Jim Kwik ON: Why You Feel Burned Out & How to Break Free From Your Limiting Beliefs

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Maybe you're not burnt out because you're doing too much.

Maybe you feel burnt out because you're doing too little Yeah.

Of the things that make you feel alive, the things that really light you up.

Everyone, welcome back to On Purpose, the number one health podcast in the world.

Thanks to each and every single one of you that come back every week to listen, learn, and grow.

Now I know that you're here because you wanna be happy, you want to be healthy, and you wanna heal.

I think that's why I'm here too.

When I sit down with a guest, that's what I'm hoping to do.

I'm hoping to find moments of happiness, moments of health advice, and moments of healing.

But one of the things I've been discovering lately that I wanna let you in on is when I'm doing these interviews, some of the guests that I'm speaking to have phenomenal journeys and stories, but some of them also I get the opportunity to co create with.

I wanna, like, discover new ideas while we're in the podcast.

I wanna find new insights that we never even considered before.

I want to take a moment to really see if we can let down our guard, let go of what we know, and maybe go into the unknown in a conversation.

And today's guest is someone who's going to allow us to do just that.

He is the foremost brain coach, is an incredible author, and an amazing podcaster.

My dear friend, Jim Kwik, the author of limitless.

If you don't have this book, it is a phenomenal read.

I highly recommend it.

And the first time Jim came on the podcast, the book wasn't out yet, so I couldn't tell you about it.

But I really hope that you'll check it out.

Jim, welcome back to On Purpose.

It's so great to have you here.

When we first did this, and I want everyone to know this, when we first launched the podcast, you were I think you were one of the guests within our first 6 months.

You were in my apartment where we used to shoot, and it was so kind and gracious of you to come on.

We were just starting out.

We're just figuring out what on purpose was, and you supported us, and it means the world to me.

So I'll never forget that, but I love we were chatting offline before, which I loved, and we were talking about how we wanted this conversation to be special.

I mean, that's what you asked me.

How do I make this conversation special?

How do we make it different?

And that's where this idea came from is when we're sitting with someone, it's like, how can we, like, go back and forth and and, you know, spark something new?

But you you asked me something and and that's where I kind of wanna start because it's kinda hopefully gonna lead us down a a a random path, which I love.

I and I'll tell you this story.

So I called up someone the other day, and it's someone in my world.

And I said to them, I have this idea, and I really wanna do this.

I think it would be amazing.

And the first thing they said to me was, Jade, those things don't usually happen.

Right?

That's not really possible.

Like, that's that's not, like, the most probable, likely thing that we can make happen for you.

Now when I hear those kind of things, and we're talking about limitless and limitations, limitations, when I hear a limitation like that, my mind goes to the fact that it's never been done is why I want to do it.

Like, that's what attracted to me in the 1st place.

If it was already done, then why would I wanna do it again?

And so I wanted to start there with you and go, how do we know if a limitation is real or not?

Like, how do you know?

Because we all have limitations.

I have I love this conversation.

I think the majority of limits are are learned.

And, and I could give you stories and anecdotes around that and some some research.

I think my purpose in life because I was labeled limited in a way we talked about this, when I was on your show earlier about having my traumatic brain injury and being labeled the boy with the broken brain and my learning difficulties.

I want to offer real hope and real help to those who are told they are harbor limited in some way.

You know?

And I really don't believe that the sky is a limit.

I believe our our minds are the limit.

There are all kinds of examples every day that when we change our mindset, some kind of form of our motivation or the methods we're using that we could do things that we could redraw the borders and boundaries of what's possible.

Yeah.

And and you you exemplify that.

You embody this this idea of of becoming more limitless.

Well, I think it was for me too, and thank you for saying that.

But I think it was the same thing for me where I had also subscribed to the limits I thought society placed on me.

Right.

And when you start to break one limit and you see this like light shining through a crack, and you're like, oh, like, this limit can actually be broken, you then start thinking, well, how many limits can we break?

Right?

Like, that's where I'm at right now, but I wasn't always like that.

I think it's important to talk about that.

That there was a time in my life where I was living in the rules, within the barriers.

And now I'm at a place in my life where I'm like, well, which barriers can we push?

And that journey for me has been an exciting one and a fun one.

Tell me now, like, what do you think is the difference between open mindedness, like believing in the limitless versus delusion?

Because there's also a fine line on that side as well.

Like, is there a line of how have you thought about that?

And even if we don't have an answer, I wanna figure that out with you.

Yeah.

Let's do it.

Yeah.

I think behind and to any kind of results in our life, we need to do that on a behavior, new behavior or a new set of behaviors.

I think in order to be able to execute that behavior, we need a mindset or a belief that allows that to be possible.

The one that's very famous, you know, Roger Bannister in in 19 fifties, he broke the 4 minute mile And what happened after that?

Right?

Other people started breaking it, and there were big advancements in shoe technology, nutritional support, training methodologies, but there was a change in in belief about what was possible because it wasn't a real limit.

And so even when people are training, he wasn't necessarily delusional.

I don't think just because

if you believe it, it doesn't mean

it's gonna happen.

But I feel like if we don't believe it, it dramatically reduces the chances of it happening.

You know, because Yeah.

Act accordingly.

Yeah.

You know, and so many people, they're shrinking what's possible to fit their minds.

And I would always say, what if we did the opposite?

What if we expanded our minds in this situation to fit more of what's really possible?

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think that's a great great answer.

You're so right.

It's it's fascinating how everything is just a thought.

I was talking to a couple of friends a couple of nights ago, and I was talking to him about the the hernia surgery that I just went through.

And he was saying to me, like, how tough was it?

And I had a tough version of it.

We were just talking about it.

Some people wake up and in the next 24 hours they're fine.

It's taken me 4 weeks to feel 50% again.

Right?

Like that that's how I feel, maybe 50, 60% again.

And I

know people have gone through for 12 months.

Right.

They're still healing through this.

Yeah.

People are still going through it.

And so he said to me, he was just like, do you like, how did you not let yourself get depressed?

Because like the 1st week I couldn't walk, and I had something called atelectasis, which is like a partial collapse of the lungs.

So I couldn't breathe every 3 breaths almost.

And then my wife rushed me to the hospital, to ER, like, 1 morning at 3 AM because they thought I might have blood clots, and I didn't, thankfully.

And then the 2nd week when I started to walk, it was still, like, on and off pain.

It was very uncertain.

I then ended up getting back pain because I was on my back for so long.

I couldn't lie on either side because I had it on both sides.

And so then my back was like so I was waking up at 3 AM every day for 3 weeks because I couldn't sleep anymore because my back was hurting.

So I was walking around at 3 AM.

I couldn't sit to meditate.

I was doing walking meditations.

And he was like, how did you not get depressed during that time?

And I said to him that for me it was the power of my mind and was a story.

It was like I'd lost the strength in my body for sure.

But I kept repeating to myself, I'm happy, I'm healthy, I'm healing.

I'm happy, I'm healthy, I'm healing.

And what I was saying to me, it's not that because I said that I was happy, healthy, and healing.

Right.

It's that I had a choice of a thought, which is what you're saying.

A belief that I could have either believed I'm sad, I'm hurting, and it's all over, or I'm happy, I'm healthy, and and I'm healing.

And as just as you said, it's not that that belief or that thought made me better, but it's just that if I didn't have that thought, it would have been way harder to get through that pain.

And so I love that to see that in practice what you just said for me was huge.

You know, in in limitless, I talk about 7 lies to learning because my my my wheelhouse is teaching, celebrated learning, teach people to read faster, learn languages, learn people's names, improve their memory, focus.

And, lie for me is is stands for limited idea entertained.

Limited idea entertained.

So good.

It's getting us to self reflect on, you know, is it really that you're too old or you're not smart enough?

People come to me at events after they see me do these memory demonstrations or maybe I'll remember people's names or do something, and they'll say, Jim, I'm just not smart enough.

I have a horrible memory.

And I always say, stop.

If you fight for your limitations, you get to keep them.

Oh, yeah.

Fight for

your limits.

They're yours.

And often, we don't know that, you know, the power of our mind, you know, it's I mentioned this last time, but it's like your brain is this incredible supercomputer and your self talk, your thoughts on

the program that will run.

So tell yourself, I'm not good at remembering people's names.

You won't remember the name of the next person in the music program, your supercomputer not to.

So how do you transcend these lives?

How do you end the trans?

Because these lie these were learned.

Right?

This idea that genius is born.

This, this idea that we're only using, you know, a small fraction of our our brain, 10% or something like that.

And you can unravel these lies.

There's a and you mentioned the very key word.

I put a quote in the book from a French philosopher and he says life is the c between b and d.

Life is the letter c between b and d.

B stands for birth.

D stands for death.

Life c.

And you said it, choice.

That I I really do believe that our lives are the sum total of all the choices we've made up to this point.

You know, what are we gonna eat?

What are we gonna feed our minds?

Yeah.

Where we're gonna spend time with?

Where are we gonna live?

You know, how are

you what are we gonna believe?

Yeah.

What are we gonna think and say to ourselves on a regular basis?

And I believe that these difficult times, they can diminish us.

These difficult times, they could distract us, which a lot of people feel distracted, or these difficult times, they can develop us.

Yeah.

Ultimately, we always decide.

So the power of choice you made, you made that choice in terms of what you choose to be able to believe.

And with that choice, you know, comes a lot of, responsibility.

And with that responsibility comes a lot of of power.

I I love what you clarified there though because the choice can be harder.

Like, I didn't go through a life threatening surgery.

If someone went through that, it's the choice becomes harder and harder to make if your stakes are higher and higher.

But the choice brings power with it, and and so it's like we need that power to come with it.

Right?

Like and that's what you're making clear for us.

I'm one of the things that I'm thinking about when we're talking about limitations, limitations almost make us feel safe.

I think people don't often connect the 2, but they do.

Like if you aim low, chances are you'll get there and so you won't experience disappointment.

Mhmm.

Right?

If you place a limitation on yourself and say, well, I can't do that, then when you can't do it, it does it makes you feel good.

Like, oh, at least I knew.

And you're validated.

And you're validated.

Exactly.

So you you're looking for that.

So how is a feeling that makes us feel safe actually sometimes the thing that's blocking us from feeling great?

Yeah.

I think a lot of us will wanna you know, where our nervous system is not necessarily set up for growth.

I think in the beginning, it is until we've had some kind of a pain or trauma, and then we wanna be able to survive and keep ourselves safe.

There's this idea that, let's say, negativity or pessimists are accurate more because they maybe they set that standard or that belief a little bit, more achievable, but optimists maybe are succeed more because of it because they have that kind of moonshot idea or or they're thinking.

The brain really wants to keep you keep you alive.

Right?

And it doesn't wanna change.

It takes effort.

It takes energy to be able to achieve the goals.

You know, there's this thing I saw on Twitter the other day saying life is hard for one of two reasons.

Either because you're leaving your comfort zone, life could be very hard, or because you're staying in your comfort zone.

If people thought about change, which ultimately, you know, most people want if they're healthy, some area of their life, relationships, health, career, something, and they're looking outside and they wanna achieve something else, it's a lot safer to be able to say to keep something realistic Mhmm.

Without without a doubt.

And I'm I'm like that way also.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Of course.

Of course.

Yeah.

Anyhow, in terms of my book deadlines, what would be become realistic?

Is it even possible to get it done in x amount of time?

And I also find that part of getting results is reaching and then, you know, and then stable like, you stretch and then you stabilize.

Yeah.

And then you stretch and you stay we can't be I don't feel like we could be stretching all the time Agreed.

That you could reach, reach, reach, but you have to recover.

You have to replenish.

You have to you have to be able to rest Yeah.

Also as well.

Yeah.

I'm trying to I'm trying to add to that because I know we both like alliteration, but it's like stretch, stabilize, and then forego.

Like, there's also what's sacrifice, I guess, like but in a positive sense We're

gonna surrender.

Surrender.

Yeah.

Because I I found that I definitely am shocked at my capacity with the amount of things I do today that I didn't know wherever possible.

So if someone told me 10 years ago, Jay, one day you're gonna do this, this, this, this, this, I would have said, no way.

I can just do one thing.

And we did exactly what you said.

So every year I would stretch myself.

Every year and you're right, you can't just stretch, stretch, stretch, stretch, stretch every month.

But every year, I'd add one thing.

So, like, first, we started creating videos.

And then after we started creating videos, we did the podcast.

Then we did the podcast, we did our courses and programming.

And then we did our then I wrote my book.

And then after that, I wrote you know?

So we stretched ourselves a little, and I stretch myself a little every year.

But then we stabilized, but I've also found that I've also had to let go of some things, sacrifice some things that once upon a time were really important to me, but today they're not as important.

And in order to stretch and stabilize, I had to learn to sacrifice too.

And I think that's something we struggle with.

Like, I think one of our biggest limitations is wanting to hold on to stuff.

Yeah.

Right?

Like it's like there's no space to shift away and hold on to something else if we're holding on to this.

If I'm like, no, no, no, I want this to be there for the rest of my life, I'm missing out.

Like what about that kind of limitation where it's not a limitation that I think about myself, it's actually a limitation because I want something to be there if that makes sense.

And there is.

Yeah.

When we're talking about change or or even transformation, the symbol for me is that of a like many people, butterfly.

And while the beauty is in the butterfly, the growth is happening usually in that cocoon and that chrysalis, and it's one of those things where there's a story where there's this kid playing in the backyard when his parents are in the house, and he comes across, a caterpillar.

And he did he wasn't allowed any pets, but he wanted to make this caterpillar his pet.

So he runs in, talks to his parents saying, can I keep it?

Can I keep it?

And the mother says, yes.

But you have to take care of it.

You have to be able to feed it and everything.

And she gives him a mason jar, puts a little hole in it.

And then he goes there and he opens it up and he puts, like, leaves in there for the for the caterpillar to eat and a little tree branch for it to climb.

And then, and one day, as you can imagine, it spins this cocoon, and, you know, the boy is enthralled.

He's bewildered at this process of life.

And but he gets a little impatient because he knows what's coming, right?

That it's going to emerge as a butterfly.

And, and then one day, lo and behold, there's you can see a little crack open up.

And, and then he gets impatient because it's taking too long.

So he runs inside his house and he grabs scissors and he, he walks back outside because he knows he's not supposed to run with those scissors, But he he clips it, that hole open to be able to allow it, to be able to get free.

But an interesting thing happened when this creature came out.

It didn't look like a butterfly.

Kinda looked like a butterfly, but didn't really.

The the wings were very shriveled.

The the body was very swollen, and, and it didn't fly.

You know, this thing he was looking forward to.

And he cries to his parents, and the parents asked what happened.

And he was explaining how he cut it open, and, and they explained to him because he was trying to make it easy for that creature that that creature didn't have to develop the strength.

Right?

And, actually, when it pushes through that hole is when it takes the the the the fluids inside of its body and it nourishes and goes out to the wings.

Mhmm.

And then it can become that butterfly and soar to new heights.

And, and I guess I bring this up because I feel like even the past few years, people feel like maybe they were cocooning, you know, and they were in this place and they were alone, along with their thoughts, along with, you know, their fears.

They might be even feeling alone, and you and I have talked to many conversations about mental health and, how it you know, how our brain health is affecting our mental health.

And, and I would say that, through struggles, sometimes there is there's strength.

You know, my my struggles growing up were learning.

Mhmm.

It was public speaking.

You know you know, life has a sense of humor because that's all I do is public speak on this thing called learning.

But, you know, disadvantage.

Within the word disadvantage, there's that word advantage.

Right?

And I always feel like there's some kind of advantage within within every disadvantage.

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But what if summer doesn't have to come with a scorching price tag?

What if there's another way?

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Today, healthier is happening at CVS Health in more ways than you've ever seen.

It's wellness destinations for seniors, including select locations with Oak Street Health and CVS Pharmacy.

It's doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and everyone in between offering quality care and support virtually in person and on the phone.

It's in home evaluations through Signify Health and meeting mental health needs through Aetna.

And those are just a few of the ways healthier is happening.

To see more, visit cvshealth.comforward/healthierhappenstogether.

CVS Pharmacy Oak Street Health, CVS Specialty, Signify Health, and Aetna are part of CVS Health.

Eligibility and services vary by location and individual.

Cocoon.

Yeah.

Inside Inside the cocoon, it's so hard to see it, but I think looking back at previous cocoons and seeing how you emerged is often the best bet you have.

It's almost like I know I remember when I was at school, I'd always be like, well, last year I did well in my exams.

How do I do well this year?

Let me remember what I did last year.