Limitless: Upgrade Your Brain, Learn Anything Faster, and Unlock Your Exceptional Life

by Jim Kwik

altered my mindset.

unlimiting. The key to making yourself limitless is unlearning false assumptions.

So often, we don’t accomplish something because we’ve convinced ourselves that we can’t do it.

Forty-six days after Bannister did it, someone else beat his time, and more than 1,400 racers have followed them.

Running a mile in less than four minutes is still an extraordinary feat—but it is not an impossible feat. Once that “barrier” was broken, many achieved it.

“We come into this world not knowing if life is hard or easy, if money is scarce or abundant, if we’re important or unimportant. We look at two people who know everything: our parents,”

Dynamo genius: Those who express their genius through creativity and ideas.

Blaze genius: Those whose genius becomes clear through their interaction with others.

Tempo genius: Those whose genius expresses itself through their ability to see the big picture and stay the course.

Steel genius: Those who are brilliant at sweating the small stuff and doing something with the details that others missed or couldn’t envision.

There are clear connections between positive thinking and physical health.

the difference between limiting beliefs and a limitless mindset is like the difference between a thermometer and a thermostat.

Key 1: Name Your Limiting Beliefs

listen carefully every time you find yourself using phrases like “I can’t,” “I’m not,” or “I don’t.” You’re sending messages to yourself that are affecting how you think about your life in general,

try also to identify the origin of this sort of self-talk.

begin to realize that these aren’t facts about you, but rather opinions

Key 2: Get to the Facts

One of the most pernicious things about limiting beliefs is that they play so heavily on our emotions.

Key 3: Create a New Belief

if you can create a separate persona for your inner critic—one that is different from the true you—you’ll be considerably more successful at quieting it.

Give your inner critic a preposterous name and outrageous physical attributes.

“when you are experiencing positive emotions like joy, contentment, and love, you will see more possibilities in your life.”

Fredrickson refers to this as the “broaden and build” theory because positive emotions broaden your sense of possibilities and open your mind, which in turn allows you to build new skills and resources that can provide value in other areas of your life.

positive emotions: (i) broaden people’s attention and thinking; (ii) undo lingering negative emotional arousal; (iii) fuel psychological resilience; (iv) build consequential personal resources; (v) trigger upward spirals towards greater well-being in the future; and (vi) seed human flourishing.

People should cultivate positive emotions in their own lives and in the lives of those around them, not just because doing so makes them feel good in the moment, but also because doing so transforms people for the better and sets them on paths toward flourishing and healthy longevity.9 The new mindset that comes from silencing your inner critic presents you with a world of possibility.

To learn faster, we must transcend the narrow definition of what we believe is possible for ourselves.

These restrictions are the only real barrier you face.

people can’t learn to read faster if they believe it isn’t possible.

You’re being lied to. Constantly. Sometimes by yourself.

LIE NO. 1: INTELLIGENCE IS FIXED

If we believe that it’s not possible to improve, then in reality it won’t be possible to improve.

It’s extremely difficult to accomplish something when you don’t believe it can be done in the first place.

With the fixed mindset, things are the way they are—we are powerless to change them.

With the growth mindset, we have the ability to improve anything.

if as adults we believe that we don’t have the capacity to learn, what do we do instead of taking the responsibility to teach ourselves what we want or need to know? We tell ourselves it isn’t necessary, we make excuses, we blame other people or circumstances, and then we distract ourselves with things that make us feel good.

the reason we prefer to believe that we’re either a genius or we’re not, or that we’re either talented or not, is because it relieves us from the responsibility of taking control of our own life.

Here’s the truth: It’s not how smart you are; it’s how you are smart. There are multiple types of intelligence

LIE NO. 2: WE ONLY USE 10 PERCENT OF OUR BRAINS

you have all the power of your brain available to you now.

The key is to learn how to use your brain as efficiently and effectively as you possibly can

LIE NO. 3: MISTAKES ARE FAILURES

“A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.”

It’s not how we make mistakes, but how we deal with them that defines us.

LIE NO. 4: KNOWLEDGE IS POWER

Knowledge × Action = Power

LIE NO. 5: LEARNING NEW THINGS IS VERY DIFFICULT

it’s not how smart you are, but how you are smart.

The key is taking small, simple steps.

Approach your learning like a stonecutter. It will require you to cultivate patience, to have a positive attitude, and to be adaptive to your own needs.

The key is consistency. You must have the patience to consistently come back at it again and again.