Limitless - Jim Kwik Page 0,71

the capacity to perform that skill, but only when you actively put your mind to it. You can do it, but it takes work. Continuing with speed-reading, this would be akin to speed-reading successfully, but only when you focus on employing a speed-reading technique. Similarly at this stage for other activities, like typing or driving, you can do it, but it requires your conscious attention.

The fourth level—the one any lifelong learner is seeking—is “unconscious competence.” In this case, you know how to perform a skill, and it’s second nature to you. With speed-reading, you would reach the point of unconscious competence when this simply becomes the way you read. You’re not making yourself read faster; you’re just doing so. You are typing or driving without your deliberate attention.

Now the key to get from conscious competence to unconscious competence is obvious. It’s practice. Practice makes progress.

While the model psychologists use ends there, I would add a fifth level: true mastery. This is a step beyond unconscious competence to where it’s second nature to perform a skill at an elite level. This is the level of being limitless. And if you’re going to be a master, you’re going to need to study like a superhero.

HOW TO STUDY BETTER

Why are most of us restrained in our ability to study? Most people do not know how to study effectively, because they were never taught. Many people naturally assume they already know how to learn. The challenge is that most of the techniques you use now are old and ineffective. Many of them date back hundreds of years.

We now live in a highly competitive information age where information is everywhere. Yet we are still using the same methods to absorb and process it all. Today, our requirements for learning are much different. But most of us were taught that studying was all about reviewing material over and over and over so we could spit it back out during a test. We’re going to talk in a moment about why cramming is such a bad idea but suffice it to say, the process is far from optimal.

The most successful people in the world are lifelong students. That means they’re continuously learning new skills, keeping up with the latest in their chosen fields, and staying apprised of what other fields might be able to offer to them. As we discussed earlier in this book, there are enormous benefits to spending a lifetime learning, so if you’re going to approach your goal of being a limitless learner, you’re going to want to make study a part of your entire life.

This is something that James, one of our students, discovered —although it took a little time. James struggled with his education and, after high school, he spent three years working at a liquor store even though he’d always dreamed of becoming a successful businessman. He realized that, in order to fulfill his dream, he was going to have to go to college but, he told me, “It was like pulling teeth. I eventually got my accounting degree, then got into an accounting firm, and then went into banking. But for the longest time, I couldn’t build up to being a wealth manager. I got into an analyst position, and that required a lot of learning, a lot of studying, and I was just barely getting by. I had the people skills and I had the discipline, but the studying part was really hard for me. A lot of the designations I have now, I failed the tests a few times before I got those designations. When it was time to take my CFP exam while I was working, it just became so burdensome.”

James was six weeks away from his big test—a test that normally requires 12 weeks of study—when he learned about my speed-reading program. This allowed him to turn the corner, improving his studies, helping him “keep my brain healthy through the whole process of intensively studying,” and providing him with a big boost on the day of the test.

James got his CFP designation, and this allowed him to get a new position where he works directly with clients as a wealth manager. He continues to use his newly refined learning skills while going through the vast number of prospectuses he needs to read and understand.

James could easily have allowed restrictions to stop him in his tracks. Instead, he learned to unlimit his old ways of studying to overcome the obstacle in his career.

BUT WHAT ABOUT CRAMMING?

The all-nighter