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Jimbo Paris Show #25- Boosting your Mental Performance (Kam Knight)
9 Plays4 years ago
Welcome to The Jimbo Paris Show #25- Boosting your Mental Performance (Kam Knight).
In this episode you’ll get a lot of new information about how consistency and commitment can help our mind have its continuous nourishment.
Kam Knight is an Author, a Coach and a Writer of several Best-Selling books in the area of mental performance such as memory, concentration, and productivity. He dedicated the past 15 years of his life understanding the secrets of the mind and how to optimize its performance.
He spends his spare time globetrotting and have traveled to nearly 100 countries around the world.
#TheJimboParisShow #Podcast #Podcasting
#Author #LifeCoach #Writer #MentalHealth
#MindMapping #Productivity
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►Watch Our Previous Episodes:
Jimbo Paris Show #7- Dawson Church
Jimbo Paris Show #8- Allyson Roberts
Jimbo Paris Show #11- Robin Perry Braun
Jimbo Paris Show #12- Clinton Young
Jimbo Paris Show #17- Life Coach to Transformational Coach (Brandon Handley)
Jimbo Paris Show #21- Uncovering your Hidden Abilities (Wayne Forrest)
Jimbo Paris Show #22- Holding on to your Passion. (Georgia Woodbine)
Jimbo Paris Show #24- Combining the Body, Mind and Spirit for Healing. (Arti Kumar-Jain)
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Transcript
Introduction to Jimbo Paris and Cam Knight
00:00:05
Speaker
Hi, I'm Jimbo Paris and you are listening to the Jimbo Paris show. Hello, I am Jimbo Paris and welcome to the Jimbo Paris show. Today we'll be bringing on Cam Knight. He is basically the author of numerous bestselling books and he's focused on memory and productivity. How's it going, man? Not bad, not bad. Thanks for having me on.
00:00:35
Speaker
No problem.
Cam Knight's Background and Work
00:00:37
Speaker
So, sir, can you please begin by providing me with sort of a brief summary about yourself, who you are, what you're about, and what your message is specifically? Sure. So, I'm a coach, writer, and author of nearly a dozen books. Some have recently hit the international bestsellers in the area of mental performance, such as memory, concentration, and productivity.
00:01:00
Speaker
And over the last 15 years, I've more or less dedicated my life to uncovering the secrets of the mind and how to optimize this performance. I'm not one to give people advice on what they should or should not do or how they should or should not do it. I focus on that middle ground of how to get people to do what it is that they want to do.
Understanding Mental Performance
00:01:18
Speaker
And when you're working on that middle ground, what does that look like specifically?
00:01:23
Speaker
Well, there's really two main parts of it. One is the mental performance aspect of being able to focus, remember, as well as use your mind in its most optimal way. And the other part of it is working with the areas that hold us back. You know, I personally believe that there's a part of our mind that is designed to hold us back, and it is actively working to hold us back.
00:01:50
Speaker
And if we're not careful of it, it can limit our success in all areas of our life. And I feel like many people who have a lot of drive and a lot of motivation to do things
00:02:04
Speaker
but for one reason or another aren't able to do it, they get held back by this part. And it's a part that doesn't really get talked about because, you know, my personal experience with personal development and everyone was really just focused on pushing a bunch of motivation in me and giving me a lot of tips and techniques, which were all great. But then I realized that there was this other piece that's kind of missing. And so somebody's like highly driven and a go-getter can get things done.
00:02:33
Speaker
They'll be really effective with the traditional methods. But if someone has a lot of resistance or unconsciously, their unconscious mind is holding them and blocking them, then it doesn't matter how much motivation they have or how much tips and techniques because there's a part that cannot always try to sabotage them and get in their way.
00:02:57
Speaker
Tell me yourself, how did you fall along into this journey? What sort of path were you on previously and how did you sort of change?
Personal Journey and Motivation
00:03:06
Speaker
Well, so, yeah, I mean, if you kind of want to go big picture, I grew up for the most part in the US. And no matter where you turn, whether it's on television or radio or media or books, there's always this like constant stream of you should be doing more or you need to do your best and reach for the stars and
00:03:30
Speaker
and all of that. And it's really great. It's really motivating because it inspires you to get out of your head and think outside of the limitations of yourself to do something bigger. And I would really kind of get easily swayed by a lot of this message. So I didn't want to do something bigger. I felt like there was a bigger purpose in calling. And I had a lot of motivation and drive, like serious amounts of it. However, I couldn't really make things happen.
00:03:58
Speaker
you know, I would go to seminar or read a book or learn a life tip and think like, yep, that's it. Now I'm ready. And I could see the change like I'm just right there. But then for one reason or another, I wasn't acting on it. And that always bothered me. And so the question that ran through my mind for a better part of my adult life was, why is it if I know what to do, I know how to do it,
00:04:26
Speaker
And I have the motivation to do it, but for one reason or another, I can't. And so I kind of like went in that journey of trying to figure that answer
The Impact of Beliefs on Decisions
00:04:35
Speaker
out. And over the last, you know, plus 10 plus years, I've been kind of just kind of working towards finding answers to that. And what types of answers helped you specifically?
00:04:49
Speaker
Well, the traditional answer that comes up in traditional personal development and self-help content comes down to beliefs. There's a lot of talk about beliefs being a key driver to our decisions and actions.
00:05:01
Speaker
And it's a word that gets used a lot, but I don't think people quite, it's never really quite defined. And so how I would define it is a belief is anything that you hold or accept to be true. So inside of our mind, we have all sorts of beliefs about all sorts of things. We might have a belief that dogs are great, cats are weird, hamburgers taste good, or driving above the speed limit is dangerous.
00:05:32
Speaker
Now, the way our mind works is that it is designed to have us act in accordance with our strongly held belief. So if we believe that driving above the speed limit is dangerous,
00:05:45
Speaker
As we start approaching that limit, our mind will signal us telling us, wait a minute, you're getting too close, this is not good. And the closer you get to the limit, the more it will send a rush of fear or anxiety or other things to warn you.
00:06:03
Speaker
to the point where through the fear and other emotional responses can actually stop you from going over the limit. A belief is a key driver to our ability to act or not. If we believe that we are capable of something or capable of having success, not only if we believe we're capable or we have to also believe that it is possible. One, is it possible and two, is it possible for me?
00:06:29
Speaker
Though, but that was only one piece of the equation. There's so many other things that get that are that are involved in this whole thing that I call resistance. You know, one other aspect of resistance comes from family systems. So a family system is a very interesting theory.
Family Systems Theory and Behavior
00:06:47
Speaker
It was introduced by a guy named.
00:06:49
Speaker
I believe Murray Bowen. And he said that we individuals can't be understood, humans can't be understood as individuals, but rather in a system. And one of the systems is our families. And what's really interesting is a family is like a system, it has different roles in it. And we get kind of pigeonholed into a role.
00:07:16
Speaker
And the system reinforces that role. So if we try to act out of our role, other members of the family will push us back into that role. And there's also different roles that the parents and even the children can fall into. They can be the good kid, the smart kid, the class clown, the rebellious, and all of that. And what's interesting is that the roles that we fall into our family
00:07:43
Speaker
Our roles we tend to play out in our adult life. And if we're trying to do something that goes against one of our roles that we've fallen into, our mind will put the brakes on it. But the thing about it is our mind doesn't tell us when it puts the brakes in our lives, you know, it doesn't tell us, Oh, hey, wait, you can't do this because your beliefs are not in line with it.
00:08:04
Speaker
or you're not going to do this because your family role goes against this. It just kind of stops you or distracts you and then you wonder why is it that I can't get this thing done. That's quite interesting. You sort of went into how the mind works, but can you kind of just give a general summary just for the audience so they sort of get a perception on how the mind technically works?
00:08:31
Speaker
Yeah, so more or less anytime you have a decision or a choice or an option that stands before you that decision choice or option gets filtered by the mind using a whole host of criteria and a couple of the criteria as I mentioned is beliefs and family systems and there's a whole host of others. And if that decision is not in line with the criteria, your mind will prevent action.
00:08:56
Speaker
It doesn't matter how much motivation you have. It doesn't matter how much knowledge you have on the topic, but if you're trying to do something that goes against one of the criteria that your mind evaluates. It will put the breaks and so you're not able to act.
00:09:11
Speaker
And so as humans, we have all sorts of things that are going on internally that it's pretty much decided what we can and cannot do. And it has decided pretty much all the decisions from now until the end of our day.
00:09:30
Speaker
And when you began building this, how did you begin teaching clients?
Coaching Approach and Human Struggles
00:09:36
Speaker
Because I would come to believe that your mind may personally be different from the minds of some of your other clients. How did that sort of develop where you specifically gave them certain lessons?
00:09:50
Speaker
Yeah, I actually come from the mindset that we humans and our minds tend to be a lot more similar than different. So if I'm going through a certain struggle and the struggle is for these reasons or I have a certain block, there's a good chance that somebody else is going through a similar block and there's even a better chance that the reason is very similar to mine.
00:10:17
Speaker
Now, I'm not saying that all of everyone's blocks and issues are all the same. It's not. That's why just because there's the sheer fact that the mind processes all sorts of criteria means that there's all sorts of reasons why we can be blocked or held back or kept from moving forward. Though I use that as a general framework to understand that, you know, if there's something going on with me internally, there's a good chance it's going on with somebody else.
00:10:43
Speaker
And usually I just try to pick up people who might be whose issues or struggles are similar to mine and they can resonate with me. I do know that not everybody I've worked with or not everybody will have similar struggles or challenges with me. So it's important not to feel like
00:11:03
Speaker
there's only one answer to a problem or one cause to a problem and or the cause that I'm an expert in is the cause. But it's important to be really open minded about it. And this way you a person can learn a lot more about the different facets of what's holding us back. So speaking of one of your specific client success stories, what do you think was the main thing that was holding them back in particular?
00:11:29
Speaker
Well, I think all the psychology and the studies kind of really show that whatever our blocks are right now, they usually tend to stem from our childhood. So our interactions and relationships with our parents, how we were raised in school. And in fact, a lot of the studies say by the time you're seven or eight years old,
00:11:53
Speaker
your mind or your own consciousness has figured out who it is, what it can expect from others, how it thinks of the world and all of that. It's pretty much set by six or seven years old. And so when I work with clients, I kind of go back there.
00:12:11
Speaker
I literally just say, okay, tell me about your relationship with your parents or we do different techniques that help them go back to those times and see what comes up because unconscious has recorded those experiences. And although we may not be aware of those experiences, it is there internally guiding all of our current and future decisions and actions.
00:12:32
Speaker
And so I help them kind of go back and see the different events that have played out in their life. But more importantly, they get to see how their unconscious interpreted those events because something can happen to us like a bully make fun of us or a parent.
00:12:49
Speaker
our parent, you know, be harsh toward us or say no to something that we wanted. And we consciously might pass it off as like, oh, you know, whatever. But unconsciously, it might interpret it as I'm not good enough. I'm not smart enough. I'm not cool. I'm not meant for this kind of things. And and so we look at that. And from there, we kind of work with it.
00:13:12
Speaker
So one of, I mean, I'm just kind of, I've had a lot of cool experiences with my clients. One of, yeah, I'll go to one client. You don't have to go into intense detail. Okay. Yeah. So that's kind of more or less what I do. I try to go back there because that's really driving everything that's happening right now. Now, this is kind of different from what a lot of maybe coaching would do is they kind of look at your situation right now.
00:13:41
Speaker
I know through my own personal development journey and some of the tips and techniques I came across was coaches would have this mindset of, okay, where are you right now? Where do you want to go? And what do you need to get there? And that's a really good approach. But if you're coming from a perspective that even if you know where you want to go and you have a plan of action and get there, if a part of your mind is going to be holding and sanitizing your efforts, then I need you to address that first.
00:14:09
Speaker
And so that's where a lot of my work comes in is trying to address those things. And when you be in coaching clients, who would you consider to be your most ideal client?
Ideal Clients and Overcoming Struggles
00:14:20
Speaker
What's somebody that would be the best option for you personally?
00:14:24
Speaker
Well, that has changed as I have done more of a work. In the beginning, it was people who were kind of motivated who were going to show up and were going to apply the tips and advice I give them because too often you get a client who wants to change.
00:14:41
Speaker
But they don't put up, put in the effort to change. And what I mean by that, they may miss the coaching, the coaching calls. You can give them tips and they won't apply it, or they'll be resistive to any sort of feedback.
00:14:57
Speaker
And as you can imagine, it's really hard to coach somebody who can't or won't take tips or advice. And I remember in my own journey, I was like that. I always had a very resistant personality. In fact, I had a lot of authority issues where if somebody gave me advice, I wanted to do the opposite. And when I would do coaching,
00:15:20
Speaker
And I remember, like, different contracts would say, you know, you have to show up. You have to listen. You have to pay it. You have to apply the advice. And I'm like, why aren't you going through that? Of course I'm going to do that. I'm paying you to do that. That's why I would have. But surprisingly, I'd find out that even though I paid somebody money, I still wouldn't listen to them.
00:15:38
Speaker
And then I started experiencing that as well, that, you know, just because somebody wants coaching and pays for it doesn't mean they're actually going to go through the program or even apply the advice. And again, it was that question that coming up, why is it if we want to do something, we know what to do and we know how to do it and we have the motivation, but we can't. And then as I started learning more about resistance, I was able to work with some of the difficult clients.
00:16:03
Speaker
And I started to realize that this is kind of like by nature calling, this is who I really like working with, the ones who have had challenges with other programs or other books or other advice and not being able to apply it. Because I can really quickly help them not only understand their resistance, but unlock and release it. So what would be your ideal client then?
00:16:32
Speaker
I guess the ideal client would be somebody who struggles, who has had a tough time making progress, especially through other programs and other books and advice that they've read and been able to get the results. I guess a difficult client would be my ideal client. Yeah.
00:16:55
Speaker
So you've hit a lot about the mind. What in your eyes would be the best types of advice you would give for somebody that would like to be productive?
Memory and Productivity Tips
00:17:03
Speaker
I mean, there's a lot of different advice I can give. So I talk about this concept of internal resistance, but I also talk about mental performance. And mental performance goes into the area of memory, concentration, reading, focus, and all of that.
00:17:19
Speaker
And I think commemorative is a really key piece to our development and growth as well as our productivity. In fact, I would say that everything that you do or not able to do in life is a direct result of your ability to remember to do it or not do it.
00:17:40
Speaker
And one of the most important advice I can give somebody is not to rely on your natural mental processes to remember information. That's because as humans, we forget as much as 80% of what we hear, see, and learn within a few hours of hearing, seeing, and learning.
00:17:55
Speaker
So that's not within the first few days, weeks, or even months, but within the first few hours. What's more is we rely on our memory to remember much more than that. So we'll come across a great idea, important instruction, valuable advice, or a painfully obvious fact and think that it's just too great, too important, too valuable, and too obvious to forget. And sure enough, we forget.
00:18:21
Speaker
Then we do it again. We'll come across an even greater idea, more important instruction, more valuable advice, or painfully obvious fact, and think that this time is just way too important, great, valuable, and obvious to forget. And sure enough, we'll forget again.
00:18:37
Speaker
And not only do we forget the thought or idea, but we forget that we had one in the first place. We forget that we forgot. It's as if we never even received it. And it's kind of sad because many of us live our lives like this. We're constantly doing the same things over and over again and making the same mistakes over and over, and it all comes down to forgetting. And when you give all this advice, who do you think your main demographic is? Is it
00:19:05
Speaker
White collar workers, people that focus more on other things such as farming or other activities or maybe even college students or entrepreneurs. Who is sort of the group that touches base the best with you when it comes to productivity? I think it's a lot of.
00:19:24
Speaker
People who have graduated college and are either in the workforce or they're an entrepreneur. And when I mean workforce, more people who are, I guess, white collar workers and obviously people who are in business and starting their own business.
00:19:42
Speaker
Though the principle is like, it can be applied to any area. It's just when I write or when I put together my content, I have this demographic in mind.
00:19:56
Speaker
And given the nature of some of my materials, such as concentration and memory, it also helps students because students need better focus to study their materials as well as better memory to be able to remember it for exams and essays and all of that. So if someone was in your shoes, what piece of advice would you personally give them to reach your state in life right now?
00:20:23
Speaker
I think the most important advice I can give somebody, well, there's a lot of important advice, but one of the more important advice is to be consistent. And when you say somebody was in my shoes, well, one of the biggest challenges I had developing my career as well as my productivity and success
00:20:44
Speaker
Was that I wasn't showing up on a regular basis. What I would do is I would put a lot of effort and work really hard and get to 1 level or 1 stage in my personal or professional. Career or growth and then I feel like, oh, wow, you know, I put a lot of effort in I did so much and.
00:21:04
Speaker
I can relax, or I could take a step back, or I could take a break. And so that's what I would do. I would kind of take a break, step back, move away from it, thinking that I could return to the same level, but never once was I able to return back to the level that took prior to my break.
00:21:24
Speaker
And so what I was doing, and I wasn't really aware of it, was I was taking more or less five steps forward and four steps back. So I'd be working really hard to take five steps forward. And then once I stopped, my momentum would fade.
00:21:40
Speaker
I would forget a lot of the things I had done, the commitments I had made, the skills I had developed, and I would slowly start to regress. And then when I'd get started up, when I'd start back up again, I was a few steps back. So then I had to work hard to build that momentum and get my plan and organization in line to get started again. And so for a long time, and I was completely aware, I was in this, like, heart of the cycle of
00:22:08
Speaker
again, five steps forward, four step back. And then once I realized what I was doing and how much effort I was putting in for really little to zero results, I changed things. I made sure that I'm always showing up every day. And what I realized was experiences that as humans were either growing or progressing.
00:22:33
Speaker
There's no in-between. There's no I'll work out for three months and lose a bunch of weight and keep you lost forever.
00:22:42
Speaker
You know, there's no, I'll work on this skill for six months and have it for the rest of my life. As soon as we stop, we start losing it. And if we're not careful, we can go back to a level before that we even started. And once I understood that principle, like I'm either growing or regressing, there's no in between, there's no taking breaks. I made sure that I'm always just showing up.
00:23:06
Speaker
In fact, Woody Allen has a quote. He says, 80% of life is just showing up. And by that, I mean, there are going to be days where you're not on your A-game, things are not going well, you're tired, you're exhausted, you do want to take a break. There's going to be days where you aren't feeling motivated in what you're doing, and you want to change gears. Or there'll be days where it's feeling like you're not seeing foreseeable progress or a light at the under tunnel.
00:23:34
Speaker
And all of these things can really take us off course if we are not careful. So what I make sure to do is no matter what I'm feeling, no matter how things are going, no matter what challenges I'm experiencing, I still show up. I may not be as productive as I would like in a given day or week.
00:23:56
Speaker
but I don't let that affect me from showing up the next week. And I might hit it really strong the next week, but I won't let that affect me from coming back the week after. It's just constantly showing up, and if somebody applies to the device, it just shows up no matter what, I promise they will see progress.
00:24:14
Speaker
Sometimes they'll have to go through some tough challenges and a lot of inner turmoil. Is it even possible? But if they keep showing up and doing it consistently, eventually they'll get to the next step or the next level. Now, you bring up a very important additional statement. You mentioned momentum. What do you think is the key to building that momentum in one's life?
00:24:42
Speaker
Yeah, well, consistency on the surface seems like such a simple statement to show up every day. But consistency is probably one of the hardest things somebody will do. Because as I mentioned, there's all sorts of things that are going to come up that's going to take a person out of consistency. And some of those things I had mentioned, like how we're feeling about something. Maybe we think we made too much progress and we can give ourselves a break.
00:25:09
Speaker
Maybe we're not seeing enough progress and feel like it's not with this, so we step away. Maybe we're tired, maybe we're not motivated. But other things that can take us out of consistency are also the shiny object syndrome. So we might be working on a project or pursuit, but then think about something else that we could be doing.
00:25:26
Speaker
And then we jump to that. And then once we jump to that, our mind will see some other project to pursue it or see somebody else succeeding and want to jump to that. And so that can take us out of consistency. So to answer your question about momentum, momentum is just about showing up on a regular basis and being consistent. The more consistent we are, the more the momentum will build.
00:25:47
Speaker
And so how we maintain momentum is about maintaining consistency. And how we maintain consistency is one, understanding that no matter what comes out, we still show up. And two, there's going to be a lot of shiny objects that are going to vie for our attention and take us out of our commitment and to make sure that we resist those things. And so we're always working on the thing that we've committed to until it's finished.
00:26:13
Speaker
You mentioned shiny objects. Can you kind of give a few examples on what those might be in accordance to maybe what you had to go through?
00:26:20
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, for me as an author, when I was writing what book, all of a sudden I would have a great idea for another book. And so I would stop writing the current book I was working on and start the other book. And so I didn't finish my first book because I jumped to another book. And then when I started writing another book, I got another great idea for
00:26:44
Speaker
Another topic I could discuss so I jumped to that. So now here I am I have three unfinished books, and I have put in an effort, if I just focus all that effort on one book I could have had at least one thing done. But, you know, in this example I have three books that I've started.
00:27:00
Speaker
And sure, I have put in time, effort, and energy, but there's nothing concrete as an end result of that effort. The same thing happened in other areas of my life where I had a focus on starting one business. Prior to becoming an author, I wanted to dabble into real estate. But then I was thinking about another business or another idea, like patents.
00:27:24
Speaker
And I would work on that. So I was like spreading myself really thin, jumping from one shiny object to another. And as a result, not going anywhere else. But then once I understood the importance of how limited our bandwidth is as humans, there's just so much time and energy we have to work on a project that doing multiple things at a time
00:27:46
Speaker
can result in not finishing any of them or if you do with half ass or lackluster effort. So the end quality is not as good as it could be if all attention is focused on it. When we talk about the end quality, what do you mean by that specifically?
00:28:05
Speaker
Well, for let's say looking back at the books, so I have three books that aren't done. So obviously there's no quality there. But if I was working on three books at a time, I wouldn't be able to put enough attention on each of them to make sure that they were written well, had good examples and stories and were properly edited and proofread. So the final product, if somebody read it, they could actually enjoy and gain value from it. Because I spread myself too thin,
00:28:35
Speaker
all of the books, they might be done, but they won't have the final product won't be as helpful as it could have been if I just focus my attention on one of them. Now, Mr. Knight, when we look at sort of the different set of books that you've written, which ones do you think would be most applicable to the audience right now, considering the whole new shift in post COVID-19?
00:28:57
Speaker
of all the books that I've written. I think my books are very universal and applicable for a lot of times and situations. They aren't really focused on
00:29:12
Speaker
how to come out of the pandemic on top, anytime that you are experiencing a challenge or difficulty, you can use the tips and advice to help get to the next level. Though I have a book on mind mapping, and mind mapping is a note-taking strategy that veers from the traditional method of taking notes. Traditional methods of writing and taking notes or writing line by line,
00:29:39
Speaker
from top to bottom. And mind map differs because you start in the center and then you go outward like a tree or spider web. And mind mapping is not just great for note taking but it's really helpful for decision making, planning, writing, brainstorming, goal setting, and a whole host of other activities.
00:30:01
Speaker
And right now we're in a critical time where things are opening up and a lot of different opportunities are coming up or different challenges related to the opportunity. So we need a better ability to plan, organize, and develop ourselves. And I think mind mapping can be really fantastic in all these areas. I'm a little aware of what mind mapping is, and I'm definitely quite interested in what else you have to say about mind mapping.
00:30:28
Speaker
Can you sort of provide a brief example, if you will, on how we would mind map something like, I don't know, a hobby that you have specifically?
00:30:39
Speaker
Yeah, my mapping is one of those techniques that's kind of challenging to kind of talk about, unless I had some visuals, because it's a visual technique. So it helps to really see the, it being kind of created visually to see how it's supposed to be, how it looks to be structured. And while you're doing that, could you possibly mention, you know, your website and where people could go if they want to find your content?
00:31:05
Speaker
Sure. So my name is Cam Knight and my website is mind.lily.com. That's M-I-N-D-L-I-L-Y.com. And I've got a fantastic email series to help people conquer their internal resistance where they can get that for free. And they can get my books on Amazon. They can just type in Cam Knight and my library of books should show up.
00:31:31
Speaker
Very good. Yeah, so let's see if we can get some images. And another thing I was thinking about was, you were definitely talking a lot about consistency and focusing on, I think another way about focusing on consistency could also be focusing on the process itself. Because you know, I think people just get so enamored in the goal that it just creates more issues.
00:31:57
Speaker
Yes, I think that is something I kind of struggle with a lot. I think it kind of goes back to what I was talking about earlier. We kind of live in a culture where
00:32:08
Speaker
there's this constant image of be more and do this and have the success. And we're kind of judged based on our success or lack thereof. And so there's actually this, I feel, a very strong desire and pull towards having more success and achievement just so we can be accepted.
00:32:31
Speaker
And as a result, we're trying to achieve this, we're trying to get to that end result and bypass the actual process and pains and tribulations. And, you know, in my personal journey, I felt like I never could bypass it. Like the more I tried to bypass the process and just get to the end result, the further it moved away from me and the more elusive it became.
00:32:56
Speaker
And I just had to accept the fact that, you know, I need to enjoy the journey. I need to take the process and find as much positive to it, and then I would get to the end. And as I mentioned, the more I tried to bypass that step, the more challenging I got. Now, that's not to say that you have to make your journey very difficult. I've known people
00:33:19
Speaker
whose journey wasn't as difficult. And I think it comes down to internal resistance. The more resistive your mind is, the more likely the journey is going to be taught.
00:33:28
Speaker
But one thing that really helps me in staying grounded in the process is a really, really amazing insight that I learned while I was traveling and backpacking. And that insight is that our level of joy is directly proportional to the pain that we put in to get it.
Effort and Joy in Success
00:33:50
Speaker
So I'm sure people know when they've worked really hard on a project and put in a lot of time, energy, and effort.
00:33:58
Speaker
and even had to go through some emotional uncertainty. When they get to the end, they feel so good about it. It feels really great and it feels really rewarding. However, when success comes easily, we might get excited for a little bit, but it's not very long lasting. And one of the reasons I work hard now is because I know the level of joy that I'm trying to get
00:34:25
Speaker
can only be achieved by the hard work that I put in to get it. And sure, if I did achieve it easily, then I more than likely wouldn't be able to appreciate it long term. And I feel like this is one of the reasons why when looking at Western society, depression and a lot of sadness and emotional disorders are so rampant is that our life has become too comfortable.
00:34:51
Speaker
We don't have to put in as much effort to enjoy the nicest, the luxuries that we have. And as a result, we become used to and complacent. And so they don't bring that joy that we seek. And we think it's by getting stuff or getting things that will make us popular. And those things help, but there's also a component of working hard and being in a process of
00:35:20
Speaker
you know, working on something for an extended period and then reaching that end. You mentioned something very powerful there about working hard and sort of getting things instantly because I think the true sort of beauty in all of this is that it's not about the goal or the result, it's about the journey itself. Yeah. Because that's sort of what creates that story that you can always look back on and remember.
00:35:45
Speaker
And the problem is people are just not tapping into that journey or what you said sort of that, I want to get it now scheme.
00:35:54
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. And it comes down to the motivation a person has. Are they doing it just so they can have our value and self-worth so people can see that they're worthy of their attention? Or are they doing it because they actually have a desire to achieve something that takes a little bit of time and effort? And if we're going for the first, then
00:36:17
Speaker
Naturally are we're going to be drawn for that instant gratification. We just want to get to the end result so we can reap the benefits of end result. But I think the journey has a lot in it. There's a lot of learning. There's a lot of growth. There's a lot of insights. There's a lot of.
00:36:37
Speaker
testing yourself and meeting who you are as a person. And that's something that came up to me a lot when I was in my journey and at times struggling. When you try something or take on a project or pursuit that is bigger than you or more challenging and
00:36:54
Speaker
you have to go through some of the emotional turmoil, especially of uncertainty, you get to see who you are, you get to see who you're made of. And those things aren't things that you can just buy or get from material possessions. They come through the process. Now, another thing I want to sort of get into is, what are some common misconceptions that people have about what you personally do? And how did you begin to
00:37:21
Speaker
Sort of move those misconceptions into who you really are as a person. Oh, that's a really good question. What are some common misconceptions? I think the common misconceptions that usually come up, I feel like are really related to.
00:37:36
Speaker
the concept of internal resistance. So if I talk to somebody about, hey, I do coaching, or I'm an author of these topics, especially a great example would be my speed reading book. So I have a speed reading book that can teach people how to very rapidly accelerate their reading speed in a very short time, and not only improve their reading speed, but their comprehension and memory.
00:38:03
Speaker
Immediately, when they think of that, they think that involves skimming, that involves scanning, and that involves reducing comprehension immediately. And I have to kind of shift their thinking. I'm like, no, it's possible to read more words faster and still comprehend those words, and more importantly, remember them afterwards.
00:38:25
Speaker
and I could see when I'm talking to some people that they don't really believe me and then they think I'm just trying to sell them some some gimmick or some trick but I think it is possible and many people have seen the results that it is that you can quickly accelerate speed and still retain more and understand more so that's like a common misconception but if I were to
00:38:51
Speaker
you know, generalize the misconceptions that kind of come up is that whatever technique I'm presenting that it's going to take a lot of time, it's going to take a lot of effort and it will work for only certain types of people or if it has worked, the person got lucky or they were just in that right space.
00:39:10
Speaker
And sometimes that's true. But the way that I design and write my content is try to make things as simple as possible and create as little barrier for people to get started and to see results. Obviously, the more effort they put in or the more they apply a technique or a system that I am teaching, the more results they're going to get. But it's really important for them to get quick results so they can see that, hey, it is possible.
00:39:38
Speaker
And that's really kind of the challenge that I kind of come across. But something that I was alluding to at the start of me answering this question was that when resistance does show up where they make these generalizations of, oh, it wouldn't work, or it probably means this, or something else, it usually means that a part of their mind is trying to hold them back or keep them from putting in the effort to get the results that my books or material can provide.
Speed Reading Techniques
00:40:07
Speaker
And when we sort of look more into the idea of speed reading, how do you feel about a lot of those other speed reading books? What does your book in general do that's a lot more better than some of these general books? Like I've heard there's certain tactics like, you know, using your finger to draw across, you know, paper that helps. But does it really, how fast is too fast?
00:40:31
Speaker
Yeah, well, you've kind of answered a couple, asked a couple questions. So I'll try to answer that. One is too fast is when you're not comprehending what you're reading. So anytime you get to a point where you're missing information or not picking up the meaning of the different sentences and as a result, the meaning of the entire passage, you're moving too fast.
00:40:54
Speaker
Another way to be too fast is when your high movement is very erratic. So instead of being able to go from one sentence to the next, it's kind of like skipping and jumping almost haphazardly. So you're missing words that you could be picking up.
00:41:14
Speaker
And how my technique differs is that there are a lot of techniques, and I read different books, and I think everybody is bringing something good, unique, and usable. And so there are techniques of pacing, where you use a finger or a pen, and you move it fast enough to force your eyes to start moving faster so you can pick up more words. And that works.
00:41:36
Speaker
There's also the index card technique where you're looking, you're trying to cover words and sentences that you've already read, so you don't regress or backtrack. Because a lot of reasons we don't read fast is because we spend too much time going back to words that we think we missed. And so if we can stop regression, we essentially record reading speeds.
00:41:57
Speaker
But that's not that comfort perspective that I come from. I come from the perspective that our mind and eyes have the ability to take in and process much more words in a single glance. That is, if you or our listeners could do an exercise right now and look up from their computer and just notice their room or wherever they're at and notice everything there.
00:42:20
Speaker
Maybe the paintings on the wall, the carpet on the floor, the table, and everything else. Your eyes can take in all of that stuff instantaneously. It's not going. Well, that object over there has four legs and a flat top, so it must be a table.
00:42:37
Speaker
And the object next to it has four legs, a flat top, and a backrest, so it's probably a chair. No, you move your eyes in a direction and they instantaneously detect and simultaneously see what is there. So I wondered why can't we do that with text? And the thing is that we can't, it's just that we weren't taught to it.
00:42:58
Speaker
Our educational system does a great job of combining letters to form words and put words to form phrases and sentences. But it doesn't show us the best way to do that. And I personally believe that we can pick up multiple words in a single glance and understand it quicker than reading word by word and trying to make sense of what each word is saying.
00:43:25
Speaker
Now, you mentioned mind mapping previously, and I sort of understand the take on mind mapping. So let's say I want to do gardening, right? I may have three different areas, like I may have a separate pumpkin farm, a separate tomato farm, and a separate celery farm. So I broke it up into three areas. Then I could break those up into three other sub areas as well.
Mind Mapping Applications
00:43:52
Speaker
I sort of get the gist of what mind mapping is, but can you sort of get into what you do that's unique with mind mapping compared to some of those other people? Because we already talked about what you do that's unique compared to speed reading. Yeah. So I've got the image up if you want to go to the mind mapping.
00:44:09
Speaker
So here's one example of mind mapping just to bring, I know you know mind mapping, so to bring your audience up to speed. Mind mapping is a diagram that organizes your thoughts. So as I mentioned, it veers from the traditional methods of line-by-line note-taking where you start from the top and go work bottom. With mind mapping, you start in the center and then you branch outward like a tree or a spider web.
00:44:33
Speaker
And the reason mind maps work so well is because it more mimics the way the brain is structured. So inside of our brain, our thoughts, ideas, our memories are not floating aimlessly. They're all connected and linked to each other like the Roosevelt chains. And with the mind map, as you can see, everything is connected or related to each other. And as I also mentioned, mind mapping is not just for notes, but it can be used in so many different areas.
00:45:00
Speaker
such as writing, planning, brainstorming, research, and so much more. So this is just a simple mind map and how somebody could plan out their month. So they could put the month that they're on
00:45:12
Speaker
And this example is January, but right now we're in July. So we could just say July 2021. And then we can create a branch for each week of the month. So week one, week two, week three, and then week four. And then within each week, we can decide what we want to do in each week. And we can create more branches.
00:45:33
Speaker
Now what we how we decide to organize each week could be different. We could do it by activity or we could do it by days of the weeks as I've done over here or we could do it by split it by groups like what I'm going to do at home, what I have to do for work and what I have to do with family. And however we break it out is really up to us.
00:45:56
Speaker
And then within each of that, we can list the things that we want to do, the things we want to get done, when, and we can continue to break each branch into lower and lower levels to note each precise task or everything that we need to get done.
00:46:14
Speaker
So, for example, in week one, let's say I have an activity or a task to sell my car. So, I could create a branch and put sell car. But selling a car requires doing a lot of different things. One might be to get a car wash. The other might be to get an appraisal.
00:46:34
Speaker
The other might be to post an ad online. The other might be to order the title. And so we create branches for each of these tasks. And within them, we could break it down even further to list what we need to do to do each of these tasks, when we'll do them, the time, and so forth. So this is just one example. And again, we can do it so many different ways.
00:46:58
Speaker
And to be honest, I don't know if I am bringing anything new into my mapping than what you had described already, but it's pretty much kind of taking a thought or idea and breaking it down and dividing it and arranging it into lower and lower levels until we can plan out that specific or work out that specific thought or idea. I don't know if that was helpful. Were you guys able to see my cursor as I was talking?
00:47:27
Speaker
Yeah, I sort of see it. So let me, let me just say this. I have never seen mind mapping done when it comes to scheduling. I usually see mind mapping done when there is general brainstorming. Like I have an essay to write. I have this, I've never seen someone do sort of week one, week two, week three, week four. That's sort of an interesting take because it's sort of like you sort of use mind mapping in a different way when it's more about time management. So I think that's the question I have for you.
00:47:57
Speaker
What is the ideal way to use mind mapping when it comes to things such as time management? Like I noticed some of those lines there are bold. I noticed some of the lines there are a little bit slimmer. What happens when you start hitting week five, week six? Do you just make new mind maps every four weeks? How does that go? Is it a rotation deep? What do you, and after-
00:48:22
Speaker
Yeah, it really depends on the person. So if somebody likes to plan out a month ahead, they can use mind map to, just like as I've shown here, creating week one, week two, week three, and week four to plan out a month ahead. But if somebody is just looking to plan out maybe just one week, so I'm going to try to show another mind map. So here's another one.
00:48:49
Speaker
So this is just one week. So I'm breaking up by the days of the week. And within each day, the things I need to do or plan for. So the Fridays, I take out the garbage. But I also have a, let's say, English course I need to study for. Thursday, I need to do my math homework or meet Jesse. And this is another way to organize it. So we just do this biweekly. But if we don't want to do it by the days, we can do it by different tasks.
00:49:17
Speaker
And so the tasks could be what to do for home, what to do for work, what to do for my hobbies, and then what to do for my family. And within each of those branches, we can list out what we're going to do. So that's another way or option of breaking it down. But so this is one example.
00:49:36
Speaker
show you another way. Here's another one that I just kind of spoke about. So this doesn't do it by days of the weeks, it does it by categories. So the things I need to do for school, the things I need to do for my personal life, things to do around the home, and things to do for the car. And then within each of these items, we can go further into it. So we have a branch for school, and within school, we want to study for the history exam.
00:50:06
Speaker
Within that branch, we could say, read the textbook, review the notes, go over the slides and things of that nature. We can go into lower and lower levels to really flush out and detail everything that we need to do and get done and how we're going to do and get done as well as when.
00:50:32
Speaker
And let me see if I can pull up some other examples of mind maps. So here's somebody planning on their wedding and they're going to decide what they want to do or have done by one three, month six, month eight, and then two weeks before and day before. And when you're, when, when you wrote your book on mind mapping, what are some of the
00:50:55
Speaker
key ways mind mapping can help people operate versus not using mind mapping. Because I think a lot of people sort of come in and think, why do I need to do this? Why don't I just continue doing what I used to do before? What's so special about this?
00:51:10
Speaker
Yeah, what's special about mind mapping, as I had alluded to earlier, is that it works within the structure of how the brain is built. So, as I had mentioned, our thoughts, ideas, and memories are not floating in our head. They're all linked together, like the roots of red retreats.
00:51:28
Speaker
So anytime you have a thought or idea, it will trigger a whole host of other thoughts and ideas, and they will trigger other hosts, thoughts and ideas. And when we do work with traditional line by line not taking, everything is kind of isolated and independent. But with mind mapping, as you can see in this diagram, everything is connected to each other like how it is in the brain. So not only does it help us understand information that we're learning better, but it'll help us remember it better as well.
00:51:57
Speaker
But more importantly, for tasks like planning and creativity and brainstorming, it will help us organize and arrange information as it comes out, as our brain has held it. And so it makes us a lot more effective than traditional methods. Can you see this one? Yeah, this seems like a lot more of a sort of a more standard mind map display. This is sort of what I would generally see as what a mind map would look like.
00:52:26
Speaker
Because you have one body topic and then it expands out. Yeah. And this is the same items. I mean, this can be listed under days of the week or by groups. So it's really a matter of preference and what a person really how their mind works in terms of thinking about information.
00:52:49
Speaker
Now, I think the last thing I want to hit here is what is the future for what you can provide
Future Directions and AI Challenges
00:52:56
Speaker
to people? What is the future for your personal mission that you have?
00:53:01
Speaker
Well, you know, I first started off writing books and as I mentioned, I've written about a dozen now and then I started moving into creating online courses and they revolve around like internal resistance. I feel like a topic that has been heavily overlooked. And now I am focusing on an area of.
00:53:22
Speaker
healing and overcoming some difficult stress and trauma. And I kind of say that I heal the broken. And so I'm moving more in that direction because
00:53:37
Speaker
It's an area that is, you know, a lot of people, what I'm noticing working in this area is that they have experienced some real challenges and it's affecting everything they're doing today. Not just what they're doing, but they're new, how they experience the world, their interactions with people. Everything is filtered through the events that played out in their past. And those events could be from a rough childhood, you know, for veterans,
00:54:06
Speaker
PTSD and other experiences that are worse than rough childhood and PTSD and I won't go into that. What I have found is that traditional therapy and traditional methods are extremely slow in the healing process and they tend to be sometimes not very effective.
00:54:31
Speaker
it kind of only scratches at the surface level. And through my work with internal resistance, I've been developing techniques to help people kind of get really at the root of what's going on for them internally and help them unlock and release a lot of those blocks. So I see that being a good thing to work on for me in the future, only because now artificial intelligence is really
00:54:58
Speaker
changing a lot of stuff like I didn't think as a writer I would have to work about worry about artificial intelligence kind of taking my job but I'm just starting to see just like how much artificial intelligence has advanced with writing like there are softwares that can write for you you know it's crazy it's crazy and they can do a better job like I can just say hey
00:55:25
Speaker
I want to write a blog about cryptocurrencies and I want to talk about this and it'll go online, get information and you can just see it typing it out. And it's like, it's kind of mind blowing. So I think it'll be good to have something that would be a good fallback, at least for the moment. Very good. And are there any other final words you'd like to say or provide to the audience?
00:55:49
Speaker
You know, I think I have shared a lot, given a lot of deep insights. And so if I were to go back to anything I had mentioned, I think it would be good to reiterate, I think one of the most important things
00:56:05
Speaker
we can do is not rely on our memory to remember information or things that we need to do. We want to take action on that information to remember it. The other thing is our level of joy is directly proportional to the pain that we put in. So whatever joy or happiness you're seeking in the world or you think that you have been
00:56:27
Speaker
cheated out of can possibly can probably only can be only achieved through putting in you know hard work and the third thing is being consistent just showing up whatever it is that you've committed to make sure that you show up every day and don't start anything new until you've completed this one thing in fact if things are are rough and if you're like you're not making any progress and you think you want to jump to something else
00:56:56
Speaker
It's okay if you jump to something else, but make sure you finish this one thing first because you want to develop the muscle, finish things. You want to develop the muscle to start a goal and see it through the end. And if you've never done that, then it's going to be hard to do it for the first time around. But once you can develop the muscle of finishing things and achieving goals, then you can take on bigger pursuits.
00:57:22
Speaker
And if you're struggling in life, it's because you're just not sticking along enough to see something to the end. And I really recommend people do that. Very good. Thank you again for being on the show, Mr. Knight. All right. You're welcome. Thank you for listening to the Jimbo Parish show.