In the 2011 movie Limitless, the main character takes a transparent pill, NZT-48, that endows superhuman mental abilities. He transforms into a master communicator, seducer, and businessman – becoming wealthy and powerful virtually overnight.
While the movie is fictional, it’s certainly possible to become influential, make money, and achieve success relatively quickly in real life by developing cognitive abilities, mastering communication skills, and transforming one’s mindset.
A Quick Story…
When I first saw the movie Limitless over a decade ago, I was in a bad place…
- I was broke, living on my brother’s uncomfortable couch.
- I had just been through a very rough business partnership breakup, 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 on 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 driver’s license – NOT from drinking and driving – but I had lost my driver’s 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, I knew that some real-life equivalent of NZT-48 had to exist, and I needed to find it! Check out this snapshot of my life in the ensuing decade and 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 changing your behaviors and transforming your mindset so that the change is sustainable) and quantifiable (meaning that your progress is measurable). In a period 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 following areas of your life:
- Mastery of communication skills
- Influence abilities
- Improving memory
- Cognitive ability development
- Mindset transformation
- Skill acquisition
- Knowledge acquisition
- Dietary improvements
- And dressing sharp
Get ready to hack your reality and become Limitless!
Mastery of Communication Skills
While communication skills are undeniably a huge factor in our success in business, relationships, and life, we spend so little time developing them. As in the movie, excellent communicators consistently end up in stations of success and power (Barack Obama is an excellent example). 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 and tonality moderation
- Applying economics principles to communication
- Emotional withdrawals and deposits (this podcast goes deeper into the supply and demand arbitrage method)
Technique: Body Language Mirroring
This is a body language technique in which 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 elbows on their seats, rest your elbows 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 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 develop the following skill sets:
- Neuro-linguistic programming
- Embedded commands
- Negotiating skills
- Rapport building
- Hypnosis and cold reading
- Playing the young and 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 possible without being awkwardly repetitive. 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 can make you more intelligent, creative, focused, and productive. And they can do it fast—within 10-30 minutes of taking them.
Most Smart Drugs are nutraceutical supplements, meaning that they are high-quality concentrations of the 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 are…
Which “smart drug” supplements actually work and have science behind them?
Which Nootropic should I get started with?
My answer to both questions is the same: Piracetam
How much do they cost? One of the most proven Nootropics can be consumed for about 40 cents a day, while some high-dosage, sophisticated Nootropic stacks run +300/month a month.
HackerNoon Editor’s note: nootropics are commonly advertised with unproven claims of effectiveness for improving cognition. HackerNoon does not condone or promote the use of nootropics in any shape or form. The author’s recommendation is NOT medical advice from a licensed doctor. #DYOR
Cognitive Ability Development
You want to shift more of your cognition to the logical reasoning faculty of the mind. This is the domain of mathematics, problem-solving, and pattern recognition. The most important thing to understand is that the brain, 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 connections (formed by your past experiences).
- Try new things! This should be obvious: make it a goal to venture beyond your comfort zone in big and small ways to experience new things in life. By interrupting its patterns and exposing your brain to new experiences, you adapt faster.
- Try mind mapping, a software tool that allows you to create a graphical representation of your thoughts or plans. Creating a graphical representation can force your brain to be more focused 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 the past.
- Be a 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 people consume for entertainment or educational purposes. It could mean writing a book, creating art, making music, vlogging, making YouTube videos, producing a short film, doing a podcast, building a website, or starting a blog. Ask yourself how much time you spend consuming content (surfing the internet, watching TV, reading articles, etc.) during the day. 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. Check out these infographics for hacking language learning.
- Try the Cash Flow board game by Rich Dad Poor Dad. It’s entrepreneurial monopoly where your objective is to leverage the cash flow from your player’s 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.
Improve Memory
In Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich, he lists memory improvement as one of the things that contribute to a person’s success in life. An individual seeking a Limitless memory would want to focus on the following:
- Visually 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 and details about people.
- Spend time playing memory and cognition games.
Technique: The AV Association Technique for remembering limitless names instantaneously.
Mental Energy and Creativity
In Limitless, while on NZT, the character has a surge of mental energy and creativity, enabling him to finish his book and get a shocking amount of stuff done. Have you ever told yourself something like…?
If only I had a little more mental energy, I would be able to accomplish my goals: start that business, write that book, or take that trip.
Unfortunately, there’s no such thing as limitless mental energy, but here are some ways to make the most of it…
- Sleep cycle management: we rob ourselves of a lot of mental energy because of mismanaging our sleep cycles. One of the biggest ways is by interrupting our REM (rapid eye movement) sleep cycles, REM cycles occur in 90 minutes intervals. Our body will naturally wake us up at the end of these sleep cycles. If we hit snooze at that time, we will probably only sleep for another 20-30 minutes. By that time, we will wake up in the middle of a sleep cycle, thereby disturbing our brain as it processes our short-term memory into our subconscious. This results in low mental energy throughout the day. I’m sure you’ve had the experience before of sleeping and then not feeling as sharp throughout the day. Now you know why.
- Daily mental energy cycle management.
- Peak state management – Find flowstate for yourself!
- A proper diet is needed to maximize mental energy (more on this below).
Unleashing limitless creativity
The most creative people in the world are that way because they are surrounded by inspiration. If your life consists of commuting to work, working, commuting home, running errands, and watching TV in the evenings, then it’s no wonder you lack creative energy! Here are a few easy ways to have more creative energy:
a) Read more: I recommend both fiction and non-fiction. Do you actually have to read (the old-fashioned way)? I consume about three books worth of information a week via podcasts and videos, but I also make time to read every day on my e-reader because this form of information consumption beats out videos, podcasts, or audiobooks (that you listen to while doing your shopping) for the metabolism of knowledge into wisdom.
b) Watch 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 additive serial dramas, be infotained by documentaries about real life. The documentary streaming service Curiosity Stream is well worth it. If you’re ballin’ on a budget, Top Documentary Films catalogs over 3000 free films. Venture back out onto the fringes of the World Wide Web, and you’ll encounter some mindblowing documentaries, like this one about the Mudflood hypothesis. Also, you’ll want to check out these Limitless Mindset documentaries about health, science, mindset, and conspiracy.
Stress Management
Mismanagement or excessive amounts of stress will prevent you from living Limitlessly. Stress is defined as the measure of change occurring in your life at any given time, such as a new job, moving, or breaking up with a partner. Make sure you are spending time daily on healthy stress management activities:
- Working out.
- Eating healthy, complete meals.
- Mindfulness meditation practice.
- Relaxation time.
- Physical contact with other people (If you don’t have a significant other, get massages).
- Sex.
Enhanced Situational Awareness
On NZT, Eddie has a Jason Bourne-sque situational awareness for diffusing and resolving dangerous situations. Here are some real-life ways to increase situational awareness:
- Survival and firearms training courses
- Martial arts training
- Sensory acuity exercises
- Reality testing for lucid dreaming
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 characters’ body language. Then, you may want to move on to something more challenging, like making a meal while blindfolded!
Knowledge Acquisition
Limitless individuals have an internalized understanding of information equity and are knowledgeable about a wide variety of topics. At the same time, though, they can subtly guide a conversation towards topics that they have a mastery of. A Limitless individual wouldn’t waste their time taking irrelevant classes; they would consume information and acquire knowledge in more efficient ways. Here’s my favorite way:
Technique: Practice task-batching in combination with passive information consumption
Separate your work into two categories
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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.) |
|---|
- Listening to audiobooks – I recommend a membership with Audible.
- Listening to podcasts – Which you download free from Apple Podcasts or Castbox.FM, my favorite podcast app.
- Listening to documentary films – On your second screen or tablet
Skill Acquisition
In the business world, knowledge workers who can quickly acquire new skills and abilities will have a huge advantage.
Teach : it’s 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. A great way to practice this is when you learn the AV Association Technique, teach it to a friend (do that this week!)- Practice on the computer: For almost every skill imaginable, there are (a lot of 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, overanalyze, and second guess. For skill acquisition, this means you begin using new skills as soon as possible in the real world before you have completely mastered them (obviously, this doesn’t apply to brain surgery).
- Practice skill leverage; as opposed to 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.
Diet Hacking
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 Americans and people in the Western world do not eat a brain power diet. You’d be amazed at how you can sharpen your mind (and body) by eating right!
Mindset Transformation
I’m sure you have heard stories before of a successful person who had it all and then, through radical circumstances, lost it all and then, in a short while, made it all back. The reason why should be obvious:
Positive thought + making goals = massive success and wealth.
As any entrepreneur will tell you, it takes a whole lot more than positive thoughts to become successful. The mindset conundrum is that to be a winner, you need to have a winner’s mindset, but If you haven’t experienced massive success yet, it’s debatable whether you can get yourself in a winner’s mindset. There are a couple of ways that those pre-Limitless mindsets can deal with this…
Visualization and goal association: This is a powerful method that I could write a book on (and many have). A 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. A mindfulness meditation practice will help a lot with this.
Watch the movie Limitless. If you found it as inspirational as I did, rewatch it once a year.
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 minds that limit our potential. 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 It? Or what do I need to do to afford it? By reframing this negative as a question, we force our minds to work and figure out a way to afford it.
Dress Sharp
In Limitless, while on NZT, the leading man is frequently shown looking very sharp in a fine suit. Don’t underestimate the empowering effect (especially for men) on your mindset and over other people of dressing well. In the book Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, Malcolm Gladwell documents numerous double-blind case studies of how the way a person dresses drastically affects our perception of them and becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy 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 shirt button undone; this looks very sexy and sharp. I recommend buying your suits at Express for Men, where they run around $300. I bought a couple of suits there once upon a time, and I’m amazed at the number of compliments I get on them after all the drinks that have been spilled on them 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 and Express are your best friends. Buy a nice watch, in general, men have more discriminating tastes in watches than 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 of 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.
I did a vlog-style podcast of this article here
