Jim: How's everyone feeling today?
Participants: Okay.
Jim: So when I ask you a question, if it feel right to you, I want you to say super.
How's everyone feeling today?
Participants: Super.
Jim: Super.
And I wanna honor you for being here because I've been going to seminars and events my
whole life.
How is it so far for everybody?
Participants: Great.
Super.
Jim: Yeah, it was a test, right?
A lot of people think it's your retention when people forget something.
Let's do this, for example, take a right hand, shake it out...how many people here wanna
learn faster?
How many people wanna remember more?
Participants: Yes.
Jim: Yeah?
Watch this.
Make a fist, now, put it to your chin.
Where's your chin everybody?
So the number one rule, the art of memory, the art of learning is the art of attention.
The art of learning is the art of attention.
And really, that's where observation that's where presence comes in.
And so I'm going to be sharing with you some of my favorite strategies and states to be
able to learn any subject or skill, faster.
How many people like that idea?
Now, in order to be able to do this, let me first start by acknowledging you for being
here, because I believe there's the success formula and it takes two parts.
It takes first, showing up, 50% of success is just showing up.
And I appreciate your ability to just show up here today because most people aren't here.
True or true, right?
I mean, I'll ask all sets of questions that we know the answers to, true or true, right?
And so we show up here and most people don't show up and I think in life, you wanna show
up.
Show up for your health, show up for your relationships, show up for your career, show
up for your service.
But just showing up, is that just gonna get the job done?
No, you have to what?
Yeah.
You play full out, right?
You have to play full out.
How many people here like to play?
By the way, who were the fastest learners on the planet?
Participants: Kids.
Jim: Who?
Participants: Kids.
Jim: I did this to a group of 10,000 people from 60 countries, and a whole table yelled
out pygmies.
And if anybody knows why pygmies are such great learners, please tell me.
But children, right?
Children, how fast can a child learn a musical instrument compared to an adult?
How fast can they learn a second or third language?
They learn fast, right?
Why do children learn quickly?
Because why?
Participants: [crosstalk].
Jim: They don't know.
Good, what else?
Participants: Curious.
Jim: They're curious.
They have attention.
What else?
Participants: [crosstalk].
Jim: They have time, certainly.
Participants: [crosstalk].
No limits.
Jim: No limits.
They don't have the learned helplessness.
Very good.
Participants: [crosstalk] Not thinking about the mortgage payments.
Jim: They're not thinking about the mortgage payment.
Focus, right?
I mean, they're curious and they play a lot.
Remember, as a kid, you went to your friends, you was like, "You wanna come out and play?
Do you wanna play?"
But later on it was...we got rid of the role of play and we started saying, "Let's hang
out."
Right?
And then all of a sudden, there's this difference, right?
And that curiosity is important also.
There's a Rumi quote from the poet said, 'Trade your cleverness for bewilderment."
Is that a great word, bewilderment?
When's the last time you were in that state?
We're talking about genius states and superhero states, when's the last time you were in that
state of bewilderment?
I mean, so who's in control of your state, by the way?
Who's in control of how you feel?
What's this?
When we're defining a state, how would you define a state?
What does it mean?
It's like your mood.
What else?
This is where the active part comes in here.
It's your emotions, like, a snapshot of your mind and your body, how you feel.
Here's the key, do this.
Information, do this, put your hands out, information combined with emotion becomes
a long-term memory, long-term memory.
How many people know this?
How many people, you hear a song and it'll take you back to when you were a child?
Raise your hand.
How many people, it's not a song but maybe it's a fragrance or food that would take you
back decades?
Because information combined with emotion became a long-term memory, right?
Because we're not logical, we're what?
We don't do things logically all the time, we do things what?
Emotionally, right?
Because we're not logical, we're biological.
We're not logical, we're biological.
And so, what I'm gonna talk about is how to unlock what we call your super brain.
I'm gonna talk about the states, these emotional states where the best of you shows up automatically,
where you don't have those limits.
Now, in my breakout, I'm gonna talk about the strategies, how to read faster, how to
remember names, step by step, how to learn another language.
Those are the strategies, but you always start with state.
Everyone wants to write this down, all learning is state dependent.
All learning is state dependent.
That the emotional state that you feel when you're learning something gets anchored to
the learning, does that make sense?
By the way, what was the state that you felt back in school primarily?
How did you mostly feeling class?
Participants: Bored.
Jim: Bored.
And the other class, other half of the classes is like confused, right?
Now, on a scale of 0 to 10, what's boredom?
A scale of 0 to 10?
Participants: Zero.
Jim: Zero.
Anything times zero becomes what?
Participants: Zero.
Jim: Zero.
And that's why a lot of people don't remember what they learn, is the emotional state.
Does that make sense?
Participants: Yeah.
Jim: Let's test this out.
Stand up real quick.
Stand up.
I have no slides for you.
I'm just gonna take you through exercises.
How many people like experiential learning?
So it gets in your body, right?
So what we're gonna do here is we're gonna play some games.
We already said that children are the fastest learners, right?
Children are the fastest learners, how many people here feel like you wanna learn more
in less time?
Raise your hand.
Raise your hand if you have books on your shelf you haven't read.
More than one and becomes, like, Lisa Nichols talk about, becomes shelf-help not self-help,
right?
How many people here get more than 10 emails a day?
How many people came here today, like, to have a better memory?
How many people forgot why you came here today?
Have you ever done that?
Walk into a room of your own home and just forgot why you are there?
Anyone feel like senior moments are coming a little bit early?
Like, you're in the...if you're in the shower and you can remember if you shampooed your
hair and you end up doing it twice, right?
Or you misplace things.
How many people here know somebody may be personally who miss places things all the
time?
The remote control, the Apple remote, their phone?
Have you ever found yourself calling your own phone hoping you kept it on?
Or maybe you lose something like your car keys or something larger like your car?
You ever see the people out in the malls and they're using their, like, car alarm trying
to figure out where they parked their car?
And what about names?
How many people here honestly, you have trouble remembering people's names?
How many people have forgot the name of somebody in this room?
Right?
And so, let's start with my name, hopefully, you remember, my name is Jim Kwik with Kwik
Learning and I help people to learn quickly.
The question I always get is about my last name, my last name really is Kwik.
I didn't change it to do what I do.
With a name like Kwik, you can say my life and my destiny was pretty much planned out.
I had to be a runner back in school, which is a lot of pressure when it says Kwik right
on your shirt.
I have to be very careful when I'm driving because the worst name to have on your driver's
license when you get pulled over for speeding is the name Kwik, right?
Because you're not gonna talk your way out of that speeding ticket.
And I get to do my mission, my dharma, which is helping people to learn faster.
I think if there's any skill to be able to master in the 21st century, something that's
gonna be a real tangible advantage, it's your ability to learn quickly.
Only because it's a sign of the times, because digital overload, digital distraction, I mean,
so many things vying for our attention.
How do you get things done?
But when I talk about speed, I don't talk about just...I'm not talking about frantic
speed because you could actually learn faster and actually have an ease, a confidence, peace
of mind.
How many people would like to have that?
Be able to succeed but also have this level of harmony inside of yourself, this clarity
of thought?
And it's the idea… how many people here read "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People"
by Dr. Stephen Covey?
What's the seventh habit?
Male: Sharpen the saw.
Jim: Sharpen the saw, very good.
Sharpen the saw.
The metaphor here is if you have all this wood to cut and you have a saw with dull blade,
when do you wanna sharpen it?
Participants: Before.
Jim: Before you start cutting the wood, right?
Because a lot of people are gonna work…is gonna work a lot harder with it if you have
a dull blade and they'll have to sweat and perspire and work three or four times harder
when they could have sharpened their saw.
And so, learning how to learn, like, Vishen was talking about, that's you sharpening the
saw, because anything that comes afterwards is gonna be easier, right?
And so, is that person is not working harder, they're working what?
Participants: Smarter:
Jim: Smarter.
And one of the best ways to work smarter is access your genius states.
So I'm gonna test this out, we said that children are the fastest learners, right?
That they have this curiosity, and they play all the time.
Let's see how many...how many people here...raise your hand if you're willing to play.
Now, it's been shown in science, the research, by doing, by playing more actually creates
neurogenesis and neuroplasticity.
What's neurogenesis?
Participants: New growth.
Jim: New growth, new brain cells.
How many people like the idea of creating more new brain cells?`
What about neuroplasticity, what does that mean?
Participants: More connections.
Jim: More connections.
So intelligence in a way is not necessarily...like, Einstein didn't have a bigger brain than anyone
here.
Probably, it was actually less, he had a smaller brain, but in certain areas of his brain,
he had highly connectedness.
He did these thought experiments where he would put himself in these brainwave states,
specifically theta state, the theta state of creativity.
That's the state that you're in when you shower.
How many people notice when you're showering you come up with all these wonderful ideas?
And it's always when you can't write something down, right?
And so, that's the Theta state, that's a relaxed state of creativity.
You're inspired, you come up with new ideas, new things come out of you, right?
And I actually took six showers this morning, just to prepare for this presentation.
So it puts you in creative state, and so he had more connections in certain areas.
And so you could promote that by playing more.
And so what I'm gonna ask you to do right now is I'm gonna ask you to find two people
in the room you do not know, pair up in threes, go.
Find two people you do not know, pair up in threes.
So we're gonna go through a quick exercise and, basically, what I wanna do, we wanna
talk about superheroes a lot.
I grew up with learning challenges, some of you know, I had a brain injury when I was
five years old, a head injury that left me with certain disabilities.
Teachers would have to repeat themselves three, four, five, six times, and then eventually
I would just pretend I understood but I didn't, most of the times did not understand.
I had very bad focus issues, I had very bad memory.
It took me an extra three and a half years just to learn how to read and I learned how
to read by reading comic books actually late at night.
Something about....any comic book fans here or superhero fans, geeks?
Something about looking at the superheroes and good versus evil and the illustrations
that the idea that one person can make a difference.
How many people believe one person can make a difference?
Right?
That they provide hope and they provide real help?
And when I look here, I look at a room full of superheroes, because I said, in the beginning,
I said, you know, it's just showing up and then playing full out.
And so what does the superhero do?
They have...what's the defining characteristics of a superhero?
They have superpowers, right?
And does how many people here have found their unique ability, their superpower?
So you're discovering it, right?
Your unique talents, unique strengths, something that's unique to you.
But then just having a superpower, does that make you a superhero?
You have to use that power for what for what?
Participants: Good.
Jim: For good, for some kind of purpose on top of that, right?
And so, I love sharing space and time with modern-day superheroes.
But there are also some modern-day supervillains, right?
These ideas of, these phenomena of, like, digital overload.
How many people feel, like, when you're learning something it feels like you're taking a sip
of water out of a fire hose?
Raise your hand, right?
And not just that, it has a effect on our health also, right?
They call it information fatigue syndrome.
Information fatigue syndrome, because everything is a syndrome, right?
So, higher blood pressure, a compression of leisure time, more sleeplessness or even if
you have a little bit of free time, you can't even enjoy because your mind is still multitasking.
And also not just the supervillain, the digital overload, but digital distraction.
How many people feel like your mind is so distracted and you can't focus on just one
thing anymore?
Raise your hand.
And this is a challenge that takes away from your ability to be present, your ability to
be able to get things done, your ability to be able to be profitable.
And I don't just mean financially profitable, that's obvious, right?
We live in an age where it's not your muscle power, it's more your mind power.
It's not your brute strength, it's your brain strength, right?
And so the faster you can learn, certainly, the faster you can earn, but not just financially,
in all the areas your life, all the treasures of your life, your health, relationships,
good career.
So what we're gonna do is this exercise a play and then we're gonna start with this
state, this childhood state of curiosity and wonder.
And you're gonna meet these, your individuals, the people that...you're new friends, and
I want you to decide right now, who's Batman, who's Superman and who's Wonder Woman.
Go.
Participants: Wonder Woman [crosstalk].
Jim: So who's Batman?
Who's Super…
Okay, Batman, raise your hand.
All the Batmans, raise your hand.
Very good.
What about Superman?
Raise your hand.
And where are Wonder Women?
Participants: Woah.
Jim: There you go.
Remember, information combined with emotion becomes a long term memory, right?
And, by the way, who's in charge of your emotional states?
Participants: [crosstalk].
Jim: I am.
Who's in control?
You are, right?
I remember recently, I got to introduce two of my modern-day superheroes, it was Richard
Branson and Stan Lee.
Not Stanley, but Stan Lee?
Who's Stan Lee?
Male: Marvel
Jim: Yeah.
The co-creator of Spider-Man, and X-Men and Avengers and Fantastic Four.
And we're going to dinner, I remember asking Stan, I was like, "I have to know.
You've created all these incredible superheroes, who's your favorite?"
And he looks at me without a blink, he's like, "Iron Man."
I'm like, "That's awesome."
And then he's like, "Jim, who's your favorite superhero?"
And he had this Spider-Man tie, so I was like, "Spider-Man."
And without a pause, he says, "With great power comes..."
Participants: Great responsibility.
Jim: And how do we all know that, right?
It's like in our DNA, right?
So we're going on this superheroes journey together here at A-Fest, and I'm thinking
about it.
I'm like, "Man, I grew up with these challenges, and I have, you know, dyslexia and I flip
things around in my mind, and part of my issues growing up."
And I flipped it in my mind I was like, "You know, with great power comes great responsibility.
When you're in a position of power, you have great responsibility to wield that power well."
And the opposite is also true, with great responsibility comes great power, right?
When you take responsibility for something, you have great power to what?
To change things, to transforms things, to make things better.
And a lot of times...how many entrepreneurs are in the room?
Raise your hand.
Wow, 80% of the room.
A lot of times, based on your values, entrepreneurs value things like freedom.
They wanna be able to do what they want, when they want, whenever they want, wherever they
want.
Raise your hand if that's you?
And sometimes it's hard, sometimes as entrepreneurs, to get yourself to do the things that you
need to do.
How many people have also resonate with that, that you procrastinate?
Like, why would you put things down...why would you delay things that are important,
that will help you to reach your goals and you wonder why that is?
I would introduce to you, going back to state and strategy, that those two components, it's
probably 80% of it because most people who procrastinate or they're in a state of procrastination,
that's the feeling, right?
Or they have a poor strategy for executing thing, getting things done.
And you're like, "Jim, where's this exercise?
Why am I standing the whole time?"
Does your physiology affect your psychology?
Yes or yes?
Participants: Yes.
Jim: Yes.
One of the best ways of changing your state is by moving your body, right?
Because as your body moves, your brain grooves.
As your body moves, your brain groves.
You create more neurogenesis, neuroplasticity.
Actually, you know what supports it?
Novelty.
What helps you make more of these connections is novelty and nutrition, just like your body,
right?
You wanna build a physical muscle, you give it what?
You work it out, you give it exercise, you give it stimulus, novelty, and then you feed
that muscle with nutrition.
Same thing with your mental muscles.
And so what I wanna introduce you is ways of getting into these states and then strategies
and the breakout that help you to specifically build these mental muscles.
So you have more mental strength, just like physically, you wanna be stronger, you wanna
be faster, you wanna be more agile, you could be that mentally also.
Stronger, more agile, and more focused also.
So what we're gonna do here is talking about states, what are the highest level states?
Male: Peace.
Jim: Peace.
Very good.
What else?
Participants: [crosstalk].
Jim: Love.
What else?
Participants: [crosstalk].
Jim: Gratitude.
What else?
Participants: [crosstalk].
Jim: Joy, compassion.
So what I wanna do, let's pick one of them.
Remember, we said that when it comes to learning things and getting it into your nervous system,
information is not enough because we all know what to do.
Common sense, right?
We all know, for the most part, how many people know what they should do to make things better
but there's a indiscrepancy, but like, in terms of not getting things done, right?
And so what I'd like to offer you is this, is common sense, it's not often common practice,
right?
So how do we get aligned with this?
So let's talk about joy, in choosing more joy in the room and throughout the entire
event.
How do you spread joy?
If you wanted to spread joy right now in this room, what would your strategy be?
What's one thing you could do?
Male: Be joyful.
Participants: [crosstalk].
Jim: Be joyful.
What else?
Participants: [crosstalk].
Jim: Okay.
Massage somebody.
What else?
Participants: [crosstalk].
Jim: Hugs, hugs, good.
Kisses, right?
High fives, right?
Good.
So what I want you to do now is I want Wonder Woman to be in charge, okay?
Wonderer Woman, raise your hand Wonder Woman.
Participants: Woo-hoo.
Jim: You are the CEO of the group.
You are the CEO of the group and what we're gonna do is, you're gonna tell and you delegate
to Superman and Batman how to spread joy around the room and they're gonna do it for 30 seconds,
all right?
We're gonna put a countdown timer on here.
Ready, go.
Information combined with emotion becomes a long-term memory, right?
The state that you learn something and the mood and the feelings that you learn something
in, gets attached to what you wanna learn.
Also, it's gonna motivate you to use it more often, if you learn, because here's the thing,
learning is not a spectator sport.
Learning is not a spectator sport.
I'm gonna give you six keys to learn anything faster.
You can write these down.
I want you to remember, BE FAST.
BE FAST, six keys to learn any subject or skill faster.
Now I want you to think about, if you could learn any subject or skill faster, what would
it be?
Outside of learning how to learn because that's kind of the that's....after learning how to
learn, what subject?
What are you interested in?
Participants: [crosstalk].
Jim: Say it out loud.
Participants: [crosstalk] Languages.
Jim: Languages.
Very good.
What else?
Female: Computer Science.
Jim: Computer Science.
Good.
What else?
Participants: [inaudible].
Jim: Good.
I mean, so whether it's martial arts or it's Mandarin, whether it's music or marketing,
there subjects that we're interested in, right?
And we live in this expert economy and we wanna be knowledgeable about things because
knowledge is not only power, knowledge is profit, right?
And so how do you access those things?
So I want you to remember, BE FAST.
And just six quick tips on how to desensitize you, now, every single one of these things,
you're gonna understand because you're studied and me as your superbrain coach, if you will,
I wanna be a personal trainer for your brain, for your mind.
I wanna make it faster, sharper.
And not everything I'm gonna say is gonna be something that's brand new, but if I may
be say it a different way and you control your state, because going back to Stan, when
I said responsibility, you know, with great responsibility comes great power, the most
important thing to be responsible for is how you feel.
Does that make sense?
And who controls how you feel?
How many people are feeling pretty good right now?
Female: Yeah.
Jim: Yeah.
And notice that these kind of things is, you know why?
Metaphorically, I look at you more like, a thermostat than a thermometer.
Is there a difference between a thermometer and thermostat?
Female: Yes.
Jim: Yes or yes?
Participants: Yes.
Jim: A thermometer does what?
What does the thermometer do?
What's the function?
Participants: Takes the temperature.
Jim: Yeah, it takes the temp…
It reflects and it reacts to the environment, is that true?
It just reacts to the environment.
And we are sometimes, you know, we're thermometers, we react to the weather, if we're honest,
the economy to politics, we react to how people treat us sometimes, but is there a gap between
how something, someone stimulates us and how we respond?
Do we have choice?
Yes or yes?
Participants: Yes.
Jim: The difference between a thermometer and thermostat though is a thermometer reacts
the environment.
What's does the thermostat do though?
Female: Sets the temperature.
Participants: [crosstalk].
Jim: Yeah.
It regulates, right?
It helps manage.
It sets a standard or a vision or a goal.
And then what happens to the environment?
It raises to be able to do that.
Is there a difference?
Yes or yes?
Participants: Yes.
Jim: And so that's where we're going back to responsibility when we're talking about
being responsible, the ability to be able to respond is how you feel about things, and
also how you focus on things.
So the B in BE FAST stands for belief, because if you believe you can or believe you can't,
either way, what?
Male: You're right.
Jim: You're right.
Who said that?
Male: Henry Ford.
Jim: Henry Ford said that, right?
"If you believe you can or believe you can't, either way, you're right."
Let me show you the belief is, stand up real quick.
Stand up.
You're like, "Oh, you're one of those teachers."
I'm telling you.
It's in your body.
You have so much intelligence in your body right now, I'll prove it to you.
Jump up down a little bit and make a little space for the person next to you if you can.
So if you went like this, you're ideally not gonna take anyone's eye out or anything like
that.
Okay.
Now, stop.
Stop bouncing.
I love the energy though.
Notice where your feet are, I want to keep your feet stationary the entire time.
And what I want you to do is, with your right hand, just point forward with your right hand.
Your other right hand, sir, sorry.
I know.
All right.
Forward with your right hand, and what I want you to do is without moving your feet, just
turn to your right clockwise, as far as you could go and notice where you're pointing,
as you take your neighbor's eye out.
Notice how far you can go, notice where you're pointing.
Those exact spot, come back center, now put your arms down.
Now I'm gonna take you through a really quick visualization exercise.
So take a deep breath, exhale and close your eyes.
Put your arms by your side, out of your pockets by your side and breathe normally.
And with your eyes closed, we're gonna play a game.
I want you just to imagine, just imagine that you're raising your arm again, but this time
imagine you're turning twice as far, two times as far.
Like you're getting good stretch, it's pleasant.
Feel that in your body.
And if you can imagine it, just imagine that you're imagining it, and then again, raise
your arm, point forward and this time...no, no, with your eyes closed.
Imagine, just imagine, just imagine just in your mind, see and feel yourself turning three
times as far.
Just feel it in your body with your arms by your side.
Just imagine turning around three times.
And then one more time with a smile on your face thinking what does this have to do with
learning faster, see and feel yourself turning four times around in your body.
see and feel yourself turning four times around like your Gumby like are made out of rubber.
Great, great stretch.
All right.
Open your eyes.
Now, raise your arm again, point for with your right hand.
Now, turn to your right now, as far as you can now go.
Wow.
Raise your hand or make some noise if you went further the second time.
Participants: Woah.
Jim: Have a seat.
Have a seat.
Now, some of you went further, some of you went 25% further, some of you went 50% further.
Yes.
Raise your hand if you went further a second time.
Now, here's the magic question, right?
That, you know I'm gonna ask you even before I ask it, were you physically capable of turning
that far the first time?
Participants: Yes.
Jim: Like nobody took a yoga class where my eyes were closed, right?
You're physically capable of it, where was the block or the limitation if there was one?
Where was it?
Participants: In my mind.
Jim: In your mind, right?
In your minds.
And you're like, "Jim, I didn't have a belief on how far I could turn."
How many beliefs do you think we have?
Participants: Millions.
Gazillion.
Jim: Millions and zillions of beliefs, right?
Because here's what you wanna write down, all behavior is belief driven.
All behavior is belief what?
Participants: Driven.
Jim: Some of you went 25%, 50% further with no anything.
Remember, the vision was talking about how it's not working hard but when you're in a
certain state of mind, you could just go further and it's effortless.
How many people have experienced this state of flow before?
That state of flow where you lose track of time, where your attention is right there
and you're in the moment.
And the level of challenge is really matching your level of capabilities and you're stretching
yourself and you're in that zone, right?
Like, that athletes talk about, that Steven Tyler talks about, in the rise of Superman
and stealing fire and so on.
How many people are familiar with Steve's work?
By the way, I'm just curious as context.
Okay.
So can you get into those states?
One of the ways is just believing that you can because if you believe you can, or believe
you can't, either way, you're right because all behaviors belief-driven.
Some of you went 25%, 50% or more.
What if you could go 25%, 50% more in your business that effortless?
What if you could go 25%, 50% even more in your body or in your relationship?
Did you work harder the second time, when you turn the second time?
Yes or no?
No.
Because it's a state, right?
So behavior, so belief.
Let me give you an example, I'm gonna play this game with you, we're gonna do this together,
collectively.
I need some mic runners here, please.
There's a couple mic runners.
How many people here, talking about memory, because memory, forgetting is a state.
When it comes to learning, let me give you a distinction here, a lot of people say, "Oh,
I have a bad memory."
Right?
They're always like, "I have memory or I have focus or I don't have focus or I have creativity.
I don't have creativity."
I want you to scrap that.
Creativity is not something you have, it's something you do.
Focus is not something you have focus is something you do.
Energy is not something you have or don't have, it's something you do.
Memory is not something you have, it's something you do.
And what's the benefit of turning it into a do as opposed to something you have?
What's the benefit?
Participants: [crosstalk] You have a control.
Jim: You have control over it.
Because you could put it into a process, it becomes a strategy, because there's a strategy
for reading faster.
There's a strategy for remembering names.
There's a strategy for having focus.
And it's a verb, not a noun, right?
And so the goal here when we're talking about this, and memory, for example, a lot of people
believe...here, let me shake this up a little bit.
There's no such thing as a good or bad memory.
There is no such thing as a good or bad memory, there's just a trained memory and an untrained
memory.
Does that make sense?
Now, here's the thing, I grew up with these learning challenges.
I had all these difficulties all through school, all through elementary, middle school, junior
high, high school, I had all these challenges.
At the age of nine, I remember a teacher looking at me thinking I wasn't either smart enough
to understand what she was saying or wasn't paying attention.
She was talking to another adult and she said, "That's the boy with a broken brain."
I was like, a nine-years-old, right?
And so those kind of identity issues, those beliefs, does that make a difference?
Participants: Yes.
Jim: Yes, right?
And a lot of people believe that they can't do certain things, they can just never remember
names.
So I could teach them a strategy, but if the belief is not changed, what happens?
Female: Not good.
Jim: It's not because it becomes self-fulfilling.
I remember running a marathon and preparing for it, I read a chapter of one of the books
and it was on the psychology of running a marathon, right?
The mental part.
And it said this verbatim, word for word because I'm a memory expert.
It said, "Your brain is like a supercomputer, and your self-talk is a program it will run.
So if you tell yourself you're not good at remembering names, you will not remember the
name of the next person you meet because you programmed your supercomputer not to."
Isn't that interesting?
What I always tell people is this, you have to monitor your self-talk, monitor your self-talk.
If you go around tell people, "Oh, I have a horrible memory.
I'm not smart enough.
I'm getting too old."
Fill in the blank.
First of all, if you fight for your limitations, you get to keep them.
Does that make sense?
A lot of people are like, "Oh, I'm so forgetful.
I'm so busy."
Which that whole business really bothers me.
Like, where people, "So, yeah.
How are you doing?
I'm just so crazy.
So stress.
So busy."
It becomes like, a badge of honor that people wear all the time and then what do you start
reinforcing, being busy right?
But here, going back to this, your self-talk is the program that will run so you would
be mindful, right?
And stand guard your mind because your mind is always eavesdropping on your self-talk.
Your mind is always eavesdropping on your self-talk.
And so going back to this, I wanna play this little game because how many people here...your
memory is not quite as good as it used to be?
Raise your hand, honestly.
Now how many people here...let's take numbers.
How many phone numbers did you use to know growing up?
How many phone numbers?
Shout it out.
Participants: [crosstalk].
Jim: How many phone numbers when you were younger?
Participants: [crosstalk].
Jim: All of them, right?
Pretty much.
How many phone numbers do you know right now?
Participants: [crosstalk].
Jim: One, two, right?
And so, how many people here have a number you call all the time but, honestly, if you
don't have your phone on or with you or the battery is dead, you honestly do not know
that number?
You call it every single day almost or text it or whatever.
And so, the challenge here is this, the two supervillains that we're talking about, it's
digital overload.
Too much information, too little time.
The amount of information is doubling at dizzying speed, but how we learn it, how we remember
it, has that changed at all?
If anything, there's been a decline.
The amount information is doubling like this and your learning abilities in terms of your
reading, memory flatline, that gap creates the stress that you feel on an ongoing basis,
right?
How do you catch up?
How do you keep up?
How do you get ahead?
You know, [inaudible 00:30:55] that velocity, right, and that acceleration.
The other thing that I talked about supervillains, not just digital overload because we're talking
about then the breakout, is digital distraction, digital distraction, right?
How many people...I'll tell you the worst habit because I'm gonna talk about this later,
the worst habit and you're gonna hate me for saying this, the first hour of the day is
touching your phone.
The worst thing you could do, the absolute worst.
How many people are guilty of doing this though, right?
Because you have that addiction to it.
And I'll tell you this reason why you don't wanna do it, I'll give you two reasons because
I don't wanna talk strategy too much, I'm gonna talk about it more tomorrow, is strategy.
The reason why you don't do it is when you wake up, talking about brainwave states, we're
talking about superhero states, your brain cycles through different brainwaves.
Beta is when you're most awake, you're in beta most of you right now.
Delta is when you're asleep.
Hopefully, nobody's in delta right now.
Theta is right above delta, that's the state of creativity we talked about.
Like, when you're in the shower, right?
You're so relaxed, almost in and out of sleep, you know, and then you're so creative, right?
You're very inspired.
In between theta and beta, when you're most awake is this day called alpha.
How many people are familiar with alpha states, right?
It's a state you go in when you meditate, states you go into when you do deep breathing,
state you're also in when you watch television.
How many people have ever seen somebody watching television, you're trying to talk to them
but they're watching their favorite show, their sports or whatever it is, or maybe you're
guilty of it too, and, honestly, that person is not hearing you.
You know that?
You're talking to them but they're so entrance, right?
Television programming, it's programming them, they're in such trance, they're in an alpha
state.
And the alpha state is where your conscious mind is set aside and you're not filtering,
information is coming.
And alpha state is a great state to learn in though, great state to learn facts, great
state to be able to learn foreign languages also, great states to learn information, like,
giving presentations and scripts, one of the ways we work with actors, putting them into
an alpha state so they're in this relaxed state of awareness where the conscious mind
is set aside and information is just flowing in.
Like television, and you could control those states because you have the responsibility
once you learn the strategies behind it.
And so when we're coming back to memory, wanna play this quick game, I actually, give you
a third villain.
I was talking about the first villain, supervillain, we're talking about superheroes, your superhero.
The supervillains that are taking away from your joy, your productivity, your peace of
mind, digital overwhelm, digital distraction.
I'll add a third one I wasn't gonna say, digital dementia.
Digital dementia and this is a real medical term right now.
This is the idea that we're outsourcing our brains to our smart devices, were so reliant
on our smartphones that our smartphones are making us stupid.
Does that make sense?
Participants: Yes.
Jim: I mean, it's convenient.
I don't wanna memorize 500 phone numbers, right?
Nobody wants to do that, but we've lost the ability to memorize one.
Like, if I give you a seven digit number now, how difficult?
Would it be you find that kind of difficult to memorize like a phone number that you used
to do years ago?
Yes or yes?
Participants: Yes.
Jim: Because if I take my arm, I put into a sling for six months, does it stay the same?]
Participants: No.
Jim: Would even grow stronger?
It would what?
Participants: [crosstalk].
Jim: It would atrophy and grow weaker.
Same thing with your mental muscles, if you're relying on your phone to keep your schedules,
your to do's, so simple...I went out to dinner with 10 people recently, there was a 10 of
us.
And three people at the end pulled out their phones to divide the check, the bill by 10,
right?
And we've lost that ability to be able to do certain things.
And so that's what digital dementia is.
I was talking to Dr. Daniel Amen, author, Change your Brain, Change your Life, right?
Raised $40 million on public broadcast.
He was saying, "Yeah, digital dementia."
Like, "I got something for you, Jim."
He's like, "GPS, relying on GPS, a third party piece of technology to tell you when and where
to turn, when you normally know that or not know it, is actually getting...people aren't
going to the doctors to get checked out when they would have memory lapses if they didn't
see that relying on GPS.
Like, they didn't have the GPS, they would have memory lapses and we go get checked out,
and we're not getting that early detection on it just because of that.
So how do you keep your brain active?
So smart devices could be extremely convenient but they can be crippling also.
So it could be a balance, yes or yes?
Participants: Yes.
All right, so we've lost the ability to memorize a number, but I wanna try to memorize a group
of numbers together today.
Let's try to do it.
Let's try to reawaken that memory and everything I talked about, everyone asks like, "Oh, you
know, I have such a horrible memory, can you improve my memory?"
When somebody says, "I want a better memory.
Can you help me with my memory?"
For me, it's equivalent as a memory coach, somebody saying, "Oh, I just wish I was better
at sports."Right?
I wanna know what sports specifically so that I can apply it.
Because there's different memory techniques for remembering names or languages or giving
speeches without notes or facts, figures, numbers.
But let's talk about numbers because it'd be a great mental exercise.
Let's go around and just raise your hand and let's give a group number one number we create
together as a group for all of us to try to memorize.
And notice, what I want you to do is, I believe one of the most important things to be able
to get good at is self-awareness.
I ultimately think the expert is not the person on stage.
Who's the expert?
Participants: I am.
Jim: You are, right?
You are the expert on you.
And what I think is, in terms of, I think self-coaching and self-knowledge is really
most of it.
You know, and so I think you can learn, I know you can learn better by looking at yourself
and seeing what works for you.
Does that make sense?
And so let's see how we go about remembering things now.
Raise your hand and just let's come up with...let's try to remember a string of numbers, maybe
10 or 20 numbers.
I will do the best weekend, you can write them down and then...let's see if we can memorize
them together, right?
So raise your hand, let's do two at a time.
So instead of saying one, seven, to say 17, and then just two digit number.
Female: Eighty-eight.
Jim: Eighty-eight.
So everyone writes 88, right?
We at the game here?
We're gonna keep on going till we get to a threshold and we see if we can memorize these
numbers.
Yes.
Female: Fifty four.
Jim: Fifty-four.
I'll repeat it so you guys hear it also as well?
Fifty-four.
Female: Thirty five.
Jim: Thirty five.
Very good.
Thirty-five.
Female: Twenty-one.
Jim: Twenty...I'm sorry?
Female: Twenty-one.
Jim: Twenty-one.
If we're having trouble coming up with numbers, I have to take this in a totally different
direction.
Male: Ninety-nine.
Jim: What's that?
Male: Ninety-nine.
Jim: Ninety-nine.
Bingo.
Ninety nine.
Female: Thirty-seven.
Jim: By the way, how many have we had so far?
Single digits.
Just give me give me 10.
Does everybody have?
I wanna make sure we're all on the same page here.
All right.
Something over here?
Male: Sixty-six.
Female: Eleven.
Jim: Eleven.
Okay.
Eleven.
Male: Sixty-six.
Jim: Sixty six.
Eleven and 66.
Male: Twenty-three.
Jim: Raise your hand, sir.
Male: Twenty-three.
Jim: Twenty-three.
Number 23.
Okay.
Quick.
Female: Thirteen.
Jim: I'm sorry.
Female: Thirteen.
Jim: Thirteen.
Female: Seventy-seven.
Jim: Thirteen.
Male: There's a lot of numbers.
Jim: How many?
That's a lot of numbers, right?
Female: Seventy-seven.
Jim: Hold on.
Hold on one second.
So it's 13, let's count 13 after that also as well.
What's that?
Female: Seventy-seven.
Jim: Seventy-seven.
How many numbers is that, by the way?
Participants: Twenty.
Jim: Twenty?
We're doing pretty good.
How many do you remember so far do you think?
Let's do a few more.
Let's do a few more for the heck of it.
Go ahead.
Female: Thirty-nine.
Jim: I'm sorry.
Female: Thirty-nine.
Jim: Thirty-eight or 39?
Participants: [inaudible].
Jim: Let's go with 39, 39.
And before that was 77, is that true?
Participants: Yes.
Jim: Very good.
We're on the same page.
Thirty-nine.
Let's do a couple more.
Yeah, here.
Male: Forty-two.
Jim: Forty-two.
Good, 42.
Let's do, like, three more.
Male: Zero 6.
Jim: Zero 6.
Zero 6.
Got two more quick.
Female: Thirteen.
Jim: Thirteen.
Did we do 13 already?
Participants: Yes.
Jim: That's okay.
Let's do it again.
Thirteen is great.
And then last one.
Female: Forty-two.
Male: Sixty-seven.
Jim: Forty two.
Again, 42, very creative.
Okay.
Now, I want you to do this, close your eyes and just write down as many as you remember
right now.
The last one is 42, right?
I mean, don't close your eyes.
Close your paper, and then just write down as many as you remember.
Male: In order?
Jim: In order.
Yes.
Definitely in order.
It's the only way it kind of works.
Participants: [inaudible].
Jim: All right.
Let me try to do it, okay?
Let me try to do it with you, and you guys could check, right?
And I'll look here so you know nothing is being broadcast here.
All right.
I'll do the single digits, right?
I need some energy here.
Participants: Woo-hoo.
Jim: Okay.
Eight, eight, five, four...how are we doing so far?
Participants: Woo-hoo.
Jim: Three, Five, two, one....yes?
Nine, nine, one, one, six, six, two, three, one, three, seven, seven...how am I doing?
Participants: Woo-hoo.
Jim: Good.
Three, nine, four, two, zero, six, is that good so far?
Participants: Woo-hoo.
Jim: One, three, four, two.
Participants: Woo-hoo.
Jim: Now, I don't do this to impress you, I do this more to express to what's possible.
Because, like, this exercise that we did when we turned like this, let me give you, an example.
What did Roger Bannister do in 1954?
Participants: Four-minute mile.
Jim: The four-minute mile.
Throughout human history, nobody could run a mile less than four minutes.
Why?
Participants: They didn't believe.
Jim: They didn't believe that they could.
In fact, what was the belief back then?
Participants: It was impossible.
Jim: It was impossible.
You would die.
The human heart was not capable of running a sub-four-minute mile, it would explode in
your chest.
Now, that was the belief.
Would that keep you from running a four-minute mile?
Like, I'm a runner, that would keep me from running, period, right?
And so, it's interesting how he actually was able to do it, is he actually visualized himself
crossing the finish line and seeing it says 3:59.
Because he knows what you know as superheroes, and he's doing these thought experiments that
success is an inside-out game, right?
That in order to take the invisible and make it visible just like a thermostat, right,
you visualize things here and then you make it out here, he knew what had to happen here
first, because all behaviors belief driven.
Now, that wasn't the interesting thing to me, just like when you did the turning exercise,
that's what he did, okay, equivalent.
The interesting thing is what happened next couple years.
Nobody could do it for thousands of years, one person does it.
What happens?
Participants: Everybody does it.
Jim: Yeah.
Dozens of people started breaking the four-minute a mile.
Now, in that year was our big advancements in shoe technology and nutrition and training
methodology?
No.
What was the change?
Participants: [inaudible].
Jim: A change in belief.
Like, I remember when I was child, I was at a restaurant and we had a waiter go around
and take everybody's order, 20 people, busy night.
Halfway through, he was taking my order, I noticed something funny, he wasn't writing
it down.
Have you ever had a waiter or waitress like that?
And I was like, "There's just no way."
I was very skeptical [inaudible 00:42:19] sense of bags and be, this is gonna be a disaster.
But when he came back, he got every single thing perfect.
The salad dressings, the beverages, how we wanted the meal cooked, I mean, the desserts,
everything perfect.
Now, is that a standout skill or is that a standout skill?
Yes or yes?
Participants: Yes.
Jim: Yes.
He was like my Roger Bannister.
He did something I never thought was possible and opened up possibility inside my mind.
Perceive limits, right?
You don't know how far you could turn, just like we talked about...what Vishen was talking
about.
And just like with this, I do this demonstration not to impress you, to express upon you what's
really possible.
I grew up with learning challenges, you know, with difficulties.
How about this?
How many people wanna see me memorize this backwards?
Recall it backwards?
Participants: Woo-hoo.
Jim: Yeah.
That's so much energy I'm getting here.
Let me try to get most of this list backwards, all right?
No [inaudible 00:43:07].
Actually, let me try this, two, four...are we good?
I want to make sure we're in the right thing.
Three, one, six, zero, two, four, is that good?
Participants: Yes.
Jim: Nine, three, seven, seven, three, one, three, two, six, six, one, one, nine, nine,
one, two, how are we doing?
Participants: [crosstalk ].
Jim: Five, three, four, five, eight, eight.
So what if you could get in these kind of states and have strategies to be able to do
the things that you need?
How much more productive could you be as a coach, as an expert, as a speaker, as an entrepreneur,
as a parent, as a student by having these kinds of strategies?
What really upset me is when I struggled my whole life with like, my whole childhood life
until I was 18 where I hit a wall.
I literally...when I became a freshman in college, I was lucky to get into, I was like,
"I wanna make a fresh start."
And I was like, "I'm gonna show my family, I wanna make them proud.
I wanna show the world myself that I was good enough and smart.
I could really do this."
So I worked really hard and I did worse.
And I was ready to quit school and I was living in the library, I wasn't eating, I wasn't,
you know, sleeping, I wasn't doing anything that was good for me.
Nothing in wild fit.
All the things I should be doing to be, you know, to build my superhero strength, and
then passing out in the library late night.
And I fell down a flight of stairs.
I hit my head again and I woke up in the hospital two days later.
And at this point, I weighed about 117 pounds.
I was wasted away.
Like, I thought I died and maybe part of me wished that I had and also, when I got out,
I was like, "There has to be something better for me here."
Like, "What do I do?"
And the nurse came in at that exact moment and brought a mug of tea.
And on the tea was a picture of a genius, a true genius.
The opposite of what I felt I was at the time.
It was Albert Einstein.
And it said this quote that you've all heard in some iteration, "The same level of thinking
that's created the problem won't solve the problem.
The same level of thinking is created the problem won't solve the problem."
I was thinking, "What's my problem?
I'm a really slow learner.
How do I think differently?
Maybe I can learn how to learn."
Right.
And it was like, I picked up of course bullet and looked at classes and they're all classes
at school on what to learn, math, history, science, Spanish, right?
All important subjects but what to learn?
How many classes were on how to learn?
No classes.
I mean, where's your class on creativity and problem solving and thinking, right?
Where's your classes on reading faster and having better focus and concentration or improving
your memory?
I always thought it should have been in the fourth R in school.
They teach you three Rs, reading, writing and what?
Arithmetic.
What about remembering?
What about recall?
What about retention?
Because Socrates says there is no learning without remembering.
There is no learning without remembering.
So B is believe, believe you can, believe you can.
Now, the E, I'm gonna go through these really fast, is exercise, exercise.
And what I mean by this is I mean physical exercise, because your brain, the primary
function of your brain is to control your movement.
As your body moves, your brain grooves.
Stand up real quick.
Stand up.
Quick, quick, quick.
Watch this.
I want you to do this.
I want you to take your right elbow and just put it your left ear.
Left what?
Knee.
Good.
And then your left elbow to your right knee and vice-versa.
Or if you can't reach that far, just tap.
These are cross laterals, right?
I want you to do this, take your left hand, and just massage your right ear lobe.
And then your right hand and massage your left ear lobe.
And squat down, inhale, exhale, come up.
Go down, inhale.
Exhale, come up.
One more time, inhale, exhale, come up.
Shake out your body.
All right.
Have a seat.
They call that Super Brain Yoga, right?
How many people are familiar with education of kinesiology, brain gym, Super Brain Yoga?
So as your body moves, your brain grooves, that's exercise.
So if you want to change your state, exercise and movement is key.
I'm gonna go through the rest really fast.
The F-A-S-T, if you wanna learn any subject or skill faster, the F is to forget, forget.
And what do I mean by that?
A lot of people don't learn faster because they feel like, they know it already.
I'm going back to chronological age, it's not chronological age, it's really the age
of your mind and your heart.
A lot of people don't learn because they haven't emptied their cup.
Does that make sense?
That you hear all these cliches but there's truth in every cliche, that your mind is like
a parachute, it only works when it's what?
It's open.
So this is beginner's mind, right?
So you wanna forget about anything else than what you're learning here temporarily.
The A in FAST, that's the curiosity stage, right?
The A in FAST is for active, active.
And the reason why I have you get up and shout out and do all these things, is not for me,
trust me, I like, I know the answers to the most of the questions and everything, is the
active part is learning is not a spectator sport.
Learning is not a spectator sport.
The human brain and the mind doesn't learn consuming information, it learns through creating
it.
Your mind doesn't learn based on consumption, it learns through creation or co-creation
in the state.
Does that make sense?
So you have to be active, you take notes, you ask questions, you do it, you participate
in it.
How many people believe what you put in is what you get out?
Right.
So you're active.
The S in FAST stands for state.
So this is emphasizing the state that all learning is state dependent.
All learning is state dependent.
I never wanna learn in a bored state, right?
Most people, like, when they read, they're in a bored state.
How many people, you read a page in a book, get to the end and just forget what you just
read?
And you go back and you re-read it, and you still don't know what you just read.
Because you're in that bored state.
How many people use reading as a sedative?
Like, you have this token book that's been inside of your bed for an embarrassingly long
period of time, but if your state that you have associated to this activity called reading
is falling asleep or a zero, anything times zero is what?
Is zero.
And people wonder why they don't remember what they read.
So control your state.
Finally, the T in FAST and BE FAST stands for teach, teach.
I recommend that throughout this entire gathering and beyond, you learn with the intention of
teaching it to somebody else.
Does that make sense?
If you had to teach this to somebody when you got back home, your team, your family,
your friends, would you learn it differently?
Yes or yes?
Participants: Yes.
Jim: Would your focus be better?
Yes or yes?
Would you ask better questions?
Would you take better notes?
Right.
So you learn with the intention of teaching to somebody else, all right?
So B stands for what?
[inaudible 00:50:06] fast, BE FAST.
B stands for believe, believe you can, believe you can't, you're right.
The E stands for what?
Exercise, as your body moves your brain grooves.
The F stands for what?
Participants: [inaudible].
Jim: Forget.
Beginner's mind, your mind is like a parachute, it only works when it's open.
The A stands for what?
Participants: Active.
Jim: Active.
Is learning is not a spectator sport.
The S stands for what?
Participants: State.
Jim: State.
All learning is state dependent.
Finally, T is what?
Participants: Teach.
Jim: Teach.
Because when you teach something, you get to learn it twice.
Let me close with this, this is how I use this once.
And so I think children, going back to childhood, this is you're the fastest learners, right?
And you could access that at any time because you have an inner what?
Participants: Child.
Jim: Child.
You do have an inner child.
How many people believe that they have an inner child?
A child inside there that is a genius, that can learn, that maybe needs to hear some words
from you every so often, right?
And so a few years ago, I'll close with this, a few years ago, because I remember someone's
name, it lead to business that...how many people believe remembering names is important?
Because if you forget someone's name, what's the communication you're sending them?
That they're not what?
Important.
How are you gonna show somebody you care for their business, their future, their finances,
their health, if you don't care enough to remember them, right?
And so I remember someone's name, it lead to this business for 20th Century Fox, it
was for the chairman and I was training him and his executive team on a Friday.
And I go there, and because I was in state because I saw this "Avatar," like, memorabilia,
and I saw this movie poster with "Star Wars," I was like a kid, right?
So I gave my best training ever.
And afterwards, they really felt it.
He was like, gave me a tour of the whole place and everything and I saw this movie poster
of "Wolverine," this for me is big deal, "Wolverine" is coming out, I was like, "Wow, I can't wait
for that film to come out."
And he picks up...the chairman picks up the phone and five minutes later, I'm in the Fox
Studios with 3D glasses watching Hugh Jackman fighting all these super ninjas, right?
And I'm in my bliss on a Friday.
Afterwards, he comes to me says, "Jim, how is the movie?"
I was like, "It's great.
Thank you so much."
I tell him my story, how I grew up with learning disabilities.
I taught myself how to read by reading comic books, my favorite comic book were the "X-Men,"
"Wolverine," and the "X-Men."
And not because they were strongest, is because they didn't fit in.
Because I felt like, I didn't fit in growing up as a kid.
Does that make sense with this disability and the boy with the broken brain?
And the highlight of the comic books for me was when I read that the school for the gifted,
for the superheroes, was in, for X-Men, was in Westchester, New York, and that's a suburb
of New York City, and that's where I grew up.
So when I was nine years old, I used to ride my bicycle all around the neighborhood trying
to find this school because I wanted to run away.
I wanted to find my superpower.
Something that I was good at and I wanna find my super friends because when you're the boy
with the broken brain, you don't connect with a lot of people because you don't feel like
you have a lot to offer, right?
So I used to do that.
I'm telling him the story, the chairman, he's like, "Jim, I know that you like superheroes.
Do you wanna go to Comic Con?"
Now, how many of you are familiar with Comic Con?
Right.
Tens of thousands of people are getting together in San Diego, dress up like, you know, superheroes.
I'm like, "When is it?"
He said, "Today, Friday, Saturday, Sunday."
Now, notice my mind.
I go from a nine-year-old to a 99-year-old because I'm like, "I'm in LA. how I'm I gonna
get to San Diego on a Friday, right?
There's gonna be lines and be traffic, I've nothing wear, I've all these meetings in LA.
And notice, like, the critic that comes in, right?
Because sometimes you have to get out of our own way.
And mentally, I just became an old person in my mind.
And then he was like, "Jim, do you wanna go?
I'm going tomorrow."
And he was like…Oh, I was like, "Oh you're going tomorrow?
I'm gonna go with you."
So he picks me up Saturday morning and instead of driving down there, we get on his plane,
and I swear to you, on that plane, the entire cast "X-Men".
And they were gonna surprise Comic Con, right?
With their presence for the new movie that's coming out.
And I spend the entire...like, I go on there and I see Wolverine and Patricks, like, you
know, Professor X. I've seen between Jennifer Lawrence and Halle Berry going to Comic Con,
right?
And we spend the entire day amazing, we come back, here's the lesson, we come back and
chairman was like, "How was it?
I was like, "The best day ever.
Thank you so much."
He's like, "You know, I have something else for you."
I'm like, "I don't want anything else.
What can I do for you?"
He was like, "They really loved you.
How would you like to go to Montreal?"
They were filming the last 30 days in the new movie.
I'm like, "Oh, wow.
I never been on film, sir.
I would love to death.
But what can I do for you?"
And he says, "Jim, just do what you did with us.
Just share, teach them how to speed read scripts, memorize their lines faster, be present and
focused on set."
And I was like, "I could totally do that."
Sunday morning, we're on what they called the X-Jet, and we're going to Montreal.
And I'm brain training these amazing individuals that inspired me, like, growing up, right?
And I got to see, like, onset, that was actually taking place at the school, and I got to see
my real life heroes come to life in front of me as a nine-year-old boy.
Now, when I got home, there was a package waiting for my open up.
I don't know if you could put this last slide on, please?
I opened it up and there's this photograph on the screen, there's a photograph of me
and the entire cast of X-Men.
And even better than Halle Berry and Jennifer Lawrence, everything that's on there was the
note from the chairman.
It said this, "Jim, thank you so much for sharing your superpowers with all of us.
I know you've been looking for your superhero school since you were a kid, here's your class
photo."
The lesson that...everyone gets different lessons out of this.
For me, is me being in that childhood vulnerable state that allowed something like that to
happen.
And what I would leave for you is this homework, is it okay, if I give you some homework?
Is this movie was called "Days of Future Past," it takes place in the future and there's Armageddon.
I mean, it's the most dreaded future you could ever imagine.
And Professor X sends Wolverine, because Wolverine has healing abilities with his mind, sends
them back in time as, like, the communicator to talk to his younger self.
So Professor X sends Wolverine back in time to talk to the younger version of Professor
X, to tell them something so that way the future gets changed.
Does that make sense?
So my question for you is this, if you could go back to that child inside of you, that
younger self, and right now tell them something that they need to hear, what would that be?
If you could go back and pass on a message to your younger self, what would it be?
And if you were to go in the future, 1 year, 2 years, 5 years, 10 years, ahead in the future,
I believe you have wisdom inside of you.
I believe you have greatness inside of you and genius that you're not even tapped in
those states.
If you were to project 10 years ahead of time and look back on this day right now, what
is your current self need to hear from your future self?
I have a quote that I get quote on more than anything else, it talks about an egg and stress.
That your egg is like your life, that if an egg is broken by an outside force, life ends,
but if it's broken by an inside force, life begins and all great things began on the inside.
Thank you very much.