Kwik Team

For Star Wars fans, May the Fourth and Revenge of the Fifth are sacred days. But becoming a Master Jedi takes years of practice and discipline. The good news is you don’t have to travel to a galaxy far, far away to become master of your own body and mind. It all starts with a healthy brain. And here to remind you how to unlock the limitless force are the ten keys to unlocking optimal brain health, are a few friends from around the Galaxy and beyond.

A GOOD DIET

“Rule 23: Never pull sentry duty on an empty stomach.” ~ Scorch

Eating a diet full of nutritious brain foods is mandatory to ensure you’re in top shape for whatever the Empire throws at you. Here are ten amazing brain foods to fuel you body and mind.

KILL ANTs:

“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” ~ Yoda

Your brain is a supercomputer. And your self-talk is the program that runs it. That’s why it’s so important to take control of those thoughts and focus on positive self-talk. Everyone struggles with dark thoughts sometimes. But no one wants to turn into a Sith as a result. Here are some tips to help you kill those ANTs and restore order to the Galaxy.

EXERCISE

“I know how to run without you holding my hand.” ~ Rey

If the Knights of Ren start tracking you down, you want to be quick on your feet and able to strategize on the move. That’s why, whether someone is holding your hand or not, getting enough exercise is vital for your brain. As your body moves, your brain grooves. Whether it’s strength-training or a daily workout routine, make sure you get up and get moving throughout your day.

BRAIN NUTRIENTS

“Make ten men feel like a hundred.“ ~ Cassian Andor

Cassian may have been talking about strategy in fighting the Empire, but his point still stands. When you. have the right plan and feed your body what it needs, you enhance what you’re capable of by one hundred. Many foods provide the nutrients your brain needs to operate at its best, but you can use nootropics or supplements to help ensure you get all the brain-boosting power you need to get through your Rebel days.

POSITIVE PEER GROUP

“If I do not return, I want you to know that you have been a real friend.” ~ C-3PO

It doesn’t take a human-cyborg relations expert to know that who you surround yourself with is important. The people around you can either lift you up or tear you down. If you constantly spend time with people who have a scarcity mindset and allow negative thoughts to take over, that’s who you will become. Learn how to build a positive peer group and watch your life begin to change.

CLEAN ENVIRONMENT

“That ship saved my life quite a few times. She’s the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy.” ~ Lando Calrissian

In the same way people can determine your outcome, so can your environment. That’s because your brain is largely a filtration device. And when you’re surrounded by clutter, your brain has a hard time filtering out the noise. This takes up a lot of your brain power, which can disrupt your concentration, affect your focus, and drain your energy. Take care of your space, even if it is the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy.

SLEEP

“You’re exactly the way I remember you in my dreams.” ~ Anakin Skywalker

Sleep is important. Just ask Anakin. When nightmares began plaguing him, they started his descent into the Dark Side. To stay on the right side of the Force, you want to start by ensuring you get enough sleep. This means focusing on quality over quantity. Create a healthy nighttime routine, get plenty of exercise, and always wake up at the same time.

BRAIN PROTECTION

“I don’t want your armor. I want my armor.” ~ Boba Fett

Boba Fett knows good armor is important. It’s what kept him alive despite being eaten by a sarlacc. Even if you aren’t battling Jedi or Storm Troopers, there are any number of activities that can damage your brain. Make sure you put your brain health first and always wear a helmet.

NEW LEARNINGS

“In a dark place we find ourselves, and a little more knowledge lights the way.” ~ Yoda

Yoda knows that knowledge is the light when you’re surrounded by darkness. No matter what obstacle you’re facing, there’s always an answer. You just have to find it. That means being open to new learning, and embracing the growth mindset of a young Padawan.

STRESS MANAGEMENT

“Don’t center on your anxieties, Obi-Wan. Keep your concentration here and now, where it belongs. Always remember, your focus determines your reality.” ~ Qui-Gon Jinn

To harness the power of the force, you have to be able to focus. You have to be present and calm. And to do that, you have to keep your stress levels low. When you’re stressed, your brain releases the stress hormone cortisol. If that builds for a long period of time, it can cause inflammation, disrupt your sleep, interrupt your focus and concentration, and elevate your anxiety. Make sure you take time to meditate, journal, and practice deep breathing to lower your stress levels throughout your day—even when you aren’t trying to infiltrate the Death Star.

If you want to learn more about the ten keys to better brain health, watch this video:

When it comes to success, there isn’t a guaranteed recipe. But no matter what your goals are, or even what your definition of success is, the fact is high achievers have one thing in common: they read. A lot.

Reading is considered one of the best habits you can cultivate for the overall fitness of your brain. Unlike most skills that are hard-wired into our brain as part of our evolutionary drive, reading and writing are things that we’ve developed over time. They stemmed from our desire to communicate through pictures and stemmed from the tradition of storytelling. That means it involves multiple parts of the the brain, as the language and visual centers of the brain worked in tandem to bring the oral and then written words to life.

Reading and the Brain

Reading has been shown to increase the amount of white matter in the brain and create new neural connections. Studies have linked reading with higher empathy, increased focus, improved spatial navigability, lengthened attention span, and improved vocabulary. It’s no wonder that highly successful people like Warren Buffet, Elon Musk, Oprah Winfrey, and Bill Gates make time to read every day.

What you read is more important than simply reading. Scrolling through social media feeds involves reading, but reading short, punchy captions doesn’t produce the same effects that focused long-form reading does. Like any healthy habit, reading needs to be cultivated carefully and practiced mindfully to achieve the maximum benefits.

We’ve compiled four insights from the reading habits of successful people around the world; which you can incorporate into your daily routine.

Schedule Dedicated Reading Time

Warren Buffet famously devotes 80% of his day to reading. Bill Gates commits reading at least 50 books every year. To them, reading is not a hobby. It’s part of their recipe for success. They consider it necessary for business and personal development, as essential as brushing their teeth or taking a bath.

Scheduling reading time helps signal to your brain that this is a priority. It also helps you develop reading as a habit. Try to schedule it for the same time every day, such as during your morning commute or before bed. Turn off distractions and focus on your reading exclusively for the entire scheduled time.

Read At Least One Hour A Day

Health experts recommend that a daily physical exercise routine should at least be an hour. And since reading is exercise for the brain, you should take it just as seriously. While Buffet’s example may not be doable for many, an hour of devoted reading every day sharpens focus and increases comprehension.

The length of time is important because extended reading is necessary to increase working memory. It also develops other skills such as event processing and improved concentration. And just like any exercise, the prolonged time ensures maximum mental stimulation, which helps slow natural brain aging and lowers the risk of brain-related illnesses.

Read Nonfiction

While reading fiction and poetry helps exercise the brain by developing visualization and pattern recognition, nonfiction offers readers the ability to learn and absorb specific knowledge and applied skill sets. Books written by experts allow you to take decades of experience and download that knowledge in a matter of days. It’s a valuable resource that high achievers refuse to waste.

Nonfiction also activates your brain differently than fiction. Nonfiction activates your analytical, problem-solving skills. You digest the data into manageable chunks and break down complex ideas into step-by-step applications. Your brain strives to apply this knowledge in useful ways, creating new neural pathways and strengthening already developed pathways. In addition to gaining new perspectives, this type of reading keeps you at the forefront of technology and can elevate you in your career field, which is why high achieving individuals make time for reading.

Even more exciting, when you read, your brain actually interprets what you’re reading as experience. Studies show different areas of the brain activate as you read, demonstrating that to the brain, reading is doing. So reading topics on self-improvement, developing a hobby, or learning a new skill are extremely beneficial.

Take Notes

When you’re learning, it’s important to interact with the material.  Write down your thoughts, opinions, comments, associations, questions, reactions, and anything else that comes to mind while reading. Taking notes has been shown to improve memory and increase your learning capabilities. Bill Gates has a reputation for taking notes in the margin while he reads, but a notebook or reading log works the same.

Another important aspect of note-taking is it allows you to continue reading through difficult or cumbersome passages without stopping. Momentum is key, and stopping to look up words, reference terminology, or to research concepts disrupts your learning process. If you make a note and continue reading, you will actually retain more information while reviewing as it forces your brain to practice recall, and strengthens the neural pathway.

Conclusion

Making reading a habit has numerous benefits for the brain, with the added side effect of providing you with enjoyment. Reading helps you learn, exercises the brain, and allows you to gain experience like never before. No matter what field you work in or what subject you study, reading can give you the tools and resources you need to be successful.

If you want more tips and tricks on how to read faster and retain more, watch this video playlist:

In our technological world, it’s almost impossible to escape the constant stimuli of information. With access to multiple streaming platforms available in the palm of your hand, finding moments of boredom is becoming increasingly difficult. But embracing the power of boredom, that endless stretch of time where you aren’t engaged in any kind of activity, can be your secret weapon for unlocking creativity, productivity, and overall mental well-being.

The Default Mode Network

The Default Mode Network, or the DMN, is the part of your brain that activates when your brain is at wakeful rest. Essentially, it’s the area of your brain responsible for daydreaming and mind wandering. Despite its name, this network is anything but inactive. It helps you process information and consolidate learning, and becomes most active when thinking about yourself, others, the past, and the future.

This area is vital for creativity and deep learning. Part of the reason you might remember a name in the middle of a workout or when you’re doing the dishes is because when you stop engaging in cognitive tasks, the DMN takes over and sorts through your thoughts and experiences throughout the day. Those details that may have felt out of reach, suddenly bubble to the surface and you’re able to come up with ideas, remember information and events, or solve a difficult problem in new and surprising ways.

The DMN in Action

Some of the most groundbreaking inventions in history have been discovered largely thanks to the DMN in action. Consider Archimedes, the mathematician and inventor, who famously shouted, “Eureka”, while taking a bath. It was relaxing in the tub, letting his mind wander in that state of relaxation that allowed him to observe the displaced water of the tub and solve the problem of finding the density of an irregularly sized object.

There’s also Sir Issac Newton. While walking through a garden he observed an apple fall from a tree. It got him thinking about why the apple always feel down, and not sideways, or up. While it took him another twenty years to fully form his theory on gravity, it all began with an observation and curiosity, neither of which would have been possible had Sir Isaac not been quiet and simply in the moment.

Boredom in Daily Life

These revelations aren’t only for historical geniuses and innovative thinkers. You can use this same principle in your daily life. All you have to do is allow yourself to be bored from time to time. Take time to daydream and embrace letting go of distraction because that’s where the magic happens.

Daydreaming is your brain’s way of flexing its creative muscles. When you’re bored, your mind wanders, exploring different scenarios, ideas, and possibilities. This state nurtures creativity and unlocks problem-solving. Daydreaming is your way of taking your brain to a mental playground where it can roam and wander and play. This is where new ideas are born and unexpected solutions are found.

Moreover, embracing boredom has profound effects on mental health. As we mentioned, it’s almost impossible to escape the constant digital demands of our technological world. Allowing yourself downtime away from devices, shows, computers, and electronics is the downtime your brain desperately craves. To actually process the information you take in throughout the day, you have to give your brain time to sort, filter, and process it. The only way it can do that is by hitting pause and removing the distractions constant stimulation provides.

Conclusion

Next time you find yourself in a seemingly dull moment and want to reach for your phone, resist the urge and sit with the silence instead. Let your brain wander, daydream, and be in the moment. When you let your mind wander, you open the door to new ideas and allow your brain to work its magic.

Remember, boredom isn’t the enemy. It’s a gateway to the extraordinary. when you let your brain’s Default Mode Network to take control, you can tap into a wellspring of creativity, innovation, and improved mental well-being. Schedule intentional boredom and watch how your mind unleashes its limitless potential.

If you want to learn more about how to tap into creativity, watch this video:

Entrepreneurship is not for everyone. What you see on the surface doesn’t tell the whole story.

Successful business owners, millionaires, and serial entrepreneurs often started from nothing. They had to overcome many mental barriers, make a ton of sacrifices, make mistakes and learn from them, test different business ideas many of which failed, and deal with the lack of understanding of other people in their life.

Perseverance, focus, and motivation helped them stay strong so they could work hard until they created the one business that changed the rest of their career and life.

Each and every one of us has the potential to do the same. But even if you aren’t on your way to entering the business world, there’s a lot you can learn from entrepreneurs that you can apply to your life. Here’s what they can teach us about productivity.

SMALL STEPS MAKE THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE

How many times did you procrastinate on something because you weren’t sure where to start? Because you thought it will take a long time and didn’t know if you were ready?

It’s easy to make excuses instead of taking action. Especially when you plan a big step and become too overwhelmed to actually get started. The thing to remember about successful entrepreneurs is that they all began small. They didn’t launch their business all at once, but rather planned in small, incremental steps so that it was manageable and easy to maneuver.

One daily action is enough. Maybe you want to research the market for thirty minutes. Or spend an hour a day learning how to design a website or set up a sales funnel. If you need to study for an exam, learn a foreign language, or renovate your house, the same approach applies. Break your goal into small, simple steps that you can accomplish every day. As you work, day after day, every next step gets easier.

Entrepreneurs know that the best way to beat procrastination and finally get something done is to break down big goals and projects into smaller ones. Then, you simply need to do one thing from your list per day to move forward.

YOUR TIME IS YOUR MOST VALUABLE RESOURCE

Businessmen know how to manage their time well. They have to. When you own your own business, you wear many hats all at once. That means you can’t afford to get distracted or overwhelmed by wasting time.

No matter what your goal is, you have to work to prioritize that goal in a way that fits into your current life. You might not be in charge of your schedule during the work day, but how you spend your time both before and after work is up to you. Maybe you need to get up an hour earlier so you have uninterrupted time before family obligations take over. Or you can stay up an hour later, or miss happy hour with friends.

We all have the same twenty-four hours to work with. And while everyone’s life demands use of that twenty-four hours differently, you can decide how and where to devote your free time. Figure out when you’re most productive so that you can maximize your time efficiently. Make sure you’re eating and sleeping so you are awake and focused with plenty of energy to dedicate to that time. Successful entrepreneurs understand how to use their time efficiently and effectively by focusing on the right things at the right time.

HAVE ROUTINES

Speaking of using your time effectively, one of the ways entrepreneurs optimize their time is by structuring their days. They plan them down to the last detail and follow that planned schedule to the minute. They know it’s the most effective way to spend their time.

But it also frees their attention and focus to laser in on the task at hand. They aren’t worried about what comes next because they know. It unloads that mental energy so that they aren’t wasting precious brain energy on the things that don’t matter.

You can tap into this powerful hack by starting and ending your day the same way every day. This ensures that you start your day off right by setting yourself up for success. And when you end it with structure and focus, you ensure that your body and brain is ready for a good night’s sleep, which sets you up for a productive tomorrow.

Some things to include in your morning routine are to wake up early, workout, journal, and eat a healthy breakfast. This is the time to plan your day by deciding what the most important thing to accomplish will be. Review your schedule and make any necessary adjustments. Even plan your free time.

At night, make sure you give yourself plenty of time to get into a restful state. Avoid caffeine after 2pm so you don’t accidentally stay awake too late and stop watching any screens at least an hour before you want to fall asleep. This ensures your brain stops producing cortisol and begins releasing melatonin, preparing you for deep and restful sleep.

KEEP YOUR FOCUS ON THE IMPORTANT THINGS

When you run your own business, you are typically pulled into multiple directions all at the same time. Everyone wants your time and attention. And that’s not counting the endless tasks constantly piling up.

Life can be stressful. Inboxes fill up, kids throw last minute snags into your day, bosses ask for help on last minute projects. That’s just a few of the ways stress can build. If you don’t know how to manage your focus, it can be easy to become overwhelmed with the constant pull on your attention and time.

The key to focusing on the important things is the ability to assess your obligations and figure out how to manage them in your current schedule. Sometimes this means learning how to say no, asking for help, or delaying activities that are important but not urgent.

One tool that can help you with this is the Eisenhower Matrix. Divide a square into four quadrants. The top two columns are urgent and not urgent. The two rows on the side are important and not important. After you fill it in, you let go of anything that is not urgent and not important. For the things that are urgent but not important, find someone to delegate those tasks to. In the Not urgent but important box, you schedule a time to work on those tasks later. And in the urgent and important box, you put your focus there.

This simple exercise can help you identify what matters, what doesn’t, and learn to sort through all the rest. You can also use this to help sort through weekly, monthly, and yearly goals.

Conclusion

Successful entrepreneurs know what they are doing. And productivity is one aspect of life they never stop improving. You can embrace the mindset of these highly motivated and successful people to make progress in any area of your life.

If you want to learn more about how to embrace productivity, watch this video:

Whoever you are, what you do for a living, or how productive you currently are, everyone can benefit from learning how to find laser focus in daily life. But to find focus, you first need to get rid of what’s interfering with your concentration while working.

There are a few big enemies of focus. Each one impacts your ability to concentrate, which eventually strains your output and holds you back. Knowing the enemy is only half the battle. We’re also going to show you how to overcome each one so it doesn’t interfere with your daily efforts to get more done.

OVERTHINKING

One of the main reasons for procrastinating is overthinking. It consists of wondering what might go wrong, thinking of situations from the past and comparing them to your current one, and playing out scenarios in your head. You’re basically letting your mind wander instead of focusing on the activity in front of you and getting the task done.

Overthinking sabotages your focus as it takes you away from the present. This can present itself as rumination of the past or preoccupations for the future. These thoughts largely turn negative and divert your attention away from any tasks in front of you. The more these thoughts interfere, the further behind you get, creating stress over possibly missing deadlines or turning in subpar work, which then leads to more disruptive thoughts.

To beat that, practice mindfulness. Build the habit of noticing when your brain starts to wander away from your tasks and divert your attention to your work instead. You might keep a journal or notebook nearby to jot down your thoughts, keeping them as brief as possible. Once you let go of the worry, your brain is now free to focus and concentrate on the task at hand.

You are in control, you just need to be aware of what’s happening. Once your mind is calm and present, it can easily concentrate on the one important thing that you planned to do.

NOT KNOWING WHERE TO START

Oftentimes, we don’t find focus and get distracted instead simply because we don’t know where to start.

The solution to this is simple. Get better at planning.

Start by organizing your thoughts. To empty your mind, brainstorm anything you can think of related to the new project you’re about to begin. Then, see which of the ideas on the list are realistic and remove the rest. From there, break down everything into smaller steps so each seems doable and doesn’t overwhelm you.

Once you have a list of steps, focus only on the first three. Forget about anything else. Your goal is to include these three actions into your daily schedule. By breaking it down into these small, simple steps, you make them manageable and approachable. When the time comes to get to work, you’ll find focus as your mind will already be prepared to get this done knowing it’s just one easy step.

FEAR OF FAILURE

Fear of failure is an enemy not just of focus and productivity, but success in any aspect of life. It can make you lose hope, cause you to compare yourself to others, direct your focus on the negatives, and, in the worst of situations, lead you to give up.

To overcome this enemy, you can’t fight it. To truly overcome your fear, you have to learn to let it go.

Understand that failure is a stepping stone to success. Failure is only permanent if you give up. If you let it win. Usually, there’s a lesson in every failure. And even more common, whatever worst case scenario you’ve created in your head, typically isn’t that bad in reality.

There’s not a single person who succeeded without making a few mistakes. Be okay with that and know it’s part of the journey. This mindset will help you stay consistent with your goals, but also stop procrastinating, find focus more easily and get more done each day.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media is addictive. 210 million people suffer from Internet and social media addition. Common side effects include the fear of missing out (when you check your newsfeed as often as possible knowing there’s always a new update to like, comment on or just read), information overload (consuming too much unnecessary information online is bad for your mental health), and procrastinating (using social media is one of the most common ways to kill some time these days, especially when there’s a long to-do list waiting).

All this is shortening your attention span and leads to being distracted.

Experts suggest you limiting social media usage. One helpful tool can be using an app to block social media sites on your phone for a certain period of the day, especially when you’re doing focused work. It’s also important to turn off your notifications and only allow yourself to log in and check what’s new 2-3 times a day.

Conclusion

Now that you know what the biggest roadblocks to finding focus are and how to eliminate each, you can start working on the first barrier to laser focus and overcome it as soon as possible.

If you want to learn how to tap into that ultra-productive flow state, watch this video:

We’ve talked a lot about the importance of changing your self-talk. You can read more about how to stop ANTs, here, and using the ABCs to change your thoughts, here. But what about what’s happening inside your brain when you have these thoughts? Specifically, how does changing your self-talk influence your neurology? We looked at five different ways you can change your brain through the power of self-talk. Let’s dive in.

Rewire Your Brain with Positive Affirmations

Research shows that positive affirmations can create lasting physical changes in the brain. In a study published in the Journal of Cognitive Enhancement, researchers found that repeated positive affirmations led to increased activity in key brain regions associated with self-processing and reward. Even more important, as the reward system strengthens individuals saw a direct decrease in sedentary behavior.

Essentially, this means that the more you engage in self-talk, you directly influence the wiring of the reward system. Whenever you activate the reward system, you stimulate the release of dopamine. Dopamine is the feel-good neurotransmitter and the more you produce, the more you reinforce the neural pathways associated with positive thoughts. This boosts your mood, which increases your energy, leading to a lifestyle that improves your overall cognitive function.

Boost Confidence with Powerful Language

You’ve heard me say, if your brain is a computer, your self-talk is the program you run. That’s because your brain is highly sensitive to the language you use. But you can use this to your advantage. By incorporating powerful and confident language into your self-talk, you can actually influence and change the way your brain perceives challenges.

A study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology showed that individuals who used strong, positive language in their self-talk were more likely to approach tasks with confidence and resilience. This is largely due to how language impacts the amygdala, the area of the brain that plays a crucial role in processing emotions. By using assertive and empowering language, you calm the negative emotional responses in the brain, leading to courage and self-assurance in times of stress.

Enhance Learning through Visualization

One way you can reinforce positive self-talk is through visualization. Multiple studies in the field of neuroscience show how mental imagery activates the same neural pathways as actual experiences. When you engage in positive self-talk by using images, you stimulate the areas of the brain that create joy, happiness, and delight.

You can use this to your advantage by visualizing success, achieving your goals, or feeling fulfilled and satisfied. When you pair the images with positive self-talk, you’re priming your brain for optimal performance. What you imagine, your brain recreates. You start seeing success, happiness, and confidence wherever you look, reinforcing your self-talk with evidence in the real world. It’s a potent strategy to help boost your performance in every area of life.

Manage Stress with Calming Words

Chronic stress wreaks havoc on the brain. It affects memory, focus, and overall cognitive function, along with your physical health and mental well-being. And one way you can combat stress is through your self-talk. A recent study set out to find how self-talk influences the levels of stress by measuring the stress hormone cortisol. They found that positive self-talk not only decreases stress and anxiety levels, but negative self-talk spikes them.

You can see the power of this in another study. When researchers had participants who experience test anxiety simply tell themselves that they were excited before taking a test scored 8% higher and felt more confident of their results. The reason? Calming and positive self-talk activates the prefrontal cortex, which dampens the emotional response of the amygdala stress signals. Your body can experience the same physiological feelings of being nervous, but your brain functions entirely different—just based on your self-talk.

Foster Resilience with Growth Mindset Language

One of the benefits of improving your self-talk is developing a growth mindset. Carol Dweck defines a growth mindset as one where you believe that you can develop your abilities and skills through dedication and hard work. Those are the exact beliefs you begin to build when you focus on positive self-talk. And as one study on college student mental health shows, individuals who have a growth mindset exhibit increased resilience and motivation.

A growth mindset also has numerous brain benefits. Studies show that individuals with a growth mindset are more open to corrective feedback, have heightened awareness of potential errors, and showed increased cognitive control. These traits make you more likely to recover from mistakes faster while avoid making as many errors as others. And because you’re more open to feedback, you’re likely to grow at a faster pace than individuals with a scarcity mindset. Finally, because success naturally activates the reward system, you develop a positive relationship with learning and growth that lasts a lifetime.

Conclusion

It’s easy to see that your self-talk is more than the program running your brain. It can be your superpower that can shape the structure of your brain and how you think. By incorporating positive affirmations, powerful language, visualization, calming words, and a growth mindset into your inner self-talk, you rewire your brain for success, happiness, and a limitless mind.

To learn more about how to master your inner critic, watch this video: