How To Fix Your Brain - Jim Kwik

are modern people's brains broken in your opinion broken is a is a big word um and I definitely can identify with being broken with my uh traumatic brain injury when I was a child and my learning difficulties and people teasing me calling me broken and I feel like our minds are under assault for sure you know with uh technology I don't think necessarily technology is is the reason but certainly technology can amplify the issues distraction and forgetfulness and this kind of overload information anxiety and it's an interesting world you know the amount of information is doubling at dising speeds but feel like uh we're not really prepared I don't know a lot of people who aren't struggling right now with forgetfulness or distraction maintaining their concentration feels like taking a sip of water out of a fire hose nowadays just to kind of catch up and keep up yeah how you how you doing with this uh data delu it's interesting because obviously I I consume so much for the podcast you know prep for the guests and other reading and and then my own reading and then the useless consumption of everything from social media to YouTube when I'm watching when I'm trying to eat my lunch and stuff it's a mix bag because there are so many amazing insights that I really value and yet coming along for the ride is this kind of ambient distraction almost like this habituating ADHD thing that comes in where I just find myself task switching even though I don't need to uh so you know from you've spent forever studying the brain both for yourself and from a professional perspective yeah how many of the problems that people are dealing with when it comes to focus and attention are an inbuilt endemic part of being a human and how many do you think are novel and can be laid at the feet of the modern world well think things are were definitely simpler for our brains as Hunter and gatherers right we're we want to we want to be able to survive and that that's a big prerogative we want to be able to reproduce we want to be able to know where all the the fresh water is and the enemy tribe and the and you know where the fertile soil is nowadays though every day I feel like people are just really they're sprinting just to catch up right new technology new people new ideas fast changes endless updates you it's happening in our careers in school and business industry and literally every every person's daily life and so people feel a little overwhelmed by the growing um like the data clutter you stressed out by all the knowledge that you must absorb and process and read and and recall you know the the nature of my work is really how do you stay on top and and deal with all that yeah I've I've noticed uh executive function so your ability to kind of project manage yourself and and what what's happening is increasingly like the Vanguard of my life right you know it really is it's like the it's the absolute front lines of what's going on because there is so much different inputs and so many different things to do and oh I could go done that rabbit hole and I could have this conversation with this person and maybe I'll do this thing and um there was a point probably like at June of 2011 where the amount of information that people wanted and the amount of information that was available a roundabout balanced and for almost all of human history there was less and then it got to I don't know at some point in the last sort of 50 years it it hit equilibrium and then very quickly it just blasted straight through so previously the uh smart thinker was somebody who was able to scout for information and actually find information whereas now the most important tool I think is someone who's able to discern appropriately and they're able to triage and they're able to uh titrate whatever it is is that's needed you know what I mean yeah it's definitely a filtering issue and a prior prioritizing issue also as well I mean we have unfeathered access to the world's information they say that with our phones we have more access to information than President Clinton did when he was in office and we just carrying it around with us and I don't know if the human brain really evolved to to deal with that Onslaught with all the context switching of social media uh with all the Rings and pings and dings and app notifications all the social media alerts uh it's uh it's it's a it's a different animal now nowadays and I think more than ever we need to really invest in our brains to upgrade our brains we we hear about upgrading our technology all the time you get the newest iPhone and upgrade your apps and your software your television whatever but um not a to talk about upgrading the most important technology that has created all the technology you know which is which is the brain and so that that that's the nature I feel like a lot of people also don't know a lot enough about their brain it's not really taught in school there's no owner manual it's not not really user friendly but it controls everything I think we're we live in the Millennium of the mind I don't think any of the listeners solely it's not like it was hundreds of years ago where it was really our our value in society was our brute strength today it's our brain strength right it's not our muscle power as much as it is our our mind power our ability to learn to unlearn to to relearn also um yeah I was doing a program at I just did a Google talks and I remember when I first started doing trainings at Google helping with mental Fitness there was this quote from Eric Schmidt who was then chairman and uh said the amount of information I'm paraphrasing the amount of information that's been created through the dawn of humanity to the year 2003 which was only what two decades ago how long does it take to create that amount of information today you know and the answer was like 48 hours I mean we're drowning in it you think about all the the podcasts right and the social media YouTube there's just so much information but how we learn it and read it understand it you know that hasn't changed a whole lot you know we live in an age of autonomous electric cars spaceships that are going to Mars but our vehicle choice in comparison when it comes to our own personal learning is more like a horse and horse and buggy so I I feel like we could really you know do well by upgrading some of these uh these mindset in these methods what do you wish more people knew about how the brain works you know functionally like there's there's you know interesting stuff to do with the pituitary and the hypothalamus and blah blah but when it comes to the nuts and bolts of how people use their brain and what they want it to do if you were to give a bunch of headlines you had a bunch of billboards out there that you could maybe put put some things on to remind people what what would be the lessons that you wish people knew about the thermodynamics of their own mind so stress response probably is is up there I don't know if it' be the top one but it's invisible for a lot of people because we're so used to it it's like a fish in water not recognizing the water because it's always present we know that chronic sh uh stress could potentially shrink the human brain puts you in fight or flight you know the cortisol the adrenaline and I feel like it you're in your it keeps you in your survival brain and maybe you're held hostage from your executive functioning from your ability to solve problems uh from your own creativity you know chronic stress will strength the brain chronic fear and we live in a society with marketing and media where it's perpetual fear and uh you know if it bleeds it leads and it's very intelligent it's working exactly how it's designed to work but I think that there's also this the analogy is like there's this algorithm just like there's an algorithm with social media whatever you engage with you see more of right you you engage in all the entrepreneurs stuff or the cat videos you like and share and comment you get more of it in your news feed but I feel like if we're whatever we engage with our with our mind also if we're looking at what's threatening and scary and what could harm us uh like in the news then you know whatever we engage with we tend to see more of it all the time and chronic fear will actually suppress your your immune system which is is a big issue nowadays because you can't turn on you can't go on social media or the news without seeing something that's you know life-threatening and it feels like it's happening local even if it haveing more more more Global whole area of science called psychon neuroimmunology you know it's where we're more susceptible to colds the flu the viruses so I think having even just coping mechanisms to deal with stress you know some people do body work some people get uh do do U mindfulness training or or meditation or they use a float tank or any of these biohacks but I feel like we're under a lot of undue stress and that locks up our nervous system and you know it's it's hard to learn if you're if you're wired for survival and you're in that's your your mindset you're not in it that you your those creative juices aren't aren't flowing right and I feel like we're not using all that potentiality that that our mind has I've got a interesting story about this so I'm currently doing my first live shows uh where stepping out on stage it's 90 minutes of solo talking all of the events were sold out in under 60 Minutes 2,000 people across the U the UK and Ireland and then we're doing 1500 people in Dubai and then I've got a US and Canada to com up with James Smith at the end of the year anyway I know the stuff that I'm talking about right I know this stuff implicitly I came up with the ideas it's all Bro Science bro philosophy stuff that that I've come up with right and it's stories from where I've been and who I've spoken to and all the rest of it and the first time that I did the show I was so nervous backstage that when I went out it was like somebody had just put blinkers on my mind and I'm trying to access the stories that literally I created right I made these things myself and somehow I can't access the things that I had now thankfully I had a comfort Monitor and it could you know keep on prompting me but without that if you just said okay and now talk to me about the lonely chapter and talk to me about the tall girl problem and talk to me about blah blah blah I I just didn't have access to it and that is a very acute version of this right everyone knows everyone knows you you you the nerves kick in something happens and you go my performance isn't where it was supposed to be Morgan housel taught me about this guy uh archal archal somebody somebody uh let me check my notes from yesterday what was the [ __ ] guy's name this dude this dude in the uh 1900s early 1900s archal Hill um he studied how quickly people could run and he was able to predict based on V2 Max and lact de threshold and all this stuff he could predict how quickly they would do a mile or whatever distance around a track unbelievably accurately but it had basically zero predictive power when it came to competition races and this was highly criticized it's like hang on a second I thought you've got this formula and it only works in one context well yeah because when you take them out of that context and into a competition all bets are off all rules are out of the window it's a different predisposition their adrenaline their cortisol all of this the amount of sleep that they had last night you told me this story about uh the greatest downhill skier of of female downhill skier ever this lady and um maybe she was Canadian and she would throw up before every single race that she did wow wow an elite athlete right and you've optimized your hydration and think about your sleep and just before you step out on stage you throw up and you go okay like all all of that stuff was totally out but look at what she does in training in training she doesn't throw up so I just think yeah the um the ability for fear stress overwhelm especially acutely to just completely wreck our performance is it's it's wild and I've felt that firsthand and I'm now worked out for me a process that I can go through before a live show so that I don't feel like that um but without that tool I was just at the mercy of the Winds of my fear and stress and and I think a lot of listeners have their stages right you know if you're if you're on stage and you switch context there's that phrase in that content is King right or content is Queen but if content is is King then I think context is is the Kingdom right and all all learning and performance is context dependent without without a doubt and it's also State dependent you know practicing in the environment that you need to be able to perform in those kind of conditions and even if it's not the external environment the internal environment is mirroring or you're using at the power of your imagination to be able to to replicate that and and rehearse on on a regular yeah I my biggest challenge besides learning growing up was public speaking by far I mean this wasn't you really chose the right career didn't you as expert in learning who often does public speaking this is this is this is my lot in life for sure it's um but it's it's a testament that and I'm I'm sure this resonates with a lot of listeners that that with challenge comes change right with our struggles they can become strengths uh because I had my learning difficulties and I was labeled broken I I would be terrified of public speaking because I just never knew the answer it took me three years longer to learn how to read so it's very embarrassing I think that's those circles where those reading circles I think a lot of Fear public speaking came from that right where you pass around the book and you had to read out loud a paragraph or a page and that was like the worst for me I mean even just thinking about it my stomach like get I get nauseous I mean I can't tell you how many times in I could relate to these performers where they're just throwing up and vomiting and because I was in the nurse's office all the time and it was all self-inflicted for sure I mean part of it might have been strategic to get out of class so I I wanted to be called on and I wouldn't have to give that book report in front of the class but that it was terrifying I never knew the answer my my superpower back in school was being invisible I mean it was it was shrinking down I mean even my physiology I was always like you know uh collapsing so I would take up less space in the world so I wouldn't be noticed and you know at that time I didn't really want to be seen I mean probably I did right I mean everyone wants to be seen they want to be understood they want to be heard but you know coping mechanism was just avoidance it was just it was just hard and so yeah you're right life has a sense of humor because those are my challenges now all I do is public speak on this thing called learning um but you know I think adversity can be an advantage I I don't know one strong person that had an easy life right and um so I feel like you know certain things come into our lives just like the hero's journey I open Limitless expanded with Joseph Campbell's like the stages of the heroes Journey because I want people to feel like that they are the hero they are the uh the Dorothy or the luk Skywalker if they if you were you know taking on the uh the big bad witches or the the the the Death Star those kind of things finding a mentor and coming back and returning with some some gems some gold and that they could share with the rest of the world what do you think are the biggest lies of learning goodness yeah a lie for me I use a lot of acronyms because they're shortcuts for you know these pneumonics we used back in school like homes for the great lakes here on Ontario Michigan Aries Superior uh there were like these mental shortcuts for so for lies for me is a limited idea entertained I feel like it's you know Li that's what lie is you know we talk about you know various things in the section of mindset that could hold us back because if you want to achieve something a lot of people want to go right to the methods and I'm definitely guilty of that but I think so many people including a lot of your listeners they know what to do but they're not always doing what they know and if they sabotage it's usually a mindset issue because they're buying into these lies like one of them could be Geniuses born right and it's been my experience the past 30 years of just coaching is that genius while there's certain traits certainly if you if you're if you if you're born with a certain height or or you know certain attributes you certainly have an advantage in in in today's uh Marketplace and in the world um in competitions but also I think genius could certainly be built right I I think when somebody exhibits something that there's that looks like magic to the rest of the world it there's a method behind it you know and I think part of Genius is pattern recognition you know seeing the invisible that makes this possible and for me it's always a combination of mindset motivation methods to kind of create this this momentum in your life by kind of unlimiting these areas and um yeah so some of one of them would be genius is born as as opposed to being built I I talk about this this this story um as we learn through stories and you're an amazing Storyteller you know always always listen watching your YouTube and and and just really observing at a meta level your style but there there was this one where um there was this King and uh and they had this performer and uh this performer was doing a you know was basically it had magic right and the the counselor was like Hey and this is genius is born it is not born it's built and the King was really upset by that because the king really wanted to buy in that you know people are born with genius you know with this amazing talent and so to punish the counselor he put him in the basement of the uh the kingdom and and just to add salt to the wound he gave them like two little piglets to to live with right like be be with your own kind kind of thing and while this counselor was there he would take the piglets and hold them underneath his arms and and then run up and down the stairs you know you know every single day multiple times a day and one day the king you know weeks and weeks weeks maybe months later thinks about the the counselor and says hey bring the counselor you know back to my throne room I want to you know see how he's doing and he comes and he's he's he's jacked I mean because and because these piglets eventually you know got bigger and and he got stronger because of it and and and he in front of the whole Kingdom he was like look at this magnificent specimen you know gen you know it's this is and and of course the vice counselor said the same thing he said before that you know genius is not born it is built you know through dedication through training through through deep work and that story that story must very much resonate with you you know somebody who the setbacks with regards to learning and public speaking and so on and so forth to now being someone who specializes in precisely the thing that you were the most terrified about and if I was talking with Dan Bill zarion last night and he the you didn't have that on your bingo card for me talking about I didn't and um he was saying how his his story you know his success particularly with women but also in other areas of life as well that um he wasn't particularly funny he's 5' n he's not particularly good-looking most of his face is hidden by a beard uh he wasn't particularly anything really wasn't super smart in school like he kind of got through the tests that he needed to just about etc etc you know in terms of raw materials an incredibly like mostly average guy pretty intelligent I guess but mostly average guy uh with a very extraordinary outcome and he was saying about how he feels like the story he has at least from a a female success perspective should be something that other men men find empowering or or inspiring because look like I'm not [ __ ] Brad Pit I'm not 6'5 I'm not like this you know super good-look dude I didn't have I wasn't super funny I wasn't a stand-up comedian I didn't have any of the things you know in terms of raw materials coming to this and um yeah I think normal people doing extraordinary things is is spectacular but for the most part everybody was normal at some point there were crazy outliers right uh and a lot of the things that make people outliers of the very very hidden things their predisposition for conscientiousness their ability to deal with resilience and hard times that you know those sorts of things the kind of more like soft hard skills I guess um but yeah man I uh I I I always think about the journey that people got to do something absolutely spectacular and over the last few years since spending time around you know outlier people in every different industry they're so normal like they're so incredibly normal and they they're still riddled with the same you know self-doubt and uncertainty and and lack of esteem and all the rest of it desire for validation almost all of them are and you think oh well that's like an oddly normal thing for this very extraordinary person to have and that's that's comforting I think like to see that the to see that the gods are mortal is is comforting yeah it certainly makes it relatable you know without a doubt to to know that these people are are flawed uh I talk a lot about superheroes because I mentioned I couldn't read I taught myself how to read by reading comic books and I don't know what it was you know my uncle gave me a comic book when I when I was a child and I would just look at it and I would read these comic books even even if the words didn't make sense I'd be underneath the covers you know of my of my bed with the flashlight and something about the illustrations really brought the story to life and gave words the meaning and when I started to understand the words it was very comforting because I would Escape you we had we didn't you know my parents immigrated to the to the states and we didn't have a lot of uh resources uh we certainly education money you know that kind of thing but um but yeah it would allow me to escape because I was you know being bullied in school and that that's not fun for anyone who's gone through that had a lot of self-doubt but I would use it as inspiration and these these superheroes offered hope they offered like wow these people are helping other people and and they were flawed too like Spider-Man and you know Iron Man was an alcoholic and a lot of people had issues a lot of them were orphaned uh Superman uh Spider-Man Batman I mean you just think about you know the the the beginnings of their superhero their origin stories they had a lot of a tragedy and yeah it's it's a matter of there there's a quote in Limitless that from a French philosopher that says life is the letter c between B and D right B is birth D is death life C choice and we're constantly making these choices about who we're spending time with what are we going to do what are we going to eat you know where we're going to put our Focus but also choices on what things mean like uh the the meaning we're associating to what's going on if this is here to to hurt us or this is here to prepare us and I think that meaning as part of the mindset what it affects what you believe is possible what you believe you're capable of maybe even what you believe you deserve and it becomes this internal thermostat where a lot of times we're acting like a thermometer where we're just reacting to the environment right we react to politics react to you know Global Wars we react to how people treat us we react to the weather but I feel like the people who have uh you know more agency and you know a level of sovereignty they feel like you know they could be a thermostat they could they they don't not reacting they could gauge they know what's the temperature is but then they also set uh they have a vision they set some kind of standard they set a temperature and then the environment reacts to it you know if I if I was to go back to that child I would the two beliefs I would instill in the in like my nine-year-old self would be like hey you are 100% responsible for your life right you can make excuses you could complain and probably some of it is true but so what like what's the difference it doesn't make it doesn't change the situation at all and it wastes a lot of time wastes a lot of energy and and the truth is we can't be upset you know by the results we didn't get from the work we didn't do and there's just a truth to it and sometimes we're our worst enemy you said on a podcast I listened to recently if you fight for your limitations you'll keep them if you argue for your limits they're yours yeah given that there is one of the pandemics that didn't come from uh a virus kind of like a a pandemic of nihilism or apathy or at least uh limiting belief beliefs um or believing uh what would you say somebody has kind of got themselves into a a routine of despondency and externalizing of the locus of control and not believing that they can maybe make the progress that they do what do you say to them to try and drag them out of that well for for each person uh I mean I would want more more more contact with that person and more more connection I mean you're really good with social dynamics um which is you know really shows up in in your conversations with people I would I would say reminding people that they have agency is not it's one thing to know it intellectually it's another to like embody it right that you know our world is a reflection of of our choices and you know giving people examples certainly potentially could help getting them to e even with children right like if somebody if a child let's say you're trying to really you're really strict with their diet and they go to a birthday party and they eat this food you know instead of like criticizing for them just like having them self aware realiz and just asking them how do you feel right and what caused that and so they can see like cause and effect I I feel like we we all play a role in sometimes in our own misery and the challenge is you know when this this the story I I I tell is when I got to spend some time with Stanley right the creator of so many co-creator of so many Marvel superheroes and we're going out to dinner and you know I I just have this time with them solo and I was just like hey I I'm dying to know like who who's your favorite superhero you all you've created everybody right The Avengers The Fantastic Four and so on and he looks at me he's like Iron Man and he says Jim who's your favorite superhero and I was like it's got to be Spider-Man because he had this big Spider-Man tie and uh without a pause he goes in his iconic voice with great power comes great responsibility and we all know that I I guarantee you all your listeners know what word was coming and I I switch words still to this day maybe because I had a few head injuries too many head injuries as a child when I read sometimes I'll switch them or hear it and I was like you know you're right with great power comes great responsibility and the opposite is certainly also true with great responsibility comes great power when we take responsibility for something we have great power to to make it to make things better right with with these with these choices that we make every single day and so yeah I think agency is is is very important that you are 100% responsible and I also have this belief that everything Marie forio has this word everything is figureoutable right you have agency and you could figure it out with enough commitment and creativity and um and I and I feel like we grossly underestimating our own capabilities when when I say people fight for the limitations they get to keep them I hear it on a regular I I'll be on stage and before I go on people grab me invariably and say I'm so glad you're here can't wait to you to talk you you're the memory expert and telling you I'm too old and I'm just I'm just too stupid I have a horrible memory and that that's the context where I say hey stop if you fight for limitations you get to keep them you know I tell them that your brain is this incredible supercomputer and your selft talk is a program it will run so if you tell yourself I'm not good at remembering names you won't remember the name of the next person you meet because you program your supercomputer not to I I I I believe that if people truly understood how powerful their mind is they wouldn't say think or even feel something they didn't want to be true and again I'll stipulate that yes you have one negative thought it's not going to ruin your life obviously but just like eating that one donut or muffins not going to ruin your life but you if you ate dozens of that of those donuts every day every single day it would definitely have some kind of effect and so I think we have to stand guard to the doors of our mind and and realize again that we're you know that thoughts we don't have to believe everything that we think and we could also adjust what we think you know people say I'm not smart enough or I I don't have a great memory just you know editing it like I don't have a great memory yet I it just feels different it just lands different you know and it gives you some kind of hope to be able to to move forward how does memory actually work moving beyond the stories that we tell ourselves what are the what are the nuts and bolts of how memory works there there are three phases to memory there's the encoding phase there is the storage and then there's the retrieval phase and so if people I believe there's no such thing as a good or bad memory there's a trained memory and there's an untrained memory you know unfortunately it's not really taught in school I mean maybe they took some kind of class in uh in high school or maybe college but I don't know how practical it is you know one of the things I'm obsessed with even when I'm listening to podcasts or reading books it's like how can I use this right how can I how can I when will I use this right why must I use this how does this relate to what I already know I I feel like so many people learned passively right and the human brain I don't think it learns best through consumption because we're consuming all the time and so many people's lives you know you talk about mental masturbation so many people just get addicted to just you know novelty and they're just buying books and they sit on the Shelf unread and become shelfal not selfhelp that that whole that whole dangerous spiral but you know the whole idea is you learn something so how you could apply it right if somebody isn't consistently doing something and they're procrastinating they're self-sabotaging it's usually a mindset or motivation issue but going back to memory I'm always thinking like hey I want to make this more sticky so how can I encode it by not just hearing it maybe I could see it and use more of my nervous system maybe I could tap into some of those feelings right you have that middle brain uh where you have like this seahorse looking uh part of your brain called hippocampus uh which is primarily function is memory attached to it is this little almond shaped uh part of your brain called the amydala which is like a switching station for emotion and it's interesting that you know the where uh where memory is being processed it's also connected with emotions I think information today it's everywhere right so it's very forgettable it's it's not it's very ordinary but information when it's tied with emotion and and and visualization becomes uh Unforgettable right when you hear it feel it see it then you know you're recruiting more of your nervous system and you're more likely to be able to to retrieve it the storage part is interesting because we teach people methods like a mening filing system you know something like uh like memory palaces you know back in the ancient Greeks you so we we write Limitless expanded and I pull on and draw on you know neuronutrition and Neuroscience and adult learning theory uh also though ancient wisdom you know I just feel like what did people do before there were books what did people do before there were like the internet how did they remember things before there was a printing press you know how did they pass on history and information you know around campfires and one of the techniques was a storage device uh I mean where you use locations that you're very familiar with like maybe your home your school your office the mall maybe parts of your body your car and just taking the information that you want to remember and placing it intelligently around those locations because as hunter gatherers we didn't need to memorize lots of numbers or lots of words what we needed to remember where things are right where the clean water is where is the fertile soil where's the enemy tribe all the survival right and so even when people forget someone's name they tend to ask themselves questions like where where do I know this person from right because again the context gives you the con content they did they've done studies where they'll put they'll submerge people with a breathing apparatus underwater and give them uh things to remember like like maybe something simple like list of words and then they'll take them out of the of the pool and they'll test them and see how many they recall very simple and then they'll submerge them back under the water and test them and in which environment do you think had greater recall right it was it was I was underwater and we we could probably guess that but the idea here is when you're studying something the environment also is getting anchored to that information and uh and helps you to Greater retrieve it so if you like you know we were talking about before if you are on stage and you got the opportunity to rehearse and practice and review your information and study on in that same context you're more likely to be able to access more of that information because unconsciously the light the smells everything gets anchored to the information um now that's not possible for a lot of people like may maybe you could prepare in the board meeting there and then perform there also or study in class and then perform in class but it's not usually the case so even something simple is giving yourself a trigger you know I know you've done episodes about uh habits and and and triggers having prompts for certain behaviors you could bring the environment with you you could take a certain I mean one of the most out of the five senses smell is definitely the one most closely connected to human memory uh maybe for is the most closely associated sense to human memory right I mean I think there's all and maybe there's there's a reason for that right if if you smell poison it could be it could save your it could save your life or food is rotten you know you be able to recall that that's part of your survival uh and we all have this I'm sure there's a fragrance or food that could take you back to when you were a kid uh we we all have those things and the idea here is so going back to how the environment gets anchored to your study um and your recollection you could actually bring it smell like let's say you're preparing for your talk and you want to remember all the different points uh when you're live on stage you could while you're preparing you could have a unique cologne or essential oil or chew they say chew gum could potentially help with your memory but of specific flavor and then it's but it has to be unique so it's not diluted uh in terms of learning and then when you want to be able to perform use that same essential oil or you know scented lip balm gum whatever it is and that'll help trigger all the information and data that you you were rehearsing and so but the storage part is interesting because using your body or using your microwave like imagine you're in your kitchen and you go clockwise around your kitchen and say okay you know the if I'm GNA the first place is the microwave the second place is the stove top the third place is the refrigerator fourth place going around I'm doing my kitchen is the dish washer and then the fifth place is the sink then that would be a way of using your memory Palace and then you could go into the adjacent room and do the bookshelf and the fireplace and the coffee table whatever and then the idea here is let's say you need to give a tedex talk you could take the information and turn it into a picture because we most of us tend to think in pictures if I ask you to tell me about your car right well I don't know let me do this so tell me tell me tell me about your car it's a BMW 123d it's like a coupe thing it's blue uh it's got Matt Gray Alloys cream seats amazing so when you see BMW and blue and M you don't you don't see those words right when you're saying it you see you see an image of it and uh you know our visual cortex takes up the most real estate in in our brain which is probably why people are better with faces than they are with names right you see the face but you heard the name you you go to someone say I I remember your face but I forgot your name you never go to someone say the opposite you never go to someone say I remember your name but I forgot your face so it would make a lot of sense there's a proverb a Chinese proverb that says what I hear I forget what I see I remember what I do I understand I heard the name I forgot the name or I heard it on the podcast I forgot it right I saw the face you know what you see you you you remember and what you do going to the power of practice right and rehearsal and study and deep work then you really truly understand it because I feel like you don't you can't you don't understand unless you could do it that just a kind of a a principle that I and behind every principle there's some kind of promise and some kind of of reward and so like let's say you wanted to give a talk in the book I talk about how onethird of your your your cognitive performance uh brain health is predetermined by genetics and biology it's pretty accepted in the Neuroscience space but that means 23ds is in your direct control and I talk about the 10 levers that would that would move that right and so if somebody wanted to know what those 10 things are and they had to to give a a Ted X talk next week about it first of all I when I want to learn something faster I learn it with the anticipation and the intention of teaching it and so it doesn't matter what I'm learning even if I'm not really going to teach it I intend to teach it you so when I'm reading I'm thinking how does this relate to me when I'm listening I'm taking better notes right if somebody had to teach it they call it in they call it the explanation effect when you learn with the intention of explaining to somebody else you're going to learn it better because you're Focus you're going to focus better you're going to ask more questions you probably take better notes and uh when you teach it you get to learn it twice right so like if people have that perspective as they're listening to this conversation like how would I teach this to somebody else I'll you know talk about the 10 Keys maybe that move the needle science base and think about it not just like oh that's great information but ask yourself how can I use this how can I apply it uh how can I teach it to somebody I care about right because the number one reason to learn something is how it would benefit you but the close second is how it could benefit somebody else right you learn so you can earn get some kind of benefit to return right to be able to share it with somebody else and also when you share it it benefits you also as well because you get to be an expert at that at that subject matter more easily so so can I go through like some of these 10 Keys yeah dude I want to get high level let's go through all of them I want he them okay so so the the first in no particular order let's say let's start with a good brain diet right what you eat matters especially for your gray matter there area science there's a whole chapter in the book on neuronutrition that your brain is only 2% of your body mass but it requires uh 20% of the nutrients and it's an energy hog right it uses up a a lot of energy chess players burn some ungodly amount of calories right like the most static sport in history extreme extremely right I I know a number of them that are just always you know calorie deficient but they're always they're always eating without a doubt never see a fat chess player this is true and so another reason why you want to be mentally engaged right we hear a lot about physical fitness which obviously relates also to your mental uh performance as well and we can talk about that because that's one of the 10 things but going back to neuronutrition certain foods and and I'll stipulate this with I'm not a doctor I'm not a nutritionist but you know and go go get a food sensitivity test right do a nutrient profile cuz not every is for everybody I I really do believe everyone's bioindividual generally though avocados the mono un citrated fat your brain is mostly fat uh is fatty so you know what you eat matters again for your gray matter uh blueberries and you know I put this on my body so I always remember when I'm at the store I use this as a Memory Palace my body so I imagine uh the the avocados using it as a a scalp conditioner like guacamole or if I blueberries right uh or mle berries a lot of the berries they're brain berries they're full of antioxidants very neuroprotective blueberries coming out of your nose and you know and when you're doing it you imagine that you're a child because children are such fast Learners uh because they're playful and they use their imagination that's how they remember people's names I mean I don't know if people made fun of your name growing up but certainly with a last name Quick you know I got a lot I was the bun of a lot of lot of jokes but that's how kids remember right they say you know Tony Tony B like they make the Rhymes they make it fun um yeah so imagine you're 8 years old and blueberri is coming out of your nose uh broccoli is is a brain food high in vitamin k um the sulfurane in broccoli is very good for your brain especially if you sprout them it tends to be like even 10 times more sulur vean which potentially could help with bdnf the brain derive neurotropic factors um but imagine broccoli stuck in your teeth so something simple like if you want to remember um olive oil you you know about the Mediterranean diet um you're cleaning your ears with olive oil or wearing Olive earrings whatever eggs probably one of my favorite you know foods good protein uh the yolk is high in in choline uh which leads to acetylcholine which is good for cognitive health and memory so eggs right in your throat you're choking on a hard-boiled egg so those are just like you know things that I would just think about and maybe people like kale and spinach great make them your shoulder pads you hear about certain fish and you have to be careful with fish right with the Mercury and some of the toxins but you get a clean Source sardines like imagine your collar you have a necklace made out of sushi you know salmon sushi or sardines and and and use your senses again imagine what that would smell like and if you can't imagine it you know imagine you can imagine it right your imagination what what is it Ein said imagination is more powerful than knowledge right knowledge is what is imagination is what what could be right we're recruiting more more of the those those visual feeling you know feelings everything and then finally um on your fingers imagine some turmeric the kirkum is anti-inflammatory imagine like you can't get this gold powder off your you know your fingers and then walnuts we hear all the time the vitamin E uh almonds imagine them coming out of your belly butt very simple and then imagine your bottom everyone's favorite us superb brain food dark chocolate which people can use in their own imagination whatever they you mentioned there uh not just about nutrition but the new of the book has got some advice when it comes to neut Tropics as yeah that's going to be one of the uh one of the 10 things is definitely supplementation so that that that'll be coming up in in a few oh yeah so just everybody imagine like your first place imagine my my my home right you're at the microwave and all you have all these brain foods there and you're taking it out and you're putting it on your body right and and I bet you even an hour from now one of the ways to encode is to do space repetition right uh and you rears it review it an hour later and also the retrieval practice is so very important so I mentioned it's encoding make it emotional Mak it visual storing we have a place to put it the microwave right or your nose and then the retrieval active retrieval helps tremendously improve your memory even something like asking your after you read something or listen to this podcast quizzing yourself right it sounds so simple and common sense but common sense is not always common common practice you know what my favorite strategy for doing that was for a good while I was training uh on a morning time with a training training partner and I would tend to read I usually read for about 15 minutes on the morning as part of my morning routine and I would always try and just explain one thing that I'd read that morning dude I got to tell you about I I learned this story about World War II or I learned this story about what happened in the space Landing or whatever whatever and uh that was like an absolute turbocharged hack because not only was I doing the ret retrial thing like memory is repeated retrieval not repeated exposure and it was also doing the teaching thing right so I had to simplify it and especially given what I do it's all about it's it's not just having an idea of the concept it's also being able to display it right in a way that sounds cohesive and and sort of slick so uh yeah yeah that was that was a good hack for me teach a training partner about what you've read this morning AB absolutely and I feel like even you know parents could do that with their kids instead of saying how was school and what are they going to say good right but asking them specifically what they what they learned and and going m in micro and again giving them examples again because it gets them to actively retrieve so they have to light up that same cognitive web and that's really what that memory is every single time it's reinforced and you you you actually recreate the memory right and so by by having that representation and describing it it just makes it more sticky right they say neurons that fire together they wire together we have what 86 billion neurons and each of them have potentiality like syap like 10,000 different connections so there more connections you know that your brain can make than there are stars in the known universe right I mean this is what this is the power that we have access to but I feel like we we're only using a small potentiality of it but starting with good brain diet is is a good place to start and then imagine that the microwave you put it on your body and then test yourself and teach it to somebody else you walk over to the second place if you're in my home and let's say we're going to have like a dinner together and uh we go over the stove top and the second key that I was talking about the 10 keys for Limitless brain is I got this from Dr Daniel aan the the famous uh brain doctor a psychiatrist he's run like 40 books on the brain change Your Brain Change Your Life uh I he talks about killing ants is good for the brain and ants stands for automatic negative thoughts that's exactly what we've been talking about how your selft talk you know becomes your your reality that thoughts are things that all behavior is belief-driven if you think you can or think you can either way you're right right Henry Ford said it that all the all the self-help kind of cliches but there's like with every cliche there's some form and uh nugget of Truth there so killing ants automatic negative thoughts and while I'm going through this people could rate themselves 0 to 10 like 0 to 10 how good is my diet because on the other side is the processed foods the fried foods the high sugar foods right that's going to spike your your glucose and so on but on scale of 0 to 10 kind of rate yourself because everyone to know like what's the one thing you know everyone wants like the magic pill but there's not there's a process of these 10 things so the second one's killing ants so just imagine on the stove we're roasting ants we're killing ants right uh and so that's very simple you can't forget it takes more time to certainly describe it than it does to picture it and a picture is worth a thousand words so there's a lot of descriptives there and then walk over to the third place which is the uh in my case happens to be refrigerator and this is exercise right we know that um especially strength training right it's been she saying strength training right it it's it's for so many so many benefits right uh bdnf which we talked about brain deriv neurotropic factors which is like fertilizer for the brain helps support neuroplasticity neurogenesis uh neurotransmitters you think about the dopamine the serotonin the endorphins that that you get from from working out uh potentially systemic uh decrease in inflammation uh it helps also with insulin resistance I so many benefits from from physically working out and I don't just mean that but when you're rating yourself 0 to 10 is moving throughout the day you know we're talking about if we're talking about evolutionary science the brain the primary reason we have a brain is to control our movement you know and as your body moves your brain grooves so it's not just a mindbody connection there's certainly a body mind connection and you that's one of the we we have a 10-month old right and he's learning how to crawl but they say crawling for children is so important because it stimulates different parts of their brain brain even the act of learning how to juggle there's a study done at Oxford University that jugglers actually have bigger brains they by the act of learning how to juggle you could uh actually create more white matter and this could be something simple like where you're rolling up socks and just doing it over a table or a bed making it very simple watching a YouTube video starting with one then moving graduating to two and three I'm not talking about like you know flaming swords or or or electric saws or anything like that but you know 0 to 10 how much are we moving so imagine you're open the refrigerator and you were doing your favorite exercise inside that your personal trainer is there you're doing your whatever your soul cycle your your burpees your your CrossFit whatever but it's in the refrigerator all right and that's to remind you of exercise the fourth one is what you're alluding to let's go over to the fourth place which for me again is the dishwasher and those are your your nutrients your brain nutrients I would always prefer people get it from from their diet that now that's my personal preference and again who am I to give you know like people I think ultimately we're talking about agency that people should really you know test it themselves right you you could trust but then you you validate and test with your own personal experience um I would always prefer people get it from food but if they're not eating eggs then maybe they could they could supplement with choline right it's a Nutri nutrient found in foods like eggs and soybeans and it plays vital role in in in brain health right an acetylcholine which is a neurotransmitter um and you could harness that that that power right some people want to supplement they're not getting it from the the fish maybe they want to supplement uh omega-3 fatty acids particularly uh DHA right which is crucial for for brain health it's it's a primary it's a it's a structural component of the brain and it plays a key role in memory it plays a key role in in brain function um I don't know you are you a big supplement guy yeah I work with a company called Marik Health um and they're they're really great for blood work and and they've got me sort of vertically integrated into a whole bunch of stuff based on my system uh omega3 Esther uh I've been taking which are like pharmag grade uh Omega 3s uh we actually have this this isn't out yet but by the time that this episode happens it will so this is a drink that I've been working on with a friend for over 12 months now and that is half a gram of cognizin which is a branded cyto Coline it's a version of Al Alpha GPC Roda Raa which is stress induced fatigue reduction panex Gins sang Natural caffeine no sugar uh Aline B vitamins all of that stuff and um I did four episodes in 27 hours in La last weekend wow dude the only way that I was able to get through that was uh adrenaline and the right amount of this and I think that I think is definitely a place for acute performance enhancers for mental cognition because how many like what am I going to do increase my egg consumption for two weeks in the buildup to that so I'm oh yeah my cyto Coline response is really great because I've 30 eggs a day for the last two weeks or something and um I'll get your address once we're done I'll send you some cases of this I think you really enjoy it and um yeah I I'm a I'm a big fan of it I've been playing around with New Tropics for a long time uh I found some stuff here an anti- neut Tropic actually I got put on an anti- energic about two years ago just like a normal very boring thing from the doctor but dude it was like um someone had just half the ram that I had in my brain I couldn't remember the name of places my thoughts felt sluggish uh and I'm very very tuned into the texture of my mind right like the nimbleness of same with you I'm sure the nimbleness of my thoughts my ability especially for recall and then not just recall but all of the little nuances and I'm telling the story and I have to remember to pause here and so on and so forth and dude it was it was just like walking through mud or something it was a I can't I can't see you in that state because you're so good at tracking even when some of the conversations you've had with uh mutual people that we know like Alex like like maybe loses place and you pick it up exactly where where where they leave I did it at dinner I did it at dinner the other night we were talking about something and someone left some Loop open and uh I was like it was 10 minutes later and I really it was some story about a cat and I really wanted to know about this cat and I was like Dude tell me about the cat he was like oh yeah you're in podcast mode and I was like I just want to know about this [ __ ] story about the cat but um no yeah you're right it's um it's very scary to have uh it was almost like having um a cute temporary dementia yeah uh and it was dude I absolutely do not wish that on anyone so yes make sure that you get your choline Foods in make sure that you get your col energic system working nicely uh you know Alpha GPC is a fantastic solution cognizin which is in this in neonic is an activated version of that which is great um around about around about half a gram a day seems to be the effective dose that's been pretty well studied um so yeah I thinking with that is a good place to start yeah the one the ones I was talking about were more brain supplements um I separate that from neut Tropics in the book but the the choline supplementation the the the dhas your B vitamins right especially vitamin uh B6 uh B9 folate 12 is vital for brain health magnesium is vital for everything right every every physiological function learning especially for your brain learning memory uh certainly for for your mood uh some people supplement with that uh in different forms of it um uh like L3 andate you know for for various things for rest glycinate glycinate I've been playing around with I can't remember I can't remember the brand it's this huge big white tub that marck sent it's like fat thing but yeah sleep my sleep latency improved uh an awful lot since since taking since taking that so yeah all the simple stuff seems to be the ones that work and that that's what I look for like even right now I'm drinking some green tea so it has the you know alanine which is an amino acid that's that's found in green tea it's it's you know obviously very popular and atropic it also promotes relaxation without the the drowsiness and enhances brain function uh you mentioned bopa you know which is an herb Artic medicine uh which can improve cognition and and memory um riola you mentioned also which is Scandinavian herb um which has been shown to help uh reduce mental fatigue and improve it's going extinct you know that it's going extinct at the moment I did not we're having a we're having a nightmare so the formulation for this that we spent ages putting together to be evidence back research based all the rest of it uh and we decided to put something in which is like a protected speci so the price of it it's just gone through the roof but would it would be really cool I would love to um do like a regenerative uh thing with the drink where you know for every one plant that we use we plant two more type um that would be cool but uh I'm a huge fan the Roda thing um this amazing study that was done on nurses so they gave for 28 days they gave uh efficacious dose of Roda which is the same one we've got in there to nurses uh working in the National Health Service in the UK they found that they made fewer commiss errors under stress and it's what's technically referred to in the literature as a reduction in stress induced fatigue and um it just for me made a really big difference because your ability to stay on task and to stay focused is we said it at the very beginning like context often is a primer ahead of everything else and if the context that you're in is I am stressed I can't deal with this this is getting to me Etc Etc no matter how much your prep done like you've just got this huge ceiling that comes down on top of it okay so I think where we're in your dishwasher at the moment yeah so we're putting all these supplements there you could put the uh one probably one of my favorite ones is creatine well you know you know obviously people a lot of people Associated to to to working out it's it's found you know in higher levels in meat and in fish but it plays a huge role in energy metabolism especially for uh improving cognitive function you know especially tasks that require uh short-term memory and so uh that's and you know and everything else that we talked about that were in the foods like the turmeric the kumin right you get supplement with that uh you know some people make uh if I'm if I make if I don't do the tea sometimes I'll have some kind of lines main mushroom you know which is potential neur neurotropic uh protective effects uh which is uh this maybe it has been shown to be able to stimulate the synthesis of a nerve growth factor which could enhance cognition and potentially even lower uh inflammation uh caffeine obviously a powerful one especially if you add it with the Eline so for me I don't it I could get the energy without the the Jitters I'm very very sensitive some people like Kinko also for for blood flow um we actually put all this uh we're going to actually take the what's in the book and people could go to a brain nutrition.com and see kind of the where what I get you know and the ones that are human studies both for supplementation and also the nrop but that I would put all those bottles of supplements in the dishwasher all right and then that's number four number five is uh we're we're at the snc and what I believe is very important that we' talked a lot about on our podcast is the social networks having a positive pure group has been shown to be good for your brain because who we've heard this a million times right who you spend time with is who you become or the average of five people we spend the most time with if you're on 9 broke people be careful because you're going to probably be number 10 we have these things called Marin neurons where we're just we're always imitating people around us unconsciously usually and I always tell people to watch you know the things we're marring and imitating are usually the W and watch are words where we tend to have the same language pattern same slang as the people that that we spend time with the A and watch is are the actions the behaviors because it has lot less to do like if you smoke has less to do with your biological networks or your neurological networks and more your social networks if your friends smoke that's definitely more of an influence to you than your biology uh and then the t is our thoughts we tend to have the same recurring thoughts as the people around us C is character we tend to maintain the same level of uh character integrity uh and you know moral uh standards of the people around us and then finally the H and watch our habits right you've heard this phrase where first you create your habits and your habits create you and uh you know we talk a lot about morning routines and evening routines uh I've enjoyed a lot of the things that you've talked about about it also as well so all positive peer group is so important we all need people to encourage us to challenge us to call us on our stuff uh to cheer lead for us and if you haven't found that person be that person right it's also an opportunity to have someone to teach to right not everyone has a substack or a a podcast or a YouTube channel where they're teaching random people on the internet but you have the opportunity to be around people who are curious and who are going to about new things like dude some of the conversations I've had in between sets in the gym have been some of the best things that I've ever done my housemate literally has a podcast called the lift companion where he goes and trains in the gym and the podcast is about what happens in between the sets and uh it's it's it's awesome it's really really fun and you realize that you know you have this really lovely uh periodized all right we're going to talk for a moment you know 60 seconds 90 seconds during the rest period Then someone's going to train then the other person's going to train and then we're going to come back to it and we're going to do another 90 seconds it's this really lovely Rhythm actually to talking about something I very much enjoy it and uh any any excuse to go into the gym more and excuse it as learning absolutely and there's certain brain types that we talk about in the new book these are cognitive types it's an assessment that I put together I've been using test I did the test oh good good good yeah we could we could we could talk about that a few minutes after that these 10 things but like elephants are highly empathetic and they love that specially uh the the community they love uh collaboration they they're the ones that keep everyone together and they have high levels of empathy so they would really you know those are wonderful people to have in your life also as well because sometimes learning is not solo it's social for sure you know book clubs and having accountability Partners or workout you know buddies all all that's really important but just imagine your positive peer group at the uh the sink and we're all just like washing dishes or something like that and that's that helps you to Anchor it so then when you're giving your Ted Talk you could go through and just walk to the microwave and you're like oh all the brain foods right and you can probably some of the people listening if they weren't multitasking when they're listening they probably remember that their avocados and blueberries and broccoli and olive oil and eggs and so on all over their body and then on the stove top you're killing roasting ants and then you open up the refrigerator and people know that there's movement and exercise uh as your body moves your brain grooves you go to the the the dishwasher and you have all your inotropics there and then they at the sink and your positive peer group and then you walk into the other room we'll do the rest really fast super fast so that we get close the loop you know I know you you talked about the zaric effect and this psychologist uh whose last name happens to be zyg garnic and she's at a cafe The Story Goes where she sees everyone all the weight staff uh deliver the orders and take everyone's order and not write any of it down and which is pretty magnificent uh because I love it when someone does that wait up and he's got his hands behind his back it's almost a flex they know what they're doing oh yeah oh yeah and and and I I'm still as much as I know about memory I'm just like oh please write this down just because we'll mess this up and have to wait again but the zaric effect is basically they they will retain that order until they are delivered because the brain doesn't like open Loops right and you know Netflix and all these binge shows they're really good at keeping open Loops to keep people coming back right and uh but yeah we want to close this slop for everybody so they're not like raging on YouTube and stuff now number six so go into my second room and the first the sixth place is going clockwise is the sliding glass door and so I just want you to remember the six key is a clean environment clean environment uh we find that your external world is a reflection of your internal world and you know you clean your desk or make your bed or maybe you're on your computer and everything's the right folder you tend to have Clarity of thought um and when I say say clean environment also going back to like you know when you ingested that uh that toxin that kind of threw you off there are a lot of neurotoxins in our environment it could be off gasing from furniture or from your carpet and so you know having clean air is important whether you you you have the windows open uh or you have an air purifier uh I would include clean environment even the light sources right so many offices and schools they use the like fluorescent lights and that's probably not you know your eyes are only part of your brain uh that that's outside of your skull right and when you have visual fatigue it leads to mental fatigue and uh and they they probably fill offices and schools with that because it's Ultra cheap also also also as well but clean environment so from the lighting from the water from the air and also just organize you know recondo your mind so you get zero to 10 kind of rate yourself how clean your environment is now some people say messy environments is good for katos but that's probably is true because it stim ulates yeah think about think about it this way like walking into any artist's studio what have you got there's a torn up novel over the far side and cigarette ends and there's a magazine and there you know that's not the environment in which you want to do your tax return your tax return is in the office next door it's nice and clean it's clinical it's sterile focused but you also don't want to try and do your next ideation in this room that's bereft of any inspiration for you yeah absolutely so and and also like keeping track of where everything is could also be some Undo You Know memory or Ram that you're doing just consciously keep track of everything right it's a lot easier to put your keys in the same spot every single time so you don't have to kind of think about it going back to storage right encoding storage and then you could retrieve it because it's always in the same storage place so you have a mental a physical file folder not an actual file folder but a place that you store it in also also as well and you you've talked about this like regulating certain activities for where you thrive like you're not going to work in your bed because you're going to get that angs in your executive functioning and wonder why later on you can't sleep there right because of all all that state is being the emotional state is and that activity is being anchored to the environment like we talked about submerging underwater it's not just the information it's the feelings that are being anchored and so like even something simple like if you use your iPad to to watch Netflix and that's your entertainment system don't don't do work on it right I mean something something simple like that I really struggle to read on my phone for that reason you know there's a great uh tool called send to Kindle for Google Chrome and it's just a just an extension it's an Amazon Like official application and you press one button and the web page becomes fully optimized for Kindle and delivers to your device if you got paper white or an oasis or something and uh it turns your Kindle into a rater app but the alternative for me was to use try and use pocket or something which or like a uh I can't remember that other one everyone uses and and like I'm going to read it on my phone I'm like no I'm just if I'm on my phone I'm in task switching messaging executive function mode if I'm on my uh Kindle all I'm thinking about is ah like if I bet if I tra on my whoop I bet that as soon as I pick my Kindle up I just get parasympathetic activation 100% that happens that the device that's in my hands primes the way that I feel with without a doubt you for for me I read most of mine on you know print it's just my I'm looking for any opportunity to not be on a screen but without a doubt our devices get anchored the same way as our our our environment so yeah I would say number six think about the the the door is just clean environment so just imagine we're just cleaning the glass and we're just cleaning the environment around the door which happens to be the sixth place the seventh place is the radiator so I have a radiator there and I would just say the seventh key is sleep so just imagine you're sleeping on the radiator and that that would be very uncomfortable right you feel the heat and um but sleep obviously for your brain is so very important it's probably the number one thing uh it's something that I struggle with for a long time I have uh I was I had undiagnosed obstructive sleep apnea severe where I sto breathing 250 times a night and I was only sleeping a couple hours a night for five straight years and doctors didn't know how or why and had this because misdiagnosed for something else and I eventually had his surgery I had UCLA where they took out my uela soft pallet tonsils it was very painful to Great more air flow my sleep jumped up to like four hours but it it' be like 250 times a night is a lot because each time counts as 10 seconds so that's what an episode was so it's like the doctor was saying no wonder you're not sleeping it's like somebody coming in and put a pillow over your face a couple hundred times a night and so I had a lot of you know anxiety around it I Ed CPAP and dental devices and all these things but you know optimizing your sleep because specifically for your brain because when you get a when you don't get a good night's sleep how are you performing the next day how's your ability to solve problems how's your focus how's your mental endurance right how's your memory you know when you sleep you consolidate short to longterm memory if you have long-term memory issues maybe do a sleep study yourself you could get it easily done at home you know most doctors could prescribe that um it's also where you cleat out the you know the sewage system kicks on in your brain that can Lally uh you know because if it's not taken care of it could lead to brain aging challenges I lost my grandma mother to alzheimer's when I had my two years after I had my brain injury when I was five so that's why I'm just very passionate about about brain health and and my inspiration really is my desperation but we've heard all the Great Brain hacks there's a whole chapter in in here on how to optimize your sleep um we've done many episodes on it my favorite ones and I know your audience knows this but I just want to say maybe say it in a different way just to remind them because are they doing it right if because I know sleep is a big or sleep loss is a big challenge um direct sunlight first thing in the morning right to reset your circadium rhythms um caffeine I can't do past 2:00 in the afternoon because at the halflife I'm extremely sensitive to caffeine so I just want to kind of kind of pull that back a little bit um and then just realize that your brain loves a schedule everyone has an alarm to wake up I really would have alarm to trigger you phasing to sleep otherwise it becomes 11:00 12:00 at night and you know we're not prioritizing our sleep but your brain loves a schedule even on the on the weekends and then as hunter gatherers we would going back to like you know why we are the way we are we would know it' be time to sleep because our environment would tell us there be dip in two environmental factors temperature and light right so the colder now where it's so cold your you're it's it's distracting keeping you up you're shivering but also uh you know darker and sometimes we want to get off those devices also because they can mimic uh it could fool your mind into think it's still daylight right say uh I I read this a couple of week weeks ago which is just a nice again pneumonics and memes and easy ways to remember stuff the 321 rule of 3 hours before you go to bed no no more food 2 hours before you go to bed no more liquids 1 hour before you go to bed no more devices the most difficult one embarrassingly is the 1 hour before bed no more devices because we're so we're so like acculturated to using them that you think what am I going to do for that hour before I go to bed if I'm not using my devices and it's actually a pretty good question but um certainly for me I find uh if I sleep uh if I eat close to going to bed my sleep is wildly disrupted uh whoop did this is a really cool thing that they do they aggregate anonymously all of the user data and they look at correlations in journal entries but and they know right they know what people say that they did and they actually can read the data on the back end and um eating close to bedtime was one of the biggest uh alcohol and eating close to bedtime were two of the biggest uh disruptors when I to sleep that that's been my personal experience also if I if I eat I'm not I can't go to bed you know and so if I end up finishing a meal because I'm out with clients or something at 9 o'clock then I'm pretty much screwed because I'm not going to bed till at least midnight also and alcohol certainly could could have that effect also as well working out sometimes before you go to bed you know because you want to bring your heart rate down but I but I will go into a sauna in the evening because or a hot bath especially like an Epson salt cuz the Magnesium helps you to be able to relax cuz you're absorbing a trans deral um also when you leave the sauna or you leave the the hot bath your core body temperature drops right which is a signal to produce melatonin same thing with the lighting you know but now with modern conveniences we don't have to have it drop in temperature or light right so we have to take agency again and and make conscious decisions uh for for our sleep hygiene so that that that's uh and also dreaming also I I talk about how to remember your dreams in a lot of you know like in the book and other things you could do because it's remarkable in that REM state where you do a lot of your brain doesn't shut off at night I'll just offer this as inspiration uh and a lot of in Inventions uh works of art literature CA music came from dream states you know they say that Mary shell created Frankenstein in Her Dream a chemist created the framework of a perodic the perodic table in his dream Paul McCartney came up the song Yesterday in in a dream right and just lots of lot of stories Elias how created the sewing machine in his dream like these kind of things but that that pre supposes you're getting good sleep right because not just the quantity of sleep it's the quality of your your slow brain wave like the deep sleep and the REM sleep um so yeah that sleeping on the radiator uh so just imagine that everyone remembers it then you walk over next uh we have a china cabinet and there you want to be able to remember a brain protection uh protect your brain this is a simple one right your brain is very resilient but it's also very fragile having had you know three head injuries before age 12 and I had this you know I had my brain brain scann and did all these hyperbaric chambers and and just kind of getting blood flow in the areas that were damaged um just imagine you're headbutting the the china cabinet with a helmet and the helmet reminds you to protect your brain and then finally um we have uh like a a couch kind of area here and U and on the couch you can remember the next thing which is new learnings so just imagine you and I I'm talking to the listeners here on that couch and we maybe have a whiteboard and we're just putting the words new learnings in your favorite color right because it's so important just as you keep your the way you build your body right is through novelty and nutrition and then sleep right but same thing with your mental muscles right it it requires novelty and nutrition and it can even potentially help you to age better meaning there was a study done with nuns and they wanted to find out there a longevity study they living 80 90 uh and above and researchers wanted to find out what was the you know the contributing factors half of it had to do with their emotional faith and gratitude I'm summarizing this the other half they were lifelong Learners they're always reading having debates conversations and they're suggesting because of it it add years to their life and Life to their years they they put this study on the cover of Time Magazine it was called Aging with Grace you know but on a scale of 0 10 and everyone who's listening has a 10 right out of 10 because they're always learning um that would be key because that that's really where the novelty the newness right you make new connections um can be very supportive and then so imagine that on the couch we're doing new learnings and then finally the the dining table there um let's say the last one is Stress Management all right we talked about stress and coping with stress so whatever you do we talked about how chronic stress you know could have negative effects on the brain maybe it's body work on the dining table you know or you're meditating on the dining room table and just take a moment and just picture that so the idea here using the storage we started this with encoding storing retrieving is we've encoded it using visualization and feelings and story we've stored it in very specific places on our body or you know in my two rooms of of my home and then now can you retrieve it so now you're on stage and you're going and you see the microwave and I'm talking to people really who are listening at home what does that microwave remind you of right what's coming out of the microwave and what are you putting on your body all these brain foods and you're probably remember it from avocados all the way to to dark chocolate and backwards because when you understand how your memory works so you can work your memory and you go over the stove top and you're killing ants right you open up the refrigerator and I'm just kind of making this interactive the exercising and then you have your your uh your dishwasher and it's filled with those brain nutrients right the neut tropics and then who's washing the dishes all your positive friends and then you go in the other room the sliding glass door your cleaning it because you're cleaning your environment then the radiator what are you doing on it the behavior is you're sleeping right remind you of sleep and then you go over the china cabinet putting on a helmet to remind you brain protection and then you look at the couch what are we doing we're learning always be learning and then finally the dining table getting massage you're meditating managing your stress so it's just kind of a fun and takes way longer to describe it but I I would challenge people to do their own home and then they can put when you're having a conversation with someone you're doing an interview with somebody maybe you're not taking notes but you're taking mental notes and you're putting some of the key points that you want to remember in places either on your body or office and and it's really infinite it is Limitless the amount of places if you see card counters do that or people like if you see me memorize 100 words or what like these are this is a solid strategy to be of facts figures uh presentations and and so so much more I had a card counter actually Steven Bridges British guy who has a huge YouTube channel uh that people should go and check out it's really cool uh and he goes and takes on casinos on tours like literally like that movie 21 and there's a big player and there's the counters and there's the Spotter and all this stuff wild and uh yeah he he was just like I'm just a normal guy I was into maths and magic and then realized that with a bit of training and a bit of work on my memory that I could keep a hold of the count and I can make I can take casinos for you know 150 or 250 Grand over the space of a weekend which is not yeah not not a bad earner traditional carard counting is like math right so they they have a A plus if you went through it on your pocket right plus one minus one zero each card has Mount so that you kind of know the probability of a of a 10 coming up and you can make your bets accordingly but how they communicated in 21 with their with their their partners that were undercover at the table is they would use signals and they would use an alpha numeric code where every number has a sound and this is like a a code where like they're 10 digits and there also 10 consonant sounds in the English language and each one is is has something so if they happen to be you know up 15 for example or or in this case they they use something different they used basic Association so they said like hey if it happens to be like uh like happens to be a six up and that was about the card counting six could be represented by like a a gun like a six shooter right they use that in the conversation and then people would know like the the exact number they were doing um they have nonverbal signals as well uh because didn't want to keep on saying the same thing in case Mike's Mike's now using AI pick up on the things that they're saying and they can flag that in the back end so yeah it's a a permanent war of evolution between the card counters and the casinos yeah and this could be a disclaimer also this is for recreational purposes only for listeners it's not legal it's not card counting is not legal according to Steven uh in the united St in certain places in the United States um one of the things that I think might be useful I'm thinking about the use case of what we've gone through through so far um great in terms of optimizing our minds you know we mentioned at the beginning that people have got an awful lot of information that they're either indexing consuming in one form or another one of the things that I wish someone had taught me before I started the show uh was about that Discerning skill that we mentioned previously and I one of the ones that I've used which I think is really great and almost alleviates pretty much all of the stress uh there are certainly things that you have to learn right if you're going to go and be a a doctor um you need to learn all of the things in this and you're going to be testing on all of the things and if you're going to learn to drive a forklift truck or whatever it is right like there are certain things where you have to learn the entire body of work but for recreational learning or for stuff that you're going to use to improve your life Tim Ferris has an idea called the good [ __ ] sticks and what he means by that is we often castigate ourselves for not remembering things that we weren't interested in Remembering simply because we have this sort of arbit uh sense that I should remember all of the stuff that I listen to or I should remember most of the stuff that I listen to but really your job as you listen to podcasts like this or read books or substack articles or whatever it might be your job is to discern what are the elements of this that are specifically applicable to me and even that as a decision trait it's like is you know we can get all up in our head about should I be using that am I ever going to want to try and learn to juggle maybe I should buy more socks so that I can do the it's like ultimately the thing that you listen to on a podcast episode or reading a book or or whatever that you can't not take a photo or a screen recording of you can't not you can't stop thinking about it that's the good [ __ ] right and with that okay let's go narrow and deep on that on that one particular thing and we can use all of the tools that we've spoken about today to try and help really embed that but when it comes to the Discerning side of stuff massive overload of information how is it that I'm going to choose what's useful to me for me it's like a it's the most embodied and natural way of doing it there's no decision tree there's no nothing I'll just be listening to some Morgan hell told me this story yesterday about the guy that was choosing the the working out how fast people could run I was like I I can't not remember that right like I'm pretty sure I'm pretty sure I tried to explain it last night and failed uh after I'd spoken to him so all right that's the thing I don't know why that's the thing but that's super important to me so I'm just going to use that so yeah from a Discerning perspective I think the good [ __ ] sticks really lovely simple rule I I I like it primarily our brain is more of a deletion device nowadays we're trying to keep information out because if we let I mean what there's probably a billion stimuli that in our environment or things that we could be thinking that we could focus on and so for me it's a reductive process it's it's eliminating because you know keeping the most important thing is to keep the most important thing the most important thing right and so I think questions are the answer in a lot of these cases you have a part of your brain called the reticular activating system Ras which determines what we're going to shine as a spotlight on you know so you could use that analogy if you're reading a page in a book getting to the end and forgetting what you just read I guarantee you you don't have adequate questions that you're obsessed about because then if you did you'd be shining a spotlight say there's an answer there's an answer there's an answer right and uh and we have about 60,000 thoughts a day and a lot of those thoughts come in the form of questions and then and questions some people suggest is is part of the act of of thinking you're asking and answering questions of yourself you know questions like what's the best use of this of this moment or you know you're mentioning you know with with Tim like how do I how do we make this easy right or how do we make this more more enjoyable or what's the lead Domino right these questions or how do I reach my 10-year goal in six months right where you can't just force it and just work harder you have to you know think think differently and so you know I think three questions again that I I obsess about when I'm listening to a podcast or reading something is things like uh how can I use this right and and I'll actually extrapolate and say like okay this could be useful and then that's my filtering system because I was like oh I can't really use this and I'll just kind of set it aside this is not important for me you know I don't even note take that way you know I'll put a line down the page and on the left side I'll take notes this how you read faster learn languages whatever I remember people's names the kind of stuff that that we teach in the book but then if my mind wanders that that right brain imagination wanders it wanders on the right side of the page and I'm capturing like how does this relate to what I already know right what questions do I have about this how am I going to use it why must I use it right what's a real cool feature for the uh Kindle obsessors amongst us if you use highlights um there's actually a bit where you can highlight and then add a note and you just use the uh the little crappy keypad on the screen um but just a tiny little bit of cont text is great do you use readwise do you know what that is I I don't I know what it is yes okay yeah well just when it resurfaces the highlights from Kindle it also adds the notes in yeah uh so you're not just resurfacing that one particular highlight it also reminds you of the link of the thing that you made so it's like networks of information are being sent back towards you I think that's that's uh that's cool I like it yeah I mean I love digital because it's I mean when people are handwriting not it's been shown to help comprehension and retention but certainly digital notating is a wonderful way to store information share information and integrated in in other things also as well yeah yeah one of the things that's still outstanding I think from the tool set that we've spoken about so far is concentration and focus I think a lot of people have a very negative relationship with their ability to stay focused on task so what do you usually look to First what are the big movers the 820s of uh of focus and attention it depends the context and the behavior of where like when people come to me and say they want a better memory I I hear like somebody coming to a coach and saying I want to be better at sports I'm like well what sport specifically because there's different methodologies and strategies and tools depending on on their goals uh same thing with Focus if people are losing focus when they read there could be a number of contributing factors one of them is what we mentioned they don't have enough questions so they're not getting those answers but another it could be if they're reading and they're losing focus their mind wanders they get the easily distracted it could be they're reading too slow right you have this incredible brain and you feet this super computer brain when you're reading one word at time metaphorically we're like starving our mind and if you don't give your brain the stimulus and craves and needs it'll seek entertainment elsewhere in the form of distraction so sometimes it's you actually don't have the focus because you're reading too slow because it's like driving slow if you're going really slow in your neighborhood you're not really focused on the active driving right you're you're thinking about something that you have to do that day you're drinking your coffee you might be texting whatever you could be five different things when you're going slow but if you're racing cars and taking hairpin turns as fast as you could go you're not thinking about the dry cleaning or you're not trying to text you're completely focused on two things what's in front of you and the actual Act of driving right and that's the equivalent of I found with reading we have an online Academy it's the largest online accelerated learning uh Academy in the world we have students in every country so we have a lot of data right and we find actually that in general the faster readers actually have better comprehension because they have better focus and so U speed equals focus focus equals comprehension and comprehension gives you the retention so I would challenge people that they're learning maybe processing too slow and if youve sped it up a little bit you you won't have time to distract yourself and focus on other things and you'd be monotasking as opposed to trying to trying to multitask and the other part of focus would be on your brain type and I know you took the quiz this is something I've been using with with coaching clients for for years and I realize just how the like there's personalized medicine based on like your genetics or personalized nutrition based on maybe your microbiome there's also we created a personalized learning based on your brain type and I realized and I I I created this model and it's a Model A framework right uh to be useful and and and explain our way our Behavior and the results we're getting and also the behaviors and results of the people around us so just the quick of it is I I I I pulled inspiration from like personality types like Myers bricks introvert extrovert uh multiple intelligence theory uh learning styles verbal uh audio kinesthetic uh lateral dominance like left brain right brain anyway so it's code c o d and these are I use animals because everyone wants to take like a quiz and what Game of Thrones character am I or what I don't know Harry Potter School that kind of thing so it's kind of fun I don't know it maybe take four minutes did it like something like that yeah I did it on my phone yeah it's it's free there's nothing to buy and so we we offering this out to the world because what it's not how smart you are it's how are you smart right and this determines this gives you shines a light on how you are smart so code is an of course for the animals the cheetah are your fast actors right they they they Implement really really fast they they're uh they're they have strong intuition uh they uh they love to adapt right uh the owls are you're they love logic they're very analytical methodical they Thrive when given a space to dissect to ponder Ponder to to analyze things these are individuals who benefit from uh deep work sessions right away from from distractions you have your Dolphins the D in code and these are your creative Visionaries they have strong pattern recognition uh some uh entrepreneurs they're Visionary thinkers they can maybe see a future or an innovation when other people can't quite see it yet uh so these are your creatives these are your dreamers right and then finally the E are your elephants and your elephants I mentioned earlier are your empaths these uh they're very empathetic they're High collaborative souls and they they are the glue that holds like teams together and just to give people a visual take anything in popular culture i it doesn't matter like I don't know if you have a favorite show or uh you know movie that we could draw on whether it's Star Wars or James Bond or Harry Potter or friends like if you take friends like you see the archetypes everywhere so like if you watch Friends Ross would be an owl right he's a scientist he's very astute he studies research right you would say that someone like Joey would be the cheetah very instinctual just just acts right um You would say uh Phoebe is the creative dolphin right with with her music and her art and and uh you know her the the visions and Imagination that she has maybe Monica would be the elephant right brings everyone together always wants to host all all the parties and so on but you'll see this in everything you know James Bond J James Bond would be the cheetah right M uh who runs MI6 would be the owl very very very logical methodical uh money Penny her right hand you know we'd be more the uh the elephant Q who makes all the inventions would be the creative you know Visionary so you could go through and you could do Harry Potter you could do any of this but also it informs the careers like I had our team which we have a few dozen people around the world uh it's remarkable 100% of our customer service team were elephants because they found they found their elements right they're there to be loyal and supportive and empathetic and have your back ta right because their success you know is your success and your success is their success you know our financial person our CFO is is an owl right our our our CEO she's a she's a creative Visionary she has this you know positively impact one billion brains right um and has very you know imaginative things of using that so it's it's interesting when you understand your brain type because it also can inform your your learning and so when people take the quiz it's um we created I think you we sent you a mybrain animal.com corre my brain animal and it takes 4 minutes and you can send it to your spouse and it'll explain their behavior and so you don't have to get like judgmental and everything because that's just how they think and this is how they learn and this is also correlated to how they you know even communicate with people and so it's it's it's a kind of a fun way to kind of get to know each other and and stuff because the cheetah tends to be more direct right straight to the point and the speech is very concise and I know and now you could you could overlap other commun communication and influence models over this right to give it make it even more Rich you know because you I'm sure you have distinctions that that I don't have on this but um you know cheetah is very concise focus on action all the very action oriented words they're very instinctive they trust their gut they have strong intuition they speak in a way that's uh very independent owls are are analytical methodical and think about it an owl would invest different than a cheetah they would buy different than a cheetah they would be influenced they would date you know different they would communicate right owls would be a little bit more patient there like like yourself uh like you're you're like you you do so much research right you are willing to listen you pause you reflect before speaking right these are owl traits I don't um you know I'm not sure what I read the PDF the PDF was cool because it was talking about um you know it's nice to be told what you are or a description that makes you feel seen or makes your whatever disposition feel like less of a just weird personal curse but it's also interesting because it says things like here are some of the areas that you might want to look out for here are some of your uh potential weaknesses this is the way that you can communicate better with uh the elephants in the room and the cheaters in the room and so on and so forth and uh yeah it's cool dude I I think the the the quiz was great the PDF that you guys give afterward also uh really cool so people should go and check that out and you've got new book will be out now when this episode drops as well newly revised version there it is I didn't get it what's happening I didn't get that I I got a digital version send me that version we're we're gonna send this to you along with along with the t-shirt we got your back I'm fully quick pilled once I get yes I I can't I can't wait the Expanded Edition was updated with all new case studies from previous readers and it also is all about momentum so we added chapters in there you know once you unlimit your mindset your motivation and the methods of speed reading memory you know all the stuff Focus getting in flow habits all the stuff we could you know discuss offline we talk about momentum how to create greater momentum in your life and we do it through understanding your brain type right so I put all the research and examples in there the quizz is also in the book uh because that knowing yourself will help you to you know have less friction in your life and relate with others and influence others better we also have the entropic section in there uh which uh people could enjoy because that could actually more momentum talk about learning agility like in a post-pandemic world uh from you know whether you're working hybrid or remote or in person uh there's a whole large chapter on AI too how to use AI to enhance your a hi and for me hi is your human intelligence right and it's not artificial intelligence for me it's really about augmenting your intelligence and different ways you could use it to accelerate your own learning and earning in life but yeah Limitless book.com thank thank you so much I I've been looking forward to this and I want to thank you for the work that you do were can I ask which animal you you tested it I okay that's what I was saying because even with the questioning you ask probing questions get clarity and often you know you could play Devil's Advocate and you could test an idea's validity like I I just it's and you're very structured you know the way the way you you speak and I I I try to follow you when I'm listening when I'm working out and everything and I kind of like I I love the pace and Cadence and and the way you you you make ideas you know very sticky and relevant in people but yeah it's been a it's been a wonderful pleasure we have to have you on our podcast too I'm down get me on oneone you need Jim and uh I really appreciate the kind words I've been a massive fan of your work for a long time everyone you're going check out your book they can go and do the brain quiz and uh yeah dude I'm excited to see what you do next it seems like there's always always more desire for people to improve their brain function I don't think it could come at a better time than right now so keep doing what you're doing thank you can I challenge everyone to do one quick thing absolutely uh take a screenshot of this remember I said that you know knowledge is not only is potential power P we use when we take a small simple step and something that everyone could do right now yes you could obviously go to do the brain quiz and stuff like that but take a screenshot wherever you're con assuming this listening to it or watching it and tag Chris tag myself we get to see it and just share either your brain animal or one thing you're going to do for a better brain we went through at least 10 different science based things that you could focus on maybe it's reading a little bit more adding these brain foods these neut Tropics that Chris has or something you know prioritizing your sleep add that in the post and that way and tag us so we get to see it and I I'll actually repost some of my favorites and gift a few copies out to the community just as a thank you and reinforcing that uh knowledge times action is power you know I truly believe that there's a version of yourself that's patiently waiting and the goal is we show up every single day until we're introduced so it's an honor to be on this journey with all of you hell yeah Jim quick ladies and gentlemen Jim I really appreciate you thank you if you enjoyed that episode then press here for a selection of the best clips from the podcast over the last few weeks and don't forget to subscribe