Limitless - Jim Kwik Page 0,30
these. Very few of us are only data people or are only adept at being empathetic. But what’s important for you to understand here is that genius extends far beyond your ability to excel at academics or recite the periodic table on command—and that you have genius inside of you.
If you find that last statement surprising, you might want to go back and reread some of the earlier chapters in this book. Making yourself limitless is all about unleashing your innate genius. Maybe you aren’t the dynamo of Shakespeare or the blaze of Oprah, but there is some combination of genius inside of you that is either waiting to express itself or waiting to express itself more. The key is letting it free.
IT ISN’T ONLY IN YOUR HEAD
Before I give you some tools to help you shift toward a more positive mindset, let’s just talk for a minute about how important positive thinking is. There are clear connections between positive thinking and physical health. In a Johns Hopkins study, Dr. Lisa Yanek found that “positive people from the general population were 13 percent less likely than their negative counterparts to have a heart attack or other coronary event.”4
Meanwhile, the Mayo Clinic notes that “The positive thinking that usually comes with optimism is a key part of effective stress management. And effective stress management is associated with many health benefits.”
They note that these benefits include:
Increased life span
Lower rates of depression
Lower levels of distress
Greater resistance to the common cold
Better psychological and physical well-being
Better cardiovascular health and reduced risk of death from cardiovascular disease
Better coping skills during hardships and times of stress5
REFRAMING LIMITING BELIEFS
There’s a metaphor I’ve always found useful when helping people to move away from limiting beliefs. I tell them that the difference between limiting beliefs and a limitless mindset is like the difference between a thermometer and a thermostat. A thermometer has only one function: to react to the environment. It reads the temperature and nothing more. This is similar to how people commonly react to limiting beliefs. They read their sense of restriction, react in a constrained way to that, and conduct their lives in a limited way.
On the other hand, a thermostat gauges the environment and makes the environment react to it. If a thermostat notices that a room is too cold or too hot, it changes the environment to fit the ideal for which it is set. Similarly, if you encounter external or internal attempts to put constraints on you, you can act like a thermostat to reject those limiting beliefs and create an environment that aligns with your most ambitious goals.
So, how do you minimize limiting beliefs and develop a superhero mindset? To me, there are three keys.
Key 1: Name Your Limiting Beliefs
You’ve seen some examples here of limiting beliefs, but there are many more where those came from (and we’ll go over the seven most prevalent limiting beliefs on learning in a moment). They might have to do with your talents, your character, your relationships, your education, or anything else that leads to internal whispers that you can’t be what you want to be. Start paying attention right now to every time you tell yourself that you’re incapable, even if you think that this particular thing might not be consequential in your life.
For example, maybe you tell yourself that you’re terrible at telling jokes. Perhaps this isn’t a big deal to you, because being a good joke-teller isn’t a personal aspiration. But you might also be telling yourself that you don’t think you’re entertaining, or good company, or an enjoyable companion; and that kind of self-talk can ultimately cause you to double-clutch when you’re in an important social situation or when you need to speak in front of a group. So, listen carefully every time you find yourself using phrases like “I can’t,” “I’m not,” or “I don’t.” You’re sending messages to yourself that are affecting how you think about your life in general, even if what you’re beating yourself up over is something specific and seemingly not important to how you define yourself.
At the same time, try also to identify the origin of this sort of self-talk. Limiting beliefs often start in childhood. That doesn’t automatically mean that your family is their only source. Early social settings can cause limiting beliefs, as can early experiences with education. Some might take hold simply because something didn’t go well for you the first few times you tried it as a kid.
Being aware of how you’re holding