil's advocate. You could look at the, the, the other side, you know, in terms of what could go wrong. You know, like-

Steven Bartlett 25:03 I might hate living there.

Jim Kwik 25:05 Yeah.

Steven Bartlett 25:05 You know, I, you know, I ... The places we're considering, we've never lived in before, so what if we buy a place and then we immediately don't like it?

Jim Kwik 25:11 Mm-hmm.

Steven Bartlett 25:12 Maybe we should stay where we are and not buy anywhere. Maybe the-

Jim Kwik 25:14 Interesting.

Steven Bartlett 25:15 ... the housing market will collapse and-

Jim Kwik 25:17 Yeah.

Steven Bartlett 25:17 ... it'll be such a bad investment that we'll, we'll regret it.

Jim Kwik 25:20 So you're shi- you're shining a spotlight. So the idea here is that the information's out there, but where are we choosing to put a spotlight and acknowledge and be aware of? So you could take off the black hat, and we're doing this abbreviated, right?

Steven Bartlett 25:31 Mm-hmm.

Jim Kwik 25:31 And then, uh, look for, uh, the yellow hat. You put on the yellow hat and the yellow's like the sun and that's like optimism. And this is, like, all the things opposite of the, the black hat.

Steven Bartlett 25:42 Okay.

Jim Kwik 25:42 What could go wrong? What could go right? Like what-

Steven Bartlett 25:44 Yeah, so many things.

Jim Kwik 25:45 ... what, what the upside, the upside for-

Steven Bartlett 25:45 And even if, you know, and even all those things I just named, we'll figure it out.

Jim Kwik 25:49 Yeah.

Steven Bartlett 25:49 We'll figure it out. If we live there, we can always move somewhere else and, um, we'll make it work and Dubai's lovely. It's hot.

Jim Kwik 25:57 Yeah.

Steven Bartlett 25:58 So is Portugal. Okay.

Jim Kwik 26:00 Nice. And those are our four hats, and the last two, take off the yellow hat and put- find the green hat. And so you put on the green hat, and the green is possibility. It's like new growth. If you look at the plants that are green, imagine new, new foliage, new, new growth. And these are, like, maybe thinking outside the box. Like, maybe it's not I go to s- you know, I go to this job or this job, maybe it's I go back to school or maybe it's, it's something I'm not entertaining. So that's possibility.

Steven Bartlett 26:28 So that would be in the context of me moving house, what is that? That's-

Jim Kwik 26:32 Yeah.

Steven Bartlett 26:33 ... the possibility of-

Jim Kwik 26:34 So if it was, like, between this and this, it could be, like, th- uh, choice three or choice four.

Steven Bartlett 26:40 A third, a third option.

Jim Kwik 26:40 Yeah.

Steven Bartlett 26:40 So maybe we'll try America or we'll try another place to live in the world or, um, maybe we'll just Airbnb-

Jim Kwik 26:48 Yeah.

Steven Bartlett 26:48 ... all these places and we can live in all of them.

Jim Kwik 26:50 Yeah. Okay, so that would be green. And then finally, the last hat. So it could be done in any order, but the blue hat is always you end with, so put on the blue hat. And the blue, imagine the sky overlooking everything. It's kind of like the, uh, the manager hat.

Steven Bartlett 27:05 Mm-hmm.

Jim Kwik 27:05 It listens to all the conversations with all the other color hats-

Steven Bartlett 27:09 Mm-hmm.

Jim Kwik 27:10 ... and then it helps you make a decision. Because the- it informs, 'cause here's, here's the thing. You can only make decisions based on what's in your conscious awareness, and so many people live with a certain hat on, like 24/7. They are just that logical facts, prove it to me, and they see through a certain lens. But if they're not, you know, looking at the emotional context or other possibilities or the downside of ... Uh, you know, Ri- uh, Branson's very good at that, right? He's very good at looking at ... Everyone looks at him as very, very risk- you know, like sp- you know, doing all these crazy things, but he's, you know, you have con- conversations with him, he looks at, like, from the black hat, looking in terms of risk management, right? And, and, and mitigating the downside. And so, like, but if you just looked at everything, y- through the yellow hat, investing, optimistic, you think everything's gonna, Bitcoin, everything's gonna be good-

Steven Bartlett 27:58 Yeah.

Jim Kwik 27:58 ... and you go all in that and you're ignoring the other points of view. And so this allows you to have more information, uh, so hopefully with that more information, you can make a, um, a more, a wiser choice with something. And that's kind of, you know-

Steven Bartlett 28:12 And you literally recommend people in chapter 15 of this book to buy multicolored hats.

Jim Kwik 28:18 (laughs) Um, if you wanted to be able to do that. We could do this. We do this with our team where we'll go through with our team and say either one of two things as a team building exercise, or, like, "We're facing this, you know, initiative. We're launching a new book," or, "We're doing this," whatever, uh, like a social media challenge or whatever, "and we'll have people, like, everyone put on the same color hat, metaphorically."

Steven Bartlett 28:41 Mm-hmm.

Jim Kwik 28:41 "Like, literally, physically go like this and put it as if, you know, so they get their body into it also, and we all looking at it through the same point of view, or we'll assign different hats for different people and we'll have this big kind of, you know, court case and conversation." And now the rule is you have to talk as if you're from that, you know, point of view, and that allows us to get outside of ourself. It's similar to innovation where there's a, there's a book called The Structure of Scientific Revolution. It's not, not a really fun read, but the, the essence of it is a lot of innovation, uh, and progress comes from people outside of that industry, 'cause it takes somebody from the outside to have a different lens or hat to, that didn't have the same learned helplessness and taught the same limitations of how things should've been done. So maybe an Elon outside saying, "Well, if we're going to make a car today, with today's technology, how would we go about doing that instead of doing just incremental improvements on, you know, what they have existing," right? And I think you ask a new question and you get a new answer, and part of these, you know, 60,000 thoughts we have, a lot of them are in the form of questions, but are those questions getting us, shining a light? We have something called our reticular activating system, which we talk about a lot, that the brain primarily is a deletion device.

Steven Bartlett 29:57 Deletion?

Jim Kwik 29:58 Deletion. We're, we're trying to keep information out.

Steven Bartlett 30:00 Yeah.

Jim Kwik 30:00 Like, 'cause if we let everything in ...

Steven Bartlett 30:02 Overload.

Jim Kwik 30:03 Yeah, of course. I mean, that'd be, that would ... And you'd be stressed, right? And so we're primarily ... But what we let in, we have part of our nervous system called the RAS that determines this is important to us. So if you're going around in the city and somebody shouts out your name, you're gonna turn around. Even if you know logically you don't know that person, but you're wired, your RAS is wired for your name, right? Um, because ... And think about how it got there. It's probably one of the first words you learned how to be able to write and, and say and, and how much praise you ... I mean-... how much love is associated to be able to, your identity around a name. But also, what al- also helps us to channel

Jim Kwik 30:39 our RAS, in terms of our focus, are the questions we ask. So up, a part of the book, I talk about a dominant question, that I believe that everybody has a question that they ask more than any other question, and that question could determine a lot of your focus, and because you're focused determines how you feel, what you do, and what you're experiencing in life, and the results. So for example, uh, a friend of mine, you know, and we talked about this, uh, dominant question, we found out her dominant question, the one she's thinking about consciously or even unconsciously throughout the day is, "How do I get people to like me?" And now, you don't know her career, what she looks like, you know, but you don't know anything about her, but you probably could guess a lot of things about her. If somebody was obsessed with answering the question, "How do I get people to like me," what would you say her personality is like?

Steven Bartlett 31:33 Insecure?

Jim Kwik 31:34 Very. She's a, a martyr. A lot of people, uh, take advantage of her. Uh, some people call it a, a sycophant or a people pleaser. Maybe her personality, and I've seen this dynamic, changes depending on who she's spending time with, you know, because she likes whatever they like-

Steven Bartlett 31:50 Mm-hmm.

Jim Kwik 31:50 ... and does whatever sh- they do. So you don't know anything about her, but you know a lot about her, and you only know one question she asks herself. You know, I, I'd use the story with Will Smith in the book, um, I help a lot of actors to, you know, um, remember their lines or be focused on set or, uh, speed read their scripts or whatever. We're in Toronto and they're shooting, uh, we were training during the day, doing some brain training, and at night, they're shooting, 6:00 PM to 6:00 AM, and it's very cold, so it's February, winter Toronto at night, and a lot of people think it's very glamorous, Hollywood, but a lot of it, as you know, is very hurry up and just wait, right? And just waiting all the time. And it's an outdoor shoot and his family happens to be visiting and they're all just watching the monitors and there's a big break, and during that, they, she brings them, he makes hot chocolate and brings it to 'em, to all of us, right? Even though there's a crew that would do that, he's there, um, cracking jokes and, and telling stories, because we realize that his dominant question earlier that day is, "How do I make this moment even more magical?" He asked that unconsciously. Wherever it came from, "How do I make this moment magical?" And he, I realized that he was living that question, his dominant question, which determines his dominant thoughts and actions. For me, I grew up with a broken brain, so I was like, I didn't have answers, so I was like, "How do I be invisible?" And for years, I would just, like, shrink down and get sick psychologically before I had to take a test so I get to go to the nurse instead of having to perform. But later I switched it to, like, "How do I fix this?" And then my dominant question ended up being, "How do I make this better?" And I'll have assessed, you and I were talking before we started recording, this idea of being the best version of yourself, and at some level, you must have thoughts or a defining question that says, "How do I make this better?" Because that's-

Steven Bartlett 33:44 I think it's probably-

Jim Kwik 33:46 How do-

Steven Bartlett 33:46 How do I convince the world that I'm enough?

Jim Kwik 33:48 Ooh.

Steven Bartlett 33:49 I think that's probably, that's definitely what the dominant question started within my life. Now, it's not that as much and I, I look at my behavior as evidence, so I don't look at my words because I think my words and my thoughts have often deceived me going back. But I look at my behavior and the choices I make and they seem to be more intrinsically motivated than extrinsically motivated.

Jim Kwik 34:11 Mm-hmm.

Steven Bartlett 34:12 So they seem to be more about, um, doing things for me, not for the approval of someone outside of me.

Jim Kwik 34:20 Is there something that's more recent? Or was there some inciting, something that kind of put you on that, where you went for, "How do I prove to the people that I'm enough."

Steven Bartlett 34:31 To the world that I'm enough. I did the things that I thought would prove it.

Jim Kwik 34:34 Oh, yeah.

Steven Bartlett 34:35 And, you know, and it's interesting because I, I've never really talked about this before, but I know of a lot of people close to me that grew up with that feeling of, like, they didn't feel like they were enough, and so they committed the next, sort of, decade of their life to proving that they were in some way, whether it's business, sports, athletics, often to their parents, whatever.

Jim Kwik 34:56 Hmm.

Steven Bartlett 34:56 And this might be wrong, but my observation is, they had to do that and then have the evidence let them down, or they had to do that in order to kind of change the question. So it's funny because I, you'd hate to say to someone, "Listen, the only way you're gonna believe that you are actually enough is if you go and become really, really successful."

Jim Kwik 35:20 Right.

Steven Bartlett 35:20 And then you can stop buying all that stuff you don't actually like and stop showing off or whatever. You, that's the only way you're gonna be able to do it. But that seems to be the case for a lot of my friends that are... I got one friend that's the son of a billionaire. He went and built a billion dollar business himself, and until he did, he was one of the most insecure, materialistic, superficial people I've ever met, and then once he had built that tremendous business and established his own identity, kind of got on out of his father's shadow-

Jim Kwik 35:46 Mm-hmm.

Steven Bartlett 35:46 ... then he sold all the shit. He sold everything. He sold the nine sports cars, he sold the house, just wears all black now and doesn't seem to give a fuck anymore. And I, and I, I can kinda relate. Without making a billion, I can kinda relate to what he's saying, um, or that experience. So I think my question changed to, um, what is my potential?

Jim Kwik 36:06 Hmm.

Steven Bartlett 36:07 That seems to be my dominating question.

Jim Kwik 36:10 Yeah, and I would invite everybody, everybody has a question and, and not only for yourself, because you just, you just, sometimes when we're silent or we're under stress, we reali- that those questions come out of us.

Steven Bartlett 36:21 Mm-hmm.

Jim Kwik 36:21 We start asking questions.Um, and, and you know, especially if we face difficulty and we go, "Mine is like, how do I fix this? Or how do I make it better?" Some people... 'Cause some people ask questions like, you know, "Why can't I do this?" Or, "Why, why don't I... Why can't I ever have this..." whatever it is, and they're getting answers that aren't very supportive, right? It's this equivalent of when people read and they want to understand more of what they read.

Steven Bartlett 36:41 Mm-hmm.

Jim Kwik 36:42 Right? A lot of people read a page in a book, get to the end, and just forget what they just read becau- or not even understand it because they didn't have any questions to begin with. And so, I think that a lot of times we get used to just listening to a podcast or watching a YouTube or reading a book, and then we feel like our lives are different because of just that process, and I just want to remind everybody, for every hour you spend listening to a podcast, I would challenge everybody to spend an equal hour putting that into play. And one of the ways you could do that as you're listening something is ask yourself three dominant questions. For me, it was, "How can I use this?" So I- I- I am obsessed with this question, "How can I use this?" You know, 'cause then I start saying, "There's an answer, there's an answer, there's an answer." Second question: "Why must I use this?" 'Cause common sense is not common practice. Your listeners have probably forgotten more about life-changing, transformation, health, wellness, business than most people in their lives come across. That's just the truth, right? They're probably like, "Why are you always watching, you know, Steve's podcasts and videos and all this stuff?" You know, 'cause sometimes family and friends don't want to lose you and they want to kinda keep you in a certain place, and, and... But if you ask yourself, "Why must I use this?" and you get into head, heart, and then hands, then you have this incredible purpose and drive. And then another question I ask besides, "How can I use this? Why must I use this?" is, "When will I use this?" I think one of the most important productivity performance tools we have is our calendar, but you'll see people will schedule investor meetings. They'll schedule team calls, uh, sales meetings, uh, whatever, doctor's appointments, but they're not always scheduling their execution of things that they read from that business book or something that they watched. And so I just want to encourage everybody that, you know, it's better, it's better well done than well said, you know, and, and the practice what we post, and the way we do it is, I think, the life we live are the lessons we teach others. The life we live are the lessons we teach because you're absolutely right, that people could say something, but that does-... It's better to show it. You know, it's not... And one thing to promise it is another to prove it, right? You know, especially in the, in the world that we are today.

Steven Bartlett 38:54 Quick one before we get back to this episode. Just give me 30 seconds of your time. Two things I wanted to say. The first thing is a huge thank you for listening and tuning into the show week after week. It means the world to all of us and this really is a dream that we absolutely never had and couldn't have imagined getting to this place. But secondly, it's a dream where we feel like we're only just getting started, and if you enjoy what we do here, please join the 24% of people who watch this channel regularly and have hit the subscribe button. It means more than I can say, and if you hit that subscribe button, here's a promise I'm gonna make to you. I'm gonna do everything in my power to make this show as good as I can now and into the future. We're gonna deliver the guests that you want me to speak to and we're gonna continue to keep doing all of the things you love about this show. Thank you. Thank you so much. Back to the episode. I've been thinking a lot about

Steven Bartlett 39:43 this and, um, in the book that I've been writing coming out soon called the Diary of a CEO: 33 Laws, um, for Business and Life, and in chapter one, which is law one of the book, I was playing around with this idea of knowledge and skills and all of these things and the relationship they have between them, and really was trying to find advice for young people that want to get to a point where they have reputation and a big network and lots of resources, right?

Jim Kwik 40:10 Mm-hmm.

Steven Bartlett 40:11 And I was trying to figure out the order, so I almost visualized it like five buckets. In the first bucket, I wrote down as knowledge. That's the first one, right, and these are sequential buckets, so they go from, you know... This is bucket one, and then once you fill that bucket, when you apply knowledge, it turns into a skill.

Jim Kwik 40:28 Mm-hmm.

Steven Bartlett 40:29 And then once you have knowledge and applied knowledge, which I call skill, then you'll get these other things. Then you'll get resources, you'll get a network, and you'll get a reputation. But it's those first two buckets. You can't have skills without knowledge really, and knowledge is certainly the first one, but just having knowledge un- alone without that applied skill, without that applied knowledge, which we call a skill, you will, you'll never get the reputation, the resources, and the network. And the only two buckets that no one ever can take from you, the only two buckets that anyone can never unfill is the knowledge bucket-

Jim Kwik 41:06 Knowledge is skill.

Steven Bartlett 41:06 ... and also the skill bucket.

Jim Kwik 41:07 Yeah.

Steven Bartlett 41:07 People can take away your reputation, they can take away your resources, they can take away your network-

Jim Kwik 41:11 They can take away your networth.

Steven Bartlett 41:12 ... but they can never unfill these two buckets- Yeah. ... and these two buckets are the first two buckets which go on to fill the other three, um, and that's why I think more recently in my life I've, I've become obsessed with learning. Am I a great learner? No. I don't think I am because I sit here, you know, I sit here with the greatest minds in the world and I remember very little of it, and it's funny as you were saying, I was like, "I- I've been thinking this over the last couple of weeks." I've never really shared this with anybody, but I thought, "Gosh, you're in such a privileged position to get to meet all these incredible people. I should be like a human encyclopedia of information and wisdom." And I don't think I- (laughs) and I don't think I am, you know? I meet people that are. I sit here-

Jim Kwik 41:52 Mm-hmm.

Steven Bartlett 41:52 ... with them. I think, "You're one of them. My God, this guy knows everything and he's remembered everything and he knows the names of studies and he can recall name..." I can barely recall names of people, so I'm like, "Where? W- where do I start?" 'Cause look, I'm in a privileged position meeting all these wonderful people and-

Jim Kwik 42:04 Yeah.

Steven Bartlett 42:04 ... our listeners are too. If anyone's, you know, loyal to this podcast, you're like me. I actually wrote something down as you're speaking. I was thinking, "What we need to do here at the Diary of a CEO after the episode ends is we need to set the audience some homework."

Jim Kwik 42:19 Yeah.

Steven Bartlett 42:19 And what I mean by that is say, "Okay, Jim said these three core ideas. After the episode, I want you to go and implement them."... and then I want you to, like, tag me on social media of you implementing them. The action after the episode. And share it with me. And that's what I think we should all do, because then not only are we gonna listen-

Jim Kwik 42:40 Yeah.

Steven Bartlett 42:40 ... we're gonna learn. And those are two very different things.

Jim Kwik 42:43 Yeah, and I feel also when we teach something, we get to learn it twice, meaning when you share that with your friends, your family, your followers, your fans, it's, it takes advantage of something called the explanation effect. The explanation effect says that when you learn something with the intention of explaining it to somebody else, you're gonna learn it much better, and that's kinda obvious, right?

Steven Bartlett 43:04 Mm-hmm.

Jim Kwik 43:04 If you, you know, if we talked about speed reading or the best brain foods or changing your habits, optimizing your sleep, the kind of things that, that we specialize in, and somebody listening had to give a TEDx talk about it the following week, would they focus better?

Steven Bartlett 43:19 Oh, 100%.

Jim Kwik 43:19 They would have better concentration. Would they take more notes? Would they ask more, post more questions online? Right? They, they would own that information. Um, and so I think that learning with the intention of teaching helps you to be able to certainly learn it better. I mean, that, that's even how you could even use, uh... you could explain it to somebody. I mean, the whole Richard Feynman method was, you know, take this difficult subject, neuroscience, quantifi- whatever it happens to be, like social media, marketing, AI, and explain it to s- me as if I am a six-year-old. You know, right? And that can, you know, and I could open up a whole thing with, with, with this conversation in terms of artificial intelligence, you know, and, and creatives, but I, I really feel like all these tools are there to augment. I don't even think it's artificial intelligence. For me, it's obviously machine learning, but it's, it's augmented intelligence, and I'm thinking, like, "How do I use this tool, like I would use a book or a computer or the internet or whatever, to AI to enhance HI, like human intelligence?" Uh, I'm very interested in that.

Steven Bartlett 44:20 Peop- I think... Me and you know the Feynman technique well, but I, when I st- came across it, it really was a game changer for me, because-

Jim Kwik 44:28 Yeah.

Steven Bartlett 44:29 ... it explained why I'm som- I have good comprehension on certain subject matter and then I'm quite loose on others. Um, could you explain it in a simple way? I know you have a, you, you speak to it-

Jim Kwik 44:38 Yeah.

Steven Bartlett 44:38 ... in a version of it in the book, but for anybody that isn't, isn't aware of that technique...

Jim Kwik 44:43 So the idea here is any- anyone can make things more complex, but, uh, the, the idea is w- when you really understand something, you could simplify it in a way that makes it usable for the end, end result, right? And, and, and not only the end result, but the process of learning it. So meaning... I, I love reading the neuroscience papers and having deep conversations, and I think where, where, if we had any level of success, is translating that in a way to people where it's conversational, where they see the relevance in their daily lives, in the application, and, uh, and, and it's results oriented.

Steven Bartlett 45:21 And how does that impact our ability to l- to learn the subject, this Feynman technique? 'Cause stage one is, of the Feynman technique, from what I remember is you learn something.

Jim Kwik 45:31 Mm-hmm.

Steven Bartlett 45:31 And then stage two is, I believe you simplify it, and then you share it, and then if you can't share it to the six-year-old, you go back to learning it.

Jim Kwik 45:41 Right. And that, that, that's a great synopsis of a- of it, and I would say that, so how, how it builds... So every single time you have a new... There's a Oliver Wendell Holmes quote that says, "A person's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions." And so when we have... So neuroplasticity happens when we experience novelty. So we learn a new idea or something happens in our environment. It's... Neuroplasticity allows learning, it allows adaptation. It even allows recovery from traumatic brain injury, right? It, like, uh, I had these deficiencies, if we call them that, and I was able to compensate by m- creating workarounds, like somebody would do in, in some kind of program, you know, and then, uh, you start building paths. Another way of neuroplasticity, it's kind of like if I walked through a field and there are lots of bushes, you know, I walked through it once, and I... You know, not much changes. But if you take that path and you reinforce it through repetition, or spaced repetition, interval training, then all of a sudden, it becomes more of a path, and eventually it becomes a road, and it becomes a highway, and we've made that connection. So I, I like, I like pulling on things that are natural as, as metaphors, but we learn through metaphors because all of learning is taking something you don't know and connecting it to something you do know.

Steven Bartlett 47:03 People say learning is repetition, though. They just say, "Do... Just say it loads."

Jim Kwik 47:06 Mm-hmm.

Steven Bartlett 47:07 Does that work?

Jim Kwik 47:07 It, it, it does, but when we're looking at methodology, repetition, the problem with repetition, and certainly it leads, it gets a result, it's... Rote learning, it's like when the, when the churches started universities and how people would teach would be the teacher or professor would say a fact, uh, to the class, and the class would repeat it, and then the teacher would say it again, and the class would repeat it. And so I, I'm making on video, if you're watching this, a circular motion. Like, rote, like rotary, like a rotary club, their symbol is a wheel. The first half of the wheel is the teacher saying the fact, the second half of the wheel is the class repeating the fact, and you do that 50 times, and then you build that pathway, and you have, quote unquote, "learning". The problem with that is it takes so much time, and now we live in an age where the amount of information's... It's like doubling at dizzying speed, right? There's more information today in a newspaper than somebody in the 17th century ever came across in their whole life, right? I mean, you think about also blogs and social media and podcasts, it's just like, it's, it's overwhelming. So we can't be learning the same ways.

Steven Bartlett 48:16 Okay, so

Steven Bartlett 48:17 I've got a book coming out, as I said.

Jim Kwik 48:18 Mm-hmm.

Steven Bartlett 48:18 And there's 33 laws, and I've been saying to myself, "Listen, you're gonna at some point start really promoting this book." Um, so you need to memorize all 33 laws.

Jim Kwik 48:26 Yeah.

Steven Bartlett 48:27 Like, I- I actually don't need to-

Jim Kwik 48:28 Do it.

Steven Bartlett 48:29 I mean, uh, so I need to re-

Jim Kwik 48:30 Mm-hmm.

Steven Bartlett 48:30 Fucking hell. What am I doing with my life?... 30, these 33 laws, um, I need to remember basically what the law is and then-

Jim Kwik 48:37 Yeah.

Steven Bartlett 48:37 ... the gist of it.

Jim Kwik 48:38 Yeah.

Steven Bartlett 48:39 How would you help me-

Jim Kwik 48:41 Yeah.

Steven Bartlett 48:41 ... do that?

Jim Kwik 48:41 I can do that in a heartbeat.

Steven Bartlett 48:42 Okay, fantastic news.

Jim Kwik 48:43 All right, so let's, let's, let's turn this into coaching and we, we could, we could use, um, just content that everyone could, could relate to 'cause I don't know how much you, of the laws you want to share or how much you have on-

Steven Bartlett 48:51 I don't mind sharing them all.

Jim Kwik 48:52 ... on tap. Um, okay.

Steven Bartlett 48:54 By the bucket, by the bucket.

Jim Kwik 48:54 So the method I'm going to share with you, I call it PIE, P-I-E. That three ingredients for a better memory, P stands for place. We remember things based on where we put it. Like, you put your keys in a certain spot each time you un- you're always going to find it 'cause it's organized, right?

Steven Bartlett 49:10 Mm-hmm.

Jim Kwik 49:10 You forget someone's name, you ask yourself, "Where do I know the person?"

Steven Bartlett 49:14 Mm-hmm.

Jim Kwik 49:14 Sometimes the context gives you the content. So that's a place is a place to store the information. The I is imagine. We remember things better that we could see and imagine.

Steven Bartlett 49:25 Mm-hmm.

Jim Kwik 49:25 Meaning, um, I bet a- as difficult as names are to remember, you remember faces.

Steven Bartlett 49:32 Yeah. Really well.

Jim Kwik 49:33 So many people remember faces 'cause y- more of your visual, m- more of your brain is dedicated towards your visual cortex and it takes up more real estate. So we tend to remember things we see better than w- what we hear.

Steven Bartlett 49:44 Mm-hmm.

Jim Kwik 49:44 Um, so you see the face and you just go to someone, "I," you know not, "I, I remem- I remember your face but I forgot your name."

Steven Bartlett 49:50 That's me every day of my life.

Jim Kwik 49:50 You never go to somebody, say the opposite. You never go, say, "I remember your name but I forgot your face."

Steven Bartlett 49:56 I run up to people and say like, "Hi, nice to see you," and then I realize I don't remember their name.

Jim Kwik 49:59 Well, we'll help you with that. Okay, so here, here we go. So the I is imagine. We tend to remember what we see. There's a proverb that says what you hear you forget, what you see you remember, what you do you understand. What you hear you forget. You heard the name, you forgot it.

Steven Bartlett 50:11 Yeah.

Jim Kwik 50:11 What you see you remember, you saw the face, you remember the face. So what you could see... And we think in pictures. When you, like, when you get on an airplane it doesn't say, no longer does it say, "No smoking. Fasten your seat belts." There's just pictures. And we think in pictures. A picture is worth 1,000 words.

Steven Bartlett 50:25 Mm.

Jim Kwik 50:25 So you want to imagine those pictures. And the E in PIE, entwine. Entwine is where you're connecting. Entwine means to associate or to connect and what are you connecting? The P and the I, the place and the image. So let me give you an example.

Steven Bartlett 50:39 Five buckets.

Jim Kwik 50:40 What?

Steven Bartlett 50:41 Law number one.

Jim Kwik 50:42 Right. Yeah, yeah.

Steven Bartlett 50:43 The five buckets.

Jim Kwik 50:43 And we could do the, we could do the five buckets also. Um, I wa- I was going to

Jim Kwik 50:47 teach the people-

Steven Bartlett 50:47 Do that.

Jim Kwik 50:48 ... quickly 10 things that they could do to upgrade their brain.

Steven Bartlett 50:50 Let's do your 10 things.

Jim Kwik 50:51 But, um, but certainly we could apply this towards buckets too. Um, all right, so ama- there are, so our, our, our, we're blessed that the, the book was heavily endorsed by, like, the Cleveland Clinic Center for Brain Health, the founding director there, one of the top, uh, Alzheimer's research out of Harvard, Dr. Rudy Tanzi. And when I speak at these organizations, we know that about one-third of your brain performance, your memory is pre-determined by genetics. Two-thirds is in your control. Um, they say the metaphor is that, for example, Alzheimer's, and this is, like, we donated a lot of the proceeds to Alzheimer's research for, for our book is in memory of my grandmother. They say that, um, your genetics will load the gun but your lifestyle will fire it, right? It kind of, kind of makes sense. And it's not, like all metaphors, they're not absolute, they're uh, not absolutes, but this an idea to connect something you don't know to something you, you know. So going to this, um, two-thirds. I'm gonna give everybody right now the 10 keys, um, as you know it in the book but I'm going to show you how to memorize them. But what I liked it to do, whether or not people memorize them or not, and I find that people will be able to do it pretty easily and effortlessly, is at least rate yourself zero to 10. How much energy and effort and intention are you putting towards this area? Because everyone wants to know the one thing they could do for an incredible memory. There's just not. There's not a magic pill, but there is a process, right? So we'll go through them fast. Number one, good brain diet. So everyone on a scale of zero to 10, 10 being the best, how much energy, attention, uh, time are you putting towards a good brain diet? So there's certain foods that are very neuro-protective and I would also say, I'm not a doctor or nutritionist. Everyone's bio-individual, so do allergy testing, do functional medicine testing in terms of, uh, microbiome test, uh, nutrient profile, food sensitivity. So everyone's a little different. In general, some of my favorite brain foods, avocados, the monounsaturated fat is good for the brain.

Steven Bartlett 52:46 Mm-hmm.

Jim Kwik 52:46 Blueberries. I like to call them brain berries. Very neuro-protective. Uh, broccoli, good for your brain. Olive oil, good for the brain. Um, if your diet allows, eggs. The choline in eggs is good for your cognitive health. Green leafy vegetables like kale and spinach and now, again, some people are allergic to kale so that wouldn't be for you. Uh, another one I would say, uh, wild sardines or, uh, like wild, wild salmon or sardines. Like, your brain is mostly fat so there's fish oils.

Steven Bartlett 53:17 Mm-hmm.

Jim Kwik 53:17 Uh, turmeric is, is a great, uh, brain food, meaning it helps to lower inflammation. You could use that while you're cooking. Walnuts.

Steven Bartlett 53:24 Everybody's just waiting for you to say chocolate here too.

Jim Kwik 53:26 Yeah. There you go. Walnuts and dark chocolate, dark chocolate. Uh, not milk chocolate. So those are some of the brain foods. So zero to 10. On the other side that's not so good, processed, you know, thing, uh, foods, uh, high sugar

Steven Bartlett 53:38 What does it do to the brain?

Jim Kwik 53:40 So sugar is, uh, is highly addictive, right? You've had guests on here probably talking about how it's more addictive than a lot of drugs.

Steven Bartlett 53:47 Mm-hmm.

Jim Kwik 53:48 Right? Um, there's certain things that are not good for the brain and I, and a- again, people like we've had on our podcast who we've interviewed for the book, like people like Dr., um, Dr. Mark Hyman, Dr. Daniel Amen, you know, sugar, alcohol, marijuana, certain things are just... Certain things like alcohol could, some people say they use it to help them sleep, but there's a difference between getting knocked out and actually getting good deep sleep, getting good REM sleep.

Steven Bartlett 54:16 Mm-hmm.

Jim Kwik 54:16 Uh, sleep is uh, just personal focus of mine. But su- sugar's highly addictive, not good. A lot of people are also hyper, you know, the ADHD, the hyper behavior. A lot of times you could eliminate sugar but in the US schools it's tough. You know, they, we've been having vending machines there with all the pop and the s- and the sodas and the c-You know, more than just... Yeah. But to get through the list, 0 to 10, how good is your diet? Number two, and I'll go through this fast, killing ants. Uh, ants, uh, killing ants is actually clinically proven to be good for your brain. Ants, I get this from Dr. Daniel Amen, automatic negative thoughts. Remember we talked about, uh, the power of your thoughts and just keeping it in. Even if you say I don't have a great memory, just add a little word like yet at the end. It just changes, you know, the potentiality of, of that statement. Um, so 0 to 10, how encouraging, uh, optimistic, um, i- are your, are your thoughts and those beliefs. Number three, in no specific order again, is exercise.

Steven Bartlett 55:14 Okay.

Jim Kwik 55:14 There's so much research talking about the power of movement and the brain. When you move, by the way, there are studies show that when you listen to your podcast, when people are listening to this podcast and they happen to be doing something rhythmic, going for a nice walk with the dogs or on an elliptical, they'll actually understand the information and retain it better. Wha- when your body moves, your brain grows. Just remember that one. Your body moves, your brain grows. When you move your body, you create brain-derived neurotrophic factors, BDNF, which is like fertilizer for the brain. It's like, uh, fertilizer promoting neuroplasticity. Number four, brain nutrients. And this is, I always prefer people get it from whole f- you know, their own foods. Um, but, you know, I, again, you could get so much data nowadays, you could do a nutrient profile, because if you're lacking, if your vitamin D levels are low, um, you're not gonna perform, your brain's not gonna perform a- at its best. You know, if you're not getting your omega-3s, your brain is mostly, you know, made out of fat, your DHAs, your vitamin C, your vitamin Bs. ...

Steven Bartlett 56:16 Everyone comes here and talks to me about bloody vitamin D and omega-3.

Jim Kwik 56:20 Yeah.

Steven Bartlett 56:20 Everybody says the same two things. Supplements work for that, right? Do supplements work for vitamin D and...

Jim Kwik 56:26 Quality, quality supplements.

Steven Bartlett 56:27 Yeah?

Jim Kwik 56:27 You know, I would, again, prefer people get it from sunlight and prefer people get it from natural sources, like...

Steven Bartlett 56:33 Okay.

Jim Kwik 56:33 ... eating fish or whatever.

Steven Bartlett 56:35 Damn, I don't go out in the sunlight enough. I need to fix that.

Jim Kwik 56:38 Yeah. You, you've had guests talking about the power of sunlight first thing in the morning to reset their circadian rhythm, to help them sleep. You know, for, for me in the morning, I try to do f- I try to get the elements in my life. So I think about thousands of years ago, they thought the four elements made up of, made everything up that you see. So it's like, you know, in Babylonian times, in Greek times, you know, the four elements of air, water, fire, and earth. And so like, I don't know, I take this approach in the morning, when you don't have to biohack everything, you can do it for free. Go out there outside and get some earth, get, get your feet on the ground, right? Really simple to do, um, and just to feel more grounded and more connected. And there's also an, I think an energetic and people talk about pulse electromagnetic fields and everything, but I don't know, I feel more grounded when I just walk in the grass. Um, simple thing people could do. And then I'm thinking about air. I could do my, my, my deep breathing, or some people do fire breathing, alpha breathing, Wim Hof breathing, uh, first thing in the morning to clear the cobwebs of the night, and then some water. Drink some water or take your cold shower, you get to integrate it however, whatever your morning routine is. And then fire is the, is the sunlight for me, you know, first, first thing in the morning. But e- I just find that any of the biohacking stuff, and people follow me on Instagram, um, you know, I have my toys and everything else, they're just to mimic nature, you know, a lot of the times, you know, the, the red lights and the, uh, the, the, the, the cold plunges and all, all that, all that stuff.

Steven Bartlett 58:03 Nature. Fo- point number five is a clean environment.

Jim Kwik 58:06 Yeah. So after brain nutrients, 0 to 10, um, rating yourself, five is a clean environment. And I, this is for everything, in- including the quality of the air that you're breathing. Some, you know, like I had somebody on our podcast talking about the, the neurotoxins in brand new carpets or furniture, you know, in terms of, uh, what they're sprayed with, um, and the off-gassing that comes from it, and how it could have, uh, a toxic effect, you know, on y- on y- on your brain. Uh...

Steven Bartlett 58:31 You wrote, "Air pollution is a massive and underrated health risk. They, um, they cause up to 30% of all strokes. Life expectancy is appreciably lower in cities than in the countryside, even accounting for differences in wealth and lifestyle."

Jim Kwik 58:46 Yeah, I mean, we sort, we sorted through a number of research, you know, talking about air pollution, uh, water pollution also as well, um, you know, in terms of the, uh, certain residues that happens to be in, in, whether it's in tap water or what have you, or some people are concerned about plastics, uh, that come from bottles, um, also as well. And other people are concerned about, we've had a couple episodes, uh, talking about EMFs, you know, just the...

Steven Bartlett 59:11 How does that impact my brain, though?

Jim Kwik 59:13 I, I don't think we know. You know, all I know is that the brain hasn't changed a lot in the past 100,000 years, but technology certainly has. And, you know, and we, we talk about, you know, these, these videos that we make about morning routine and evening routines and millions of views, just simple things, like don't touch your phone the first 30 minutes of the day or the last 30 minutes of the day, something so simple. And...

Steven Bartlett 59:35 And then seven's brain protection.

Jim Kwik 59:37 Brain protection. So clean environment, even just cleaning your desktop, you know, your external world's a reflection of your internal world or making your bed just helps you get, uh, how you do anything is how you do everything. Um, number s- number...

Steven Bartlett 59:50 Sorry, that was number six.

Jim Kwik 59:51 Yeah. Nu- number seven is, is sleep. So very concerning with sleep and, and, uh, brain performance. We know when you don't sleep, how is your thinking the next day? You know, how's your ability to solve problems? How's your ability to focus, remember things? When you sleep, if you have long-term memory issues, get a sleep study done. That's where you consolidate short to long-term memory, is, is during sleep. When you sleep, the sewage system in your brain kicks in, um, 'cause there's, you know, energy to do so also as well. And your brain doesn't, it's not, doesn't stop at night. If anything, it's, it's some ti- in ways more active. It's consolidating short to long-term memory. It's cleaning out beta amyloid plaque that can lead to brain aging challenges. Um, often a lot of the studies show that with a lot of disease, there's a kind of a sleep deficiency component also as well. Um, sometimes I'll wear a device to monitor it, because it's not that people ask the quantity of sleep, what's the perfect amount, seven, eight, nine hours. It's absolutely not the quantity, it's the quality...

Steven Bartlett 1:00:45 Yeah.

Jim Kwik 1:00:45 ... of your deep sleep and your REM sleep. Your deep sleep, you could imagine, is where you're recovering your body. Your REM sleep is where you're restoring your, your mind. So sev- seven is sleep, 0 to 10, you know, how much focus, energy, attention are you putting towards it?

Steven Bartlett 1:00:59 We've done stress management. We j- we talked about how stress impacts the brain.

Jim Kwik 1:01:04 Yeah.

Steven Bartlett 1:01:04 Um, we talked about sleep there. We've talked about-

Jim Kwik 1:01:08 Yeah, yeah.

Steven Bartlett 1:01:08 ... novelty?

Jim Kwik 1:01:09 So the la- so yeah, the last three, really quickly are, uh, protect your brain.

Steven Bartlett 1:01:12 Yeah.

Jim Kwik 1:01:12 Wear a helmet. Zero to, you know, your brain's very resilient, but it's very fragile. So I get to work with a lot of sports figures that have post concussions or TBIs.

Steven Bartlett 1:01:21 Yep.

Jim Kwik 1:01:21 You know, and so we have protocols for, for that and obviously see a doctor. Uh, zero to 10, rate yourself. New learnings is big. We talked about the power of learning. That's-

Steven Bartlett 1:01:31 Novelty.

Jim Kwik 1:01:31 ... novelty and for me, reading. Reading is to your mind what exercise is to your body. I think it's the best. People out, you get all fancy apps and everything else. I think, look, someone who has decades of experience, like yourself or your guests, and they put it into a book and you can sit down and read that book in a few days, you could download decades into days. That's the biggest advantage, right? And reading is incredible exercise for your mind, especially the way we, we teach it. And then finally, stress management, which you mentioned, you know, zero to 10, how well are you mitigating stress and coping with stress? What mechanisms and tools or rituals or practices do you have? You know, my, my go-to is meditation.

Steven Bartlett 1:02:08 A quick word on Huel. As you know, they're a sponsor of this podcast, and I'm an investor in the company. And I have to say, it's moments like this in my life where I'm extremely busy and I'm flying all over the place and I'm recording TV shows and I'm recording shows in America and here in the UK that Huel is a necessity in my life. I'm someone that regardless of external circumstances or professional demands, wants to stay healthy and nutritionally complete. And that's exactly where Huel fits in my life. It's enabled me to get all of the vitamins and minerals and nutrients that I need in my diet to be aligned with my health goals, while also not dropping the ball on my professional goals, because it's convenient and because I can get it online, in Tesco, in supermarkets all over the country. If you're one of those people that hasn't yet tried Huel or you have before but for whatever reason you're not a Huel consumer right now, I would highly recommend giving Huel a go. And Tesco have now increased their listings with Huel so you can now get the RTD, ready to drink, in Tesco expresses all across the UK. How

Steven Bartlett 1:03:08 is our gut linked to our brain? You know, people often on, on this podcast have said to me that there's a, a really im- significant link between the two.

Jim Kwik 1:03:16 Yeah. They call your, your gut your second brain. Right? And it's, so there's a lot of neurotransmitters there. You create s- a lot of your, um, your serotonin there also as well. What you eat matters, especially for your gray matter. What you eat matters, especially for your gray matter. There is a lot of microbiome tests also that you could test for food sensitivity that exist in the market. You know, we had, uh, Naveen Jane on our podcast and he has a company called Viome and they do that test, you know, also as well. But it shows you green, yellow, red, you know. Green you could eat pretty much as much as you want of it. Yellow, you did sparingly and mild. Red, ideally avoid. But, um, but imagine your gut is kind of like the roots of a plant that's feeding the s- the stem and the stalk and the flowers of, of your brain. So what you wa- eat, it should nourish you, 'cause you are what y- not only you are what you eat, you e- you are what you absorb, frankly. And so gut health is, is extremely important. That's why, you know, we talk about the power of, uh, probiotics for s- for, for people, you know, that take an, uh, uh, maybe they do it first thing in the morning, but good bacteria.

Steven Bartlett 1:04:25 My friend turned around to

Steven Bartlett 1:04:26 me this weekend when I was, on this stag do I was at, and he said, 'cause we were talking about a book we'd read, and he said to me, "Does it matter that I don't read?" He doesn't read.

Jim Kwik 1:04:34 Yeah.

Steven Bartlett 1:04:35 He's dyslexic. Um, I think he struggles with reading a little bit.

Jim Kwik 1:04:38 Yeah.

Steven Bartlett 1:04:38 And he asked me, "Does it matter that I don't read?"

Jim Kwik 1:04:40 Yeah.

Steven Bartlett 1:04:40 He's just not interested in it.

Jim Kwik 1:04:42 So we can consume information however we consume it. Some people prefer to read it, some people prefer to watch it, some people prefer to listen to it. And since we all have different styles.

Steven Bartlett 1:04:52 'Cause in your book, chapter 14, it says, "There is a direct relationship between our ability to read and our success in life."

Jim Kwik 1:04:57 I do.

Steven Bartlett 1:04:57 "Readers enjoy better jobs, higher incomes, and greater opportunities."

Jim Kwik 1:05:00 Yeah. I, I, I do believe ... So if people have seen photos of me with Oprah or Elon or these individuals, you know, people invariably ask, you know, "How did you connect? How did you bui- ... " We bonded over books. You know, Elon and I were geeking out over some of our favorite sci-fi books, right? And then, you know, he brought me into the SpaceX and I did training for their, their rocket scientists. But it was, um, leaders are readers. You know, you read to succeed. You know, I talked about earlier that if someone has decades experience and they read it, you could read it in a few days, you could download decades into days, it's a huge advantage, right? And they say Warren Buffett reads 500 pages a day. Um, so you wanna read to succeed because, you know, you learn from other people's experiences. You don't have to spend the same time, money, trouble, stress from, from somebody else. Now, now I h- my reading has changed. You know, for four years I read a book a day, um, because I was just so ... Most people don't read 'cause they're not good at it. So if I'm not very good at golf, see, so like I, you don't find me on the courses, uh, on the links doing very much, 'cause I'm not very good at it, so I don't really want to do it. And most people don't read because they're not good at it, because reading is a skill. And like all skills, they can be developed through training. But when's the last time you took a class called reading? How, how old were you when you took a class call- not a college literature class, but a reading class?

Steven Bartlett 1:06:16 Seven, I don't know. Six.

Jim Kwik 1:06:16 Yeah. So most people are still reading like they're seven or six, so the difficulty and demand has increased a whole lot. But how people read it is from the last time they, they learned it. And people think just because they've been doing something for so long they're better at it. That's absolutely not true, right? Somebody, even somebody s- the other day said, "I have 30 years experience in sales." I'm li- and then but if you talk to them, they're like, not really with results. He has like one year of experience that he's repeated 30 times. There's a difference between growth and somebody who's just kind of stalled, right? And same thing with reading. If you're just doing the same thing, just because you're doing the s- it's like typing. If I'm typing with two fingers, there's a cap in terms of how far ... And if you're doing this for 30 years or three years, it doesn't matter, you're only gonna reach a certain point, as opposed to people using it more in their faculties. Now, I know people who are listening en masse could triple their reading speed, right? Not of everything.

Jim Kwik 1:07:05 Like I can't-

Steven Bartlett 1:07:06 How do I triple my reading speed?

Jim Kwik 1:07:08 So ... Okay. So what I teach is not-... traditional speed reading. Traditional speed reading is more associated with skimming, scanning, skipping words, getting the gist of what you read. You know, we train a lot of, uh, wealth managers and- and doctors. You don't want your doctor to get the gist of what she reads, right? So you wanna be able to retain it. So there's smart reading. So most of the time when we- when- w- when... And we have students in every country in the world online through our academy. We kind of built like a Khan Academy, but instead of for math, it's for accelerated learning, reading, memory and so on. So on average, people will triple their reading speed. How do you do it? Well, I'll give you a couple of tips, because there's different... Training is different than a tip, right? Like, we have time for a couple of quick tips, doing a training would be-

Steven Bartlett 1:07:51 Yeah.

Jim Kwik 1:07:51 ... skill acquisition. And- and- and... But, um, if- if you allow, like there's a link in my Instagram I put in for this publica- and there's a free one-hour master class. People could double their reading speed and bring whatever book they want and go for it, and it's- it's there.

Steven Bartlett 1:08:05 Did you say most of your- your clients triple their reading speed?

Jim Kwik 1:08:08 On average, it's about triple, yeah, reading speed. So- so reading is very... It's very measurable. Um, now there's an upward cap. Like some people, like, think you could read 20,000 words a minute. The average person reads about 200 words a minute, on average, you know. And so, um... Now, by the way, when you read, it doesn't make... If you can't understand a subject, reading it faster is not gonna help, right? If you- if you don't- if you don't- if you don't understand Arabic, speed reading it's not gonna... If you don't understand nuclear physics, then reading it faster is not gonna help, right? So there's- there... You need to... You won't... You're not gonna read any faster than you can understand. But, um, I'll- I'll give you everyone a couple quick tips. Um, number one, when you're reading, most people lose focus, right? And that slows them down. Their eyes go in different places. And so if you use a visual pacer when you read, you'll read faster. What do I mean by visual pacer? If you're watching on video, I'm using my finger to underline, or a pen, or a highlighter, a mouse on a computer will help you to read faster. A- and don't believe everything I'm saying. Test this. So what I would do is after this conversation, grab a book that you're reading, put a mark in the margin where you start, and just read how you would normally read and time yourself on your phone for 60 seconds. And then pick up where you left off, give yourself another 60 seconds, but this time just underline the words. Don't touch the screen if you're reading online, or don't touch the book, but just- just go back and forth in a- in a rhythm that's comfortable for you, and then count the number of lines you read the second time. That second time, on average, will be 25% to 50% faster. And most people will say after they practice a little bit, you know, like practice for a few days, that their understanding is actually better. People feel more in touch with their reading. I'll tell you why. Number one, as hunter-gatherers, we are visual creatures. That's our survival, right? If you are... You have to look at what moves. So if your finger is moving, you're gonna follow the visual pacer because it's your survival. Like if something ran across this room, you wouldn't look at me, you would look at what moves 'cause that's your survival, right? 'Cause if you're hunter-gather in a bush and you're hunting that rabbit or that car- what- whatever your diet is, right, and that bush next to you moves, you have to look at what moves, 'cause number one, it could be lunch, or number two, you could be lunch. So either way, you have to look at what moves. So your fingers going across the page, your- your attention is being pulled through the information as opposed to your attention being pulled apart.

Steven Bartlett 1:10:39 Mm-hmm.

Jim Kwik 1:10:39 Right? Um, the other reason why, and I'll tell you neurologically, certain senses work very closely together. Meaning, have you ever tasted a great piece of fruit, like fresh from the farmer's market?

Steven Bartlett 1:10:51 Mm-hmm.

Jim Kwik 1:10:52 Like a great-tasting peach? You're not actually tasting the peach, you're smelling the peach, but your sense of smell and taste are so closely linked that your mind can't tell the difference. It can tell the difference if you're sick. If you can't breathe out of your nose and you're congested, what does food taste like?

Steven Bartlett 1:11:07 Nothing.

Jim Kwik 1:11:08 Nothing. It tastes bland, right? And so just as your sense of smell and taste are closely linked, so is your sense of sight and your sense of touch, that people literally using their finger while they read will say they feel more in touch with their reading. In fact, when people lose their sense of sight, how do they read? Touch, right?

Steven Bartlett 1:11:25 When you train people on this, so that's... The first one is using-

Jim Kwik 1:11:28 Visual pacer.

Steven Bartlett 1:11:29 ... visual pacer. Is there another tip?

Jim Kwik 1:11:31 Oh, yeah. I mean there- there- there are many. I mean, that will boost your reading speed and focus 25%, 50% across the board. And then you'll learn... So there's something called fixations and fixation is where your eyes will stop and how many stops you make across the page determines how fast you're gonna read, right? So it's like in traffic, if you're stopping, if there are 10 words, most people are stopping at every single word-

Steven Bartlett 1:11:53 Mm-hmm.

Jim Kwik 1:11:53 ... so they're taking 10 stops. Faster-trained readers will actually use their peripheral vision to pull in more than one word. So if you look at a word on that page or on your screen-

Steven Bartlett 1:12:02 Mm-hmm.

Jim Kwik 1:12:02 ... you could probably see th- the word to your left and to your right, right? And so that's a trained skill. So a person seeing three or four words doesn't have to make 10 stops, they can make two or three stops.

Steven Bartlett 1:12:14 Right.

Jim Kwik 1:12:14 So it's less taxing and you could go faster-

Steven Bartlett 1:12:16 Yeah.

Jim Kwik 1:12:16 ... 'cause it's not start-stop. You know, and so there are all these different tips, and then the master class will walk people through so you actually get training on it and it's... And again, it's free. 95% of what we publish is absolutely free 'cause we want to democratize this to the world. But through your comprehension, the key to comprehension though is asking more questions, what we talked about. Most people aren't looking for the pug dogs. So even when you're taking a test, usually the questions are at the end, right? In my books, I put the questions in the beginning so it charges your reticular activating systems so when you read, you're like, "Oh, there's an answer, there's an answer, there's an answer." But the real culprit to reading faster is something called sub-vocalization. Do you ever notice when you're reading something, you hear that inner voice inside your head reading along with you?

Steven Bartlett 1:13:02 Yes, that's what was just happening. It was-

Jim Kwik 1:13:03 Hopefully... Hopefully it's not your... It's- it's... Hopefully it's your own voice, right?

Steven Bartlett 1:13:06 Yeah, it is.

Jim Kwik 1:13:06 It's not somebody else's voice.

Steven Bartlett 1:13:07 Yeah.

Jim Kwik 1:13:08 The reason why it is an obstacle to effective reading is if you have to say all the