Have you heard of Jim Kwik? How about his book, Limitless? It became an instant New York Times bestseller and #1 Wall Street Journal bestseller. Jim presented some of his key concepts for “brain coaching” in a webinar I participated in last spring. Limitless– Upgrade your brain. Learn Anything Faster and Unlock Your Exceptional Life.
Jim is an expert in memory improvement, brain optimization and accelerated learning. After experiencing a traumatic childhood brain injury, he developed strategies to enhance his mental performance. The book tells his story and gives many great ideas with methods to put them into practice. It’s no surprise that for the past 25 years Jim has been a “brain coach” to leaders from many walks of life including professional athletes, business leaders, political leaders and actors. His corporate client list includes Google, Nike, Zappos, GE, Cleveland Clinic and others such as Harvard University, Caltech and the United Nations.
In the first part of his book Jim suggests we Free Our Minds. You can imagine how important that message was in April of 2020. Turning off the “digital deluge” will allow us to be free from constant distractions and mostly short-term focused issues. Doing so we are free from dependency on our phones and computers for answers to questions. Even so, I was trying to justify why I couldn’t completely “turn it off” even for a little while. Guess what? If you tell people you are “off the grid” for a few hours, they respect it. If we don’t start making these downtimes, we may find we have been “teaching our brains” to seek that constantly streaming information. There is evidence to support the idea that without downtime we can’t develop new neurons in the brain. Without new neurons, we can’t record memories of our experiences –and memories are the basis of learning. How many of us cannot remember things (even phone numbers) and get into a state of “digital dementia” *.
I read the book and I tried to take heed. For example, don’t break your “flow time” which is the first few hours after you wake from sleep. Don’t look at your cell phone first thing when you wake up. Pretty hard to do. I thought I was doing pretty well when I had a rude awakening. I forgot my cell phone in a restaurant in Denver. I didn’t realize it until I was almost at the airport with no time to turn back. Fortunately, I knew where it was, called the restaurant and my brother-in-law fedexed it to me for delivery the next morning. Total time without my phone: 16 hours. Yes, I had my computer. (Of course, my phone was locked with a password so no confidential info could be taken.) But still, although I hid it, I felt very panicky.
I hope that you are not as “dependent” on your cell phone as I had to admit that I am!
And this was after I thought I was making good progress changing my habits in these past few months! (Jim also talks about how to change habits and why that is so hard—new ideas that I hadn’t heard of before.)
How is this relevant to buying, selling and transitioning companies to the next generation? Among other reasons, one of the most important is to have the ability to work in a state of Flow. That is the state where we are so tied up in what we are doing that we forget about outside distractions; time is not important, and the experience is deeply rewarding. You feel like you are doing your best work and you want to return to it. Wouldn’t that be the best way to be thinking, especially when you are working on some of the most important decisions you will make about your company’s future?
Our goal is to help you maximize your company’s value now and for future owners or buyers. If you’d like to discuss your company’s readiness for sale, buying a company, help with an existing acquisition or sell your company, please let us know. In the meantime, if you have questions or comments, I can be reached anytime via email: [email protected] or phone at: 224-688-8838. We’re here to help you Harvest Your Potential.
*phrase coined by neuroscientist Manfred Spitzer.
