A Cheat Code for My Life- Advancing Faster

Many NES games were puzzling and challenging to when I was five. I enjoyed playing the original TMNT and Mega Man 3 for Nintendo, but for the life of me, I could not come close to reaching the final boss and defeating these games. No matter how many hours I put into these games I always came up short.

Back in the 1980’s we didn’t have YouTube for walk throughs. We had Gamepro and Nintendo Power magazines that provided maps and tips about how to beat certain areas, and a Nintendo Hotline number to call for feedback. Neither worked for me. I required a different kind of advantage.

When Game Genie was released, it revolutionized gaming experiences. It changed how the game functioned. Before the game’s start screen, you could enter passcodes that gave boosts like extra continues, more lives, and sometimes infinite health! These codes gave me a huge edge. Game Genie accelerated my gameplay and I didn’t have to waste time reliving earlier struggles.

This recently got me thinking “If I could speed up beating video games with cheat codes, why not do the same for my life?” Eventually I found the answer by discovering Jim Kwik.

Kwik pegs himself as a brain coach. He teaches common sense easy approaches to improve memory, health, studying, and reading in his book, Limitless. I am especially drawn to his methods to read faster.

As a kid, I loved reading. I read at a higher level than everybody in my class starting in kindergarten! I went to the library weekly. The librarians knew me by name. I was even invited to a special event in downtown Chicago because of my reading skills. I met an author who signed his book for me. I felt honored, and I knew my parents were proud of me.

I read less and less as I got older. As a teen, I read what was required for school, WWF magazines, and Sports Illustrated. In my early-to mid- 20’s, I read about becoming a professional poker player and a few X-Men novels.

The poker books helped me gain an advantage over the other players. With my brief attempt at playing poker professionally, I had a nice ROI to accommodate all my needs for a paid trop to Las Vegas and come home with an additional few hundred dollars profit.

It wasn’t until my late 20-’s and early 30-’s that I started to read books about personal growth. Among them were The Celestine Prophecy, Full Living Catastrophe The Science of Getting Rich, 11 Rings, The 12 Stages of Healing, and Power vs. Force.

These books had a positive impact on me, but I was still only reading one or two books a year; it just wasn’t a priority for me.

Then I encountered a quote in Limitless that had a profound effect on me: “Leaders are readers.” That gave me a desire to learn more. Kwik explains how to increase how many words per minute a person can read by up to 100%. Kwik also encourages his audience to try to read a book a week because it can give you a huge competitive edge in any field. At first, I thought how can anyone read 52 books a year with all of the other responsibilities of life? I had to know!

Limitless is loaded with information for success. I learned how to test my reading speed and schedule time in my day to read.

I discovered I was able to read 260 words per minute (WPM) at the start of my journey. The average reader tends to read between 200-250 WPM. Kwik then instructed readers to use a pen, pencil, or even a finger to go over the words as a pacer. After practicing this, I retested my WPM score and jumped to 310 WPM- a 20% increase in reading speed.

At first, I worried my comprehension might suffer if I read faster, but it didn’t decline at all. Instead, the pacer helped me focus better. It stopped me from re-reading lines accidentally or getting lost in a paragraph.

I started to schedule 30 minutes of reading time 6 days a week, opting to read after dinner. With my new power tool- (my finger)- at my disposal, I became motivated to read! I stopped reading in the bathtub or in bed because I knew those were places, I was more likely to lose focus.

I’m new to this journey- only about a month or so in, but I am excited to read again! And now I’m more focused than ever to read a book a week.

Reading is one of my new “cheat codes” for life. Fiction books can enhance my creativity and imagination; nonfiction can teach me more life lessons. Reading non-fiction books, I view as my “Game Genie. “A quick example I can use is Chris Voss’s Never Split the Difference.

Voss use to be an FBI lead international hostage negotiator. In his book he shares the life-threatening challenges he had to endure with his toughest negotiations and negotiators. He then gives us all his strategies and tactics he’s successfully used that we can apply for our daily life.

I certainly would never want to be a hostage negotiator, but I sure would like to know a few tactics to pick up an extra 10% while shopping or get that new car purchase down 20%. Voss’s book also has granted me the opportunity to become a better listener and communicator!

With 40 weeks left in the year, my goal is to read 40 books.

Royal Resources- Jim Kwik Free Web Reading Class

https://kwikbrain.com/watch-reading-webinar%20?gclid=CjwKCAiA1JGRBhBSEiwAxXblwYN5AGzWrXqkrbERXrV8PCv4JPB44tIuLcod-JDyE6b_sqzKVTDV7BoCRucQAvD_BwE