Limitless shows you how to unlock the full potential that your brain has for memory, reading, learning, and much more by showing you how to take the brakes off of your mental powers with tools like mindset, visualisation, music, and more.
Jim Kwik had a traumatic brain injury that gave him a learning disability and made classwork incredibly difficult. His classmates bullied him and even a teacher once called him “the boy with the broken brain.”
Kwik’s assumption that he always had to work hard to learn kept him back. It remained this way until he realised that he needed to work smarter to accelerate his mental capacities.
He began trying all kinds of mental hacks to improve his abilities to focus, remember, and retain information. It all worked, and he became a genius.
These are the 3 most memorable lessons I got out of this book:
A lot of research shows that you can learn faster and improve your mood with the right music. Kwik suggests Baroque music that’s between 50-80 beats per minute.
Smell is another way to hack your brainpower for your benefit. Try putting the same essential oil on your wrist when you study and when you go in for an exam and you’ll remember what you studied better.
Another favourite of Kwik’s many brain hacking tools is the Pomodoro technique. To utilise it, set a timer for 25 minutes and work without distractions the entire time. When the timer is up, take a break for five minutes. Repeat as many times as necessary until you’re done studying.
Scientists have only recently discovered neuroplasticity, or the brain’s ability to change over time. You can mould all parts of your brain to do and be whatever you want.
You can achieve anything by using visualisation techniques. Imagine, for instance, that whatever you want to focus on is a glowing ball of light. Anytime your attention drifts, bring it back to the ball.
Memory is another part of your brain you can improve with training and visualisation. Say you want to remember a set of words. Make up a story that connects all of them together and tell it to yourself when it’s time to recall them.
The loci technique is another way to expand your memory skills. This involves taking a place or room you know well and attaching parts of whatever you’re memorising to objects in that place. Then, you mentally walk through the room to remember each point.
The way your brain benefits from reading is clear, and this is the central reason why this practice leads to success. It boosts your focus and memory and activates many mental functions at the same time.
Get better at reading by making time for it. Also, stop subvocalising, or pronouncing each word on the page in your head. This limits you to reading and learning only as fast as you can speak.
Instead, count as you go down the page or use your finger to keep your mind going. It might be hard at first, but with practice, you will improve.
This book is real life evidence that a growth mindset works, and Kwik gives all the advice you need to harness it!
About the Author
Luke Rowley is an author at Four-minute books, a online collection of more than 1000 summaries of the best books in any category.
