Limitless by Jim Kwik (Book Summary & Review)

About The Author of “Limitless”

Jim Kwik is a brain coach, speaker, and author who specializes in speed reading, memory improvement, and optimal brain performance. He has worked with high-profile clients such as Virgin, Nike, and Harvard University, and has been featured in media outlets such as Forbes, The Huffington Post, and Inc. Magazine. Kwik’s mission is to help people learn faster, think sharper, and live better.

What are the key points of Limitless book?

Here are the key lessons from this book:

• Overconsumption of information and decreasing attention spans are affecting our ability to do deep learning.
• Nobody cares if you don’t use the full potential of your brain.
• Uninstall the limiting beliefs from your mind and install the ones that help you grow in life.
• A person without a strong purpose will always struggle to find motivation to do the grind.
• Make sure to take regular breaks while learning anything.
• Try to find your flow state.
• To become limitless, master your thinking.

Limitless by Jim Kwik Summary (Detailed)

Today, we’ll dive into the book summary of “Limitless” by Jim Kwik.

In this book, the author takes us on a journey of self-discovery, teaching us how to improve your memory, concentration, and thinking skills. It’s a valuable read for anyone looking to reach their full potential and unlock the secrets of the human brain.

Alrighty, so without further ado, let’s jump right in and learn key lessons from this book.

Lesson #1: Overconsumption of information and decreasing attention spans are affecting our ability to do deep learning.

One of the primary reasons people struggle to upgrade their brains is due to overreliance on the internet. This overreliance influences our ability to efficiently utilize our brains when facing real-life challenges.

Internet and technology have made our lives easier.

But the downside is that we have become lazy.

Relying too much on technology causes us to use less of our brain.

Many people today struggle to remember details and apply basic mathematics in real-life situations.

Furthermore, there is an overwhelming amount of information to concentrate on.

It is just too difficult to focus on one task these days.

How can you focus on one thing when there are hundreds of other things promising to give you those little dopamine hits?

We are also wired to chase dopamine and thus choose the easier things always.

Rather than learning new skills, many people prefer to distract themselves with pleasure.

Pleasure itself isn’t bad. However, by constantly pursuing pleasure, we are training our brain to avoid functioning properly under stressful situations.

Failing to train your brain properly is equivalent to training it incorrectly.

We are also witnessing a decrease in attention spans.

Our brains are capable of so many things. However, instead of exercising them, we often engage in activities that not only diminish our ability to think, but also condition us in various negative ways.

Achieving success requires deliberate effort, and the journey may be inconvenient. It is not easy to reach the top.

The more we use our brain and engage in deep thinking, the easier our lives become as a result.

A more efficient brain can solve more problems.

It’s actually a waste if you don’t even try to use the limitless capacity of your brain.

Let’s learn why.

Lesson #2: Nobody cares if you don’t use the full potential of your brain.

Most of us believe that we have a limited brain capacity that cannot be changed.

However, that’s not true.

The brain undergoes continual changes over time.

New neural connections are formed in our brains when we learn new skills.

Learning changes your brain.

The more you learn, the more your brain forms new and stronger connections, which improves your ability to use your brain effectively.

Unfortunately, most school curricula do not teach us how to learn new skills.

The syllabus they are teaching is outdated and much of it is no longer relevant.

You are not taught how to become rich.

They don’t teach you how to handle your feelings and emotions.

They don’t care at all, because they themselves don’t realize what extraordinary things our brains are capable of doing.

No university syllabus is going to bring a radical transformation in your life.

Only a few of them teach students how to build a learning mindset that will make you successful.

If you don’t learn how to learn and understand why learning is essential in life, you may not utilize your full potential.

These days, the world is changing rapidly.

You are supposed to keep learning new things.

You can’t just rely on one or two skills anymore.

Otherwise, you will become outdated.

Right now, what you need to do is optimize your brain and rewire it to constantly learn new skills.

Learning how to learn is no longer a choice; it is a basic requirement for excelling in life.

If you do not know how to learn faster, you will likely waste a significant amount of time.

Lesson #3: Uninstall the limiting beliefs from your mind and install the ones that help you grow in life.

Many people keep unnecessary programs in their minds, just as they do in their computer.

As a result, their minds don’t work at full capacity.

The dangerous thing is that if you don’t eliminate unwanted limiting beliefs from your mind, they will shape your future unfavorably.

All of us have certain beliefs and assumptions about ourselves that limit our growth in life.

And the only way to overcome them is by addressing them and identifying why do believe in those ideas.

Unless you believe an idea is true, it holds no impact on you.

But when you believe an assumption is true, you start taking it seriously. And ultimately it affects your actions.

The good news is: Once you figure out what beliefs are dominating your actions, you get the choice to create new beliefs.

Yes, you can completely change your life by simply changing the beliefs you have in your mind.

It’s like installing new and more efficient programs on your hard drive instead of having heavy programs that were slowing you down.

Most people in the world don’t know this secret of how our minds work.

They carry limiting beliefs all their lives. Can you see how scary this is?

For example: the author talks about how many people think their intelligence is limited and how mistakes and failures are a bad thing that we should feel ashamed of.

As a result, many people never put themselves in challenging situation as they are afraid of failures. They never even think about increasing their intelligence. They never read books as they think there is no point of reading books.

Can you see how those limiting beliefs prevent us from living our best lives?

Sit down today and ask yourself, “What is holding me back right now from giving my hundred percent?”

This will give you a mindset shift.

Once you find out what exactly is holding you back, you realize that you have so many limiting beliefs that you didn’t pay attention earlier, and accepted them as truth.

Every successful person has gone through this.

The world is a challenging place, and if you don’t constantly address your limiting beliefs, you’ll always be one step behind someone who does.

Letting go of those beliefs might be challenging, but trust the process. Your life will only improve after experiencing that pain and suffering.

Lesson #4: A person without a strong purpose will always struggle to find motivation to do the grind.

We all need motivation from time to time.

Whether you have to quit a bad habit or you need to pursue a big dream, having motivational energy doesn’t hurt, right?

But if motivation is the only thing you have, you need a mindset shift.

The problem is that motivational energy is usually not permanent.

However, the author claims that it’s possible to sustain it.

For that, you require a strong purpose.

Your purpose will give you energy to take steps.

If you have a clear purpose in life, and you are taking small steps towards your goals, then you are far ahead than many people.

Because most people quit too early.

They wait for motivation all the time. Those guys don’t have discipline.

Your purpose is the one that should be pushing you.

It simply isn’t possible, so stay motivated all the time without have a strong purpose.

Motivational energy is based off your emotions.

And the last thing you should do is trust your emotions.

Emotions are not permanent.

You will feel depressed so many times while chasing your purpose.

Any kind of grind is boring. It demands dedication and discipline.

Only a strong purpose will give you limitless motivation.

Purpose helps you override your emotions. When things get harder, you stop giving a damn about how you are feeling and just do the grind.

You realize that your emotions are not all that important in front of your purpose.

A person with discipline will always beat a person with just motivation in the long term.

Lesson #5: Make sure to take regular breaks while learning anything.

This lesson will help you a lot while reading books.

So many people keep reading without taking any breaks.

In their minds, they think that if they load more information in their brain, they will become more productive than their peers.

However, this is far from the truth.

When you are not giving rest to your brain, you are actually slowing the learning process.

That happens because our ability to focus decreases after a certain time. And then whatever we read after that, we are more likely to forget it.

Our brain is forms new neural connection while learning. If you don’t allow your brain some rest, then those connections will be weaker.

This is why many people forget what they read.

Try taking a 20 minutes break after you have done 40 minutes of reading.

Or you can also use the Pomodoro Technique.

Also, while reading try thinking how you can apply what you learned in real life.

Read slowly, but not too slowly.

Reading book is not a contest. There is no need to compete and decide who reads faster.

The winner is the person who efficiently processes what they read and takes action based on it.

Professional readers review what they read.

Retaining information is easier when you revisit it again.

But also remember that retaining information isn’t everything.

You should also be able to tell which information is useful for you and which is not.

Not all information is helpful.

Just because our brains have limitless capacity to learn, it doesn’t mean that we have to waste it learning unnecessary stuff.

Make the choice. And be very deliberate about what you want to learn and act accordingly.

Lesson #6: Try to find your flow state.

Imagine being able to concentrate for hours without ever getting distracted.

That would be pretty amazing, wouldn’t it?

You must have seen people who read a lot, but they are not able to understand anything they read.

That’s because they can’t focus.

And without focus, it’s difficult to process anything.

You should be able to concentrate on whatever you learning in the moment.

Nothing else should cross your mind.

When people learn something, ten other things occupy their minds, and as a result, they lose focus.

They never achieve flow state.

The good thing is: It’s possible to improve your concentration and focus with practice.

It’s because concentration is like a muscle.

The more you exercise it, the stronger it gets.

If your mind is constantly jumping from one thing to another, no person on earth can help you focus.

Especially, these days, we are so occupied multitasking on our smartphones that we have trained ourselves for the opposite.

Remember, how people would watch long movies earlier, but today, we are being trained to watch stimultating 60 second clips.

And then we complain that we are not able to focus.

Flow state is not easy.

You need to practice to achieve flow state.

This is why only a few percentage of people achieve it.

The author says that most of us don’t lack the ability to focus; it’s just that we have trained ourselves the wrong way, which is causing problems during focus sessions.

Multitasking is a myth by the way.

You don’t achieve more by working on more things simultataneously. Instead, it distracts you from your main task.

Do one thing at a time with full focus, and you will notice that your ability to focus has improved.

Lesson #7: To become limitless, master your thinking.

The author emphasizes the importance of having a fresh perspective when thinking and solving problems.

Many people simply reject an idea if it does not fit their frame.

Think about the “lightbulb moments” you experience when reading books.

Those are usually the moments when you learn something totally mind-blowing and fresh, right?

Limiting ourselves to a single perspective blocks our minds from exploring a variety of solutions.

The author also encourages readers to study mental models.

Mental models help us think more effectively and efficiently, saving us time in the process.

Real-life problems can sometimes become very complex.

People often try to apply the same problem-solving approach to different types of problems.

However, this is not the best approach.

Not all problems can be efficiently solved if you approach them in the same way.

Mental models provide frameworks that allow you to view problems from different angles.

In simple terms, when you don’t understand mental models, you have limited options and must rely on your old behaviors and perceptions.

Learning a few mental models can increase your options. This allows you to choose how you want to arrive at a solution.

Another benefit of using mental models is that you save a lot of energy. Your mental energy remains focused and directed.

You become conscious of your thinking patterns and are able to find innovative solutions.

Please note that no mental model can solve all problems. To become proficient at critical thinking, you must test these models in your daily life problems.

Limitless by Jim Kwik Book Review

Last update on 2023-08-04 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon

Here are my unfiltered thoughts on this book:

Pros:

• Easy to read for beginners.
• The book provides simple exercises to guide readers and improve comprehension. For instance, there is an exercise that helps readers identify their learning style.

Cons:

• The book borrows many ideas from other books and online videos. For instance, the author discusses the Pomodoro Technique, which is already well-known among self-help readers.
• The first half of the book is a bit boring, as the author focuses on sharing stories.
• Several Goodreads readers had high hopes for this book, but were ultimately disappointed. They felt that the author was merely attempting to sell his courses.
• The title of the book is somewhat misleading, as it sets unrealistic standards for readers. However, some concepts, such as “mental models,” that the author discusses in the book can be beneficial.

Buy The Book

Nothing can replace the feeling of holding a book in your hands and simply reading it. So don’t take shortcuts. Purchase the book and read it thoroughly.

You can buy the book in your preferable format below.

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