Limitless
Cover of Limitless by Jim Kwik
Rating: 8️⃣
Limitless is Jim Kwik's blueprint for upgrading the your most important tool to success, your brain. The book introduces concepts that are taught in his online courses on Kwik Learning including his course Kwik Reading to help people learn to speed read. I personally love that the book is extremely actionable with each portion providing steps to put knowledge to action.
I've been listening to Jim's podcast for a while and even pre-ordered his book right when he announced it. Limitless houses a lot of the same principles that are on his podcasts, all falling under the umbrella of super-powering the brain. Jim talks about the abundance of knowledge and the pace of society nowadays and explains that the ones who succeed are the ones who can learn the fastest.
One thing that's missing from the book is the use of Modern Technology to support learning; making use of productivity systems to replace frivolous tasks that take up precious brain space. From multiple other creators, I personally love using Notion to support my own work, whether that's scripting for a YouTube video or outlining my book notes.
About Jim Kwik
Jim Kwik is a brain coach with over 25 years of experience in the field, with clients from the likes of Harvard, CalTech, Google, NYU and SpaceX. He has also been featured in the Huffington Post, CNBC and Forbes.
Jim boasts his podcast, Kwik Brain, with almost 200 episodes, over millions of subscribers and 20 million downloads. His YouTube channel is also on the verge of hitting 500,000 subscribers! His courses on Kwik Learning, such as Kwik Reading, Kwik Recall, Kwik Thinking and Kwik Student have reached students in over 150 countries. These achievements are the tip of the iceberg for the "kid who recovered from brain damage".
Jim suffered a childhood brain injury that led to a difficult life in education and school. Despite that, Jim has created reproducible systems and strategies that enhance his 'Brain Power' and he's been spreading his techniques for over two decades.
Summary
Limitless focuses on the three foundations to success and presents the book as a pathway to greater things in life. The three foundations are Mindset, Motivation and Methods. He begins the book with an introduction to the greatness of the mind, and a quick drop of knowledge about reading techniques.
Jim starts off by laying out philosophies around Mindset and the ability to 'Unlimit' yourself. This chapter talks about the expectations set by yourself, and very likely, your family as well. He then follows this by talking about the 7 lies of Learning, how it leads our lives and how we can remove these myths from our minds. The mindset section of the book really comes through to me because I personally believed some of these before reading the book.
The next chapter talks about the purpose, the driving energy that propels our actions and how it directs us towards our goals. It also includes a portion on optimising diets and habits to achieve optimal performance from our bodies. Flow is also mentioned in this section, referencing the book by Mihaly as well. Flow is the state of mind where greatness is achieved, and we should be striving to reach the Flow State.
The Methods chapter follows up from the previous chapter about Flow and how to get into that state of mind. He tackles topics that are on his online course, like Kwik Reading and Kwik Student, and demonstrates techniques to learn better, faster and more efficiently. Needless to say, Jim's knowledge and experience with Brain Training really shows through with this chapter, bringing together years and years of work and consolidating it into one practical and actionable chapter.
Jim ends off the book with a "10-Day Kwik Start Plan" and some encouraging words summarising the book. He gives tips on putting the book to use and contextualising the book to real-life situations such as parenting and business.
Top 5 Takeaways
Knowledge isn't power. Knowledge times action equals power.
I personally have to remind myself of this constantly; because I am NOT a man of action. I've always been on slower side of taking the first step into bringing something to life, whether it is a website or just a post on social media.
Knowledge without action doesn't create anything; it simply takes up wasted brain capacity that could be used for just about anything else.
Neuroplasticity.
This is a big word for me but it simply means that the brain is eternally capable of transforming; creating and breaking neuron connections.It supports the notion that humans are forever capable of improving ourselves and that we are always susceptible to degradation when our brain isn't in use.
We can think of our brains as muscles, with a "Use it Or Lose it" mentality. Train your brain to be better, faster and stronger and it will be.
Geniuses exists in multiple forms. In one of the 7 myths of learning, "Genius" is mentioned where it seems like an unattainable state of being.
In actuality, success in real life leaves clues; steps to success are often reproducible and repeated often. Being a genius isn't a magically gifted ability, rather it comes through a smart and consistent, and very likely mundance, working ethic.
Flow state is the pinnacle of human performance. Jim takes a snippet out from Mihaly's book here talking about the mythical "Flow State".
The Flow State is said to be the state of mind where the unconscious part of the brain takes over and runs the show.
Jim treats the Flow State as the fountain of knowledge and results. Having it be the goal of productivity.
Speed reading is surprisingly efficient and effective... Kwik Reading is Jim's speed reading course that is worth $497!!
Reading is something Jim really stands for, he constantly says "Leaders are Readers".
Jim argues that speed reading can increase reading speed but if done well, can also improve comprehension levels.
He expels the myths of speed reading and gives a sneak peek into his course with a guide to faster reading speeds!