Limitless Mind – Unleashing Brain Health For Mental Health

Introduction and Praise 0:00

Well, Jim, I am, so. I'm always happy to see you. You're such an amazing person, great friend, and you are just one of my favorite people to talk to when it comes to everything. Life. Everything. You just have such a great attitude. Your mindset is great. You practice what you preach and your background is so powerful. You have a wonderful story. So thank you so much for joining me for this doctors Talk. I know people are going to learn so much from you. So thank you, Jim. And if you don't mind just spending a few minutes just giving people a little bit of background on who you are and how you ended up being a limitless loon and how you've revolutionized millions of people's lives, including mine.

Thank you so much. Well, I'm a fan and follower of the other work Doctor Live, so I want to thank you for, you know, just an amazing work that you do. And we're so glad to feature you and to our audience and on, on, on a regular and feature your books and, and your podcast and everything. Thank you. Yeah, we just did the most amazing event with you, Limitless Lerner. And it was just incredible, this hundreds of thousands of people. And it was just fantastic. So just listening to you is such a treat.

So take it away. I want people to hear lots of you and not a lot of me. So my name is Jim Quick of quick learning. I help people to learn quickly. People refer to me often as a brain coach, which I didn't even know is a thing. But it's my 32nd year as a coach helping people have their best, brightest brain. I believe you change your brain. You change your life. You train your brain. You can change the entire world. And my specialty is helping people learn faster. So to have less stress and anxiety because they could catch up, keep up and get ahead.

If people see me at events that you and I are sharing the stage at, I. If there's time, I'll do a demonstration where I'll pass around a microphone in an audience and 50 or 100 people introduce themselves and I'm memorize all their names, or they'll give me 100 random words and numbers, and I will call it forwards and backwards.

Jim Kwik's Background and Brain Injury 2:06

But I always tell people I don't do this to impress you. I really do this to express to what's possible, because the truth is, every single person here with us, they could do it too, regardless of their age or their background, career, educational level, financial situation, gender, history, IQ. It's just we weren't taught. The reason why I know it's possible is because I grew up with some severe learning difficulties, and when I was five years old in kindergarten class, I unfortunately had an accident.

I had a very, very bad fall, a traumatic brain injury rush. I was knocked unconscious, rushed to the emergency room and where really showed up was like in my being. My parents said before I was very as a five year old, very curious and energized, very playful. When I really shut down, I would have these migraines every single day. As A56 year old, I had balance, coordination issues. I really showed up in school and I had very limited focus memory. It took me three years longer to learn just how to read, and that was that was very embarrassing and produced a lot of self-doubt, lack of confidence and self-esteem issues.

Feeling worthy enough? I remember it when I was nine years old. I was slowing down the class and I was being teased pretty harshly because I just didn't understand the lessons. Like all the other students. And a teacher came to my defense. She pointed to me for the whole class and said, leave that kid alone. That's the boy with the broken brain. And that really, that label became my limit. You know, I think a lot of limits are learned and when it comes to our mindset, and so adults have to be very careful their external words because they often become a child's internal words.

Yeah. Every single time I did badly in school or wasn't picked for sports, I always I remember I would always say to myself, oh, it's because I had the broken brains. I said. You know. And so I struggled all, all through school. And my two biggest challenges were learning and public speaking. If you could believe that, because I just never knew the answers and I would work really hard and I would do a book report, but the teacher asked me to come to the front of the class and talk about it. I would freeze, I mean, even talking about it, my my mouth is getting dry.

I'm kind of reliving it where I just I never wanted the spotlight because I never, never knew the answers. And and life has a sense of humor because my biggest challenge are learning and public speaking. And all I do every day is public speaking on this thing called learning. But it's also a reminder for all of us that with challenge comes change with struggle. Struggles can lead to strengths. And, you know, you talk about this brilliantly in your research with neuroplasticity. You know, with novelty and nutrition, we can make new connections, new thoughts and beliefs and new ways of doing things.

And yeah, when I was 18, I was very fortunate to meet a mentor and showed me really what I'm capable of. And I started studying the mind and the brain, and I really wanted to find out how I could learn better. And after 60 days of studying this, a light switch flipped on and I started to understand things for the first time. And not only did my grades improve, but my life improved overall. You know, I'm in my 50s and I just, I haven't I'm sharper now than I ever was even in my 20s, 30s and 40s. And I've made it my life mission the past few decades to show people how to have a better, brighter brain.

No brain left behind is really the the mission. So we show people how to focus, how to improve their memory, how to, be able to learn, read faster, understand. And, you know, I know a lot of people are stressed right now and they're struggling with their focus and their anxiety. We live in an age where we're drowning information, you know, distractions. And we know chronic stress has been shown to shrink the human brain over time. So we give people real tools to show them, help them redraw the borders and boundaries of what's possible for them.

Beautiful. That's why I love your work, because you really do demonstrate neuroplasticity in action. And the beautiful thing that we know that intelligence is unlimited. You're limited as you, you're as intelligent as you want to be, and you just you're an icon when it comes to this. And you've developed a whole concept called limitless learning. And you've got a whole program, you've got books, you've got incredible work. Jim, do you mind just giving a broad outline of how you approach? I know this is a big deal.

A lot of people can go and find a lot more about you, but just a broad outline of the concept of limitless learning. And then I'd love to talk about momentum, because when it comes to mental health, we can. And as you already said, there's so much knowledge out there. But you know, you can know stuff. And another thing is applying it, and you're an excellent teacher when it comes to the application of knowledge and the momentum needed to apply knowledge.

The Limitless Learning Model 7:00

So two parts. The question if you are giving an outline of the limitless learning concept, and then it's moving to the concept of momentum. Absolutely. So let's make this like a little a little masterclass. Whenever you're in limitless. It's not about being perfect. Limitless is about advancing and progressing beyond either what we're demonstrating or beyond what we believe is possible. So if everyone could think about an area where they're not advancing an area of their life where they feel stuck, it could be in their learning, their reading speed, their memory, their focus.

It could be in their income, their happiness in any area of their life. Where do you feel like you're in a box? And I'm kind of old school, so just grab a piece of paper. People watching this on video, just imagine you're in this three dimensional box and you could just everyone could draw a little box for themselves. And where do you feel like you're stuck in a box where you're not advancing, where you're not progressing, and you're kind of stalled? This box, by definition, is three dimensional.

So the three forces that contain that box that are keeping you stuck, but these are the same three forces that we found will liberate you out of that box. And I call it the limitless model. So if everybody wants to they could draw it also as well. But imagine three intersecting circles. Oh, like a Venn diagram, right. Very simple. Kind of like Mickey Mouse. Two years and a face. And I represent the three forces, the three dimensions that hold you limited or liberate. You become more limitless. Or we could redraw the borders and boundaries.

What's possible. So think about where an area of your life where you feel stuck. There are three forces that will get you unstuck to get you more limitless right? And these are the same three forces. Also, I represent them with three M's, so I could imagine three M's where the last M on the bottom, the face, if you will, will be your methods because there are methods to get out of this box. If you feel like you're stuck here financially, there are methods that will still help you to to grow your and your money's, to be able to share your money's, to be able to invest your moneys.

But everybody wants to know what the methods are. But I realize a lot of people know what to do, but they're not doing what they know. And there are two forces that still have to be addressed. The first one, if you think about the top left, is your mindset. So mindset for me is the set of assumptions and attitudes you have about something. So if your attitudes and assumptions are, let's say, about money is you have to hurt people to make money. Money doesn't grow on trees. Money is the root of all evil.

Then that will keep you stuck in this box even if you know the methods, right? Because if you self-sabotage, take one step forward, maybe two steps back. Three things I would say in mindset that directly affect all of us. What I believe as possible would be one right? What I believe I'm capable of. Maybe they believe that all that's possible for that person, but it's not possible for me. And a third, if we're going to really rise what what I believe I deserve because we have this internal thermostat in terms of what we feel like, you know, we're deserving of or worthy of.

And so it helps to be able to liberate that. So I always say that all behavior is belief driven. Let's take something like when we teach people how to remember names and faces very important business etiquette skill, right? Because people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. And how are you going to show somebody you care for their business, their future, their health, if you don't care enough just to remember, like their name right. But yes. And your brain is like this incredible supercomputer and your and your self-talk, your beliefs are the program all run.

So if you tell yourself I'm not good at remembering people's names, you will not remember the name of the next person you meet because you program your computer not to write. So self-awareness is the starting point for all positive change. And so if you find yourself saying, I don't have a great memory, just edit it and add a little word like, yeah, at the end, I don't have a great memory yet. It just opens. It feels different. It opens up the possibility and the potential. And so your brain is always your monkey mind is always eavesdropping on your self-talk.

So we want to be able to keep an encouraging positive. But you can have a limitless mindset and even know what to do. The methods that still be stuck in that box because you like the second end, which is motivation. You don't have the motivation to leave that box and I feel like life is difficult for one of two reasons. Life is difficult either because you're leaving your comfort zone, or life is difficult because you stay in your comfort zone. And for me, motivation is not some abstract thing that you have.

It's something that you do. So I think that part of the nature of our work is helping people transcend trance. And your ending the trance, either through the mass hypnosis, the marker media that says you're not enough, that you're you're broken, or the self-hypnosis when we say something like, I don't have a good memory, like people all the time at events that they pull me aside and they say, I know your memory coach. They say something like, I have a horrible memory. I'm just too old. I'm not that smart.

And I always say the same thing. I say, stop. If you fight your limitations, you get to keep them. If you fight for realizations, they're they're yours. Right. And so motivation that for me is not something you have. It's something you do. And there's three parts for limitless motivation. It's the letters. This is the formula P times e times S3P times E times three. So let's say you want to motivate yourself to do something good for your anxiety. Are good for your brain. Let's say it's exercise, right?

We know that as your body moves your brain grooves, you exercise, you create dopamine, serotonin and endorphins, which is good for your cognitive health. When you exercise, you create something called Bdnf brain derived neurotrophic factors, which is it's like fertile Iser for your brain for for enhancing neuroplasticity. But let's say you're not exercising on the regular. Maybe it's too big. The P stands for purpose, right? And so reasons reap results. I feel like it has to go from your head to your heart, then to your hands.

So the evidence that you're motivated is that you consistently act with good. If you're not acting with your hands and you have ideas in your head, check in with the second age, which is your heart, which symbolizes emotion and emotion is like the energy of motion, and you have to feel it. So we know intellectually we should read, or maybe intellectually we should meditate, or intellectually we should move more. But if we're not doing it, it has to go from your understanding in your head to your heart.

So simple example two years ago I saw somebody on the street that I recognized, but I didn't know who it was, which is not good for a memory coach. This person looks so fit and young and I just didn't recognize him when he opened his mouth and he started talking to me, I knew he was instantly because I recognized his voice, but he looked completely different. The backstory is this person I, for as long as I've known him, was very unhealthy and he took pride in being unhealthy, in smoking and eating all that junk food and not exercising.

And but he looked. When I saw him recently. He looked younger. He had this glow. He lost all this weight. He was fit. And I just had to know. I think genius leaves clues that if somebody is doing something well, that there's a method behind what looks like magic. And I asked him what he did, and he tells me all these lifestyle changes he was doing. And I was like, wow, we've been our friends. We've been telling you this for years, but you just didn't do any of that. Yeah. He's like, yeah, but I was traveling from a business trip and I came home.

My daughter was crying hysterically. She had a dream that that I died and I wasn't there for her. And that really gave him purpose. So just a reminder. Did you know, like, if people seen photos with me, with Richard Branson or Bill Gates or Oprah or Elon Musk? People always want to know how we connected. We bonded over books because you read to succeed. If someone like yourself has decades of experience and research and you put it into 18 plus books, somebody who sit down, read that book in a few days, they can download decades of wisdom and insights in days X, right?

But if we're not reading every day, I think reading is one. The most powerful things you could do to keep cognitively fit. Reading is to your mind what exercise is your body? But maybe intellectually you know you should read. But if you don't feel the benefits, the rewards, the consequence of not doing that, we want to us a purpose. Then the e p times e times S3. D is energy. You know, when we're exhausted, like we have an 18 month old and he's teething and not sleeping through the night. When you're exhausted and depleted, you're not going to be very motivated.

You're going to procrastinate. You're not going to want to read or work out or do the things that you know you need to do. So the key is energy. And just like you don't have motivation and you do it, you're taking a noun and turning to a verb. You don't have energy, you do the you. There's a process for generating energy, right? And there's different ways the foods that you eat, it's your sleep, it's managing your stress that could deplete a lot of energy. Is being around energy vampires is all these different things, right?

Yeah. So I just wanna remind everybody to to take care of themselves because self-care is not selfish. And that's why a big part of my research is on what you could do to have more brain energy.

Building Momentum for Change 17:00

And then finally, you could have limitless purpose and limitless energy and still not be motivated because you lack maybe that thing you're going for is is too big. It's abstract, it's confusing, it's intimidating, and it confuse mind doesn't do anything right. And so maybe working out or reading 30 minutes a day is too big of a jump because it's out of your normal routine. So S3 stands for small, simple steps. And so I believe so maybe it's not working out. Maybe if you're stalled you're stuck in that box.

Maybe S3 is putting on your running shoes. Maybe your kids, while you're not there, are motivated to. You want to motivate them the brush to to floss or teeth, right? A small, simple step plus one tooth. Or maybe you want to read 30 minutes a day and that's you still can get yourself to do it, even if you have purpose. They have a lot of energy. Maybe opening up the book is a small, simple step, right? Because inch by inch it's a cinch. Yard by yard is just too hard. And so I think consistency compounds and little by little a little becomes a lot.

So that's really the key to a massive, limitless motivation. And then the last time on the bottom are the methods. Like if you're using old methods for reading or old methods for memorization or old methods for fill in the blank. Sometimes you have to upgrade because we know that the the half life of information and research is getting smaller and smaller, right? It might be outdated. You might be using old systems, then you're not reaching your goal, even if you have a little less mindset and you're a little less motivation because you're using old techniques and like even let's take we teach people to read three times faster with better comprehension.

But the last time we took a reading class, most people were like six, seven years old. So the difficulty of the man is increased a lot, which creates a lot of stress, anxiety, information, anxiety, higher blood pressure, compression of leisure time, more sleeplessness. Right. And so there's a real health consequence, like when you're in fight or flight, you create this cortisol, this adrenaline and puts you in a way, it holds you hostage in your survival brain. You prioritize being safe, and you don't have easy access series that of functioning to your creativity, to your imagination, to your problem solving.

And so, yes, I think that most people now out of fear, they shrink like their dreams of their goals to meet the current situation. And I would say, don't downgrade your dreams. Instead, upgrade your mindset and your motivation and the methods you're currently using to be able to meet those big audacious goals. Oh that's brilliant. Every time I listen to you and I listen to you so much, I learned something new. And this is like it's simple, it's practical, but you've got to have that approach and that is just having the circles and it all interact in the middle.

That's how we going to succeed. It's amazing. Okay, I know we've only got a few minutes left, but do you you are so good at explaining momentum. So these these three these three circles that intersect that you just described in terms of limitless being limited, I mean, being limitless, not limited. We've got to keep going. And I heard you give a talk recently about momentum. And I know this crossover with some of the things you said. So I'd love you to give a summary of how you can keep that momentum going in your life.

So one of the best ways of achieving momentum, if you reach for the borders and boundaries of what's possible and your mindset, your motivation, your methods, you have the fourth form, which is really momentum, right? And that's what everybody wants. This is where you have a certain level of velocity and less friction. Because you're limiting these areas of your life. You control the controllables and you could always control your head, your heart, your hands, your mindset, your motivation and the methods you're using.

And so we put together just eight eight tips for greater cognitive momentum in your life or your learning. You could I use acronyms a lot so everyone to write down the word momentum. And these are just reminders to help you to to kind of zone in on different areas that might be holding you back. The first in momentum is your mindset. So this is really mindset mastery because everything begins, you know, with with your mind and cultivating, you know, which I know you've done a lot of research in the area of growth mindset.

You know, where you see challenges as opportunities to learn, to be able to grow, where it's with challenge comes change, that there's a gift and things that your mind like your memory is not fixed, like your shoe size. It's not like you take an IQ test when you're eight and that you're seeing potential when your ADHD not right. And so, you know and you could you've shown this in your in your research. And so just like you could make great new connections to do a new behavior, you could change your your thoughts.

You can you could change your current belief system. And you know this Henry Ford quote, if you believe you can or believe you can either way or we are right. All right. Because all behavioral is belief driven. And if you want to be able to do a new create a new results, you need to do a new behavior. In order to do that new behavior, you need a belief that says that's possible. So addressing that the oh and momentum is organized specifically organizing your environment. And what do I mean by that?

You know, you talk a lot about mental mess. And I sort of remind people that your external world is often a reflection of your internal world. And I it's important to Marie Kondo, your, your mind, if you will. And people know that if they just clean their desk or put everything in the right file folder on their computer, they have clarity of thought. So your environment shapes your behavior. So when's the last time we took time to create a space that minimizes distractions? That and maximize your focus.

Whether it's your physical workspace, it could be your digital workspace to ensure that you're properly set up for your goals. You know, you do so much work in habits, and one of the core principles for habit design is you want to make what's good for you easier and what's not good for you more. More difficult, if you will. And so, for example, I talk a lot about not touching your phone the first 30 minutes a day or the last 30 minutes of the night. And before you go to sleep and you can have your phone by your nightstand, but that's just you have to control your environment.

Like, what if you put your phone in your kitchen or in your bathroom? It just makes it harder to do the things that are not so good for you. So I feel like that that would be the oh is organize your environment. Clean environment will lead to a cleaner mind. The m in momentum. The second m the third letter is measure right. What gets measured gets managed. Exactly. And it's good with like what we teach and learning because you can measure reading speed. You can measure reading comprehension. I can give people you can measure focus.

I can give people list of names or numbers or words, and you can measure them before teach them and then measure them afterwards. So really track your progress too. It'll help you create a feedback loop that will motivate you because nothing is as motivating as seeing progress. Right? And then you could do with that feedback. And I think there's no such thing as failure, just failure to learn. And feedback is, is a breakfast of champions, right. And also and also celebrating those small wins because that will reinforce that positive behavior.

The E and momentum is the one we already discussed, which is energy energy management. High energy equals high momentum. Right. When you it's not even about time management. It's really about priority management. The most important thing is to keep the most important thing the most important thing. I think one of the most important things to prioritize is your energy. Right. So you prioritize activities that boost your mental energy, exercise nature I would say take your meds, meds, EMIs, meditate.

Right. So having some kind of practice to disconnect, to reconnect the is exercise. As your body moves, your brain grows, the DS, your diet whole area science called neuro nutrition that your brain is only 2% of your body mass, but it requires 20% of the nutrients. And then the the the s is sleep right? In sleep when we don't sleep, how's our energy? How's our memory? How's our ability to focus? How's our ability to solve problems? The the R is relationships. We know it's not just your neurological networks.

It's your social networks. And who you spend time with is who you become. And then the acts are just the extras. It could be some in the tropics, it could be the cold showers. It could be other things that have been shown to just kind of give you that cognitive advantage. The n in momentum is nurture. And what I mean by nurture is those relationships. And I just mentioned that surround yourself with people that energize you, that challenge you, that encourage you, that inspire you, and positive relationships.

They provide support. When you have anxiety or stress. They provide accountability. They provide encouragement. And we all need people to encourage us, to challenge us, to teach us to be kind to us. And if you haven't found that person, I would recommend being that person, be that person or somebody else, especially be that person for for yourself. The T in momentum is take action. And I just want to remind everyone listening that knowledge by itself is not power. It transforms into power. When we act on it.

It has the potential to be power. And I have this general rule for every hour you spend learning something, spend an equal hour applying it. So right. Because all the truth is, all the coaching, all the books, all the podcasts, all the lectures, none of it works unless we work. It. Course and we can't be upset by the results we get from the work we didn't do. So, and I ask myself all the time when I'm listening to something or reading something, how can I use this? Why must I use this? When will I use this?

Because one of the most important tools we have for productivity and peace is our calendar. And if you don't put in your calendar his schedule, parent teacher conferences, doctor's appointment, investor meetings. But are you scheduling your self-care? And are you scheduling your actions when you learn something? So that's is take action. And then finally the the you and the am you is unleash unleash your creativity. It's creativity fuels innovation. It fuels problem solving, engaging activities that spark your creativity.

I think the future belongs to the creators, whether it's brainstorming or exploring new hobbies or, you know, exercises to think out of the box. You know, that's really where innovation happens, where problem solving happens. And, you know, we spend a lot of time teaching people the process for being more creative. And then the last, is, I would say, mindfulness and attached to persistence. So it's like if you're mindful persistence, persistence is a key to momentum. But it's equally important to be mindful about your persistence.

You don't want to be very busy and persist at something that doesn't get you the results right. You don't want to climb the ladder of success, only to realize when you get to the top that the ladder was leaning on the wrong wall.

Resources, Mission, and Closing 28:30

So good. So you began with the end in mind. You listened to your listened to your body, listened to your mind, adjust when needed, and keep moving forward with with purpose and mindful intention. So this momentum acronym just eight things. It's just a reminder to people to it's designed to help you stay on course, to build unstoppable momentum, to help you achieve your goals with less stress, anxiety, and more purpose and more energy and remember, momentum is not just about speed. It's about consistent, deliberate practice and progress.

Because what you practice in private, you're rewarded for in, in in public. Oh, wow. I tell you, you are the poster child for genius. Neuroplasticity in action. Really? That was beautiful. Thank you Jim. That was amazing. I know that helped so many people. Where can people find out more about you? All about your incredible online course, your books, and all the great support that you give to people in such a generous way? Thank you. Our mission is to is to I believe our brains are, you know, it's our number one asset that we have.

And and so I would say that how that on our mission we have a podcast. If people could just search my name and their podcast app. We were over called limitless. Couple million copies sold. We donate all the proceeds to charity. We've built schools, nonprofits by funding nonprofits to build schools in Kano, Guatemala, Kenya and also Alzheimer's research for women. Women are twice as likely to experience Alzheimer's than men. Yeah, most the research is done on men and treatments on men. I lost, my grandmother tells hammers when I was seven, going through my challenges.

And so we do that in memory of my, my grandmother. But yeah, I would love for people to take a screenshot of where they're consuming this. And post it and tag doctor leave and tag myself. I'm just at Jim Quick everywhere and there. They could just share one thing or thing to do for a better brain. Because when you. One of the best ways to teach learning something is to teach it to somebody else. And when you shared online, then your family benefits your your your friends benefit your fans, your followers.

And so I think you learn to earn, to return. And so yeah, take a screenshot, tag us, follow us there, both of us. And we have these daily insights to help you level up your learning in and and your life. Beautiful. Thank you so much Jim. It's been amazing again, as usual. Thank you. I cannot believe.