My 100 Day Project

Starting Monday, July 2nd, I’ll be blogging every weekday for 100 days straight.

This decision was inspired by my wife, Vanessa, who participated in #The100DayProject spearheaded by Elle Luna.

There are two reasons why I feel this is important at this time:

1. It will help me write more consistently by keeping me more publicly accountable.

2. It will give me an opportunity to flesh out and organize the 400+ notes I have in my phone -- something I've been meaning to do for a while.

What are these notes I speak of?

I use the Notes app on my phone to jot down ideas, thoughts and questions I have throughout the day.

These notes cover a variety of topics, ranging from psychology and philosophy to evolutionary biology and learning techniques. They cover a span of about seven years of my life.

Some of these notes are questions I have. Some are theories I’ve come up with. Others are thoughts that popped into my mind while reading. Many of them are just me trying to connect the dots between ideas.

Generally, most of my notes consist of me trying to sort out my thoughts about things. I’m hoping your commentary will help me with this.

Follow this project

If you‘d like to follow this project, turn on post notifications on my Instagram page to get updates when I post. Instagram has become a noisy and distracting place lately so unless you turn on post notifications, you probably won’t see when I post.

I’d also love to hear your thoughts on my individual posts -- positive, negative or indifferent. Your feedback will help me develop my ideas a bit more and shape the content of the book I am writing.

I am grateful for those of you who continue to find value in my work and engage with it. I hope this project is a source of even richer, deeper, and more eclectic content for you.


P.S. Yes, I will still be doing the podcast. By the way, have you listened to my latest episode with Jim Kwik? (Up next: Gretchen Rubin)!

 

Episode #14: Learning How to Learn with Celebrity Brain & Memory Coach Jim Kwik

Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing "save as."

Jim is the founder of Kwik Learning, with online students in over 150 countries. He is a world-renowned expert in speed-reading, memory improvement, brain performance, and accelerated learning.

For over two decades, he has served as the brain coach to students, seniors, entrepreneurs, and educators, and as an advisor to many of the world’s leading CEOs and celebrities.

In this episode we talk about the meta-skills of learning how to learn and learning how to read more effectively and efficiently.

What are meta-skills?

When I say meta-skills, I'm talking about skill sets or behaviors that have a cascade effect on many other areas of your life. (In this context, “meta” roughly means “up a level”).

One way to think of meta-skills is like this: Your actions can be categorized into different levels. For example:

Level 1 (base level) - Let's say you get a job at Starbucks as a barista. This is an action that is directly improving your life. The job-specific skill set you acquire as an employee will help you create income for yourself.

Level 2 (meta level) - Now let's suppose you invest some time in reading a book on, say, emotional intelligence. By doing so, you learn to cultivate better social skills that help you get a raise and move up in the company. You have simultaneously increased your value as an employee and acquired a skill set that is transferable to many other opportunities.

Level 3 (meta meta level) - This level would consist of something like investing time in learning how to read or learning how to learn more effectively and efficiently so you can comprehend more books in less time, leading to even more opportunities or maybe a different career path altogether. (This is the level we're working on in today's episode).

Level 4 (meta meta meta level) - This would be something like diet, which affects your physical and mental state. Your body and mind factor into everything you do. The better you feel and think, the more effective you will be in virtually every area of your life.

The important thing to remember is this:

Meta-skills and actions improve the effectiveness of the previous level, which improve the effectiveness of the level before that, and so on.

The main difference between Level 1 and the higher levels is that Level 1 actions are actions are additive --they add value in one direct way. Meta-level actions on the other hand, are multiplicative. This means their value multiplies across time and across opportunities. This is why meta-skills are such excellent investments of time, provided you put them to use for lower level actions (e.g. it would be useless to spending all your time reading or learning how to read better but never applying it to anything concrete).

A Special Request From My Guest

Jim made a request of the TGP audience at the end of this episode. In the spirit of learning, he suggested you take a screenshot of this episode in your podcast app, post it on your social, tag both of us (@jimkwik and @thinkgrowprosper) and share your biggest takeaway from this episode. I'm excited to see what you take away from this episode! We will be both looking for those posts and engaging with them. 

You can also let me know your biggest takeaway by leaving a review on iTunes with something you learned in this episode. (I read every single review).

Show Notes and Time Stamps

• Jim’s origin story (9:45)

• My most coveted superpower (24:35)

• His conversation with Bill Gates about learning (25:25)

• Jim’s levels of learning hierarchy (34:05)

• Tips for improving your reading speed and comprehension (46:25)

• The obstacles to effective reading (50:05)

• Tips for effective reading (52:35)

• Two beliefs that have helped Jim develop his unique skill set (59:35)

• Why it’s important to remember your dreams (1:01:35)

Books & Other Resources Mentioned In This Episode

• The Kwik Brain Podcast

• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey

• Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

• The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas S. Kuhn

• Zero to One by Peter Thiel

• Start With Why by Simon Sinek

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If you enjoy this episode and find value in this podcast, I humbly ask you to please subscribe and/or leave me a review on iTunes. Or you can just share this podcast with a friend who you think might find value in it. If you’ve already done any of these, I want to take a moment to sincerely thank you. I truly appreciate your support.

If you have any suggestions for future guests or topics you’d like to hear covered, you can email podcast@thinkgrowprosper.org.

What did you think about this episode? Leave me a comment below!

Ruben Chavez is a writer, personal development educator, and host of The Think Grow Podcast. His Instagram account, ThinkGrowProsper, has amassed over 3 million followers. Along with his blog, these platforms are his way of inspiring and connecting with thoughtful, creative, and ambitious people just like you.

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Cultivating Inner Peace with Meditator and Writer Yung Pueblo

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Yung Pueblo is a writer, meditator and speaker. Lately, I've been reading his book Inward, a profound collection of insights about letting go of emotional pain, practicing self-love, and understanding oneself.

Today I talk with Yung Pueblo about emotional history -- what it is and how it relates to cultivating inner peace. I ask him what it was like to go on a 45-day silent meditation retreat, what his meditative practice looks like, what resources he recommends, how he got started on this path, and more.

You can connect with Yung Pueblo on Instagram @Yung_Pueblo. His book, Inward is available on Amazon.

I’d love to hear your biggest takeaway from the episode. Let me know by leaving a review on iTunes with something that resonated with you in this episode. (I read every single review).

Show Notes and Time Stamps

• The meaning behind the name Yung Pueblo (5:30)

• How he got started writing (12:00)

• His idea of liberation and the goal of meditation (13:15)

• How he started on this path of meditation and healing (16:00)

• His first experience with meditation (19:00)

• How our emotional history affects our behavior (24:50)

• Other strategies for cultivating inner peace: diet (30:15)

• His experience with a 30-day silent retreat (35:15)

• A common myth of meditation and personal development (38:40)

• Other tools for meditation and mindfulness (50:30)

• What has contributed to his inner peace the most (56:35)

• Book recommendations (1:08:30)

Books & Other Resources Mentioned In This Episode

• Inward by Yung Pueblo

• Vipassana meditation as taught by S.N. Goenka

• Kundalini yoga

• Pranayama

• Don Hoffman episode on the Think Grow Podcast

• Mindful Meditation Studio

• Unplugged Meditation Studio

• Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari

• Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari

• Hua Hu Ching by Lao Tzu

• The Art of Dying by S. N. Goenka and Virginia Hamilton

• The Dhammapada

• Bhagavad Gita

• Great Disciples of the Buddha

• Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

• Yung Pueblo's Instagram page @yung_pueblo

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If you enjoy this episode and find value in this podcast, I humbly ask you to please subscribe and/or leave me a review on iTunes. Or you can just share this podcast with a friend who you think might find value in it. If you’ve already done any of these, I want to take a moment to sincerely thank you. I truly appreciate your support.

If you have any suggestions for future guests or topics you’d like to hear covered, you can email podcast@thinkgrowprosper.org.

What did you think about this episode? Leave me a comment below!

Ruben Chavez is a writer, personal development educator, and host of The Think Grow Podcast. His Instagram account, ThinkGrowProsper, has amassed over 3 million followers. Along with his blog, these platforms are his way of inspiring and connecting with thoughtful, creative, and ambitious people just like you.

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Ask Me Anything #2

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Hey -- long time no podcast!

After a brief hiatus, I'm back with the second Ask Me Anything episode of this podcast. 

The reason for the delay?

1. Vanessa and I were on our honeymoon for a couple weeks and I decided to take a break and enjoy our adventures through Spain, France and Italy! (It was wonderful).

2. I've been reflecting and reassessing the ideas I put forth on TGP to make sure I'm creating content that is both useful and also an accurate reflection of my current areas of interest.

For the past year or so, I've been going through what you might call a "Brainaissance." I've been exploring a variety of subjects with which I was unfamiliar with and also diving deeper into subjects about which I had some knowledge (i.e. evolution, personality types, political theory, philosophy, etc...).

This process has led me to look at many of the ideas I talk about on TGP through a variety of different lenses and from a variety of different perspectives. I want to make sure that as I grow, my content grows with me.

Part of what I've been doing is reflecting on the best way to align "ThinkGrowProsper, the brand" with "Ruben Chavez, the ever-evolving human."

I'm happy to say that I'm feeling very good about the ideas I've come up with and the goals I've set for myself.

I also want to thank you all for your patience and unwavering support while I took some time to gather my thoughts. There would be no ThinkGrowProsper without you. You are the reason I have this platform on which I can share my thoughts and (hopefully) add value to the lives of others. I do not take this responsibility lightly and truly appreciate your support.

I’d love to hear your biggest takeaway from the episode. Let me know by leaving a review on iTunes with something that resonated with you in this episode. (I read every review).

Questions Answered

• Is it necessary to do something great and earn fame? Can't I just live a normal life and make my family and people around me happy? (7:35)
   

• How do you deal with difficult people (13:00)
   

• How do you read so much without getting overwhelmed? (17:45)
   

• How do you retain information better? (21:37)
   

• How did you get into Stoicism? What books do you recommend on this philosophy? (25:34)
   

• What do you have to say about confidence? What is it? What books can I read? Most importantly, what can I do to be more confident (please don't say "believe in yourself" because I do). (28:35)
   

• You talked about overthinking in a recent podcast episode and gave some strategies for overcoming it. But I don't think overthinking is a bad thing. Wouldn't the opposite of overthinking be underthinking? (34:05)
   

• Are you able to give more advice on self-worth and staying positive? (38:05)
   

• You mentioned you were working on a book. When will it be done? (46:50)

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If you enjoy this episode and find value in this podcast, I humbly ask you to please subscribe and/or leave me a review on iTunes. Or you can just share this podcast with a friend who you think might find value in it. If you’ve already done any of these, I want to take a moment to sincerely thank you. I truly appreciate your support.

If you have any suggestions for future guests or topics you’d like to hear covered, you can email podcast@thinkgrowprosper.org.

What did you think about this episode? Leave me a comment below!

Ruben Chavez is a writer, personal development educator, and host of The Think Grow Podcast. His Instagram account, ThinkGrowProsper, has amassed over 3 million followers. Along with his blog, these platforms are his way of inspiring and connecting with thoughtful, creative, and ambitious people just like you.

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