Kwik Challenge – A Simple Way to Create BDNF

TODAY’S CHALLENGE: Try brushing your teeth with the opposite hand!

WHY DO THE CHALLENGE?

• Novelty and nutrition helps your brain to spur on neurogenesis, neuroplasticity and create brain-derived neurotrophic factors (BDNF).
• Remember: knowledge is not power, it’s only potential power—it only becomes power when you use it.
• The purpose of these Kwik Challenges are to get you to do new things every single day, as habit change starts with small steps every day.
• We have on average about 60-70,000 thoughts a day, but the majority of these thoughts (90-95%) are the same ones we had yesterday and the day before that.
• You can’t affect big change if you’re doing the same thing over and over again and expecting the same result—the definition of insanity.
• The challenge is designed to help your brain to want to automatically act and apply knowledge by taking small simple steps.

POWER OF HABIT

• Episode mentioned: Understanding Habit Triggers with James Clear.
• Episode mentioned: Breaking Bad Habits That Hold You Back with BJ Fogg.
• Episode mentioned: How To Create New Habits Fast with Dr. Fogg.
• All habit change starts with simple tiny steps—and you can use this challenge as a daily reminder to work on your habits.

WHAT THIS CHALLENGE WILL DO FOR YOU

1. It will train you to be mindfully present

• In this world of social media and app notifications, your attention gets pulled all over the place—this exercise will force you to be in the moment and train your focus and presence.
• This exercise will build an attention ‘muscle’ that will show up in other areas of your life – e.g. you’ll have less trouble remembering names, and be able to focus better when you’re reading and studying.

2. It will train your brain-body connection

• A study by Lawrence Katz of Duke University: he researched how to keep seniors minds alive as they aged and found simple exercises like eating or brushing teeth with the opposite hand were effective in warding off cognitive decline.
• It will feel odd at first, but by doing this simple exercise you’ll be building new neurological pathways in your brain.
• One part of the brain controls the opposite side of the body, and there’s also a body-brain connection: using a different part of your body to do a task will train a different part of your mind and help you to build brain fitness.

3. It will train you to do difficult things

• With challenge comes change: the treasure you seek is found in the work you’re avoiding.
• Doing this challenge trains you to do little difficult things, and will help train you to build grit and do the difficult work you need to do.
• It’s easy to just do the easy things in life like procrastinating and putting things off, but this will make life hard—when you do the hard things, life gets easier.
• When you train yourself to do difficult things first thing in the morning, it will show up in other areas of your life—you might find it easier to do tough things at work, like make a sales call or have a tough conversation with a coworker.

SHARE WITH US!

Take a picture of yourself with your toothbrush or take a screenshot of this episode, post it to social media, and let us know how you’re finding the challenge! Use the hashtag #kwikchallenge and tag us on social media: @jimkwik | @kwikbrain

GO FURTHER

• Keep trying this challenge each morning—it will train your ability to create new habits.
• This is essential to building a different life—first your create your habits and then your habits create you.
• If you’re able to create one new habit, what else will you be able to do? Possibilities will open up because you’ll be in the habit of creating empowering habits.
• Big change come from little changes: consistency compounds—it might feel like a gradual shift, but you’ll soon find yourself in a different destination (we call it a destiny).
• Don’t forget to go to kwikchallenge.com and join us!