Jim Kwik Morning Routine
Jim Kwik Inspirational Speech Interview by Be Inspired Channel
Transcript:
I find that the people who are the most effective—you know, both effective and efficient are people who could see through the noise and really get to the signal. To be able to separate yourself outside of the metaphor of the matrix so that you could have clarity of purpose.
And then, that’s one of the things that’s really powerful also. A lot of people, they give away their sovereignty and your power first thing in the morning.
A lot of people…they give away their sovereignty and their power, first thing in the morning.
The first thing in the morning, they’ll just pick up their phone. And they’ll check everything. Because they’re—the way it’s setup, right? They’re getting their dopamine fixes, and it’s really rewiring their brain. So it’s training them to just be distracted all the time.
Can I stop you for a second?
Sure
That was so rad. You give up your sovereignty and your power? That’s incredible dude. What’s your morning routine look like. How does one avoid falling into the trap of reaching right for the cell phone and letting the world dictate?
I really like managing my first hour of the day and the last hour of the day because that’s what I can control. Sometimes when I go to the office, things are going to hit you and things like that. But here, when you wake up, instead of reaching for your phone, first I don’t keep my phone—I don’t touch my phone the first hour. The problem is that when you check for your email for instance, all you’re training yourself is just how to respond. You’re reacting to everybody else’s demands that they have for you, all your requests. The things that they’re sending you.
That’s something that I don’t want to train my brain to do. I meditate 20 minutes in the morning, I have a full glass of water, I plan my day. I write down three business things that I want to be able to focus on. And three personal things. And that’s a win for me. I don’t have to go through a checklist of 200 things.
If I do these three things, it’s a win for me.
Will Smith says his two most important things: run and read.
Something physically and mentally to keep yourself engaged and active.
There’s all kinds of hacks and manipulations that you can do. But most people are just incredibly incredibly blind?
There’s so many distractions. There are so many enemies that are out there. And it’s literally rewiring our brain. Even on social media. The challenge is, you know, like these terms like “Facebook Depression”.
What’s that?
Social Media Depression is where everyone is looking at their feed and they’re comparing their lives to the highlights of other people’s lives.
Wow.
There’s actually less life satisfaction, more sadness, depression, and stuff like that because everyone is comparing themselves to what other people are posting.
Wow! So that’s a thing.
So it’s a challenge. But more and more time is spent there. These devices are created to literally jolt you with dopamine to give you these fixes. The other reason why you want to routine your life, why it’s important, is because a lot of people nowadays the overload and overwhelm we feel from demands is decision fatigue. (According to a study by Case Western and FSU, humans have a finite amount of mental energy for exerting self-control)
Decision fatigue latest research is saying that you can only make a certain amount, set amount, of good decisions a day. And then after that, you can’t. So people like Mark Zuckerberg, or Tony Hsieh, they wear the same clothes every single day. The same sweatshirt, the same Zappos t-shirts. Not the “same,” you know their wardrobe has 20 of the them (lol). But the reason why is they don’t want to waste a decision on what should I wear today when they could be working on the things that they’re most excited about.
Mm. Do you really think there’s a finite number of good decisions that you can make in a day?
So I do believe that after a certain amount of focused effort, people suffer from mental fatigue. That’s where they make more mistakes, that’s where people become shorter with their temper. That’s where people make less than the best decision. Just because of fatigue and exhaustion. Because been so focused on other activities.
Do you know Mark Divine?
Yes. I know him. [smiles]
(Former IQ Guest Mark Divine is the CEO and founder of Sealift, an intense fitness and mental training program modeled after the Navy Seals’ rigorous hell week)
So he’s got this concept of 20X, right? You’re capable of 20 TIMES more than what you think you are. Ahhh, yes. I think that fascinates me.
I think motivation is key. It is the key to life. It’s the key to learning. I think if people feel like they can’t learn something or remember something, they’re not tapped into their motivation. You know, because “they don’t want to.”
Even things like names. Like they’re self-admitting to being really bad with names. When it comes down to it, they don’t really want to remember the person’s name. Except they’ll remember the names of the people they’re attracted to. They’ll remember the names of the people who could be good for business and there is an inherent motivation.
I always tell people if they are “horrible at names,” if there was a suitcase of $100,000 cash if you just remember the name of the next stranger you meet, you’re going to remember that person’s name. And all of the sudden the person is a memory expert. They didn’t use any technique. It had nothing to do with their capacity or their potential.
It had everything to do with whether they wanted to or not.
And I really do believe that reasons reap results. That’s the thing. If you have enough reasons, you’ll get the results. That’s one of the keys to learning faster and remembering more.
What motivates you? Just in general?
One of my very first students. She was a freshman, I was tutoring her. She read 30 books in 30 days. And I found out that her mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer and was given 60 days to live. The books she was reading were books to save her mom’s life.
So for me, it’s not about making a dollar, it’s about making a difference.
I don’t really get excited about making one billion dollars, but one billion brains? Coming online and unleashing their super powers? [that gave me the chills]
And think about the kind of world we live in. If we can raise the collective intelligence of the planet, where are the Elon Musks and Jeff Bezos that are just out there who can do amazing things?
Tell people what you think about questions.
I really do believe that questions are the answer. If people have the question of wanting to change their life, I would start not only with their body, but also the questions that they ask themselves. I believe that ask a new question, you get a new answer. All the value in the world started at that place. Someone asked a new question about, you know, in business or a relationship or in the world or about putting a person on the moon. A brand new question and all of a sudden, we have brand new answers.
I think that the people that we admire in business that do—you know, like Peter Thiel or people who go from zero to one. (Peter Thiel is the co-founder of PayPal and an early Facebook investor. He sold his 10% stake in Facebook for nearly $1 billion in cash) They ask a different quality of question and they get a different quality of answer.
People that read a page in a book and get to the end just forget what they read, which we are all guilty of. You go back and you re-read it and you still don’t know what you just read. A lot of those people, they’re not clear about their outcome of why they read what they are reading.
So they’re not getting answers.
But when your brain is like a magnet and it will just start getting answer answer answer because you have part of that brain. They call it the reticular activating system that determines your focus.
Years ago, I remember my sister would send me e-mails and postcards with this little dog, you know the little pug dog with the smooshed in face? And I was like, “why is she doing that?” And then I realized that it was her birthday coming up. Then I started seeing these dogs at Whole Foods, on the jog in my neighborhood, I see a guy walking 6 pug dogs, and all of a sudden they started appearing everywhere.
Where were they before?
They were there. But we never paid attention to it because there’s billions of stimuli in any moment that’s hitting us. And primarily, your brain is a deletion device. It would go stark mad if it just paid attention to everything that was going on. You would go insane. So primarily you’re trying to filter out stuff. And people filter based around their beliefs, their identities, their self-worth, their values, and everything.
The same thing when you’re learning. That’s why writing your goals and energizing them with emotions are important you start seeing answers everywhere.
You start seeing opportunity everywhere that’s aligned with that goal that you have.
Same thing when you’re reading. When you’re looking for answers, all of a sudden you’re reading and you say oh there’s an answer, there’s an answer. And it acts like a magnet and pulls it in.
You learn best by pulling information in, not pushing it in. That’s how the brain works.
It works not based on consumption, but based on creation. You know, getting involved, rolling up your sleeves.
Here’s the other tweetable. Learning is not a spectator sport. It’s just like working out. People see people who read an immense amount of information, right? Or they see people who are just really good with their mind solving problems. They say, “Oh that person can do it because they’re really smart.” That doesn’t make any sense to me because that would be the equivalent of me looking at someone at the gym who is bench pressing all this weight and saying, “Oh that person can do it because they’re really strong.”
No, they’re really strong because that’s what they’re doing. They’re doing that, so that’s why they’re showing those kinds of results. It’s the same with your brain. Your brain is a muscle. It grows stronger with use. But it’s use it or lose it. So many of us are outsourcing our brains to our smart devices, so it’s keeping your memory and all this stuff.
They call it digital dementia. (Neuroscientist Manfred Spitzer created the term “digital dementia,” referring to an overuse of digital technology which can lead to cognitive decline)
How everyone’s all forgetful, absent minded, senior moments coming a little bit early. They can’t remember simple things that they—conversations, everything. It’s because they’re training their brain to have everyone else think about it. What’s your schedule, etc.
We live in an interesting world of overwhelm and anxiety. People are in stress, their amygdala is under fire all the time, they’re acting as if a saber tooth tiger is coming at them. When are you taking time for white space? To be creative? To be able to go for a walk?
That’s where you’re going to be able to create a lot of the innovations.
That white space is very important.
Yeah, no kidding. What’s your definition of a life well lived?
A life well lived. I’ve always focused on—well I’ve always wish people their lives to be full of lots of love, lots of laughter, and always lots of learning. I really do believe that two things that fulfill me the most—cause I think it’s an individual thing—I think it’s growth and giving. I call them “Grow Givers.” What I mean is, a lot of people are “go-getters,” they just take and take and take. They can give stuff out, but then they become a martyrs because they have nothing else to give. I think when we grow, we grow so we have more to contribute to other people. And I think that leaving the planet a little bit better in someone’s life a little bit better just because you were in it? That’s a life worth living.
Awesome. I love it. Thank you Jim for being on the show. [applause]
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Watch more Jim Kwik.
Jim Kwik Morning Routine
