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Published Date: Sunday, October 20, 2019 Hi All! Today marks the 1 year anniversary of this newsletter! Here are some interesting stats about this newsletter: Total number of bullets sent: 162 Top three themes: success, relationships, happiness Current number of recipients: 19 I started this newsletter as just a way to share three things I learned every week. But over the past year, I've learned that I really enjoy doing it! And if you'd like to help me out with my goal of sharing wisdom, please recommend a friend who might benefit from the newsletter! Here are this week's chosen learning points: Relationship Advice: "When people show you who they are, believe them the first time." —Maya Angelou. | We often project an image onto others, hoping we can polish them into our image. As a result, we ignore the clear signals they're sending about who they really are, and that they're not going to change. (Source) Self-Esteem and Culture: It seems that North Americans tie a lot of self-worth to their job title. A common ice-breaker question is "What do you do for a living?" In other parts of the world, like Britain and Europe, such a question would be considered offensive. They'd much talk about vacations and personal interests (their culture also supports spending more time in those areas). (Source) Flow State and Productivity: To enter flow state (a state of intense concentration and productivity), we need to be well-rested and doing a task that is just above our ability level. Once you start feeling some frustration, you're getting close. Then you need to let go of that frustration and just start focusing on the task or process. Soon, you'll be in flow state. (Source) Here are this week's recommended actions: Think of someone you have a relationship issue with. Ask yourself, "Are you projecting a rosy image on to them when they've made it clear that that's not them?" Try entering flow state for a work session. Make sure you're rested and doing something challenging. And make sure you prevent distractions because distractions will stop flow state, and then you'll have to go through the loading process all over again. Thanks, and have a wonderful week ahead!

Published Date: Sunday, October 13, 2019 Hi All! Here are this week's chosen learning points: Purpose: To use the past and the future to guide your present, ask yourself, "What would my younger self be sad that I stopped doing? Then imagine yourself on your death bed. What would you regret not doing?" (Source) Confidence: According to Oprah and her interviewees, the best thing about getting older is you start living life to be more you and less to be the image of other people. And this really starts after age 40. (Source) Quote on Human Nature: "We're wired for generosity but educated for greed." —Nancy D'Souza Here are this week's recommended actions: Ask yourself the two questions in bullet #1. Use your answers to schedule something meaningful this week. Don't wait until you're older to start living life to be more you. Schedule something for this week to be more you rather than to be the image of other people's expectations. If you think someone else would find this newsletter useful, please forward it to them. Thanks, and have a wonderful week ahead!

"We turn to food when we're bored, when we're stressed, when we're tired, and when we're lonely. We're using food not to fill a hole in our stomach, but to fill a hole in our heart." —Dr. Rangan Chaterjee Commentary: Indeed, I've been guilty of this. In order to stop this almost unconscious bad behavior, first, we must be aware of it. That might be enough to prevent needless eating. If not, then decide on an alternative action you will take instead of eating, such as journaling, doing meditation, or doing breathing exercises. We can incorporate these relaxation exercises into our daily routine to increase our stress threshold. Here are a couple breathing exercises that I've found helpful: Water Breathing: Inhale through your nose for a count of 4, exhale through your nose for a count of 4. When you do this, you basically slow down your breathing by half. This re-balances your nervous system. Keep doing it until you feel more calm and centered. You will get better with practice. You can learn more by checking out this video (water breathing starts at 4:10) Wim Hof Breathing Method: This breathing exercise makes me feel calm, focused, and awake after. It makes about 10 minutes. During that time, you're very actively engaged in the breathing exercise, so it's hard to think about anything else. You can listen to a guided session in this video. Further Resources If the stress is much heavier and or the hole in the heart is much bigger, then breathing exercises alone might not be enough. In that case, check out this article on The 7 Habits of Stress Resistant People.

A group of blind men were brought to inspect an elephant, and each man touched a different part of the elephant. The first man, who ran his hands along the elephant’s trunk, said “the elephant is like a thick snake.” The second man, who felt the ear, said the “No, the elephant resembles a big fan.” The third man, who touched a leg, said “No, the elephant is like a pillar.” The fourth man, who patted the elephant’s side, said “The elephant is clearly like a wall.” The fifth man, who touched a tusk, said “I’m certain the elephant is like a spear.” The last man, who felt the elephant’s tail, said “You’re all wrong. The elephant is just like a rope.” Unable to come to an agreement, the men continued to argue and defend themselves, eventually even coming to physical blows. Image Source Commentary: This parable emphasizes the importance of humility, open-mindedness, and perception. So often, we believe our limited views to be the whole truth. Compounding the problem, we become attached to our ideas and want to defend them. As a result, we arrogantly reject the views of others. A person once told me that he has many ideas in his head, and he wants others to criticize them so that he can make sure only the best ideas stay in his head. If he disagrees with others’ ideas, he remains respectful. We can all be happier and build our characters by following his example.

Once, there was a son who had a very bad temper, and he sincerely wanted to improve. His dad told him, “If you want to improve your temper, then every time you get angry, I want you to take a nail and hammer it in the big tree in our backyard.” Image Source So that’s what the son did. At the beginning, he’d put 5 or 6 nails in each day. After a few days, he was startled at how many nails he’d already put into the tree. He thought, “I had no idea my temper was this bad!” The son then worked hard to not get angry. After a period of hard work, he was able to have days where he didn’t get angry at all. Then, his dad told him, “For each day you don’t get angry at all, you can remove one nail from the tree.” The son was very happy to hear this. He worked hard, and over a long period of time, finally came the day where he could remove the last nail from the tree. He told his dad proudly, “I did it! That’s the last nail gone!” The dad replied, “Even though you removed the last nail, what happened to the tree trunk?” The son realized, “There’s so many holes.” “Can the tree ever return back to the way it was before you put the nails in?” asked the dad. “No.” replied the son. To which the dad said, “And so it’s the same with people.”

A short story on balancing loving-kindness with wisdom. In ancient China, Emperor Yao was looking for a successor to his throne. He heard rumors of a person named Shun, who had great moral character and served his parents with utmost filial piety despite receiving terrible treat from them. Yao decided to dress up as a common citizen and go visit Shun's residence. When he arrived, he saw a young man tilling the soil with the aid of a black cow and a brown cow. The two cows were in the front dragging a tilling tool, while Shun held the tool at the back. (The tool looks somewhat like big tool in the picture. Two cows are be tied to the tool at the front. When the cows walked forward, they dragged the tool, which would then till the soil.) But Yao noticed something strange about Shun's method. Usually, farmers would whip the cows to make them walk. However, Shun put his large sun hat on the tool and whipped the hat. So Yao asked Shun, "Young man, why are you whipping that hat?" Shun replied, "When I whip the hat, it makes a loud sound. The brown cow thinks the black cow is getting hit, and the black cow thinks the brown cow is getting hit. That motivates both of them to keep working hard." Commentary: Sometimes, we lack loving-kindness, which creates conflict. Other times, we want to help others, but we don't know how, and our lack of wisdom results in problems. Shun shows a great example of balancing loving-kindness with wisdom.

A short story on the virtue of trustworthiness. Image Source Once upon a time in ancient China, two young children were peeling walnuts. The sister left to use the washroom. Since the family was wealthy, they had servants. A servant passed by and saw the young boy struggling to peeling the walnuts. The servant told him that peeling the walnuts will be much easier if he puts them in hot water first. The boy followed the servant's instructions and was able to peel the walnuts with great ease and speed. When the sister got back, she noticed that her brother had peeled so many walnuts. Amazed, she said, "Wow that's amazing! Who taught you how to do that?" The brother replied, "I figured it out myself." Just as he said this, the father passed by. The father knew his son definitely could not figure that out himself, so he scolded him, saying, "However much ability you have is however much you should say. You definitely did not learn that yourself. Don't exaggerate your abilities." After that humiliation, the son remained honest for the rest of his life, and went on to be very successful in his career.

A short story on the virtue of trustworthiness. Image Source One hot summer day, a young boy looked out the window and saw some other kids eating ice cream. The boy decided to secretly take some coins and sneak out the house to go buy ice cream. The dad noticed and followed behind his son secretly. When the son bought the ice cream and was about to take his first bite, he saw his dad’s angry face. The dad took him home and punished him. The boy never stole or did things secretly again. When the son grew up, he was invited to work for a foreign company abroad. While he worked there, he lived in the company’s dormitory. When he cleaned his room, he often saw money laying randomly around the room. Sometimes it was a few dollars, other times a few hundred dollars. Once, he even found $3000 dollars! He always gave the money to the dorm manager. Despite not having a great educational background, he was treated very well by the company’s leader. The leader often gave him great jobs that others with better educational backgrounds wanted. Later, the son decided to resign and open his own shop back home. His leader was saddened to hear the news, but he wanted to see him off with one final dinner. During the dinner, the son mentioned, “Oh yeah, I need to ask you something. Why is it that when I clean the dorm room, I often find money laying around?” The leader smiled and said, “Well, you’re a stranger and outsider. How do I know if I can trust you? Seeing what you did with that money is how I knew you could be trusted.”

A short story on how Emperor Yao role modeled humility and responsibility. Image Source Once, Emperor Yao was walking through his kingdom, when he saw two people being arrested by the police. The Emperor asked what happened. The police told him these two villagers are being arrested for stealing food. The Emperor then asked the two villagers, “Why did you steal food?” The villagers told him, “There hasn’t been rain for a long time, so our crops died, and we have nothing to eat.” After hearing this, the Emperor told the police to let the two villagers go and to arrest him instead. The police were baffled and asked, “But you’re the Emperor! On what grounds can we arrest you?” Emperor Yao replied, “It’s my fault for not teaching my citizens well. That’s why they resorted to stealing. Furthermore, my lack of virtues is related to this long drought. I have not done a good job as Emperor.” As soon as the Emperor finished speaking, the sky turned grey, and rainfall came shortly after.

A big company interviewed hundreds of people for an important job. In the final round, the CEO personally held a group interview for the last 10 finalists. The CEO was about to sit down and begin the interview, when he suddenly got interrupted by his assistant about some urgent matter. The CEO told the 10 people to please wait in the meeting room, and that he will be back shortly. The 10 finalists sat there for around 2 minutes, then some of them started walking around the room and flipping through documents on the shelves and tables. Not long after, all of them were doing it. The CEO came back and told them none of them passed the interview. The 10 finalists were shocked. One asked, “We passed the company interviews round after round, how can you reject us without even giving us an interview?” The CEO replied, “I was only gone for less than 10 minutes, and I passed by a security camera computer, where I saw all of you started looking through documents without my permission. It’s clear that none of you know respect and carefulness. If I can’t trust you with such small matters that shouldn’t even need to be said, how can I trust you with such an important job?”

Here are my key takeaways from the book Limitless by Jim Kwik. The book is about how to reach your full potential, which Kwik views as basically limitless. The author is a renowned brain expert, so this book looks at optimizing your brain and mind. Here is a clickable table of contents to help you navigate this article. Why did the author write this book? What are the main ideas of the book? Part 1: Mindset Types of Genius Overcoming Limiting Beliefs The 7 Lies of Learning Part 2: Motivation Three Lies About Motivation The Formula for Motivation Purpose Energy Small Simple Steps Flow State Part 3: Methods Focus Study Memory Speed Reading Thinking How have I applied the book to my life? What is my opinion on the book? Advice for where to start: If you have any negative or limiting self-talk, start with Part 1: Mindset. If you struggle to take action, start with Part 2: Motivation. If you are a student who wants to learn faster for school, I suggest you jump straight to Part 3: Methods. Why did the author write this book? As a child, Kwik struggled with learning due to a childhood brain injury. It wasn’t until university that he finally started devoting effort to learning how to learn. After seeing drastic improvement to his learning ability, he dedicated his life to teaching others how to learn more effectively. He grew up believing he had many limitations, and he knows how crippling that feels. He hopes to help others see that they can be limitless so that they can contribute their full potential to the world. He’s been doing that for years through consulting, speaking engagements, online courses, and his Kwik Brain podcast. He wrote this book to consolidate all his teachings from his past work to create an accessible book for the mass public. What are the main ideas of the book? Kwik believes that there’s three keys to becoming limitless: Mindset, Motivation, and Methods. Part 1: Mindset He defines mindset as “The deeply held beliefs, attitudes, and assumptions we create about who we are, how the world works, what we are capable of and deserve, and what is possible.” He gives the analogy of a baby elephant that’s tied to a stake in the ground. As a baby, the elephant doesn’t have enough power to pull the stake up, so it eventually stops trying. By the time the elephant is grown up, it has more than enough power to overcome the stake, but it doesn’t try because of what it learned as a baby. People’s limiting mindsets are like that stake. To unlimit our mindset, Kwik talks about Types of Genius Overcoming Limiting Beliefs The 7 Lies of Learning 1.1 Types of Genius In school, we learned that smart people get good grades. The problem is, people are smart in different ways, and school doesn’t measure all of the ways. Kwik mentions four types of geniuses: Dynamo Genius: They have amazing creativity and ideas. Example: Shakespeare. Blaze Genius: They have an extraordinary ability to connect with people. Example: Oprah. Tempo Genius: They have the ability to see the big picture and stay on course towards that grand vision. Example: Nelson Mandela. Steel Genius: They are great at details. Example: Sergey Brin (co-founder of Google) Kwik recommends people to identify what type of genius they have and to evaluate their ability from that perspective rather than from the book-smart perspective. 1.2 Overcoming Limiting Beliefs Next, Kwik talks about overcoming our limiting beliefs through three steps. Step 1: Name Your Limiting Belief. For example, you might think you’re not good company to others, that you’re not interesting. You can name it the “I’m not enjoyable to be around” belief. Step 2: Get to the Facts. The key here is to not focus on how you felt but what actually happened. For example, you might have felt horrible speaking in a group. But what happened? Did anyone say you’re boring? Did anyone tell you go to away? Probably not. Then ask yourself, “How much of my perceived poor performance was because my self-talk just wouldn’t leave me alone?” Step 3: Create a New Belief. Your limiting belief probably used words like “always” or “never”. For example, “I always screw up” or “I can never do well in school.” Of course, no one always or never does anything. It’s just your emotions exaggerating things. So create a new, accurate belief to replace the limiting one. You can realize that there were times you did decent on tests, so you can create the belief that “I don’t always get an A, but when I work hard, I increase my chances of success.” Another example: “I may not be the most charismatic person, but I’m certainly fine enough to be part of a social conversation.” 1.3 The 7 Lies of Learning When Kwik uses the word “lie”, he means Limited Ideas Entertained. Lie 1: Intelligence is fixed. New Belief: My intelligence can grow if I believe it can grow and then I put in the work to grow it. Lie 2: We only use 10% of our brains. New Belief: I am learning to use my whole brain in the best way possible. Lie 3: Mistakes are failures. New Belief: Mistakes are signs that you are trying something new, and they are opportunities to learn. Life isn’t about comparing yourself to anyone else, it’s about comparing yourself to who you were yesterday. There’s no such things as failure, only failure to learn. Lie 4: Knowledge is power. New Belief: Knowledge has to be acted on. Knowledge combined with action equals power. Lie 5: Learning new things is very difficult. New Belief: When you learn how to learn, the challenge of learning new things can be fun, easier, and enjoyable. Lie 6: The criticism of other people matters. New Belief: It’s not other people’s job to like, love, or respect me. That’s my job. Lie 7: Genius is born. New Belief: Genius is not born; it is made through deep practice. Part 2: Motivation He defines motivation as “the purpose one has for taking action. The energy required for someone to behavior in a particular way.” In this section, Kwik goes over The three lies about motivation The formula for motivation Purpose Energy Small Simple Steps Flow State 2.1 Three Lies About Motivation Lie 1: Motivation is fixed. Truth: You can increase your motivation. Lie 2: You have to enjoy something to be motivated to do it. Truth: You simply need to have a strong enough reason to do something, even if you don’t enjoy doing it. Lie 3: Motivation is something I either have or don’t have. Truth: Motivation can be created. 2.2 The Formula for Motivation Motivation = Purpose X Energy X Small Simple Steps We need a clear purpose to that we know why we need to act. Then we need sufficient energy to take action. Finally, small simple steps prevent you from getting paralyzed or overwhelmed while acting. 2.3 Purpose To get clear on your purpose, articulate clearly in writing why you need to do what you need to do. Put in other words, ask yourself, “Why MUST I do this?” It’s important to not get confused between purpose and passion. Finding your passion is like finding a true love. You have to go out on many dates to find the perfect match, and you have to put in effort to build a relationship. Since a passion can be nurtured, you can have multiple passions. On the other hand, purpose is about using your passion to serve other people. For example, Kwik’s passion is learning, and his purpose is teaching other people how to learn. Another important step in finding your purpose is to get clear on your hierarchy of values. For example, Kwik’s values are love, growth, contribution, and adventure, in that order. If you ask him why he does what he does, he can say because it’s aligned to one of his values. If you ask him to pick between spending time with family or going on an adventure, he’d pick family because love is higher on the hierarchy for him. Once you see how doing something is aligned to the values that you consciously set, you create motivation. For example, an A-student doesn’t pick up her stack of textbooks because she’s in a good mood. She does it because she wants to be top of her class so she can create a better future for her family who sacrificed a lot for her to have a good education. Ultimately, motivation comes from feelings. The main feelings that can motivate us are pleasure, pain, hope, fear, social acceptance, and social rejection. Here’s a simple exercise to create motivation to do something. First, write down all the disadvantages you have to deal with if you don’t do the task. Then make sure you really FEEL the emotions. Don’t keep it intellectual. We make decisions based on feelings. Next, write down all the benefits you can gain from doing the task. Make sure the list is actually exciting. Then FEEL those emotions. 2.4 Energy After having a clear purpose for doing something, you need enough energy to act. If you have a purpose for reading 30 minutes a day, but you’re tired all the time, you may not succeed in completing the task. How can people maintain high energy levels? The major suggestions he gives are Diet Exercise Clean environment Peer group Sleep Diet Studies show that there’s a direct connection between a good diet and a healthy brain. Here are some of Jim Kwik top brain foods: avocados*, blueberries*, broccoli, green leafy vegetables, turmeric, walnuts*, eggs*, and water. *Side Note: The Medical Medium, who is a health expert I trust, advises against eating eggs because it feeds common viruses that most people have living inside of them, and these viruses release waste products that can lead to chronic disease. He also highly praises frozen wild blueberries, saying they are thousands of times more nutritious and powerful than the cultivated blueberries sold in plastic clam shells. As for avocados and walnuts, he agrees that they are healthy, but he reminds people to not eat too many each day because too much fat, including healthy fat, is stressful for the liver. Exercise Regular exercise is important to protect memory and thinking skills. You don’t need to become an Olympic athlete though. Even 10 minutes of aerobic exercise a day can have large benefits. Side Note: For those of us who struggle with consistently exercising, Doctor Rangan Chaterjee made a great 5-minute kitchen workout that people can do conveniently in their kitchen without changing into workout clothes or going to a gym. Clean Environment Having a dirty or messy environment is mentally taxing. We should create a clutter-free and distraction-free working environment to boost our energy. Having a clean environment can also mean avoiding places with polluted air. Peer Group Your peers also affect your energy level. As motivational speaker Jim Rohn said, You are the average of the five people you spend most time with. -Jim Rohn If you spend time with passionate, high energy people, you will catch their energy. If you spend time with pessimistic complainers, your energy will get drained. Sleep Finally, getting enough quality sleep is key to having energy. Studies show that regular exercise after a couple months can improve sleep amount and quality; exercise is not an instant magic pill to improve sleep, but it does have big effects if you stick to it. Mindfulness meditation is another tool to help relax people with busy minds. 2.5 Small Simple Steps Even if people have a purpose to do something and the energy to do it, they can get paralyzed or overwhelmed by how big or difficult the task seems. That’s where small simple steps come in handy. A small simple step is “the tiniest action you can take to get you closer to your goal.” For example, if your task is to write a difficult email to a coworker, the small simple step might be to just sit down. That’s it. After you sit down, the next small simple step is to open your email. That’s it. Then the next small simple step is to click the button to start a new email. You might be wondering, is that really going to help? The answer is yes because uncompleted tasks create tension at the front of our minds until the task is completed. That's called The Zeigarnik Effect. For example, if you’re in the middle of watering your garden, and then suddenly your neighbor asks you to help them carry a new couch into their house, during the whole time you’re helping them, you just want to go back and finish watering your garden so you can stop thinking about it. Well, if you sit down and open a new email, you’ll just start wanting to write that email so you can stop thinking about it later. 2.6 Flow State Flow state is when you get so immersed in doing something that you lose track of time, there’s a sense of effortlessness, you feel total focus, and you feel comfortable. Kwik states that one someone achieves flow state, they will become highly motivated to try to get into flow state again in the future. Flow state has four stages. The first stage is struggle, when you just start and you’re trying to concentrate. The second stage is relaxation, when you start getting relaxed into the task. The next stage is flow, when you have that intensely focused experience. The last stage is consolidation, when you pull together everything you accomplished during flow state. This last stage might feel like a low because you just came out of the high of flow state. He gives the following advice on finding flow state: Eliminate distractions Give yourself enough time to do the task at a comfortable pace; he recommends at least 90 minutes Do something you love Have clear goals Part 3: Methods Jim Kwik defines method as “A specific process for accomplishing something, especially an orderly, logical, or systematic way of instruction.” This is the largest section of the book, and it covers Focus Study Memory Speed reading Thinking 3.1 Focus The difference between average performance and super performance is often focus. Focus is like a magnifying glass that magnifies sunlight (your energy) to create a fire. Many people find it so easy to get distracted all the time. The good news is that focus can be trained like a muscle. We can think of awareness like a glowing ball of light that moves to distant parts of your mind. To improve focus, you need to train your awareness to fixate on one spot of your mind for an extended period of time. If you notice the light move to something else, bring it back. With practice, the habit of getting re-focused can become second nature. To calm your busy mind, Kwik gives the following recommendations. First is the 4–7–8 breathing Method. Basically, you exhale fully, close your mouth, inhale through your nose for a count of 4, hold the breath for a count of 7, and then exhale completely through the mouth for a count of 8. Do it four times. The second method is simply to go do something that’s been stressing you out. The third method is to schedule time for distractions (like checking your phone notifications). 3.2 Study There’s so much information to learn and only limited time, so it’s extremely important that we study effectively. Kwik gives many major tactics, of which I think the first two are the most critical. First is to focus on active recall rather than passive recognition. Many people study using passive recognition, which is simply looking at your notes and seeing how much you recognize. When reviewing, you might think to yourself, “Yup, know that, seen that, remember that, got it.” And yet when it comes time to use that knowledge, it becomes hard to remember it. To employ active recall, first study something, then close your book and actively say or write down what you remember. Second is to do spaced repetition instead of cramming. As you might already know, cramming is stressful and the result is that while you might remember the information for the test the next day, after the test you’ll probably forget almost everything. Kwik recommends reviewing once in the morning and again before dinner for four days in a row before a big evaluation. Third is to get in a focused and enthusiastic mental state before studying. Often that can be as simple as sitting in a posture as if you’re about to learn the most important information of your life. if we slouch and are tired, we’re not going to get good results. Fourth is to use your sense of smell. Since smell brings back memories, you can put a certain perfume or cologne on your wrist while studying, then smell that smell during the test to help bring back memories. Fifth is to use music to put you into a state that makes learning easier. He specifically recommends baroque music because it stabilizes the mind to help you reach deep concentration and focus. As a result, it helps you learn vocabulary, memorize facts, and read more effectively. This type of music tends to have 50–80 beats per minute. He recommends simply searching for a baroque playlist on any music streaming service you use, such as Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music. Sixth is take effective notes. To do so, first be clear on WHY you are taking notes. For example, the notes you take in a weekly meeting will be much less detailed than the notes you take in a weekly leading up to a major client presentation. Second, use your own words whenever possible instead of transcribing word for word what the speaker said. This way, you’re actually processing what the speaker said. Third, you should both capture and create notes. On the left side of your notebook page, capture things that the speaker said. On the right side, create your own notes by answering questions like How can I use this? Why must it use this? When will I use this? Below is an example. Notice that the notes aren’t just transcribing word for word what the speaker said, which is probably defining and explaining each of the leadership traits. The notes are useful because they identify how those notes are going to be used. 3.3 Memory Most of us would love to have a better memory. Whether it’s remembering names of people we’ve just met or remembering large amounts of information for a test or presentation, a good memory is extremely helpful. Kwik gives the following tools to improve memory: MOM (Motivation, Observation, Method) Linking words to images (visualization) Linking new information to old information (association) Add emotion Creating a story to link a sequence of words Use the loci story method Memory Tool 1: MOM (motivation, observation, and method) Motivation simply means having a strong purpose to remember something. For example, if I give you a list of 10 words and told you, “If you can repeat this list to be in order in one hour, I’ll give you 1 million dollars,” you’d probably be able to remember that list in one hour. So we need a strong reason to remember. Observation basically means being present and focused. If something tells you their name and you’re thinking about the food on the table there, you’re not likely to remember that name. Methods are all the tactics explained in the following paragraphs. Memory Tool 2: Visualization Linking words to images is quite simple. If someone’s last name is Baker, actually imagine them in a baker’s outfit. Imagine them with a big white hat, smelling like bread. Similarly, if you learned the word adaptable, you can turn it to an image by imaging a tap dancing table and how the table is able to change the dance style according to different music. When we visualize things to be weird and vivid, it's extremely easy to remember. Memory Tool 3: Association Linking new information to old information is key to memory and we’ve been doing it all our lives. For example, if you think of the word “cherry”, you might think red, sweet, fruit, pie, etc. That’s how you remembered the word. Continuing the example of the word adaptable, you can imagine a chameleon on the tap dancing table. Then you remember, "A tap dancing table sounds like a-dap-table". There's a chameleon on it, so the word means "being able to change with the situation." Memory Tool 4: Add Emotion Information by itself is hard to remember, but when you add emotion to it, it becomes much easier to remember. We can add feelings of humor, adventure, or excitement. To continue the above example of the word adaptable, you can the table tap dancing to your favorite song, which creates feelings of humor and enjoyment. Memory Tool 5: Create a Story If you need to memorize a sequence of words for some reason (e.g., the Periodic Table elements for a science test), you can link the words together by creating a story. Most people just use rote learning, that is they’ll say “Hydrogen, Helium, Lithium…” over and over again until the brain finally remembers it. This type of learning is inefficient. Kwik gives a story example: Imagine you’re standing next to a giant fire hydrant. Then you attach a bunch of balloons to the fire hydrant. The balloons somehow take the hydrant off the ground so that it flies high up in the sky. Suddenly it starts raining batteries and the balloons pop. He goes on and on with the story for about 10 events, each event representing an element of the periodic table. He then explains the first event, hydrant, represent hydrogen. The second event, balloons, represents helium. The third event, batteries, represent lithium, etc. Notice that the story uses visualization, association, and emotion. Since the story is so vibrant, it’s easy to remember the story, and since you linked each major event to a word, it’s easy to remember the sequence that you have to memorize. Memory Tool 6: The Loci Method The loci story method is basically the story method with one additional feature: Your story involves you going through different parts of a setting (such as a house), and each setting has one object that represents something in the list your trying to memorize. The benefit of this method is that you don’t have to come up with a new story every time. You just use the same story, except you change the items in each setting. For example, you can imagine a big mansion with 10 rooms, and during the story you walk through all 10 rooms. In each room you find a different object, which you can change to suit the list you’re trying to memorize. Again, you have to make the story vibrant by using visualization, association, and emotion. 3.4 Speed Reading In our current information age, the ability to read faster without losing comprehension is a key skill to learn. Reading activates your brain and improves your memory, focus, vocabulary, imagination, and understanding. There two main challenges that limit our reading speed and focus. First is regression, which is when you’re reading and then you forget which line you’re on so you have to go back and re-read. Second is subvocalization, which is your inner voice saying every single word on the page out loud inside your head. One big misconception people have about speed reading is that comprehension is sacrificed. In fact, the opposite is true if you do speed reading correctly. Comprehension should be increased because you’re more focused. Kwik gives the example of driving on a highway. When you’re driving really fast, you become more focused. Similarly, when you’re reading really fast, you become extremely focused and therefore comprehension should increase. Kwik gives the following advice to improve reading speed and focus: Use a finger or pen as a tracker on the page so you don’t get lost while reading Force yourself to read really fast, and then slow down. You should be able to read fast and focused now. Reduce subvocalization by counting "1,2,3..." while reading Expand your peripheral vision Read for only 20 minutes at a time, and then take a 5-minute break. You will easily remember what you read at the beginning and at the end. Look at the page directly rather than slanted. For example, put the textbook directly in front your eyes rather than flat on the table. This reduces eye strain. To elaborate on subvocalization, we don’t actually need to say each word out loud in our heads to comprehend words on a page. Speed readers anywhere between 500 to 1200 words per minute. It’s impossible to speak that fast. So how do they do it? The way reading works is that words represent symbols. Since we’ve seen 95% of the words on the page before, we don’t need to pronounce those words in our heads to understand what’s happening. So speed readers don’t subvocalize. When they read, they see images, they see a story happening in their head rather than hearing a story. That’s why Kwik recommends consciously counting “1, 2, 3…” while reading to reduce the habit of subvocalization. To elaborate on peripheral vision, one reason we read slow is because we read one word at a time. But we can actually read groups of words together at once. For example, “report card” can be read as one group of words. In order to train our ability to read groups of words at a time, we need to start using our peripheral vision. 3.5 Thinking As Albert Einstein said, “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” -Albert Einstein So often, we’re stuck in the same problems because we can elevate our thinking ability. Kwik shares these mental models to help us think differently and more creatively: The Six Thinking Hats Eight forms of intelligence Three learning styles The 40/70 Rule for Decision Making Create a not-to-do list to boost productivity Study your errors Second-order thinking Think exponentially* Mental Model 1: Six Thinking Hats Most people view a problem from just one perspective, their perspective. The six thinking hats is a method you can use to view a problem from multiple perspectives. Here’s the basic gist: White hat = information-gathering mode Yellow hat = argue positives and pros Black hat = argue negatives and cons Red hat = analyze emotions at play Green hat = brainstorm solutions Blue hat = management mode. Make sure you’ve addressed everything on the agenda. Image Source It’s a great exercise to do in a team meeting or individually. Mental Model 2: Eight Intelligences The eight forms of intelligence can be used to identify your strengths in how you think. Most people have multiple intelligences but are dominant in one or two. Spatial: thinks in terms of the space around them (e.g., artists, pilots) Bodily-kinesthetic: Uses their body to express (e.g., athletes) Musical: Strong sense of rhythm, pitch, melody, tone, timbre (e.g., Mozart) Linguistic: Really attuned to words (e.g., Shakespeare) Logical-Mathematical: Great at seeing the logical relations among actions or symbols (e.g., Einstein) Interpersonal: Great at connecting with people’s feelings (e.g., Oprah) Intrapersonal: Great at understanding and managing one’s inner feelings Naturalistic: Able to see all the complexities and beauties in the natural world (e.g., Jane Goodall) Image Source To solve problems better, it’s important to try to tackle the problem from multiple intelligences. Mental Model 3: Three Learning Styles The three learning styles are Visual: You prepare to learn through pictures, charts, videos Auditory: You prefer to learn through listening Kinesthetic: You prefer to learn through physical interaction and hands-on approaches Image Source Knowing your dominant learning style will help you learn faster, but purposely trying out other learning styles can also help you think more creatively. Mental Model 4: The 40/70 Rule The 40/70 rule for decision making states: Don’t make a decision with less than 40% of the information available (that’s guessing) but don’t wait until more than 70% (that’s stalling). Mental Model 5: Not-To-Do Lists Many people create to-do lists, but the lists end up becoming super long and overwhelming. The power of a not-to-do list is that it helps you eliminate distractions and not do less important tasks. The not-to-do list probably has items like checking social media, answering email, doing that errand, etc. Mental Model 6: Studying Errors Studying our errors is a critical method to make sure we don't make the same mistake twice. First, get clear on what did or didn't happen that turned out to be a problem. Then ask why those mistakes happened. Keep digging deeper by asking "why" until you can't dig deeper anymore. Then decide how you can avoid the same mistake in the future and how you can create better conditions for success next time. While all this sounds intuitive and obvious, the thing is, most people don't sit down and methodically, step by step ask themselves these questions. They just glance over the mistake, make a quick and shallow inference for the why, and then don't really come up with a good resolution for preventing the mistake next time. Mental Model 7: Second-Order Thinking Second-order thinking can be used for analyzing future options. Basically, you just keep asking yourself "And then what?" Think in increments of time, like five days, five months, five years. Most people don't think long-term enough, so this mental model helps to address that problem. For example, you might wonder, "Should I go out and party tonight? Well, tonight it'll be great. Tomorrow I'll be unproductive. In a week I'll regret not studying. In a month I might have a bad habit. OK I won't." Mental Model 8: Exponential Thinking Kwik writes a lot on exponential thinking because it's hard to do. The basic idea is that incremental thinking is about making something better, whereas exponential thinking is about making something different. Incremental thinking is to make a 10% improvement, while exponential thinking is to go for a 10X improvement. The example Kwik gives is that someone is trying to figure out how to have everyone in the family eat dinner together 3 times a week. A linear mindset would look at everyone's schedules and try to find appropriate times. An exponential mindset would think maybe "dinner" isn't even the goal; the goal is to have more quality moments during the week where everyone can be together. In that case, schedules aren't the problem, but rather how people choose to commit their time. Then I need to get everyone to prioritize quality family time and then we'll naturally have more family bonding time. *A side note on exponential thinking: I've also heard Tim Ferriss talks about this, and he explains it as simply asking yourself better questions. So instead of asking yourself, "How can I increase revenues by 10% this year?", ask "How can I 10X or 100X my revenues this year?" Another example, "How can I plan for a good retirement at age 60?" versus "How can I retire in 2 years?" Just asking yourself these dramatic questions will force you to think more creatively. You may not always get a viable solution, but what you learn during the brainstorming can give you valuable insights. How Have I Applied the Book to My Life? I really liked all the practical tools that Kwik provided in his book. Speed Reading Speed reading is probably the biggest benefit I took away. I applied many of his speed-reading suggestions. When reading on my kindle, I place my two thumbs at 1/3 and 2/3 width of the screen and then move my thumbs down the page. This way, I use my thumbs as pacers to prevent regression without having to move a finger left and right so much. I also make use of my peripheral vision. While reading I also consciously get focused, like people get pumped before lifting heavy weights. That focus helps me reader faster and increases comprehension. I also count to reduce subvocalization. Study I’m not a student in school anymore, but I sure wish I knew about the capture and create method of taking notes when I was a student. That would have made my memory much better. Fortunately, I did use active recall and spaced repetition as a student, which helped me be an A-student. The story and loci method sound like they would be useful if I had to give a long presentation with many talking points without looking at notes, but I haven’t encountered such a situation yet. I’ll be interested to try it out when a suitable situation arises for me. Focus I tried out the awareness-as-a-ball-of-light technique to help me concentrate while meditating because my mind wanders a lot. It didn’t really help me. I later just thought of it as, “Okay it’s normal to get distracted. The key is to notice it and then return back to focus. Each time I do that is like a bicep curl for my focus muscle. The goal is to return to focus faster rather than to not get distracted.” From that perspective, I felt a lot better. In terms of my focus when doing work, I find I’m usually able to get quite focused and often get into flow. I attribute that to years of practice sitting down for 2–3 hour sessions to blaze through textbook chapters during my student years. Mindset The chapter on overcoming limiting beliefs was also useful. When I have conflicts with people, I find myself sometimes thinking, “I can never make that person happy.” After reading that chapter, I changed the belief to, “I can’t always make that person happy because that person’s happiness is out of my control. But I can do my best and I should evaluate myself based on what I do rather than that person’s reasonable or unreasonable reaction.” I’ve heard many people talk about how mistakes are not failures, they are simply opportunities to learn. Something I found useful is to stop getting frustrated when I make mistakes and accept that I will make mistakes and have problems in life. What I should judge myself on is how fast I can overcome that problem both practically and emotionally. Motivation I liked his model for motivation because it’s simple to explain to people. I also liked how he distinguished between passion and purpose. Regarding Small Simple Steps, I actually first heard about something very similar from David Allen, author of Getting Things Done. I then heard about it from BJ Fogg, author of Tiny Habits. Then I saw it a third time in Limitless, but what’s nice about this book is that it explained how if you start something and then stop, there’s mental tension until you finish the task. After understanding this, I starting using Small Simple Steps a lot more. What is my opinion on the book? I’ve followed Jim Kwik’s podcast for a while, so a lot (though not all) of the content in the book I’ve heard before. With that being said, it was still a great summary of his major teachings packaged in one nice short book. I actually bought his memory and speed reading courses, and he really does a great job giving a high-level summary of what he teaches in those courses. He wasn't trying to hide any secrets. Of course, he isn't able to go into as much depth as his courses because of length restrictions, but it's great to see that he genuinely is trying to help as many people as he can with this book. Would I recommend this book? Firstly, if you are a student in school, I definitely recommend it because it will make your school life so much better if you apply his learning methods. If you’re not a student in school, but you’re a student in life, I still recommend it. It’s highly practical, and the writing is not dry or boring.

"Most illnesses do not, as is generally thought, come like a bolt out of the blue. The ground is prepared for years through faulty diet, intemperance, overwork, and moral conflicts, slowly eroding the subject's vitality." —Dr. Paul Tournier Commentary: We often take good health for granted. I certainly did. It's unfortunate that I had to get a health scare to finally take healthcare seriously. Healthcare is about preventing illness, not about dealing with it when it comes up. My health scare was a horrible skin condition. When it happened, I first thought "What did I eat or do recently to cause this?" It's been almost a year since the worst point of my health scare, and I really see the truth in Dr. Tournier's words. My illness wasn't due to something I ate that week or some kind of short-term abnormality in my life. My illness had small symptoms and clues for many many years! It really is the accumulation of years of faulty diet, lack of sleep, stress, conflicts, and poor emotional management. My body had been accumulating illness for years, and it finally reached a tipping point where it couldn't hold anymore. That's when chronic illness "suddenly" arises. How did I get better? The skin cream from the doctor helped suppress the symptoms, but it didn't solve the root problem. I knew that I didn't want to become reliant on this skin cream for life, so I abandoned it. I spent a long time researching health information, fixing my diet, reducing stress, and resolving emotional conflicts. It took months to finally get better. I hope you don't make the same mistake as me. Take care of your health while you're healthy. As the common saying goes, "If you don't make time for your wellness, you will be forced to take time for your illness."