Limitless - Jim Kwik Page 0,43

evidently I stopped breathing more than 200 times each and every night.

Today, after multiple treatments, I’m happy to say my sleep is worlds better. Once I was able to fix the physical obstruction with surgery, I was then able to optimize my sleep with a number of tools I will cover in Chapter 8.

During my most difficult moments, I’ve asked myself why I continue to do what I do. Why struggle when I could easily tell myself I don’t have the energy for this? As a child, my purpose and motivation (motive for taking action) was to compensate for my lack of talent with hard work, to prove to myself I was capable. But once I’d leveled up my learning, why did I continue to work so hard—despite being exhausted, sleep-deprived, and an extreme introvert—to make speech after speech, video after video, podcast after podcast? It’s the same thing that drove me as a child: I have clear and definite purpose. I don’t want anyone to struggle and suffer the way I did. The mission that drives me is to unlock better, brighter brains.

Often our greatest struggles lead to our greatest strengths. My two biggest challenges as a child were learning and public speaking. Life has a sense of humor because I spend most of my life public speaking on learning. I couldn’t read, and now I teach people from all over the world how to read better. I struggled to understand my brain, and now I speak in front of audiences of thousands to help them understand the amazing tool they possess. I’ve learned there is a gift in most challenges. In the same way, decades of lack of sleep has given me two very important lessons.

First, it’s forced me to live everything in this book. I wouldn’t be able to perform at the level I do without the tools I’ve learned, so I’ve doubled down on everything I teach. I rarely have to prepare for a speech, because I use these skills every single day. I live them. It’s who I am.

Second, I’ve had to become really clear on my purpose, my identity, my values, and my reasons for doing what I do every day. When you don’t sleep, and you have a very limited amount of energy and focus, you don’t waste it. You prioritize and get crystal clear about your commitments and why you are making them. All of those choices have led to inexhaustible motivation. That’s what we’ll talk about in this chapter.

START WITH WHY

Among my favorite books is Start with Why by Simon Sinek, who I’ve interviewed multiple times on my show. He often stresses the importance of being able to convey to others why you do what you do. If, Sinek explains, you can articulate the belief that is driving you (your why), people will want what you are offering. Or, as he so often says: “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it, so it follows that if you don’t know why you do what you do, how will anyone else?”

There’s a reason why the second of the magic questions is, “Why must I use this?” (Do you recall the other two questions?) For most children, their favorite word is why, which they’re asking all the time. Do you know why it was important to memorize the periodic table or historic dates? If you don’t, you probably don’t remember them. We hear the words purpose and goals used frequently in business, but do we really know what they mean and how they are the same or different? A goal is the point one wishes to achieve. A purpose is the reason one aims at to achieve a goal.

Whether your goal is to read a book a week, learn another language, get in shape, or just leave the office on time to see your family, these are all things that you need to achieve. But how do you do this? One of the popular ways is setting SMART goals. Yes, this is an acronym:

S is for Specific: Your goal should be well defined. Don’t say you want to be rich; say you want to make a certain amount of money.

M is for Measurable: If you can’t measure your goal, you can’t manage it. Getting fit isn’t measurable—running a six-minute mile is.

A is for Actionable: You wouldn’t drive to a new town without asking for directions. Develop the action steps to achieve your goal.

R is for Realistic: If you’re living