2935: Build A Brain That AI Can't Replace with Jim Kwik

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind Pump. Mind Pump. With your hosts, Sal DiStefano, Adam Schafer, and Justin Andrews. You just found the most downloaded health, fitness, and entertainment podcast in history. This is Mind Pump. Today's episode, Jim Quick is back on the podcast. The learning, memory, and brain expert. He wrote a new book, Limitless Daily. By the way, you can find him on Instagram, at Jim Quick. That's K-W-I-K. By the way, with his new book, if you pre-order it at LimitlessDaily.com, they will throw in over $470 of free bonus gifts. All you have to do is pre-order it, and this is available wherever books are sold on September 8th. But get it ahead of time, so you get that free stuff. Now, this episode is brought to you by some sponsors. The first one is Element. Element is an electrolyte powder you add to your water. No artificial sweeteners, no sugar. And it's got the right amount of sodium to make a difference. It's also the best tasting. Go check them out. Go to drinkelementee.com slash mindpump. On that link, you'll get a free sample pack of their most popular drink mix flavors with any purchase. We also have a buy one, get one free happening right now with MAPS programs. If you buy any one of the top 10 MAPS programs, you get any one of the other top 10 MAPS programs for free. It's happening right now. Go to mapsbogo.com. All right, real quick. If you love us like we love you, why not show up by rocking one of our shirts, hats, mugs, or training gear over at mindpumpstore.com. I'm talking right now. Hit pause. Head on over to mindpumpstore.com. That's it. Enjoy the rest of the show. This episode is brought to you by our sponsor, Element. So, this is an electrolyte powder that you add to your water. It doesn't have any sugar. It also is not artificially flavored. It's flavored naturally, and it tastes amazing. Now, here's the difference with Element over other electrolytes. They have 1,000 milligrams of sodium per serving. Why do you need that much sodium? Because if you need electrolytes, that's what you need the most. Potassium and magnesium are important, but it's the sodium that prevents cramps and headaches. It's what gives you those pumps. It's what helps you perform better in your workouts. It's especially important for people on low-carb diets, people who fast, people who eat whole food-based diets. If you sweat a lot or you work in the sun, in the hot sun, electrolyte supplementation can make a huge difference. And if you go through our link, drinkelementea.com/mindpump, on that link, you'll get a free sample pack of their most popular drink mix flavors thrown in for free with any purchase. Back to the show. Today's giveaway is MAPS Powerlift. If you want to win that, leave a comment below this video on the first 24 hours that we drop it. Subscribe to this channel and turn on notifications. And if you win, we'll notify you in the comments section. We also have a sale. Buy one, get one free. With the top 10 MAPS workout programs. It's ending soon. Go to MAPSbogo.com. Here we go. Jim, welcome back. Thanks for having me, guys. Yeah, it's been a little while. I love, out of every, I'm on this book tour and this is like the best studio ever. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Absolutely. It has so much like depth. I'm sure everything here has like personal meaning. It does. And we're all, we're definitely all four of us, as you could tell what's behind everybody, very different. I mean, that's one of the unique things about this, our podcast friendship business is that as good as we all get along, we couldn't be more different from each other. So I got to ask you a question just to open this and it's about AI. Is it making us dumb? I think it has a potential. It has a potential to certainly do that. So, you know, your brain is like, is like a muscle, like it's an organ, but it's a muscle. It's use it or lose it. And I feel like AI is removing all the friction and the effort. Like you wouldn't, you wouldn't go to the gym and have your friends lift weights for you. Right. Right. But it's kind of like what AI is doing. It's kind of doing the heavy lifting and we don't get the effort. But, you know, when you're building cognitive reserve or cognitive like fitness, you know, we need, it requires effort, right? Neuroplasticity, you know, is our brain. Our brain's ability to remodel itself, but it's solely based on challenge, right? You build a muscle through novelty and nutrition. Same thing with your mental muscles. So my challenge, my big challenge with AI and I, we all use it, right? It amplifies and it scales, but it could only, it only amplifies and scales what people bring to it, like their own natural human intelligence. So I always, I think human intelligence is going to, is more important than artificial intelligence by far. Like somebody could use AI. It's no longer competitive. It's not a competitive advantage because everybody has access to it. Just like information is not a competitive advantage. We all have access to it. Somebody could use AI to make a nice social media post. Somebody else could use it to make the next, you know, huge wellness fitness app, you know, a billion dollar venture, but it's the human that, that makes the difference. You know, my, my thing is there's this term called cognitive offloading and that's where, you know, last time I was here, we talked about digital and I wrote about this in Limitless in 2020. The four supervillains. to your mind, digital deluge, which is the overload, right? Which is why it's so important to be able to learn faster, read faster, everything, catch up, keep up, get ahead, digital distraction, which is just getting worse, right? Every like, share, comment, cat video, app notification, social media alerts is driving us to distraction. That's why focus is like, you're your attention. We live in the age of attention. It's the number one currency. Digital dementia, which is outsourcing our brains, like our memory to our devices. You know, our devices keep our to-dos, our calendars, our grocery list, phone numbers. And then I termed the fourth horseman as digital deduction back then. And that's where it's actually thinking for us. And that's the big challenge, I think. Well, imagine a society that's offloading and cognitively surrendering their thinking to AI. I mean, think about what happens to our own critical thinking, our ability, our judgment. I mean, it makes you so susceptible. Imagine a civilization or society that can't think, can't think for themselves. Think about the misinformation. Think about how we could be easily manipulated by other people's, you know, authorities, agendas, marketing, media, and everything. And then even if, you know, that happens, like then even if everyone's thinking the same way, then everything they're using AI is going to be derivative. It's going to be so generic, right? I mean, you even see this now with the AI slop that's out there. You know, that's just like a lot of noise. You know, it's like empty calories. Like you eat, like I feel like today we, you know, we talk about, in society, especially Americans, overfed, undernourished. But what about mentally? We're like overfed with all these empty calories from social media, you know, doom scrolling, and there's no, there's very little nourishment. Yeah. You know, what's interesting about what you're saying, Jim, is when I think of how we outsourced activity, okay, so we did that a long time ago. Being sedentary is a default. Being active is something you have to seek out. So one of the side effects of that is really poor physical health. Yeah. I don't think people realize that not exercising their brains, right, not thinking and remembering can cause mental health issues and actually deterioration of the brain. I think what we think is, oh, I don't remember phone numbers anymore, but those neural networks are gone. And if you do that enough times, you actually start to get some, you get atrophy. How is this different? How is this different than what we've seen historically when the calculator came, the computer came? Yeah. I mean, even before that, like, I mean, date back to spoken word, let the date back to humans 300,000 years ago, communicating with grunts and, you know, started using words and everything to the year, that's 300,000 BC to 3000 BC until like people started writing. Like people would have to pass on stories, you know, from memory, like the whole odyssey or the Iliad was, was, was. Moral tradition. Yeah, absolutely. Through, through parables, everything before the written word. And so technology has always changed the way we think. When we started writing things, we started externalizing our memory. Printing presses allowed you to share ideas, you know, more, you know, at scale a little bit, not like today, but libraries, you know, calculators. And not that I went, the other day I was at a dinner and they brought the bill and it was 10 of them. Four people took out their phones to divide by 10. You know, no, you think it's a joke, but you see some things like, but that's the challenge. It's just like, and some people say like, it's very convenient. Absolutely. But you don't want it to be crippling. Like the math, like math has a certain value in terms of even base logic, right? Like, I feel like our society would be really much better off if we just had common sense and basic, you know, basic logic and common sense. But GPS, if a third party device tells you when and where to turn, we didn't need that, you know, before. I'm not even talking about hunter gatherers. I'm talking about like before GPS, we'd have to use, excuse me, your visual spatial intelligence. You didn't need to know where you are in time and space. But now, you know, people don't even know, like the other day I was in an Uber and we went through the worst way just because he was following this thing and I just needed to be like dropped off right here, but we just default our thinking. And so yeah, technology. And then with AI, it's like, oh, well, you know, I'm not going to do this. I'm not going to do this. I'm going to do this. And I feel like today, you know, there's a hidden cost to modern convenience. Like the whole world is optimized for comfort, you know, and then what happens to your muscles, physical and mental, where you don't have to strain or stress or challenge. But, you know, the primary rule here is with challenge comes change, right? You know, with struggle comes strength, but we don't have that deliberate, difficult, you know, discomfort physically or mentally. It feels like it was, you know, historically almost like a slow death or slow adaptation. But with AI, it almost feels like it's coming on so much faster. And so, which makes me think that the repercussions of that could be far more dangerous or outlasting or egregious. I would agree. And the other thing that pops to mind too, Jim, is while you're saying this, past innovations did not reduce our communication, contact, collaboration with people like current innovations are. So current innovations, one of the biggest. One of the biggest drawbacks, in my opinion, is people are seeing each other less. So I door dash, I do everything online, I don't go to the store. And that, I know the data on that very well. When you're not around people, you're not nearly as well. It's a removal of human connection. Yes. And that's like, you know, we had on our podcast, you know, the director of that Harvard study, that 80 year plus longitudinal study on happiness and longevity. And they said fitness, very important. Diet, very important. What's just as important is connection, you know? And it wasn't just like your romantic partner. It was the depth of connections. Because just, again, as hunter gatherers, we're social creatures, right? Like even, like a human being, you ever been around like a calm person, like a friend, family member, and you just feel calm? Like your nervous system regulates that person? I mean, we get courage sometimes from, you know, someone we care about, their belief in us, right? We're social creatures. You know? We also have these mirror neurons where we're constantly imitating the people around us. That's why that phrase, you know, we're the average of the five people we spend the most time with, you know, fitness-wise, health-wise, financially, and other. Because we start mirroring, imitating the words, the actions, the thoughts, the character, the habits, you know? Whether someone works out, it has less to do with their genetics and more to their friends' workout. You know? Eat right, read, study, entrepreneurs, whatever that is. Do you think, and I'm sure, I think I know what the answer is. Because this is kind of what you do. But today, if someone wanted to be physically fit, they have to, for the most part, schedule workouts. Yeah. Go to a place. Designated facility for this. It has to be organized. They got to organize something that allow, where I'm physically fit, where I train my body. Because if I don't, my daily life, none of it's in there. It's just not there. Yeah. Do you think we're going to have to do this with our brain power, with our mental health? I mean, I would love to have these. Mental gyms, right? Like, you know, these brain gyms, if you will. But I mean, obviously, you know, like, I think, so there's definitely, I mean, there's huge connection between physical activity and mental performance, right? Like, you know, we know all the benefits. I'm sure you've covered this a lot, you know, in terms of resistance training and what it does for the brain, all the benefits, the BDNF, the dopamine, the serotonin, the endorphins. I mean, we are, the primary reason you have a brain is to control your movement. That's the number one reason. We have brains. And as your body moves, your brain grooves. And so physical activity is absolutely paramount. Like, I have a family member years ago, older, senior, she broke her hip. And when she was confined to a wheelchair, her mind followed. Yes. You know, and she didn't, she unfortunately passed shortly after that. But mobility is absolutely key. That's why leg strength, you guys know, this is so very important, especially for cognitive health and performance. Once you lose mobility, and that's why. Some of the top activities outside of working out and going to the gym will extend your life, like racket sports, reaction time, thinking speed, you know, strategy, memorization, ballroom dancing, right? And notice all these activities also puts your mind in your muscle, but it also has social activities. You do it with a partner also as well, which is a huge benefit. So, you know, like there's this term called cognitive reserve. Like you could have two, you know, seniors and they could be biologically. Biologically very close, you know, their brains. But one is independent, you know, and the other one is losing their memory. You know, they are very forgetful. They need assistance. And what scientists are thinking is that cognitive reserve, cognitive reserve is like, is the difference. It's like a retirement account. It's like you're putting, you're investing and how you build that retirement account, like we would do financially to be better. When we're older is through new learnings. It's all, it's all physical activity, mental activity and social activity. Jim, I just today brought up an old study and it specifically speak to cognitive reserve. It's a study done in 1986 on over 600 nuns. Okay. And the reason why they picked them was because they live such similar lives. So there wasn't a lot of things I had to control necessarily. And what they found, there were a few things they found, but there were a few nuns in there particular. One woman, I think her sister, sister Mary, I think was her name. She was 101 years old, great cognitive performance. She died shortly after because of the study, all of them donated their bodies to the science. So they looked at her brain. She had beta amyloid plaques, like somebody who had advanced Alzheimer's, but her cognitive tests did not reflect this. And the, the way that they explained this was that she had tremendous cognitive reserve. Yeah. It gave her that cognitive resiliency that allowed her to maintain independence. Even though she had all of the telltale physical, uh, you know, symptoms or physical, you know, attributes of Alzheimer's, which is pretty wild. That's so wild. I mean, cause we get all like, we all have like cancer cells and all these things in our body, but you know, whether it gets expressed, it's kind of like, you know, like I was, I was just, uh, talking to Max Lugabier and he was talking about how, like for Alzheimer's, like your genetics loads a gun, but your lifestyle would pull the trigger. Right. And so we all have these things, you know, in our physiology and in our bodies. But it's like, you know, cognitive reserve is, is huge. The, the study, I actually have the, I have a, um, an actual copy of this that was on the cover of time magazine back then. And I have a, I have a copy. Yeah. So you knew about it. The study is called aging with grace. Yes. Which is so, which is so amazing, but they were having discourse, you know, debates. They were having deep conversations, reading a lot, writing, and it added years to her life, but also life to their years, which is, which is, is just huge. That's cognitive reserve, right? Being active, like, you know, because, because what's the ultimate is cognitive, if you're cognitively rigid, besides the longevity aspects and just having your faculties when you're older, even businesses, you know, a cognitively rigid, uh, you know, business is like Kodak, right? They, they, they invented the backbone technology for digital photography and they shelved it, you know, and they, then they're extinct. Blockbuster video. I mean, we can go on and on. That's cognitive rigidity. Cognitive flexibility is your ability to be pliable. Like be able to do mental parkour, be able to, you know, be flexible, fast, limber, you don't break, you bend. Um, and I think that's a lost art, you know, and like building cognitive, especially when most people are consuming rather than creating. And then the, the algorithm now is you don't, I don't know, like I'm not on social media a lot, but I don't, I tend not to see a lot of people I follow more of whatever people engage with. But the challenge is whatever you engage with, you see more of. And so then you're in this echo chamber because you're only seeing the perspective of you. You're the stuff you're engaging with and you never have flexibility because you never get to see, you know, the, the, the opposing view, right? Like even using AI to point out your blind spots, I think is incredibly valuable. You know, some people would say intelligence is measured by, you know, be able to change your opinion based on new data, you know, but be flexible like that. Because a lot of people aren't because they're, whether their ego is built into it, they spent this amount of years of study as part of their identity and they stay rigid. And that, that, that's a challenge. I think in an A, I think we live in the age of adaptation. You know, ultimately human beings, our bodies adapt, right? To stressors, right? There's, you know, there's, uh, there's heat adaption, right? Temperature adaption. Like it's built in nature. Like you introduce, we were talking about my, our young, my young kids, we have a three and a half and a one and a half year old, but you introduce them to soils. And then their immune system is more robust. So I talk about something called cognitive anti-fragility where I think cognitive resilience is like bouncing back to where you like under stress, you bounce back to a default setting. Cognitive anti-fragility for me is bouncing forward. It's like, like, like, like you're building a muscle, it adapts. And then what was hard becomes easy. And then you pursue more and more hard. But I don't think people are mentally challenging themselves because of technology is doing a lot of the lifting for us. Give us some examples of, of some, uh, some exercises or things someone can do to improve their, their cognitive fragility or to become not so fragile. Yeah. And so I would be, I think deliberate discomfort is so very important in a world that's optimized for comfort. That's optimized for convenience. Like you mentioned DoorDash and Uber. Like if I, if I, if I have to go 10 blocks away to run an errand at the bank or whatever, and, and I call Lyft, that's technology like AI. It makes this very convenient, but then I don't get it. I step in right in elevator. If your apartment or, you know, office is on the eighth floor and elevators and early for is a form of technology, but then you don't take the stairs. Right. So I feel like I, I. I don't think that AI, you know, and specifically because I see most of the lifting for most people, like I was always my, my rule, even as I use artificial intelligence is to build before I borrow. I want to build my own intelligence before I borrow, you know, from AI, but certain things that you could do to increase your, your cognitive anti-fragility and your cognitive flexibility. Let's talk about flexibility is studying something like studying something outside your field is incredibly valuable. Like having hobbies, you know, like you notice some of the highest achievers, they have, they have dedicated other interests because that allows them to be more creative and problem solve and build and innovate because they have more references and distinctions from, from other things. I noticed that when I had, I used to, I used to own a training studio and at one point towards the end, I had these really high performing clients and it was interesting to me because these were people who had very demanding jobs, like it was, you know, brain surgeon or heart surgeon. And they also were like classically trained. So I was like, I'm going to train pianists or I had one guy, I had one guy was an anesthesiologist and he's like, he was a, he got trained, uh, as a bartender, uh, just so we can learn how to make craft, like, like hobbies. And I'm like, man, where do you get the time to do this? But it must be a part of that. I mean, it's like, like the whole, like Da Vinci, like he was a scientist and he was an artist. He could juggle. He has this, all this other, other, other interests. And I feel like, you know, to be flexible, you need perspective, you know, and you need to be able to have distinctions. Um, you like to be flexible. You become less one dimensional. There's a whole, the great research book called range, um, you know, about the generalist, the power of a generalist. You could specialize in your career and your studies, um, become a master in that, but still being a generalist and having base knowledge about a lot of things allows you to be more, more whole. Um, so like, yeah, or even if you're going to use AI, you know, have it, have it create an argument for what you're proposing, you know, in terms of your beliefs, you know, like create an incredibly strong argument counter to. To challenge ourselves. But I feel like, you know, it's important to have, what's the phrase? It's like strong opinions, loosely held, right? You know, you could change because who wants to be, I doubt anyone listening here as the same exact beliefs and thoughts and, you know, as they did 10 years ago, hopefully, right? Otherwise, where's the, where's the growth, right? Hopefully we have some beliefs, you know, that we were, we'd be embarrassed to even talk about, you know, otherwise, if we're exactly the same, it's just like when somebody says, Oh, I have 30 years experience in fitness or health or sales. Right. Right. Right. Right. And, and you, you really have a conversation and because you guys have distinctions in those areas, like maybe they only have one year experience that they repeated 30 times and there's no growth. They just kind of mailed it in every single time because it, your brain, you know, this is 2% of your body mass, but it is an energy hog. It uses 20% of the energy and the vitality. You know, I work with chess players and they could burn upwards of six, six, 7,000 calories just sitting like this all day, you know, because your, your brain use, and that's why people don't think because it, it, it is. It is a high energy activity, you know, for people. And then if AI is going to do it for you, you know, and then the other crisis besides cognitive offloading, you know, cognitive surrendering, you know, where we're not using those, those muscles anymore, I think is an identity shift. You know, like what happens, like there's this barbell economy where the weights are on both ends. It's like, like that AI, AI might not affect as much leadership on this side or, you know, things that, require more physical act, HVAC, massage therapist, hairstylist, right? But the barbell here, the thin part that's really going to be hit, coders, right? Writers, visual designers, graphic designers, like here, I mean, I just saw, what was it? A radiologist, like the, the, like AI could detect it better, like a thousand times better than the human eye. So like what happens, you spent years of all this schooling and, you know, 10, 20 years in your career doing this thing and all of a sudden AI could do it faster. More accurately and better than there's an identity crisis. It's like, uh, I was at the Superbowl. I do stuff where the, uh, the, the NFL alumni and like what happens when somebody is trained or, or, or, or vets, right? Like what happens when you are focused in this and you have a community, a team or in the military, right? And then all of a sudden you're moving on to something else. Identity crisis. Yeah. And then that, that's going to be a big challenge with, with AI because it's changing the way we work, the way we live and how we see ourselves. I mean, where's, what, where's your purpose? So many people identify themselves as their career, right? Yeah. Two things, two things that come to mind. One, as you're talking about ways to improve your, or to be anti-fragile cognitively, I'm thinking like one of the best ways to do this is surround yourself with people and talk with them, especially people who might have differing opinions or people who are, who enjoy discussing without getting offended. I think that's great because you're going to automatically get hit with things. You can't counter, uh, right out the gates or that you don't anticipate and it's going to give you, it's going to kind of help strengthen, uh, that muscle in you. So that comes first. And the second question, the question I have for you in regards to AI, you said you use it. I'm curious to how you use AI. Like, what do you, what do you specifically use AI for, um, in the ways that, you know, don't damage your cognitive strength? I mean, the same way that I, that I, as a memory trainer, you know, remember names and facts and figures and all that stuff. Right. I, like I would do, even when I started and this is my, you know, 53, I've been like almost 35 years, you know, as, as doing focus exercises or I would do memory exercises. For example, you know, people forget what they read. They forget like what room that the hotel, the room number, uh, like I would, I would practice memorizing a license plate when I'm driving, or I would practice memorizing a grocery list, even though I could, you know, easily write it down. You know, I would memorize, uh, you know, something simple, like the seed phrase, whatever happens to be. So those, those reps count, right. Just like, you know, when you steal reps, you know, uh, throughout the day. you're making your coffee and you do some squats and you're triggered that way, right? You steal those reps. Same thing with those mental reps. I was always looking for opportunities to hone my memory because I didn't want it to just kind of fade, right? Especially because, you know, my grandmother passed out of Alzheimer's when I was seven and my brain injury and my learning difficulties. With AI, I created an acronym for you guys because I like acronyms because if someone's listening, like they're driving and they're working out, they can't write it down. So before I go to AI, I'll do, I'll do certain things. And I said, you build your own intelligence before you borrow from AI. And so the B stands for brainstorm. So before I even go to ChatGPT, Clodge, I mean, whatever it is, I'll brainstorm my own ideas before, before, right? I'll kind of get a little mental warmup around this. The U is understand. And this is specifically what I mean. I think people are optimizing a lot of their, like we ask AI for, with these prompts, right? We engage, but we don't. We, before we ever did that, we were prompting our own mind with the questions we're asking all the time, right? Does this, does this make sense? How do I learn this? You know, how do I reach this goal? Whatever it is. And I feel like a lot of times we're optimizing for the wrong question, right? Like it's very different with like, oh, how do I hit, you know, how do I get, you know, whatever amount of followers or being, whatever, as opposed to like, I don't know, Peter Thiel's book, zero to one, how do I hit my 10 year goal in the next six months? It forces you asking, you asking a question you have to, you can't work harder. Right. There's a great book. Uh, 10 X is easier than two X basically saying, because two X you could, you could effort your way to two X, right. In terms of money or whatever you do, but 10 X, you can't possibly effort that. So you have forces you to think differently about it, right. To get there. And so understand means like really understand what the problem is and define the problem. Einstein. And I don't know like how people credit this and it's attributed Einstein that if he had an hour to solve a problem, he would spend 50 minutes really understanding the problem. Finding the real problem. Right. And so I would say understanding, so I would be thinking about the problem myself. And before I prompt it, I'll just get clear on what that, what that is. The I in build is imagine and imagine, you know, Einstein said again, imagination is more powerful than knowledge. This is where I'd come up with three answers to that question before I go to AI to just give it to me. Right. Um, and so like, and I, and I would ask, I would do thought experiments too. Like a question I ask myself all the time, let's say I'm dealing with a problem or whatever. And I would say like, how would a five-year-old look at this problem? Like how would they solve it? Because it's often the elusive obvious, right. Or how would somebody 10 times smarter than me, you know, look at this problem or an individual, like a mentor in my life, I would think about how would they look at this problem. Um, and so I feel like that's very useful in terms of imagining solutions to your problem. And then the L in build is leverage AI. And, you know, then, then you could go to AI and, but I, I don't want to give it, I personally don't go there for answers. I use it as a more augmented intelligence where it's like a creative partner. I'll, I'll use it more to say like, to stress test, just like stress test my idea, the point out the blind spots or the cognitive biases here, or to argue against what I'm brainstorming or thinking about, because I feel like that's because I think a lot of AI is just placating to you. It can make the dumbest person feel smart because it's just like, Oh, there's so much misinformation, how that, that intelligence is aggregated through Reddit through, I mean, just like, yeah, I don't know. It's just, so I would say, um, leverage AI, you know, after you do that and then the D in build is then you decide, because I just want to remind everyone who's listening, cause I'm sure everyone's using AI. It's AI could compute and process information faster than a human will ever be able to do that. That's just fact. All right. I'm not going to debate that, but ultimately human beings, their human intelligence has to decide, what this information means, which of this is important, right? What to do with this information. because also AI doesn't have any responsibility. It has no stakes in like what it's giving you as opposed to humans where, you know, we decide something and then we're responsible for that outcome. So I feel like, and also AI, they're using it for therapy, they're using it for coaching. And I totally get that. And we have that in our programs that we've trained our, you know, in our speed reading memory, like we've downloaded all the, you know, all of this stuff that I've created, you know, but I think one of the challenges, like AI doesn't have bedside manner. It could feign empathy. It could feign compassion, but it doesn't know how to like console a grieving child. It doesn't know what it's like to ask for forgiveness. It doesn't know what it's like to have heartbreak or anything else like that. It hasn't had a human experience. So it could feign it, but it's synthetic, right? And so I just feel like my optimistic view, this is my optimistic view. Cause, and this is really weird cause on the way here, the person next to me on the plane was watching this movie, WALL-E. Yeah. And this is, and yeah. And that movie was so sad. It was incredibly sad. And I didn't, I was, I didn't have the earphones in, but all I remember seeing, cause I haven't seen it since it came out is just this future, right? Where it's like, everybody is morbidly obese. They're sitting in these pods that are just kind of going everywhere, you know? Yeah. And then the one, the scene I saw was like, the one of these guys fell out of his pod, you know, and then he needed like five robots to pick them up because he couldn't even have the ability to get back. And then right in front of the guys, everyone there is like screens, you know, and then a big gulp of soda or whatever happens to be there. And that, that's the scary, that's the scary future. My optimistic view is, cause everything's driven by money. I would say in the workplace, my optimistic view is if we can't out-compete process like AI, then it's going to force us to be more human. I think, I think one of the most interesting conversations to have, you know, today is that I think we're living in this story where how do you remain deeply human? What does it mean to be human in a world of AI, right? Art of an age of AI. And I feel like it's going to force us to get better at the things that make us human because, you know, I'm all for AI automating things like lower testings that I don't want, I don't want to deal with like, you know, my, my inbox, my account, like all those kinds of things. But, you know, only if it frees up energy and focus to do like other stuff, right? It's like, like we do our annual event for community for ours for 19 years now. And all limitless live. And, and years ago we had Rod Roddenberry who's the son of Gene Roddenberry who created Star Trek, right? And I, you know, I saw him there and I brought him on for the fireside chat because his father had this vision of the future that with technology, right? You had a tricorder that could diagnose any health challenges. You had replicators that can make food. There's no disease. There's, there's total abundance because it can make everything. So money is just, it doesn't only need money. So what are they doing? They're out there exploring. They're doing higher level, you know, things with their energy, time and attention. So what I'm hoping for in a world of AI to be relevant, to be compensated in the workplace, it'll force us to be more human. And that's an acronym that I put it, that I put in this book. So H is, is H is heart. I really feel like leaning into emotional quotient, empathy, storytelling, compassion, everything that makes us more human, EQ in a lot of ways are more important than IQ, right? The U is understanding, going back to asking, you know, like why, right? Understanding, curiosity, you know, comprehension, you know, like real deep understanding. I feel like that's a human quality. I think the M is meaning, like purpose, like going back to identity. I think people should be really leaning to purpose, especially because purpose, having some kind of purpose, I'm not saying just life purpose, it gets you through adversity, right? It gets you through hardship. It gets you through difficult time, having a real reason. Like, you know, like, you know, who's counting on you to show up? Show up today, either clients or kids or whatever it is. So I think people are going to really have to focus on what lights them up, you know, and gives them drive and fire. The A in human is adaptation. I feel like the people are going to win. That competitive edge is the only constant. Nobody knows what the future is going to look like 10, 20 years from now. They just, they just don't. But change, there'll definitely be change. So our ability to adapt like human, like human beings are good at, I think that's our superpower, our ability to learn things, unlearn things that are no longer true or updated to, to, to relearn things. Also, um, to be, to be cognitively flexible, you know, in, in the marketplace, but also flexible with our, our bodies and our minds. And then the N in human, I use the word nexus to fit the acronym, but it's, it's all the social skills, leadership, sales, influence, coaching, you know, parenting, all the things that this, this social aspect, because it's not just your neurological networks, it's, it's, it's your social networks, right? And so I feel like if we start leaning into that and we start developing our judgment, our curiosity, our creativity, you know, our critical thinking, I feel like then we could usher in, in an, in an AI revolution or evolution, you know, a new like human re renaissance where it would force us to be able to do more things, the science and the art of that. I share that optimistic view. Um, although I do believe, uh, because I think it's human nature that we'll go through a lot of pain first. Because I think to your point, uh, if AI goes the direction we think it is, and we have this kind of star track type future where things can be made for us, there's the money becomes less important. Everybody can, uh, 3d print what they want or have what they want or go where they want. Uh, it will force us into looking at purpose, but what will come first is higher depression, higher suicide, because they'll think that consuming more of that stuff that they get is going to solve it. They'll find it's an empty hole and pit. Yeah, because technology isn't just making a life so easy. Like, it's not like, like we have controlled temperature, controlled light. I mean, everything is so easy. You could order on app. You never, you're right. You're never out to see another human being. And so I think there's a big cost for that, you know, because, because the thing is when we're looking at first principles in like nature, like you, you can't buy a fit body. You have to, you have to earn it right. Every single day, you can't buy a great relationship, right? You can't buy the things that really matter in, in your life, you know, it requires effort. So whether it's your body or. Your brain or your business, whatever it is, you know, and we can't be upset by the results we didn't get from the work we didn't do. You know, like so many people are, are, you know, doing this, this mental masturbation. They, they love like learning on podcast or listen, and I'm calling people out because I'm a coach, but listening, but they hear the same thing, but they're not doing anything with it. And that's the challenge. And from a memory standpoint, like I'll make this really, really clear. There's this forgetting curve. You learn something in two days later, 80% of it's gone. You hear it on a podcast, you read in a book, you, you go to a conference or whatever, fitness event, whatever it happens to be. Coach, it's gone. And the reason, one of the reasons why it's gone is you're not using it and the mind will prune and delete because whatever you, whatever you focus on and you do, and you say, and you think, and you, you, you behave, then you're telling your nervous system, this is important. Let's preserve this. Right. But if you're not doing something with that information, then it's just gonna get rid of it because you're only going to strengthen the things that, that are important to you. You know, it's a good hack with that is, you know, when you learn something to talk about it, teach it, talk about it, teach it. Fumble it around. I mean, I got, I got my trainers today that I'm sitting down and I'm coaching and teaching. And one of the things I talk about as a young trainer, when I knew very little and I'd learned something, I immediately turned right around and taught it to the next person I saw. And I definitely fumbled it around and it didn't sound very good. But by the second, the third, the fourth time it had become mine. And it's like, I think so many people are, are the mental masturbation comes from fear, fear of how our peers are going to judge us. Fear. If I'm not going to get it right or say it right or do it right. And people that can get over that and unlock that or accept, I'm going to suck at it. I'm going to fumble it. I don't have a photograph, whatever, and get over that and teach it, say it, uh, and repeat it. It then becomes part of you. Yeah. They, they, um, Richard Feynman, you know, they, people attribute to like the Feynman, you know, uh, effect or, or the, the explanation effect. When you learn it, you learn it. And when you teach it, you learn, get to learn it twice. Like if everybody could. If we listen to this episode and, but this time when you're listening, think about how you would give a TEDx talk next week about it. You would focus way different, right? You would own that information because it's, it's active learning, you know, cause learning is not a spectator sport. Any, any different than, than lifting or anything else. And that's worthwhile. But yeah, when we teach something, we get to learn it better. And so like, you know, even with kids, right. You could have their kids explain what, what they're learning, you know, and then it, it also shows you your gaps in knowledge too. And also I feel like when you teach it, it starts to become more of your identity in terms of, okay, I know this, I know this, I'm an, I'm becoming an expert this. And I, I really think the, the sequence is you learn it, you teach it, you learn it, you live it and, and you teach it. Because like, I have a rule for every hour I spend learning something, you know, I don't know where I came up with this, but it was just like, just for me, it made sense. For every hour I spend reading something or listening to a podcast, whatever, I want to spend an equal hour applying it. Right. Because I, I. I feel, and people schedule their workouts, but they're not scheduling their implementation or their application. Like somebody going to reading a great book on, I mean, and honestly, there's a book that could solve anyone's problem that someone wrote somewhere that they spend years, you know, going through mistakes in their research and experience. And you don't have to spend those thousands of dollars and time and everything to do that. So I think reading is, is great. And reading is to your mind would exercise your body. Great neurological, you know, cognitive training for yourself. But somebody could read a book and not apply it. Their life. life is no different than somebody who's illiterate, going to read the book to begin with. So that's the challenge. I feel that you're right. People get this dopamine from learning something new, but they don't apply it. And I really think like how I define intelligence in the new book is, and this is functional for me. It's not IQ. That's so antiquated. It's not a standardized test that you take when you're eight and that's your potential when you're 88. That doesn't even make any sense, right? Because of neuroplasticity in our brain's ability to grow. For me, intelligence, people say it's pattern recognition. It's your ability to be flexible. I feel like functionally somebody is intelligent. If they're intelligent, intelligence is using your brain and directing your mind to create the life you want. So using your brain, which is the hardware, your mind directing it, the software, right? To create the life you want. Meaning somebody could know everything about fitness, but if they're not fit, how intelligent are they? Right? Somebody can know everything, read every research or every book on wealth and investing and whatever. And, but if their bank account doesn't reflect that, how intelligent is that person? Right? And so I feel the life we live are the lessons we teach. So for me, you know, and we live in this kind of expert economy where I feel like you learn something and then you have to live it, right? You have to practice what you post. And then, and then you get, and then you teach it also as well. And so, cause then like I could roll out of bed, like you guys can also, and you could talk about this cause you live it, right? Because you mean the, you say, and you show up differently with the level of congruency. Cause nowadays I feel their BS meter is really sophisticated. Like you can detect AI stuff, right? I had somebody on my podcast. I usually always publish shows, right? We've done nowhere near as many as you have, but we've done, we've done 500 plus episodes. I had somebody on and it was recommended to me because, you know, team was showing all these, they have the great Instagram. I'm not gonna mention who it is, but they have great Instagram posts and very like, wow, this is where everything is like lands. And I was like, I'd love to have a conversation about this, get them on. Person is like dumb as heck. I'm not, I don't want to, it's not, it's not a judgment, but clearly AI or somebody else was writing this stuff for them. Cause I asked like these layup questions and it was just, and I can't pull it out, but that, but that's cognitive surrender. Like, like AI is writing people's books and their posts and everything else. So they're not, it's like that MIT study that a lot of people were talked about. MIT did a study with their students and they had them write essays and they put them in group A, B and C and group A. They used chat GPT to write their essays. Group B used Google, group C didn't use either. And then they see, they, they, they scan their brains to see which one was, you know, more cognitively engaged. And obviously C was most cognitively engaged because they had, they had no help right from technology. And group A just was not engaged at all. Right. Cause they didn't have to earn it. Just like if they were, if you were to look at people's like the intensity of their muscles, lifting weights or whatever, they would, they wouldn't, we're lifting any weights. But when they tested them on their comprehension, their memory about that subject, group A hardly remembered any of it because they didn't have to earn it. Right. And neuroplasticity again, it's, it's, it's the whole basis of like this word neuroplasticity is challenge equals change. And my, my, my challenge is everybody wants convenient and they want comfort and life is difficult for one of two reasons. You either leave your comfort zone, you start that business, you start that relationship, you work out, you know, you study, become an expert or life is very difficult if you stay in your comfort zone, you know, because you stay in there, yeah. I, I think, uh, I think AI could be, uh, one of two things, either it could be incredibly stimulating. Uh, it could strengthen your cognitive function. It could help you become smarter or it could go in the other direction and just do things for you. I mean, I, I, I've used the AI. One of the things I've done with AI is cause it's an incredible synthesizer of information. It's the best we've ever seen. That's what it is. And we've never had in history, uh, something that synthesize comments, reviews, and forums and compile it and put it together to give me a consensus. I've never had that before. We've had studies. So what I've done to learn certain things is now I've taken studies and then I've taken people's reviews. Now there's, you know, millions of them, hundreds of millions of them online plus studies. And I've taken anecdotes, lots of them studies. I've put them together, find the commonalities, have AI sort out. And I'm coming up with some crazy, uh, conclusions and ideas around certain things. And I've done a lot of things. And it's very stimulating because I'm prompting, I'm going through and I'm saying, okay, uh, are those commonalities, uh, and lots of things will find the two things that seem to be standing out. And then we'll find that. Oh, and it's remarkable. You're using it. Like you said, like a partner versus like an answer, which I, I think a majority of people use it almost like a sophisticated Google search, right? They just give me this, you know, prompt it like that versus you are pulling in ideas and theories and together you're, you're formulating, an argument with it as a partner versus a tell me what's better. So, you know, which is how most people, I'll be specific with you because I had fun with it a while ago and I was messaging these guys about it. So I got on there and I'm very fascinated for a long time ago. I got really fascinated with the science of cannabinoids in terpenes. This, there's a personal story. I had a family member had cancer. And so I got into how it could potentially help her. So I had some base knowledge. And so I said, um, what are the different cannabinoids show in, in the studies that they can help, uh, you know, cause produce. So I got this list. What about the different terpenes? And I got some ideas around there. Then I said, uh, what do the reviews say on the best strains of cannabis for pain relief? Give me the top five. I got the top five. Then I said, what of these top five strains, what commonalities do you see with the combinations of cannabinoids and terpenes? And he gave me an answer. I said, of these commonalities, which ones are common in all the strains and which ones seem to stand out the most. And what I ended up getting was a terpene that probably is really good for pain. There's this really fun process of going through and asking these questions. And I think you could do that with AI. Yeah. And I think, and the difference that makes the difference is your human intelligence compared to somebody else that's that, that doesn't have those distinctions or the interests or the discipline or the life experience and the references that you have, because you're interacting with a different, and that's what I mean about, you know, people leaning into their human intelligence being more important than AI. Cause again, AI can amplify and scale like if somebody is confused and incompetent, it's going to, and unclear, it's going to amplify that, right. It's going to make you a bit more of that as, as opposed to somebody who's competent, clear, concise, you know, has character, then it'll amplify that also as well. Well, I'll share an opposite story of the usage that I've shared on here before with you guys is I have a family member who, uh, was taking HRT and the way he prompted it, uh, you know, can HRT be dangerous for me was the, and so of course, what does the AI do? It searches all the probabilities of how it can be dangerous. And so he sent me this thing. He's like, I have to get off. This is terrible for me. And I'm like, that is such a stupid way to prompt that. And you could flip that on its head and say literally the opposite. How is a positive for me? And it'll give you a list. And so you have people that are coming to conclusions because they're prompting it so unintelligently. And then they're taking that answer as the truth. And it's like, Whoa, you got to understand how to prompt this correctly. If you want it to give you a less bias, but it's giving you a bias based off the way you're prompting it. So it's going to be interesting to see how that, you know, separate, like how many people will have the intelligence to approach it the way Sal's approaching it and how many people are going to just use it to dumb them down. Well, Jim, this, because this is kind of, this is your field, uh, uh, and you, you write and learn and are passionate about, um, all of, all, all things cognitive focused and you coach people. Are you seeing a greater demand, uh, for some of the stuff that you teach or a reduced demand? So I think, uh, how it's delivered might be changing a little bit. Like, um, we have the largest academy of accelerated learning in the world. We have students in every country, um, speed reading, memory enhancement, critical thinking, creativity, brain optimization, all the, all this stuff. Right. Um, I feel like, uh, courses probably are going down. I would imagine industry wide in terms of going through online when people could go to AI and say, Oh, how would, how would Jim quick memorize this stuff at study? And so which is great. I think there's a big part of our community or anyone that's built a brand that that's special because you've earned their trust, right? You, there, you have relationship equity. I think, I think, yeah. Cause again, like, like there's this whole, I'm in a lot of author communities and there's this whole thing with AI writing, you know, doing that. But some, some readers just don't want to read anything AI and publishers are taking a stance on it because that person that has not gone through, the experience, you know, the authentic, transparent experience of what, you know, what they're talking about. If it's a piece, if it's AI writing, that's something. So I feel like, um, you know, if you've built a brand out, that's out there and most businesses have a brand or a champion and spokespeople for it, um, then that relationship is, is a big asset, you know, cause people want to, in times of confusion, people will go to people that have earned their trust repeatedly, consistently, right? You guys have episodes on five a week on this basis and you don't have to go back and do it again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and you don't, and so like, just like if you're in a relationship and you always prom or somebody promises they would do something at work or whatever, and then they do it, they break that trust every single time. How much do you, how much stake do you put in there in their word? Right. And, and, and a brand is off, if often a promise, but think about how we break our own trust, right? We say, we're going to do something. I think the number one meta habit, I talk about this in the book. Um, it's a, it's a daily book, like, uh, you know, uh, like daily stoic. Um, And like any daily book you pull from Christianity Judaism or Buddhism or Stoicism, this pulls on science. So it's a pulls on science of the mind, which is psychology or science of the brain, which is neuroscience. So it's a brand new idea that actually gives them prompts. So like the prompts you give to AI and you're talking about a family member that maybe that is not the most empowering prompt that gives them a biased answer. We're doing that to ourselves all the time. Cause think about the prompts, the questions we're asking of our own intelligence instead of artificial, our natural intelligence. Why can't I ever lose weight? Okay, great. You're all the reasons like, just like on AI or, you know, why don't I deserve love or whatever, or even the questions we ask are not the best kind of questions. And we talk about, you know, so every single thing here has a question that gets people to prompt and exercise to build that, that mental muscle, you know, if, if you will. But I would say in terms of the few, the future of this work, right. Certain things are never going to change because the hardware is not going to change in the brain or it hasn't changed in 300,000 years. We pretty much have the, the same brain as, as people did, you know, all that time ago. So I think, you know, you know, exercise and diet and sleep and relationships, you know, all always very important. I would say also very important nowadays to take a pause, meaning, um, whether it's meditation or time in nature, that's for me, walking the dogs is my pause, like a little brain break, because the brain's not meant to go 24 seven, right. It needs these little, little disconnect. You have to disconnect to reconnect for, for me. Like it's interesting. If you pause a camera, or a computer or a television screen, a machine, it stops working. I found working with clients and myself does personal experience that when we human beings take a moment to pause, we start working, we start in different ways. We start recalibrating, we start recovering. We, we start re-imagining things. Right. And so, but people aren't scheduling that white space to think anymore and people can't be bored anymore. Right. They have to take their phone. Right. Even in the shower or whatever, they always have to have a screen on or a phone or they can't, they can't even sit in a line to be able to do this or dinner tables, you know, they see couples like, you know, a bone on the phone, whatever it happens to be. And I feel like, you know, we're talking about children. And then again, we have a three-year-old and a one-year-old like, like I don't want, I don't want them super stimulated all the time, especially they don't grow up on what we grew up watching. Right. I'm trying to eliminate, you know, reduce screens and I have empathy for that also, right. Like for, for why parents, you know, use screens sometimes to be able to, you know, for, for kids. Jim, you were, we're in a similar age group. So I don't know if you've experienced this yet. Cause I have kids too. And I have two little ones. I have a five-year-old and a three-year-old and we put on Mr. Rogers. Okay. It's painfully slow in comparison to the kind of stuff that kids watch today. It's, it's crazy. If you watch it now, in fact, there was a scene on Mr. Rogers where he had a clock on the screen and he goes, let's see how long a minute is. And the screen just focused on the clock with the second hand going down and you just said to watch it. Oh, for a minute. That's so amazing. That would never happen today. I don't think an adult could do that. No, no. And so, so this is what we're putting on for our kids. Cause I noticed a difference in their behavior when they watch completely. And so we have a list of shows that we approve because of exactly what you're saying. So earlier too, we were talking about school and how that's, you know, that structure has changed a bit and I've, you know, like private school and we've experienced this as well as like, they've gone back a bit more to analog and they're going back more to actual reading and then like application and, and actually project building amongst each other. And I feel like that is somewhat of the answer in terms of the exercise of it and, and being able to have that human knowledge and experience. And then we can get to the digital stuff and, you know, AI kind of coming in after, is that really, do you see a big need for that? I think a hybrid, you know, kind of a whole self-learning where it's, it's taken the whole child into consideration. So not just left brain, right brain conscious, unconscious but it's also their sleep and their diet and everything else that, that, that affects it. So it's not everybody, you know, like in society sometimes want the magic pill, like the one thing, yeah, every, everybody. Right. And it just, I just feel like there's not a pill, but there is a process, you know, for this for kids. I'm, I'm very interested. I've had the opportunity to meet with a lot of founders of different schools and tour and advise. I mean, they use our art strategies and some of the top school systems in South Korea and Finland for accelerated learning, meta learning, learning how to learn. The stuff that we teach, right. Learning faster. I would say devices are a challenge, right? I wouldn't want to be a teacher. It'd be very hard. My, my, my mother retired a handful of years ago from New York public school system. She started as a public school, special ed teacher to help me with my learning disabilities for my brain injury as a child. Teachers could be some of the most caring, competent, compassionate individuals, but I can't even imagine like, you know, holding the attention of kids. I grew up, our generation grew up on video games, right. Which is one thing, but on screens and going back out to like the kid, like our kids will watch occasional stuff. We do, we do try to put some borders and boundaries when possible, but like, I like there's certain, the content of what they're watching is very important. Like you said, like today's stuff, like if you go on YouTube, the stuff that goes viral that has been, you know, millions, billions of views, it's, it's, it's, it's noisy. It's fast. Yeah. The flashing, the sounds, the lighting, everything is so, so stimulating. I mean, you, have you seen these videos? We don't even allow YouTube for that reason. Yeah. YouTube is built on an algorithm of addiction. Yeah. And so the last thing I want is my seven-year-old watching something that's being, that's programmed to feed him something that's addictive. Yeah. So like the platform itself is just not an ideal platform. And you hear all these ideas and I don't know if they're about, if they're, if they're true, but all these founders of these tech companies, they don't let the kids on the screens. No. Yeah. And just taking a reprieve from your screens for two weeks, brain scans before and after like some, some of them say just like their brains, uh, like go, go back, you know, 10 years. I look at that as training. Yeah. And, and it's just, but sitting in boredom is, is that there's a challenge. You ever see these, these kids that online where you take the advice away and they just like, you're taking. Lose their mind. Yeah. It's like taking away like crack, like it's just like that kind of like addiction. And that, that's, that's, that's a challenge. So, you know, I see schools, um, reducing screen time or, or, or going back to analog. I, I don't read on, you know, screens particularly when I travel, it's harder cause you know, I don't want to carry like all these books with me, but I always like to read physical. I, I just, something, there's something about a physical book. Well, I'll tell you the difference, uh, read, um, off of your phone before bed and see how far you how fast you fall asleep and then read a real book and see how quickly you fall asleep. And I read fiction at night too, because sometimes if I read something too stimulating, like on science or business, whatever it is, I'll get in my executive brain. I'll have all these ideas, but fiction reading has been shown to reduce stress upwards of 60% have been better. Better sleep also. And also like, cause I used to read all non-fiction stuff. That's me. I want to know, like, yeah, I'm guilty of that fiction reading. I'd like, there's a vote for this, uh, higher EQ, intelligent, like narration, storytelling, empathy, creativity, perceptual positions, be able to, you know, jump from other people's point of view, all this stuff. That's so very important. And it's soothing, right? As opposed to something that might be a little bit more technical. You know, I started doing Jim just recently. This was my wife started it and then she encouraged me to do it. And I was like, I don't know if you're familiar with this, but it's like this, it's like this plastic square and you bring your phone up to it and you can, you can select whatever apps you want to turn off or whatever. And you'll break your phone, leave that somewhere. That's, you know, kind of hard to get to. So I leave it downstairs. And so all my social media apps, my texts, everything is inaccessible. Uh, from that point on, the only way to turn it off is to go back to that physical and turn it back on. And that's, and that's the key for habits, right? Is it isn't controlling your environment, right? You want to make the thing, one of the, one of the principles are for habit design is you want to make the things that are good for you easier and you want to make the things that are not good for you more difficult. Right. And that's the thing, like having your phone by your bed on your nightstand is a challenge. Like I was talking to one of our students the other day and like, like she was telling me how she, she scrolls at night and you know, for like, and I was like, we looked at it, it was like two and a half hours. Right. People don't realize how much time goes by just going like this. Cause you could do this infinitely. Right. And besides the sleep issues that the bed is, the blue light thinking, you know, you're not creating melatonin cause you think you're my nervous system still thinks it's daylight besides the stimulus that you're watching that could also stimulate you. You know, the context switching, all of that. You know, I said, I was like, wow, that's, that's interesting. And she was using something to justify it saying, well, I had a really long day. This is my way of de-stressing. And we all, I totally understand that. And then, but the question I asked, cause I always want to question people's assumptions, just getting that metacognition people thinking about why they do what they do and how they think. I was like, okay, would you wake up two and a half hours earlier to do what you're doing right now? Like with the scroll like that. And the answer was obviously no, but logically, like if you're going to stay up, if you know, two, two extra hours, would you get up to do that? And it was instant. Right. And, and the challenge, you know, with, with this habit, just like, you know, you make the things, you know, I have a pull up bar in my, like right in my, the doorway in my office, right. Just more likely to be able to do that because I'm making things that I want to do, you know, easier for me to be able to do for, um, here's a hack for everybody. So w when you wake up in the morning, cause it's high leverage, the only thing that's equal now, and everyone has equal education or network or, you know, income or whatever, but everyone has 24 hours in a day. Right. And so limitless not about being perfect. It's about leverage. Like how do you leverage those minutes? So it's not even about time management. It's really about mind management. Right. And so here's a leverage point. When you first wake up, there's something called sleep inertia and sleep inertia. which is, when you transition from a sleep state to a waking state and you would imagine certain things are coming online like your attention's coming online your conscious awareness is coming online your alertness is coming online your working memory is empty right so it's kind of like you're waking up and it's like fresh snow not everyone no one's like there's no tire tracks and other people's footprints it's like it's pristine right it's clear in that window there's something called attentional priming and what that means is that what you're putting in the mental inputs in that window and that that window could be depending on your sleep quality depending on what stage of sleep you woke up in whether it's deep you could be more groggy or whatever about 15 to 45 minutes right when you first wake up now that the mental input you put in those 15 to 45 minutes has a disproportionate effect on the rest of your day disproportionate so think about this specifically in three areas what you focus on later on that day so what you prime intentionally prime we're likely in the morning you're more likely to focus on number two how you feel throughout the day your mood and like think about it like you could get let's say someone picks up their phone that's what most people put in this window and so what is what is it amplifying their focus so what do they so when they start focusing on whatever they saw first thing in the morning comparison depression conflict war whatever whatever it is or just pure distraction like nobody would invite 200 strangers into their bedroom first thing in the morning to talk about whatever the heck they want to talk about that's kind of what we're doing yes it is unconsciously or unconsciously so your focus what you focus on here we prime to what you focus on later um how you feel and also how you frame your day like how you frame situations conversations uh challenges is it a crisis is an opportunity based on what you primed your mind for so the challenge with you know i just saw a video that i have on facebook you know it's facebook memories nine years ago me and simon cynic somebody cut this video of 38 million views it says just me talking about don't touch your phone the first 30 minutes a day or the last 30 minutes of your day right really simple and then talk about the anxiety that comes with the phone and but when you pick up your phone you're priming your attention in it's not just attentional priming it's emotional priming so what are you priming it with distraction every lecture con whatever and reaction yeah because you get a message or social media comment that puts you in a mood for hours right or a voicemail or whatsapp you know and so what do you what are you priming and so you're priming reaction meaning you're fighting fires right off the bat you're on the defense how do you create an amazing day if you're just like if you're on your heels first thing in the morning mentally right so i always say like it's mine before media at least for that window right it's it's what's your intention for the day before interruption yeah like what's your direction before all this distraction and so when i wrote limitless daily which is 366 days you put as everyone's on the same date it's meant to be to be read ideally like in that window and so i always say like it's mine before media at least for that because then you prime the things that make sense so start your day off read the day for the day sets you up for better attention yeah better reaction uh good emotion because what because what it does is you know the conversations that you you know we had a couple of like conversational specialists like jefferson fisher and other people on our podcast right um master conversationalists and i was saying like the most important conversation is not with your clients or even your kids but it's the conversation you have with yourself because that's the conversation you've been having for a long time and it's the conversation you've been having your whole life right and so that makes a difference so this is a way of you waking up and before i'm having dealing with everyone else's agenda for your life and reacting to everything else you know directing your mind it's like when you wake up it's like your computer is rebooting right and and until later later on you have all these tabs open because people are opening it for you whatever you know but here it's clean right it's not using up a lot of energy plenty of memory your working memory is empty right your focus is absolutely clear because you haven't distracted yourself and so you know for this when i wrote about it the big question i got from limitless which sold a couple million copies you know it's just and we donate all the proceeds the the charity built schools for girls in ghana guatemala kenya offered health care that kept them out of school you know clean water because a lot of these girls are spending six hours a day catching water for their families and also alzheimer's research uh for for for women in memory my grandmother but books for me is is is changing my life you know i didn't have these connections everything and then my my teachers wouldn't surprise if i i read a book much less you know wrote books but i was what i i didn't think the world but the question i got from people reading limitless is this is you know great you know owner's manual for your brain your brain you know doesn't have instructions but like how can i live this every day because i didn't i didn't think people needed another because everyone wanted the next book and i was like once i published i was like people don't need another book i love books right i read every day i'd rather go honestly a day without you know eating than a day without reading you know not that i skipped meal like but i that's how important it is for me but i don't think the world needed a book where they could read for a few days put it back on the shelf i i wanted a daily practice because that's what changes people's lives right is the action and the implementation the habit people need a new habit they don't need another book and what i wanted it was to develop a five minute low friction no excuse first thing in the morning like you get your workout done first thing in the morning and you're you know you do something difficult first thing and you earn your dopamine right yeah i'm sure your audience knows dopamine is a molecule of motivation most people think i have to be motivated to take action no you take a small action then you earn the dopamine you know and then that fuels future action and momentum right as opposed to people getting dopamine not earning it scrolling going to a website eating junk food whatever it happens to be so this is a daily mental practice to upgrade your technology just like you upgrade your zoom your apps the new chat gpt you get by the new phone five minutes a day to get your mind right to be able to win for the day you know and i mentioned to you guys like you know i wrote this uh this it wasn't going to be a book i wrote it for my for my kids you know when my daughter was born you know um it was different when i had daughter i'm always telling straight up like i don't know like i love my son but i got both i know what you mean so but it's um but i saw my wife holding her and then my son at two years old like in the hospital bed and when she was just born it was just different i write every morning that's i i like i'm i'm just very creative in the morning like i i break my day with three c's i i create in the morning i consume in the afternoon and i clear at night and that's a task batch right i i i create i write books i map out podcasts courses whatever create then i consume you know i do research you know i read books i prepare for a podcast whatever and then at night i clear you know where i just i talk to my wife and mommy day i clear it out because i want to be able to i i i journal or i do some yoga nidra or i do you know something that just i i write what i have to do tomorrow right get it out i clear and i can sleep so much better um so that's how i task batch so i'm just not multitasking um and not using up a lot of energy and so but in the morning um went to hospital instead of writing gratitude or what i want to do that day i started writing to my kids because you know i am in my 50s and god forbid i'm not here 20 years from now you know when if they're going through a hard day a limited day what would they need to hear from their father to to get through it i started writing about fear of failure you know uh burnout overload distraction imposter syndrome i mean negative thoughts self-doubt and um and then i had a friend who was going through a really hard time stage stage four cancer and i gave him the menu like like some of my notes and he was like this is so crazy like every single i've been reading this each day it's like exactly what i needed to hear because so much of healing or success is a mindset right in your mind right and so i went back through this and i was like oh this could be this could be the book this could be the practice and i went through i put the science of every entry so every every page has a specific date you go to august 20th whatever it'll have a new idea in written inspiring way so you're motivated to do it a two-minute implementation so there's no excuse right and then uh and a new identity statement in terms of your becoming and i feel like success or transformation doesn't come from just occasional bursts you don't just work out for a weekend and you're done right you don't brush your teeth for three hours and you're done for the year all of success is that progressive overload it's the consistency just like building a muscle and this is something people could do every morning to kind of get their mind right to win the day when i open that every day and i read for the day how long does it take to read and implement on a daily basis what does that look like five minutes so five minutes including the implementation awesome so it's a five-minute practice every single day yeah and it's a mental love that cognitive exercise book essentially to get your mind right because it's kind of like when you wake up in the morning imagine you're getting on a on a plane right and hopefully you know the city you want to end up in but just like in our day we have turbulence and we have headwinds we have all these things that are vying for our getting to where we want to go you know and and just being off and some people are their their planes being hijacked by by other people's like agenda for what they want from you and so even a one percent if you're going this way and you just take a one percent difference this way over the course of a day or the flight you can end up in a completely different city or a country right that's the difference that makes a difference so this is about getting your mind right pulling you from the passenger seat up into the cockpit and you are the pilot of your day you're not you're not the passenger like one exercise i just read recently because i'm rereading i'm reading this myself now um is like this exercise like when i when i wake up i i imagine i just thought experiment i imagine myself coming back to bed like later that night and my wife asked me how was your day and i was like and i imagine myself saying wow it was a amazing. Like totally crushed it today. Right. And then I asked myself what had to happen in order for me to feel that way for me to say these words to my wife. And I think of three things personally, three things professionally, and that becomes the things I focus on. And I actually don't even pick up my phone until I get one of those six things done. Right. And that's kind of my personal rules, my self rules. And people like, they don't have to understand the, like do my process, but the principle behind it. And that's like one entry. And I talk about the science behind why this works and everything else, because how are you going to know you had a great day by default? This is by design, right? Like you have a goal in mind and it's hard to stop somebody who knows where they're going and why, why they're going there. Right. So this is to help people get in flow throughout the day. Right. We have an event coming up and we have, you know, Stephen Kotler talking about flow states, but you know, the reason this work is so significant is because if you remove every day, distraction, burnout, uh, you know, imposter syndrome, all the things that you're doing, you're not going to be able to do it. And so, you know, I think that's what keeps you out of flow, where you feel your best and you perform your best, right? That's the friction to flow, right? So the, the goal here is if you want to win the day at the windows for a few minutes of the day with attentional priming and sleep inertia time. And, and I think the best, the best athletes, whatever, they're protective of their time and their, and their attention, you know, attention is currency. Like think about the words we use when we talk about attention, pay attention. Right. And like, if everybody had to pull out their credit card every single time to put their attention somewhere, you go on Facebook and you have to pull out your credit card and enter that information. People would treat it very differently, right? Or, and then they go to Instagram, they'd pull the same credit card and do it again. We wouldn't do that. We'd be thinking about how do we save and preserve our, you know, our attention, this currency, how would we invest it into something that's worthwhile? And I really, I really think the most important thing is to keep the most important thing, the most important thing, right? I think a lot of people listening, there's a section on burnout, like a day, you know, one of the entries, I think we're not burnt out always because we're doing too much. You might feel that way, but some people are burnt out because they're doing too little of the things that matter, the things that make them come alive. There's no purpose, right? Yeah. Yeah. And, but, but until people have a conversation about that, especially first thing in the morning, when you're most impressionable, then I feel like we're on default. We're just kind of going with the flow of things. And I think that as a recipe, just like with AI, like if we're not deliberate and intentional of what we're doing, if, because then it's just like fate or just like luck or something else. And those are horrible, like strategies. You, uh, there's, there's great data on this, on people who deal well with stress. And it's not because they have less stress in their lives. It's because the stress that they have is something meaningful and purposeful. So like people who like volunteer in a third world countries, like they are out there, it's dangerous, it's hard work and they feel great about what they do. And then you got, you know, John, you know, you're like, I'm not going to do this. John, going to his office, uh, you know, every day. And he's, he's overcome with stress. Cause he's like, what am I doing? I don't have any purpose behind what I'm doing. So what you're saying is just, it's so true. And it's so backed by the data. It's interesting when we talk about purpose and meaning, right? Like what, what gets us up and gets us through those difficult times. I feel like more people lean into that and have these kind of honest conversations. And maybe that this conversation will inspire them to do that with their loved ones and everything, because that's what I think that makes us, that's one of the pillars for being human. You know, I was going to ask you, Jim, cause you said earlier that the, your ability, one of the measurements of intelligence as other people have defined it as like your ability to essentially change your mind. You have an opinion and then you get new information and you can change your mind. When's the last time that happened to you? When was the last time you had an opinion where you were like, Oh yeah, I think this is right. Then you got new information. You're like, Oh man, I'm, I'm totally wrong. Yeah. I mean, even writing this book, you know, I thought I was going to write another book and I probably will. I have a couple ideas in mind, but you know, even changing my mind, like, cause I didn't, I didn't want this to be this way. This is deeply personal books. I wrote it for my kids and they're the most important thing in my life. And so like, that's what I put into this book, but doing it daily, I was like, Oh, does it, you know, that doesn't, I don't know if that makes sense. So that was like one, just that those, a small one, you know, in, in terms of that. Another one is like this belief about my sleep. You know, I've, I've had this conversation with you guys before, you know, I have very bad sleep apnea, obstructive. I stopped breathing 250 times a night from 2010 to 2020. And I was like, Oh, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't 2015 I slept 90 minutes a night total wow yeah like it was that bad CPAPs weren't working dental devices and I had mat walk I have everybody on speed dial and it just wasn't working and I just realized and I had a surgery at UCLA they took out my tonsils my soft palate and it was obstructive so my sleep went up to four hours and four and a half hours but like I've created this perfect storm back as a kid where I would pull all-nighters because I had to work three times harder as the other kids to get to pass you know and then so that didn't develop good sleep habits and then when my career you know I've given 2200 keynotes at companies corporations conferences I could be in three continents in a week right so the jet lag sleeping in four environments but I have this whole thing I had to reframe my beliefs around sleep you know like like I would use my belief back then was like I could I have so much to do I'm on mission I have purpose you know I don't have the time so I'll just be on my own I don't have the time to do it I don't have the time to borrow from my sleep right it was like it was like a bank account I kept on drawing and drawing until I went into into overdraft you know and now I just see sleep completely different you know where it's just you you could reach but you have to rest and then you could repeat right um but that had also I think I also get was gaining like their secondary gain like I think when people complain to friends all the time because they feel heard or they feel significant or they go back to therapy and I'm not I'm not I'm not going to judge them on therapy but they'll go there's a secondary gain of feelings wow this person really listens to me and they'll maybe stay in a situation longer than they want to or need to because there is a secondary benefit and I think part of my secondary benefit was like people say all the time like wow Jim you're doing all this on like three hours of sleep and I was getting like well I say I'm kind of cool but here's the thing it's just like people going around just just two hours ago so I was I was talking to a friend it's like I was like how are you doing it's like I'm so busy and this person is always busy but they use it as a badge of honor and they're like I'm so busy I'm so busy I'm so and I was like because what is it saying to them the secondary is like I'm important I'm if you're busy I like you so I'm so significant and important and I'm like okay if that's what you value and that's your belief then it's no no wonder you're designing your life to be busy all the time be able to maintain that and I didn't want to get any secondary gain or sympathy from lack of sleep even though I've literally went from Estonia to Nashville to New York City to Scottsdale to LA to here is that what you just did yeah oh you weren't in here when he was first came in he was telling like yeah that's that's a good sleep last night when you okay so uh I imagine when you're coaching people you probably do before you really start giving advice or get going you probably take inventory of what their day looks like and what you know right what so do you find that your your initial advice when helping people is more eliminating stuff in their day or adding stuff into their day what do you that's such a great question um I mean you guys know like coaching is all about taking somebody where their current state is to the desired state right and be able to help them close the gap you know one of the two things that I I find that are most important for a coaching client that I sort for is they have to be they have to be they have to be motivated to make a change um and they have to be open-minded because somebody could be open-minded but they're not motivated then that's not useful or someone could be motivated but they're very close-minded on how things should be done and I'm much friction and uh and so I feel like they have to do it's a co-creation process um I definitely look at their calendar I think a calendar is first of all I think it's one one of the number one productivity performance tools we have that we don't schedule it's not going to happen like workout or reading or implementation or anything that's you know or even scheduling your sleep when to go to sleep I mean like you have an alarm clock to wake up there's I think there's huge benefit of having that same alarm clock to go to sleep even on the weekends but no one does is perfect but to stay on a schedule you're going to overall sleep long term is just going to be better I mean without a doubt I mean just as humans being wired for um but if I look at their calendar I can see what's important to them right just like where people put their time their attention their resources that's what's important no matter what they say right if they're not doing that like spending the time with their family they're not doing the things right um and so yeah I do an audit because everything I teach is measurable I you know besides the metrics of sleep and HRV and everything else like that just like in the fitness world like I can actually I can measure focus I can measure memory I can measure reading speed reading comprehension everything so I have a baseline and then you know we could grow them um I would say uh in terms of where the the sticking points are um motivation is is a challenge keep people going and I talk about purpose having something that they feel because if they can intellectually know they want to but they're not doing anything about it because they don't feel it right and we're feeling creatures you know and that I would say another one is having enough energy to do the thing because an exhausted mind is is a coward I mean you're just not going to do the things if if you're just tired right you're not going to take on that that challenge you know um and then the other thing the art of I think of this is is breaking things down into small simple steps right that's why I did this as a daily of five minutes it's like what's what's the phrase it's like for people it's like the heaviest weight at the gym is the front door for a lot of people but that but it's true I've never heard that that's good I can't believe I've never heard that either that's really good yes that's our feeling yeah it's our feeling you got us this is one of those things where it's like people aren't working out on your running shoes like it's a small like my kids we had a biological dentist on our podcast talking about you know oral health and brain health and the mic in the microbiomes and the inflammation and beyond brushing like oil pulling tongue draping all the stuff and i was just you know i started to take our three-year-old starting to floss right but it was like this was it was it was a little bit of a thing but i was just like okay small simple step one tooth so nobody stops one tooth like somebody doesn't read 30 minutes a day that could be a big jump even though 30 minutes a day even for a workout or whatever we know that's two percent of your day like like come on like and so you know opening up the book is a small simple step reading one line because nobody doesn't stop on one line right and little by little a little becomes a lot and i feel like that's how you do it because you eliminate the friction and i asked myself what's the tiniest action if i feel stalled with a client i'll have to ask them so like what's the tiniest action you could take right now that will give you progress towards goal where you can't fail this one line little tiny action that you could earn and do you know and then that becomes the evidence that you are who you say you are i think the number one habit is to do what you say you're going to do because if you start bringing trust you say i'm going to read i'm going to read every single day or workout whatever in a certain amount of time or whatever and you don't do it like you you wouldn't tolerate that from people around you or you won't trust them but what's that about ourselves right that we don't show up for ourselves and and getting ourselves and doing difficult things it provides evidence that we are who we say we are like one of the things i was talking about reading you know and those stats is so it's so scary 16 of people read every day that's it a book or magazine 16 across age gender and that includes not just books but the books magazines like like 16 read no read every day wow 51 don't read one book a year you know and that this is what's happening in you know especially with you know tick tock and everything else the attention span and reading is so very important and i can give you know i could do a master class on this but i was like okay you know the part of this agenda for this book is get people to read a little bit each day and after a few weeks they start seeing themselves as it's like oh i don't have to try to do this it's like i am a reader and then once they start seeing themselves as i am a reader they'll start picking up other books and start reading when i read uh in the morning i read i tend to read more throughout the day yeah it tends to set me up yeah without the goal of being there yeah because you're priming you're doing attentional priming because the things that you do and it's just like first thing in the morning if you ate a bunch of donuts and and muffins and some like whatever starbucks starbucks i'm one of your sponsors right like but that that will that will have a disproportionate effect on your focus on your mood and how you frame the rest of the day jim it's even more than that it's really weird so it definitely impacts your behaviors later there's data on that but did you know that what you eat in the morning first thing affects your how your blood sugar for the rest of the day that's crazy regardless so of what you eat for the rest of the day so you eat a high protein breakfast yeah you'll have better uh more stable blood sugar throughout the day regardless of what it is the rest of this is your high protein mental breakfast right there you go you want you want you want it you really i mean if anyone gets in and but here's the other thing people whether they get this book limitless daily.com whether they get the book or not like that that sleep inertia time some people use it for prayer some people use it for gratitude like if you if you if you use that for gratitude you'll see more blessings throughout the day that's 100 there's there's no doubt right and so like i'm saying this is the hot was the one of the highest leveraged things you could do first thing in the morning or if you connect with a loved one right there's certain positive things you could do first thing in the morning you know and and what i wanted to do is this like this is so simple because it's a it's a one-year journey and a lot of people end up keep on going but it's like brushing your teeth right you brush your teeth for a few minutes read for a few minutes and you're like oh my god i'm so tired i'm so tired i'm so tired i'm so tired and then the rest of your day you know you're excellent good excellent i love it so it's a year program five minutes a day yeah get your brain so good 366 mental upgrades i made that for the leap year just to keep it but it's it's really to to to to train your brain to master your mind to win every single day and that that's really the promise very cool i'm excited to use it yeah and jim you're just so great uh thank you guys you've stuck around remained relevant because what you talk about and teach is legit it's real you yeah we we adapt i appreciate you guys a lot you know i remember those years ago when i first came on the show and i appreciate you guys really on a mission and so not only what you guys do but also the the manner you do it people don't realize what goes on behind the scenes and i know you guys have you know really hacked your your lifestyle to be able to spend things you know doing what you want you know the things you want to be able to do and i'm at the also stage in my life you know where i just i just it's less transactional i just want to be with people who are just doing really cool things right and i'm at the also stage in my life you know where i just i just it's less transactional i'm learning they're making an impact we're having fun in the process and you know like agreed like i i was in san francisco like um i'm a big bruce lee fan right and for a 70th birthday i was with his wife and his daughter really yeah on his 70th birthday we went for dim sum and then afterwards we went to the hospital that bruce was born um in chinatown in san francisco wow and they'd never been there before and then we went to the room that he was born and i was i got i got goosebumps i call him i call him true and i'm like i'm like i'm like um and they they you know later on they tore down the the hospital but um but i learned a lot i kind of modeled a lot i didn't realize it because as a kid you guys know like i poured myself into comic books because i wanted to escape i couldn't read i taught myself to read by reading comic books um but the other thing i was pouring myself into is like these martial arts movies but i realized that bruce lee i didn't even realize that how much modeling i did for this where you know he it was you know jkd came from it wasn't just like one way like wing chung it was fencing right it was western boxing have you read tal of g of course you have yeah i got that book and i love and i love this because he integrated like because so many people in a space kid that this is the only way of doing something right and so you know even with like i there's ancient mnemonics but i was pulling in from all these other areas to build our systems then he opened up schools and i had learning centers i started working in hollywood and i started working in hollywood and i saw this like uh this this parallel arc you know not not to say i'm bruce lee but at all but he was really inspiring for me at that time but i bring it back to him and i'm like i'm like i'm like i'm this up because he has a quote that i have in my office wall it's saying the key to mortality talk about living longer the key to mortality is first living a life worth remembering and for me the memory training i've done over the years it's not just facts figures and formulas or whatever it's remembering who you are like we we could have confidence because we remember our past successes we could have you know fear because we remember all our past failures right we could have wisdom because we remember our lessons we were you know we have expertise because we remember our experience right and all these other things and so memory for me maybe because i've you know lost loved ones to dementia and things i felt beyond my control like i feel like you know my message for people is remember who you are right and that's what i feel like this book does it's a conversation with yourself about remembering who you are before the world tells you who you are you remember like you're shrinking of other people's opinions and their expectations and feel of looking bad you know and i just feel like life is difficult for one of you like it's change can be scary right you know you want to be in survival the human brain's not you know meant for growth as much it is for protection safety right so change can be scary growth can be hard but nothing is as scary and hard as being stuck somewhere you don't belong you know and i feel like your community understands this and that's why they're they're with you they tune in all the time you know because they need these conversations happening because most of the time they're with you they're with you they're with you maybe their friends they're not getting from their friends and their family you know and this is the wonderful part of technology that allows all this to happen exactly you know to be able to share new ideas and have new conversations new forming new opinions and you know but living a life first worth remembering perfect perfect it's limitless daily.com it is there's a bunch of uh launch gifts and bonuses and all that fun stuff that come along with it but it's uh it's a year-long journey and uh awesome yeah very cool jim thanks again man always always a pleasure man yeah thank you guys are the best thank you thank you for listening to mind pump if your goal is to build and shape your body dramatically improve your health and energy and maximize your overall performance check out our discounted rgb super bundle at mindpumpmedia.com the rgb super bundle includes maps anabolic maps performance and maps aesthetic nine months of phased expert exercise programming designed by sal adam and justin to systematically transform the way your body looks feels and performs with detailed workout blueprints and over 200 videos the rgb super bundle is like having sal adam and justin as your own personal trainers but at a fraction of the price the rgb super bundle has a full 30-day money-back guarantee and you can get it now plus other valuable free resources at mindpumpmedia.com if you enjoy this show please share the love by leaving us a five-star rating and review on itunes and by introducing us to the next episode of mindpumpmedia.com to your friends and family we thank you for your support and until next time this is mind pump