Lessons - Why Your Brain Is Capable of So Much More Than You Think | Jim Kwik - Memory & Learning Coach

In this lessons episode, learn how to unlock your brain's full potential using the code method. Learn how cheetahs, owls, dolphins, and elephants represent distinct cognitive styles that drive learning, leadership, and decision making. Learn why personalized brain performance is the next frontier beyond personality tests, and learn how to use your brain animal type to improve memory, communication, and results in work and life. I do want to, um, the other, the other acronym. And by the way, acronyms are very useful. So don't never apologize for dropping endless acronyms. It does help people remember. But the acronym that I think will be useful, um, is code. So I want to understand that acronym and what it means. This is, yeah, yeah, this is a big one. Okay, so we recently updated limitless, um, and because limitless, the first version came out in March, April 2020, right? The start of the pandemic. And, um, you know, it was an interesting time for me to launch a book, right? At 34 speaking engagements, every single one of them was canceled. And I had in-person podcasts to do every single one canceled, national media canceled, book tour canceled. So I was just like, what happened time? Yeah. Um, yeah. So let's talk about it. And, um, but we were very fortunate. The book, you know, swept the New York Times and Wall Street Journal and all the best therapists. Um, and I was happy about it because it was also, you know, a big philanthropy effort for us in terms of the, you know, and with Tony and the proceeds. That being said, um, we recently updated the book and people ask why? And I tell them for two reasons. Number one, the world has changed. Being a post pandemic, people working, again, their brain online from working from home or remote or some kind of hybrid, uh, AI, you know, is really, you know, has become more, uh, more used in everything. So how do you, there's a whole chapter on, how do you say I didn't answer H.I. You're human intelligence. And I show you how to take the principles and limitless and apply it into AI programs to, to get faster, smarter. AI for me is not artificial intelligence. More practically, it's augmented intelligence. It's like a partner, you know, creative partner that you could take all the principles here and, you know, have it give you reviews and tests and everything else like that. Um, but the, the thing that caught on the most was this assessment that we've used for years with our private coaching clients. And, um, for the first time we made it available to the public, you know, for free. So people could take this assessment at mybrainanimal.com. It only takes four minutes. And it's multiple choice. Just pick the answer that resonates with you. And here's how this is the power on it. After 33 years of teaching this, and by the way, going back to age, I'm in my 50s, the good thing about what I teach, everything is measurable. You can measure focus. You can measure reading speed. You can measure reading comprehension. I could test myself names, you know, faces, the speed, counting cards, all that stuff, right? And so I'm faster and better in every single category across the board. So it's just, we can get older, you know, because I'm also a fearful of, you know, brain ageing challenges, having, you know, my grandmother going through what she went through. But there's so many things you do to stay off, just like people could do amazing things, you know, as age with their bodies, you know, as long as they do the right things at the right time. But that being said, I think the thing that really is a game changer, that's worth the price of the book alone, but you know, you get it for free, you could just take the assessment. You know how there's personalized medicines, got based on an assessment, like someone takes a genetic test, like you're mentioning, or a DNA test, and then it gives them protocols, you know, to be able to help you based on your genetics assessment, just there's personalized nutrition based on a microbiome test, or a stool sample, or my, you know, can kind of, you could personalize in the nutrition, or in the foods for you. We created a personalized learning or personalized performance assessment, so it identifies your brain type, and we've identified four major brain types, and it took me years put this together. I pulled from personality tests, like Myers-Briggs, introvert, extrovert, left brain, right brain, learning styles, multiple intelligence theory, like, and we create this assessment, and what it does, and this is the reward everyone gets for this, it informs your behavior, because all assessments and data should, you know, help you make better decisions, right, and there's a quote in limitless, that's probably the most highlighted quote, it's not for me, it's from a French philosopher that says, life is a letter C between the letters B and D, and I have this on the wall, life is C between B and D, or B stands for birth, D stands for death, life C, choice, that our lives are the sum total of all the choices we've made up to this point, right, what we're going to study, where we're going to live, who we're going to spend time with, what are we going to eat, what we do for a career, all that stuff, right, what are your feet or minds, and I believe these difficult times, they could distract you, these difficult times, they could diminish you, or these difficult times, they could develop you, we always decide, because if you're listening to this still, I bet you're a thermostat and you're not a thermometer, like the one of the ways we learn faster is using analogies or metaphors, we compare something that we don't understand yet to something we understand, right, and so at thermometer, you think about the function of a thermometer, it only reacts the environment, that's 100% its job, it just reacts to whatever the environment's given, you know, the temperature, right, but thermostat doesn't do that, right, the thermostat gauges and knows what's going on, so you as an entrepreneur can know what's going on in your market in the world and everything, but it does something different, right, it sets the temperature and what happens the environment, the environment reacts to it, right, to you, and as entrepreneurs, I mean that's really the name of the game, taking the invisible and making invisible, right, and it's not that so much you'll believe it when you see it, it's been my observation, it's the opposite, you'll start seeing it when you start believing it, but we set that internal temperature in our minds, goals, dreams, visions, KPIs, whatever it is, right, and then we make it like we see it, and some people have this vision in their mind, like you may have with your business, or you know, with SaaS or with your podcast or whatever, people might not see it yet, but that would be a strength of a dolphin, so here through the four brain types, code is the brain code, so the C stands for Cheetos, and I'll give you, and this is going to help not only help you read faster, improve your memory, but you can use this to hire, to train, to get angel investors, to do sales, to parents, also, so Cheetos dominant trade, and you'll get this all in a report, because I'm going to give you personalized, as free, for listening to the podcast, how to speed read, improve your memory based on your brain type, because I realize this is the biggest lesson I've learned, Scott, over the past few decades, it's not how smart you are, it's how are you smart, it's not how smart you are, it's how are you smart, so how smart your partner is, your significant other, your kids, it's how are they smart, and we all are genius, but it just comes in different forms, so if you're a cheetah, your dominant trade is action, because what cheetahs do, they go fast, right, they implement, these are your implementers, these are people that thrive in fast pace environments, they have strong intuition, and they adjust accordingly, right, the O in code are your owls, and your owls, as you think about an owl, very logical, so your dominant trade is logic, so they make decisions different than a cheetah, they buy different than a cheetah, right, they even read differently than a cheetah, or read, where a cheetah would go skimming and scanning, because speed, you know, an owl is going through the detail on looking up those references, right, not sure how that applies, but an owl is very logical, they love facts, they love figures, they love data, the D in code are your dolphins, and your dolphins, a lot of entrepreneurs fall in the area of dolphins, dolphins, their dominant trade is their visionaries, they have strong creative imagination, their great pattern recognizers, right, sometimes they could see something like Disney, who would be a dolphin, you know, they would, Disney would actually take perspective employees out to this orange grove and say, this is where the magic kingdom is going to be, this is where tomorrow land's going to be, this is where adventure land, and if those who couldn't see it, he wouldn't hire them, because he was looking for dreamers, right, but that's what a dolphin is, and then in E, finally, there are your elephants, and your elephants dominant trade is empathy, these are your people people, like, you know, these are people that have strong interpersonal skills, they have strong levels of empathy, so they're very compassionate, these are individuals that want people to feel seen, they want them to feel heard, right, and so how do you use this as an entrepreneur, more just as a human, there just wants to be better in all these things, I'll give you a couple of ways. First of all, we had our entire team take this assessment, and when we put it online, and we found some interesting things, like, and we didn't intentionally hire for them this way, but our customer service team is a hundred percent them, what animal would you guess they are out of all elephants? Yeah, they're a hundred percent, they're all elephants, and we didn't hire for them that way, but people will go to their strengths, right, they want to be in their elements, and so where they're where they're most powerful and purposeful, so 100% of their elements are elephants because there are community builders, right, they want people to feel seen, and understood, and heard, and supported, right, so those elephant, my business partner of 20 years almost, she's our CEO, she's a dolphin, she has this vision of a billion brains that were impacting, right, and so she holds that constant, our CFO is the owl. Every day we have to report all the numbers, you know, and he just needs that data, so it's interesting, like, you could hire for different roles, and then, you know, it's interesting also to parent, you know, when your kids are certain animals, you could treat them differently, and you would sell differently, so, like, if somebody is an owl, that's where you give them the case studies, that's where you show them the research, right, you know, the data to back it up, but if somebody isn't, is a dolphin, like, and you're selling to that dolphin, you show them how their vision of their life, how your product or service fits into their future vision, or, you know, of their life, and what's most important to them, if you're selling to an elephant, yes, case studies, and social proof is good, you know, and having the visions all good, but what's most important is that relationship itself, you know, they want to feel that they could trust you, they want to, you know, feel that you understand them, they feel seen above anything else, and those elephants would do business with people who might not be, you know, have the best product or service, but they, they're trustworthy, right, and so, and you see this in pop culture too, like, if you watch friends, right, like, if you take Joey, Joey is your cheetah, doesn't think ever, just does, right, no culture just does an axe, right, Ross was a scientist professor, he's your owl, right, everything is about the nababab, they're very factual, you have Phoebe, the artist musician, who's your creative dolphin, and you have Monica, who had to host everything, be the, you know, bring, house to all the parties, had to be at her apartment, she's the community builder or the elephant, but you could do this for Star Trek next generation, you know, John Luke Picard is, you know, is that owl, Will Rikers, that cheetah, data is that owl, Councillor Deanna Troy is that elephant, you know, it's just, it's just everywhere, and so, if people go to my brain animal, they could take form an assessment, and then we give you strategies, because, again, people occur, like, dolphin when they're reading, they're going to visualize more of what they read. Thanks for tuning in, if you found this valuable, don't forget to hit that subscribe button, so you never miss an episode, and if you want to dive deeper into this conversation, check out the links in the description to watch the full episode, see you in the next one.