In the movie 2011 movie Limitless the main character takes a clear pill (NZT) which endows superhuman mental abilities which allow for him to become a master communicator, pick up artist, and a wealthy, powerful businessman virtually overnight. While the movie is fictional, it’s certainly possible in real life to become influential, make money and achieve success relatively quickly by merit of cognitive ability development, mastery of communication skills and mindset transformation.
A Quick Story...
When I first saw the movie Limitless several years ago, I was flirting with depression...
- I was broke, living on my brother's uncomfortable couch.
- I had just been through a very rough break up of a business partnership, an experience not unlike getting divorced.
- My dating and social life had gone from rockstar to zero overnight. My nights and weekends were spent watching TV on the same couch I slept every night.
- Living in a very lame suburb, I was miles from a suitable workout location. I got lazy and stopped exercising.
- Additionally, I had some legal problems with my drivers license, NOT drinking and driving but I had lost my drivers license due to some unpaid fines from years ago and driving under revocation. I never went to jail but I had to spend a ton of time going to court and most of my disposable income dealing with the legal system.
When I saw the movie Limitless, I knew that some real life equivalent of NZT-48 had to exist and I needed to find it! Here's a photo and video gallery of my life in the past 2 years approximately... Judge for yourself whether I found it...
By the End of this Article...
You will have the tools to begin a high leverage (meaning FAST) personal development process that is holistic (meaning that you are starting on Day 1 changing your behaviors and transforming your mindsets so that the change is sustainable) and quantifiable (meaning that your progress is measurable).
In a period of between a few months to several years, depending upon your learning style, budget and aptitude for personal development you could become surprisingly close to Bradley Cooper’s character Eddie Maura by focusing on improvements in the fallowing areas of your life: mastery of communication skills, influence abilities, improving memory, cognitive ability development, mindset transformation, skill acquisition, knowledge acquisition, dietary improvements & dressing really sharp. Get ready to hack your reality and become Limitless!
Mastery of Communication Skills
It’s amazing that while communication skills are undeniably such a huge factor of our success in business, relationships and life we spend so little time developing them. Like in the movie, excellent communicators consistently end up in stations of success and power (Our President, Barrack Obama, is great example of this). In Limitless the main character’s silver tongue is what opens a lot of doors for him. Focus on learning these aspects of communication:
• Body language techniques
• Usage of creative metaphors
• Demonstrating listening skills
• Practicing topic depth escalation
• Magnanimous conversation stealing
• Speaking pace & tonality moderation
• Applying economics principals to communication
• Emotional withdrawals and deposits (Supply and demand arbitrage method)
Technique: Body Language Mirroring
This is a body language technique where you mirror the body language of the person you are interacting with. If they put their hands on the table, put your hands on the table. If they rest their elbow on their seat, rest your elbow on your seat. Mirroring should be used with strategic timing though, do not mirror them 100% of the time. Mirror them to build rapport when they say something you like.
Influence Abilities
Those seeking a Limitless lifestyle will also need to develop very sharp influence skills. It’s well said that you can get anything you want in the world if you know how to ask. Those who ‘know how to ask’ would pursue the following skill sets:
• Neuro-linguistic programming
• Embedded commands
• Negotiating skills
• Rapport building
• Hypnosis & cold reading
• Playing the young & ambitious card
Technique: Use People’s Names Frequently
During a conversation try to use a person’s name about once every 3-5 minutes or as often as you can without it being obvious you are name pumping. Using someone’s name immediately engenders rapport, captures their attention and increases their likelihood of going with what you are suggesting.
Nootropic 'Smart Drugs'
Like NZT-48 in the movie, Nootropics will make you a whole lot smarter, more creative, focused and productive, fast-within 10-20 minutes of taking them.
The majority of 'Smart Drugs' are nutraceutical supplements, meaning that they are high qaulity concentrations of the kinds of vitamins and nutrients you find in organic foods. Two questions I get A LOT from people who are new to Biohacking and haven't yet tried smart drugs is:
Which smart drug supplements actually work and have science behind them?
Which Nootropic should I get start with?
My answer to both questions is the same: Piracetam
How much do they cost? Actually one of the most proven Nootropics can be consumed for than 25 cents a day while some high dosage, sophisticated Nootropic cocktails cost over a hundred dollars a month.
Which smart drug supplements actually work and have science behind them?
Which Nootropic should I get start with?
My answer to both questions is the same: Piracetam
How much do they cost? Actually one of the most proven Nootropics can be consumed for than 25 cents a day while some high dosage, sophisticated Nootropic cocktails cost over a hundred dollars a month.
Cognitive Ability Development
Cognition is the logical, reasoning faculty of the mind. This is the domain of mathematics and pattern recognition. The most important thing to understand is that your brain is like any other muscle in your body, gets more powerful as you exercise it. Have you ever wondered why you keep repeating the same patterns in life… Your brain prefers to process new situations using existing synaptic patters (formed by your past experiences). If you want to experience new things in life you need to give you brain practice by building new synaptic patterns. Your brain is the most powerful pattern recognition computer tool on the planet but here’s some ways to sharpen it:
• Try mind mapping: these are software tools where you create a graphical layout of your thoughts or plans. By creating a graphical layout you are forcing your brain into a higher level of focus while making plans for the future.
• Force yourself to use the scientific method when dealing with situations where you usually jump to conclusions or just repeat what you did in past.
• Be content creator instead of a content consumer. Content consumption certainly isn’t bad (The content you are consuming right now is showing you how to be Limitless in your life!) but for the most part it is a passive mental activity whereas creation is like climbing a mountain in your mind. Content is a generalization for information that that people consume for entertainment or learning purposes. It could mean writing a book, creating art, making music, making movies for Youtube, doing a podcast, building a website or starting a blog. Ask yourself how much time in the day you spend consuming content (Surfing the internet, watching TV, reading, etc), try to cut that time in half and use your new free time creating content instead.
• Do some logic puzzles.
• Learn a new language: Language acquisition challenges and causes cognitive development on a variety of conscious and unconscious levels. When you start learning a new language practice talking to yourself in your mind in that language. Checkout these infographic for hacking language learning.
• Try the Cash Flow board game by Rich Dad Poor Dad. It’s like entrepreneurial monopoly where your objective is to leverage the cash flow from your players day job into investments that will provide residual income.
Technique: Move your mouse to the other side of the computer
If you are right handed and have your mouse on the right side of your computer move it to the left and force yourself to use your non-dominant hand (or vice versa) for an hour a day. At first it will be very awkward and uncomfortable but practice for just one hour a day and you will greatly strengthen the bridge between the right and left sides of your brain.
Improved Memory
In Napoleon Hill’s Think & Grow Rich he lists memory improvement as one of the things that helps contribute to a person’s success in life. An individual seeking a Limitless memory would want to focus on the following:
• Visual based associations: It’s said that association is the basis of memory, memory experts utilize visual association techniques heavily to improve recall abilities.
• The ability to remember names & details about people.
• Spend time playing memory and cognition games.
Technique: The AV Association Technique for remembering limitless names instantaneously
Mental Energy & Creativity
In Limitless while on NZT the character has a surge of mental energy and creativity. A lot of times people think, if only I had a little more mental energy I would be able accomplish my goals; start that business, write that book or take that trip. Since there’s no such thing as limitless mental energy here’s some ways to make the most of it.
• Daily mental energy cycle management.
• Peak state management.
• Proper diet for maximizing mental energy (more on this below).
What about creativity… Well the most creative people in the world are that way because they are surrounded by inspiration. If you’re life consists of commuting to work, work, commuting home, running errands and watching TV in the evenings then it’s no wonder you lack creative energy. Few easy ways for more creative energy:
a) Read more (and no you don’t actually have to read, I consume the information of about 3 books a week via audio books and programs!) I recommend both fiction and non-fiction.
b) Documentary Films: If you are like most Americans you spend several hours every day watching TV. Instead of turning your mind to goo by watching sitcoms or dramas be infotained by documentaries about real life. Checkout Top Documentary Films for +1500 free films.
Stress Management
• Working out.
• Eating complete meals.
• Physical contact with other people (If you don’t have a significant other get a massage).
• Relaxation time.
• Sex.
Enhanced Situational Awareness
• Survival and fire arms training courses
• Martial arts training
• Sensory acuity exercises
Technique: Sensory Deprivation Exercises
Turn off one of your senses while doing daily activities. This forces your other senses to sharpen. Start with something easy like watching TV with the sound off and reading the body language of the characters. Then you may way want to move on to something more challenging, like making a meal while blind folded!
Knowledge Acquisition
Technique: Practice Task Batching in Combination w/Passive Information Consumption - Separate your work into 2 categories
a) Creative/high mental energy consuming tasks (Examples: blogging, negotiating, sales calls, designing, meetings, strategizing, planning, communicating with other people, etc)
b) Monotonous or repetitive tasks which require little mental energy (Examples: responding to emails, organizing paperwork, data entry, etc)
Plan your Type B tasks at the end of the day when your mental energy is low and batch the most similar, monotonous tasks one after another. While you are doing this consume information passively. Here are my 3 favorite forms of passive information consumption
1. Listening to audio books – I recommend a membership with Audible.com.
2. Listening to podcasts – Which you download free from the Apple's iTunes.
3. Listening to documentary films – Top Documentary Films has at the time of this writing +1500 documentary films which you can watch for free.
Skill Acquisition
• Teach; its well said that the best way to learn something is to teach it. While you are learning a new skill find a friend who you can share with weekly and teach the same things you are learning. A great way to practice this is that when you learn the AV Association Technique for remembering Limitless names instantaneously teach it to a friend (do that this week!)
• Practice on the computer: For almost every skill imaginable there are (a lot times free) websites and software that you can use to practice and hone your new skillset.
• Ready, Fire, Aim (NOT Ready, Aim, Fire) – This is the opposite of what people describe as analysis paralysis; when you embark on a new endeavor you focus on action, making progress and resist the temptation to over plan, over analyze and second guess. For skill acquisition this means that you begin using new skills as soon as possible in the real world before you have completely mastered them (obviously this doesn’t apply for brain surgeons).
• Practice skill leverage; as opposed becoming a professional student who is always filling their head with new skills, learn the skill of leveraging the skills and strengths of others to accomplish your goals.
Dietary Improvements
You are what you eat. While the brain accounts for only 2% of the body's weight, it burns 20% of the body's calorie intake and requires specific nutrients for optimum performance. Most American’s & people in the western world do not eat a Limitless diet. Please check the Supplements & Nutrition for Enhanced Mental Abilities section of this site. You’d be amazed at how you can sharpen your mind (and body) by eating right!
Mindset Transformation
The mindset conundrum is that to be a winner you need to have a winners mindset but If you haven’t experienced massive success yet it’s debatable whether you can actually get yourself in a winners mindset. There’s a couple ways that those pre-Limitless mindsets can deal with this.
• Visualization & Goal Association: This is a powerful method that I could write a book on (and many have). Here’s brief description: 1) Create some emotionally charged long term vision goals 2) break the vision down into smaller, accomplishable, measurable goals 3) Create visualization associations between the emotionally charged vision and the tedious day to day actionable tasks to get there.
• The ability to banish negative thoughts from your mind
• Watch the movie Limitless
Technique: Mental Language Reframing
We can drastically improve our mindset by changing the way we talk to ourselves. There are certain things we say in our mind that limit our potential. Here’s an example:
I Can’t Afford It – This phrase is a mental limiter… Anytime you hear yourself saying this in your mind reframe it as:
How Can I Afford? Or what do I need to do to afford it? By reframing this negative as a question we force our mind to work and figure out a way to afford it.
Dress Sharp
In Limitless, while on NZT the character is frequently shown looking very sharp in a fine suit. Don’t underestimate the empowering effect (especially for men) on your own mindset and over other people of dressing well. In the book Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, Malcom Gladwell documents numerous double blind case studies of how the way a person dresses drastically effects our perception of them and becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy of how our experience with them will go. Regardless of how non-judgmental people claim to be the way we dress when we meet people makes a big difference. People in suits and uniforms will always be figures of authority and command respect.
For Gentlemen: Wear a suit, yeah I know suits aren't terribly comfortable but a suit makes a loud, clear statement: I do things important enough in life that I wear a suit. Unless it's a really swanky function I do not recommend a tie though. I recommend leaving the top bottom on the suit undone, this looks very sexy and sharp. I recommend buying your suits at Express for Men where they run around $300, I bought a suit about 4 years ago at there. I'm amazed at the amount of compliments I get on it after all the drinks that have been spilled on it and all the adventures it's been through.
For Ladies: In business settings: Dress as stylishly as you can without it being a distraction at work. Forever21 & Express are your best friends. Buy a nice watch, in general men have more discriminating tastes in watches then ladies so it’s a great way to make yourself stand out. In social situations, I'd recommend a cocktail dress, there is truly no better way to strike the delicate balance between sexy and classy than with a cocktail dress. If it's more a business setting a lady suit is fine. Also get yourself a small purse for when you are going out. Women who are out socializing with large purses are just clumsy looking.Practice the AV Association Technique
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Finally...
This website has +300 pages of information demystifying Lifehacking, Biohacking and Smart Drugs - that's kind of an overwhelming amount of information. As soon as you join the Limitless Mindset Community (It's free!) we give you instant access to an interactive infographic which visually breaks the widely disparate topics we cover in exhaustively in our articles, videos and podcasts.
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