How do you learn a subject or skill in half the time?
Let's do this together.
I want you to right now think of a subject or skill that you just want to learn fast.
You want to learn it rapidly at an accelerate rate.
You want to learn faster so you can achieve faster.
I want you to remember four letters.
F-A-S-T.
Fast.
And the F stands for Forget.
You're like, "Jim, you're this world class memory expert.
You're this coach to all these celebrities and CEOs.
Why are you starting with forgetting?"
You want to forget what you already know about the subject so you can learn something brand
new.
Often a lot of people don't learn faster because they feel like their cup is full and they
feel like they know it already.
So always remember to start with a beginner's mind.
I would also say forget about what's going on in the world and anything that's not urgent
or important in your world because if you try to think about things that are going on
and be present you can't do that.
And you're only using a fraction of your own potential if you're distracted.
I would also say forget about your limitations because you don't know what you don't know.
Often people will see me on stage memorize a hundred peoples' names or a hundreds words,
numbers backwards and forwards, and I always tell you I don't do this to impress you.
I do this to express to you what's really possible because the truth is you could do
it, too.
Regardless your age, your background, your education.
You're just not taught how to do it.
If anything you were taught a lie.
A lie that somehow your intelligence, your memory, your learning is somehow fixed like
your shoe size but we know that your learning is absolutely limitless.
So set your limitation aside and forget about them.
The A in FAST stands for Active.
What do I mean by active?
If you feel overloaded with too much to learn in too little time...like do you have books
on your shelf you haven't read yet?
You get more than 10 emails a day?
You listen to podcasts?
There's so much information out there but if you feel like you're stressed, like you
can't keep up, here's the thing.
It's not your fault.
You know why?
It's because we all grew up with a 20th century education that prepared us for a 20th century
world, which at the turn of the century was working in factories and farms.
But now we live in an age of autonomous electric cars and spaceships that are going to Mars,
but our vehicle of choice when it comes to learning is like a horse and buggy.
And one of the challenges is our schools trained us to be very passive.
Sit quietly by yourself, be lectured to, just consume information but your brain doesn't
learn based on consumption.
It learns through creation and so learning is not a spectator sport.
You have to get involved.
You have to take great notes.
You have to ask lots of questions.
There's so many things you can do to be more active.
The S in FAST stands for State.
What do I mean by state?
I mean the current mood of your mind and your body because here's the key to a better memory.
Information combined with emotion becomes a long-term memory.
What do I mean by that?
Is there a song or fragrance or a food that could take you back to when you were a child?
Of course because information combined with that emotion becomes a long-term memory.
The challenge back in school was what was the driving emotion you had back in school?
For most people they were bored, right, and if you times anything by zero what do you
get?
You get zero.
So most people don't remember what they learned back in school because of the state.
Remember this: All learning is state dependent.
All learning is state dependent.
That if you want to learn more, control your state.
Now who's in control of your state?
You are because you are a thermostat.
You're not a thermometer.
What do I mean by that?
What does a thermometer do?
A thermometer reacts to the environment.
It reflects what the environment is giving it and so we are all thermometers at some
point and that effects our state, right?
We react to the weather.
We react to the economy.
We react to how people treat us but in reality where's the locus of focus?
Who has the control?
You do because you're a thermostat.
A thermostat is different, right?
A thermostat sets a vision.
It sets a goal.
It sets a standard and what happens to the environment?
The environment raises to meet that thermostat and for you, you want to identify with the
thermostat and the most important thing that you want to have control over is how you feel.
I remember recently I got to juice two of my superheroes together.
I talk about superheroes because I grew up with learning challenges from a brain injury.
I taught myself how to read.
It took me three years longer how to read.
I taught myself how to read by reading comic books late at night.
Something about the superhero story really brought it to life for me and recently I got
to juice two of my superheroes together.
It was Sir Richard Branson and Stan Lee.
Stan Lee.
Not Stanley.
Stan Lee.
The co-creators of Spiderman, Avengers, X-Men, Fantastic Four and I remember asking Stan
Lee, I said, "Stan, who's your favorite superhero?"
And he says, "Iron Man."
And he says, "Jim, who's your favorite superhero?"
and he had this Spiderman tie.
I posted it on Instagram and I was like, "Spiderman."
And without a pause he went, "With great power comes great responsibility."
With great power comes great responsibility.
You've heard that, right?
And I went to him, I said "Stan, you're right.
With great power comes great responsibility and the opposite is also true.
With great responsibility comes great power."
When we take responsibility for something, we have great power to make it better and
I think the most important responsibility we have is controlling how we feel.
How do you get into that state of curiosity?
Of excitement?
I mean that...who are the fastest learners on the planet?
They're children, right?
Children have this wonder.
One of my favorite quotes is from Rumi.
He says, "Trade your cleverness for bewilderment."
Trade your cleverness for bewilderment.
And finally the T in FAST, if you want to learn any subject or skill faster, learn it
as if you're going to teach it to somebody else.
Because when you're learning it to teach it then you're going to pay attention differently.
Then you're going to make it your own.
Then you're going to remember it differently because here's the thing, when you teach something
you get to learn it twice.
Hi, my name is Jim Kwik and growing up I was labeled the boy with the broken brain with
all these learning challenges and disabilities.
And I went from that to become the world's leading memory and brain coach for the world's
top universities, CEOs, and celebrities.
Over the past 25 years I've developed all these strategies and techniques to unleash
the power of your super brain.
I want to share these techniques and methods with you.
I hope you'll join me.
♪ [music] ♪