Mar 19, 2019
Jim Quick is one of our smartest friends and is one of the world’s leading learning experts and brain coaches. He regularly works with A-list celebrities, movie stars and learns people - how to learn more effectively.
After suffering multiple brain injuries as a child, he was named the boy with the broken brain. So he had to do one thing to fix himself, he’d become the genie of learning, instead of a wishing for more wishes, he’d grant wishes to learn how to learn.
“That boy over there is the boy with the broken brain” - Jim’s school teacher
Having suffered a second traumatic accident as he woke from a coma to einstein's face on a mug of tea, he realised that we aren’t taught how to learn, that just like a super computer we need to learn how to program it. While struggling at college, Jim found a new perspective on his broken brain when a mentor turned him onto reading a book a week. This was the moment where his poor grades at school stopped getting into the way of his education.
“If you fight for your limitations, you get to keep them” - Jim Kwik
His technique for memory development includes building a mind palace, which is a technique used by the ancient greek to remember long speeches and performances. To do this you have to implement 3 things:
- Creativity - the brain learns by being an active creator, not a just consumer
- Imagination - making the invisible - visible, so dream big!
- Strategy - planning a route to get there.
Jim shares some valuable advice on why it’s important to build your memory, including; how the most successful people that get rewarded, ALWAYS remember people’s names. They know the secret; that nothing sounds sweeter to someone than hearing their own name. Try it yourself next time you’re in a coffee shop, but don’t be surprised if you end up getting a discount. People put trust in you when you use this fantastically simple technique.
Meet Jim’s M.O.M. And remember her…
- Motivation - why would you want to remember anything, the importance of rewards.
- Observation - it’s not retention that is the problem, it’s paying attention that matters.
- Mechanics - The tools to remembering - diet, meditation, physical and mental exercise
Jim treats presence like giving a gift. To be present to someone’s words is like giving them a present. He says the best way to listen is to just be silent and stop thinking of how to add your own piece.
“Seek first to understand, then to be understood”
- Stephen Covey - 7 Habits of Highly effective People
You’ll learn Jim’s 10 key tips to super learning and high performance brain function:
- Good brain diet - treat what you read and information you consume as seriously as the food you put on your plate.
- Killing Ants - “Auto Negative thoughts”, positive environments shape how we remember.
- Movement - When the body moves, the brain grooves.
- Brain nutrients - how eating an healthy diet can support brain function.
- Positive peer group - surrounding yourself with 9 smart people, you’ll become the 10th.
- Clean environment - a messy house = a messy mind.
- Sleep - Consolidate your long and short term memories allowing your brain to learn.
- Sleep - Clean the plaque from your brain. Clear that next day mind fog.
- Sleep - Dreamers are creators, the best inventions started in the land of Zzzz’s.
- Protect your brain - wear a helmet when riding a bike, avoid sleeping next to your phone.
Wow, Sleep snagged 3 out of 10 there, but Jim really does value sleep as a huge import role to brain health, reminding us that we dream for about 3 years of life. Imagine if you started to journal all your dreams, just how much creativity you could manifest. He shares the importance avoiding your phone for the first hour of your day, starting off small with better morning habits. He even recommends the 5-minute journal as a great way to get started in the morning.
“Technology is meant to be used, when we use technology out of habit or boredom, we have to ask which of us is being used, and who is the tool?” - Jim Kwik
There’s so much here in this interview, here’s what else we get into:
- Starting out your day without being wired for distraction
- Begin with the end in mind
- Speed reading tips from someone who has read a book a day for 6 years
- Stress management tools
- How consistency compounds over time
- Why self-love and self-care are not selfish
- The importance of teaching what you learn as a way to learn better
- Doing the difficult thing makes life easier
- Collective consciousness
- How your big life questions are probably someone else’s questions
- What you practice in private becomes what you’re rewarded for in public
- How knowledge in and of itself isn’t as life changing as you think
“If you fuel yourself on other people’s opinions, you’ll soon run out of gas” - Jim Kwik
Hope you enjoyed this today’s episode with Jim Kwik, you can find out more about him here:
Resources and books from this episode:
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Powerful Lessons in Personal Changeby Stephen R. Covey
Power of Positive thinking - by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale
Mimi’s Morning Routine video
5 minute Journal by Intelligent Change
Mimi’s Instagram
Alex’s Instagram
https://www.youtube.com/mimiikonn
https://www.youtube.com/alexikonn
Produced by Jason Sanderson
- Podcast Tech