CHAPTER 7: PURPOSE

For the longest time, my kryptonite was lack of sleep. Sleep has never been easy for me. As a kid for years I
was pulling regular all-nighters, studying long hours trying to compensate for my learning challenges. I
developed bad sleeping problems. I was always tired at school, but I would plow through the fatigue anyway
because I had a strong desire to work hard and make my family proud.

START WITH WHY

Among my favorite books is Start with Why by Simon Sinek, who Ive interviewed multiple times on my show.
He often stresses the importance of being able to convey to others why you do what you do. If, Sinek explains,
you can articulate the belief that is driving you your why, people will want what you are offering.

ON PURPOSE AND PASSION

Knowing your purpose in life helps you live with integrity. People who know their purpose in life know who
they are, what they are, and why they are. And when you know yourself, it becomes easier to live a life thats
true to your core values. Your life purpose consists of the central motivating aims of your life the reasons you
get up in the morning.

WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?

What often isnt discussed in the quest for motivation is identity who you are . . . and who you think you are at
your core. They say the two mostpowerful words in the English language are the shortest I am. Whatever you
put after those two words determines your destiny. Lets say you want to stop smoking. Maybe youve had a few
warnings from your doctor, and youre finally coming around to the idea that you should quit. If you identify as
a smoker and regularly say, I am a smoker, its going to be difficult to quit until you dismantle that identity.
A HIERARCHY OF VALUES

Next, we need to consider our values. You can set up the most well-thoughtout habits, but if your values are not
in alignment with the ultimate goal, youre not going to do it. For example, someone who wants to remember
peoples names should value relationships and their connection to other people. Your behavior has to support
your values in some way, or there is no drive for it. Our values have a hierarchy to them. If I asked you whats
most important to you in life, you might tell me family is one of your core values.
FINDING YOUR REASONS

When it comes to doing anything in life, reasons reap rewards. My story is evidence that feeling good is not
required to feel motivated. If I waited until that day, I would have stopped teaching others to learn better when
my sleeping problems escalated. And besides, how many times have we felt good on a given day and still not
done what we said we would do Youcould feel amazing and still get nothing done if your reasons for doing so
are not strong enough.

WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO LOSE?

What is motivation Motivation is a set of emotions painful and pleasurable that act as the fuel for our actions.
Where does it come from Motivation comes from purpose, fully feeling and associating with the consequences
of our actions or inactions. Lets do an exercise. Write down all the disadvantages you have to face if you do not
learn to use the material in this book. What will it cost you right now and in the future For example, you could
write, I will have to keep studying hard and settle for the same mediocre grades or job.
TYING IT ALL TOGETHER

Now, lets apply all of this to learning. As you move through this Motivation section of the book, I want you to
consider where learning fits into your passion, identity, values, and reasons. It was not until I was an adult that I
found my passion and purpose. Through my struggle to learn, I developed a love of learning because it helped
me become unlimited, and my purpose is teaching other people to learn so they can unlimit themselves. As a
kid, I forced myself to study, trying to rise to the level of average.
BEFORE WE MOVE ON

Finding your passion is about giving yourself novelty and putting yourself in a new environment to see what
lights you up. Its difficult to do that if you feel limited or if youre self-conscious about looking bad, so let that
go and enjoy the experience.
CHAPTER 8: ENERGY

You have a clear purpose for doing something, and youve broken down the project or goal into small, simple
steps. Does that guarantee sustainable, limitless motivation For example, even if you have a reason to read daily
and have a plan to read for just five minutes a day, what can keep you from doing so is fatigue.
1. A GOOD BRAIN DIET

Resiliency expert Dr. Eva Selhub often likens the brain to a highperformance vehicle. Like an expensive car,
she writes, your brain functions best when it gets only premium fuel. Eating high-quality foodsthat contain lots
of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants nourishes the brain and protects it from oxidative stressthe waste free
radicals produced when the body uses oxygen, which can damage cells. 1 She goes on to note that when your
brain is forced to run on inferior fuel, it cant possibly do everything it was built to do. Refined sugar, for
example, contributes to impaired brain function, leads to inflammation, and can even cause depression
something you might want to consider the next time you reach for a tub of ice cream to contend with a tough
day.
2. BRAIN NUTRIENTS

As weve discussed, diet affects brain function. But what if you arent able, because of your schedule or lifestyle,
to regularly eat a rich brain-food diet Research has shown that particular nutrients have a direct effect on your
cognitive ability. I always prefer getting my nutrients from real, whole, organic foods. Talk to your qualified
health practitioner to learn what you might be deficient in.
3. EXERCISE

Exercise changes the brain in ways that protect memory and thinking skills, writes Heidi Godman, the executive
editor of the Harvard Health Letter. In a study done at the University of British Columbia, researchers found
that regular aerobic exercise, the kind that gets your heart and your sweat glands pumping, appears to boost the
size of the hippocampus, the brain area involved in verbal memory and learning.
4. KILLING ANTS

Dr. Daniel Amen, a clinical neuroscientist, author of the bestseller Change Your Brain, Change Your Life, and a
frequent guest of ours, came home one night after a particularly bad day at the office dealing with suicide risks,
angst-ridden teens, and dysfunctional couples to find thousands of ants in his kitchen. It was gross, he wrote. As
I started to clean them up, the acronym came to me. I thought of my patients from that daylike my infested
kitchen, my patients brains were also infested by the negative thoughts that were robbing them of their joy and
stealing their happiness.
 5. A CLEAN ENVIRONMENT

A 2018 piece in the medical journal The Lancet identified that air pollution might cause 30 percent of all
strokes and thus might be one of the leading contributors of the global stroke burden. It went on Given the
strong association between stroke, vascular risk factors, and dementia, the suggested link between air pollution
and dementia is to be expected.
6. A POSITIVE PEER GROUP

Your brain potential is not just related to your biological networks or your neurological networks it is also
related to your social networks. Who you spend time with is who you become. Motivational speaker Jim Rohn
says that you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. Whether you believe that or not, I
dont think any of us can disagree with the notion that the people around us have a meaningful influence on our
lives.
7. BRAIN PROTECTION

This probably goes without saying, but protecting your brain is critical if youre going to make the most of your
brain. You have only one brain. If you were given only one car to use for the rest of your life, how well would
you treat that car You would take care of it as if your life depended on it.
8. NEW LEARNING

One of the most important things you can do for the health of your brain is to keep learning. We are all capable
of expanding the capacities of our brains, even as we get older, which we discussed when we talked about
neuroplasticity in Chapter 3.
9. STRESS MANAGEMENT

We all experience some level of stress in our everyday lives, sometimes a great deal of stress. Whenever we
experience stress, a hormone known as cortisol is released to alleviate the physical rigors of stress on our
bodies. If this happens occasionally, its not a problem, but if it happens with great regularity, the buildup of
cortisol in our brains can lead it to cease functioning properly.
10. SLEEP

If you want better focus, you need to get good sleep. If you want to be a clearer thinker, you need to get good
sleep. If you want to make better decisions or have a better memory, you need to get good sleep. According to
the National Institutes of Health Quality sleepand getting enough of it at the right timesis as essential to survival
as food and water. Without sleep you cant form or maintain the pathways in your brain that let you learn and
create new memories, and its harder to concentrate and respond quickly. Sleep is important to a number of brain
functions, including how nerve cells neurons communicate with each other.
BEFORE WE MOVE ON

Fueling your brain is fundamental to becoming limitless, and we have lots more to get to in order to make this
happen. But first, lets stop and focus on a few things from this chapter Put a shopping list together for all the
brain foods you dont currently have in your home. I realize that not all of these foods are going to be compatible
with your palate, but really try to include as many as you can.