Limitless - Jim Kwik Page 0,21
I’m guessing there’s a song, fragrance, or food that can take you back to your childhood. Information times emotion helps create long-term memories. The opposite is also true. What was the predominant emotional state you felt back in school? When I ask audiences this question, most people in the room shout out “boredom!” In all likelihood, you can relate to this.
If your emotional energy at school was low, it’s no wonder you forgot the periodic table. But, when you take control of your state of mind and body, you can shift your experience of learning from boredom to excitement, curiosity, and even fun. To achieve this, you might try shifting the way your body moves in a learning environment or piquing different moods before you sit down to learn. Change your posture or the depth of your breathing. Sit or stand the way you would if you were totally energized and excited for what was coming. Get excited about how you will benefit from what you are about to learn and what you will do with your new knowledge. Remember, all learning is state-dependent. Consciously choose states of joy, fascination, and curiosity.
KWIK START
How motivated, energized, and focused are you at this moment? Rate your current state on a scale of 1 to 10. What is one thing you will do right now to increase that number?
T is for Teach
If you want to cut your learning curve dramatically, learn with the intention of teaching the information to someone else. Think about it: If you know you have to give a presentation on what you learn, you will approach how you learn the topic with the intention of mastering it well enough to explain it to someone else. You will pay closer attention. Your notes might be more detailed. And you might even ask better questions. When you teach something, you get to learn it twice: once on your own, and then again through educating another person.
Learning isn’t always solo; it can be social. You may enjoy this book more if you invite someone else to learn with you. Buy a copy for a friend, or, even better, start a Limitless Book Club that meets weekly so you can discuss the ideas and concepts in this book. You’ll enjoy learning more when you’re making memories with a friend or group of friends. Working with someone else will not only help you stay accountable, but it will give you someone to practice this method with.
KWIK START
Find a learning buddy to read this book with and hold each other accountable. Write down the name of that person (or persons).
E is for Enter
What is the simplest and most powerful personal performance tool? Your calendar. We enter important things on our schedule: work meetings, parent-teacher gatherings, dentist appointments, taking Fluffy to the vet, and so on. Do you know what a lot of people don’t schedule? Their personal growth and development. If it’s not on your calendar, there’s a good chance it’s not getting done. It’s too easy for the day to slip by with you “forgetting” to work out your body and brain.
KWIK START
Take out your calendar and enter your Limitless readings for the next seven days. Label these LIMITLESS ME, GENIUS TIME, BRAIN TRAINING, CONVERSATIONS WITH JIM, or anything else provocative enough to guarantee that you’ll keep this date on your calendar.
R is for Review
One of the best ways to reduce the effects of the forgetting curve is to actively recall what you learned with spaced repetition. You are better able to retain information by reviewing in multiple spread-out sessions. Going over the material at intervals increases our brain’s ability to remember it. To leverage this principle, before you begin your reading session take a moment, if only a few minutes, to actively retrieve what you learned the session before. Your brain will give greater value to the reviewed material and prime your mind for what’s to come.
KWIK START
Before each reading, take a few minutes to talk about or write what you remember from the previous reading.
CHOOSE WISELY
The French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre noted that, “Life is C between B and D,” meaning that the life we live is the choices we make between the “B” of birth and the “D” of death. The profound simplicity of that statement is particularly relevant to the journey we’re engaged with here. Being limitless is a choice, and that choice is entirely yours, regardless of your circumstances. You can choose to give up this power, but why would