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. 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. 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] ♪
