Mastering Memory and Learning How to Learn with Jim Kwik

If I were to say to you, “you need to learn how to learn” I assume you’d think I was misquoting Yoda. But I want you to think about that for a moment. Can you remember a time in your life where you focused on the act of learning and how your brain translates visual and auditory stimuli into knowledge? What if learning wasn’t something you could take for granted? That’s the life of Jim Kwik. The world-renowned speaker and teacher suffered a brain injury as a child that impaired his ability to learn. What would take the typical student minutes to comprehend would take Jim hours, months or even years. When faced with the circumstance life dealt him, he drew inspiration from an unlikely source, comic books.

While the world slept, Jim read comic books — tales of ordinary people accomplishing extraordinary deeds. His heroes pushed their mental and physical limits against all odds to succeed in the end. How appropriate that a man named Jim Kwik at birth became the world’s leading memory and speed-reading expert. It’s not uncommon for Jim to speak to a room of hundreds and remember the names of everyone he called on at the end of his presentation. Or to ask the audience for a string of 100 numbers only to recite them perfectly from memory. These are tools that Jim developed over time, just like the super heroes that inspired him as a kid, Jim now inspires thousands through his learning and empowerment programs.

Kwik Learning and SuperheroYou are educational programs built to help you unlock the potential of your brain and discover your super powers. Jim puts it best, “If knowledge is power, then learning is a superpower.” After spending an hour with him on the stage, I left hungrier than ever to continue my quest for acquiring knowledge and skills. I hope you feel the same way.

JIM KWIK’S 5 TIPS TO BUILDING A SUPERBRAIN

UNLOCK YOUR INNER SUPER HERO

With the learning challenges that I had, it took me longer to learn. For example, I didn’t understand something a teacher would explain to me. It took two or three times in order for me to actually understand. I had really bad focus, really bad memory and it actually took me three or four years longer to learn how to read. I taught myself late at night when my family thought I was sleeping by reading comic books. Something about the stories of superheroes brought learning to life for me when I had these learning challenges. The genesis of it really is that one person can make a difference. It gives people hope and real-life help by inspiring people to live that better version of themselves, that version I call SuperheroYou. It’s like we’re not waiting for Superman or Superwoman, it’s like you are Superman, you are Superwoman, you are Super-teen, Super-child, and just need to be given permission to unleash it.

DON’T SETTLE FOR YOUR “FIXED” TRAITS

We were taught a lie through marketing and media and people who care but just don’t want to lose us or get our feelings hurt or get our hopes up. The lie is that somehow our potential is fixed, our intelligence is fixed, our learning is fixed and our memory is fixed — like our shoe size. When in reality we’ve discovered more about the human brain in the past three decades than the previous 3,000 years and we know it is incredible what people can do. So my goal is to be able to help. I really think all of us in this community, our goal is to help transcend. Transcend as in “end the trance” — that we’re not good enough, that we’re not smart enough, that we’re not worth enough, that we’re not intelligent enough. Part of the way of doing that is it’s kind of like waking up in the Matrix, it’s like you’re breaking this illusion, breaking the hold that’s there, and I think it really starts with self-awareness.

DON’T GIVE YOUR SOVEREIGNTY TO TECHNOLOGY

I find that the people who are most effective — both effective and efficient, are people who can see through the noise and really get to the signal. We live in an age that’s so noisy right now, especially with technology, people are outsourcing their brains all the time, they can’t remember simple things like a name or a phone number. I don’t want to fill my brain with some random facts. The whole point of life is to be able to think for yourself, to be able to separate yourself outside of the metaphor of the matrix so that you could have clarity of purpose. I think one of the things that’s really powerful is that a lot of people give away their sovereignty and their power first thing in the morning. The first thing in the morning they’ll pick up their phone and check everything. Because the way it’s set up, they’re getting their dopamine fixes and it’s rewiring their brain. So it’s training them to be distracted all the time.

RECHARGE YOUR BRAIN WITH SLEEP

Sleep is so important for your memory and for your brain health. That’s when you’re clearing out the plaque, that’s where you consolidate short-term and long-term memory. But we live in this age where we’re so distracted and we’re multitasking with technology and digital stuff. We’re not getting the sleep that we need. But it’s the sleep where a lot of genius comes from. People don’t realize this, but the song “Yesterday,” by the Beatles came from one of their dreams. Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” came to her in her dream. Elias Howe actually invented the sewing machine in his dream.

READ, RUN AND JOURNAL EVERY DAY

I read every day for 30 minutes because I think… Even Will Smith, says the two most important things are to run and read every day. Do something physically and something mentally to be able to keep yourself engaged and active. I also journal every single day because people we consider geniuses throughout all time wrote things down. They kept their own thoughts and they reflected on it to help give them clarity. Think about Leonardo Da Vinci or Albert Einstein — their journals are priceless. I think it’s important to be able to do that. There are certain things that you make time for in life and they should be the most important things. But there are so many distractions and so many enemies out there like social media demanding our attention and literally re-wiring our brains.

Originally Published on InsideQuest.com.