High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 101: 3 Signs You're Gritty

Episode Date: April 13, 2017

Gritty people know what they want. In the face of adversity and setbacks, they go after their goals with deep commitment. They have passion, perseverance and purpose that drives them toward long-term goals. Are you gritty? In this episode, Cindra talks about 3 Signs to know if you are gritty! This week's affirmation: "I am gritty. I have a deep commitment to my long-term goals. I put in the hours necessary for success."

Welcome to High Performance Mindset with Dr. Sindra Kampoff. Do you want to reach your full potential, live a life of passion, go after your dreams? Each week we bring you strategies and interviews to help you ignite your mindset. Let's bring on Sindra. It's time for High Performance Mindset today with Dr. Sindra Kampoff in studio with us.

Good morning, Sindra. Good morning. It's great to be here. Good to have you in. I'm going to insert round of applause for 100 podcasts. Yay! I saw that.

Isn't that amazing? Congratulations on that. That's very cool. I had to stay gritty. I would have never guessed that when I started that I would have 100. A hundred up a minute. I remember when you were starting and you were, hmm, I don't know. Right, exactly. Here we are, 100. Last time you were in, you said 80 countries, more than 80.

Is it more than that now? I know it is, but I haven't checked recently. So I know it's growing. Very awesome. Very cool. And you said you had to stay gritty to get it done. And that is where we're going with our topic today. Three signs that you are gritty.

You hear this a lot because let's say you're watching a sporting event. Someone really grinds through and gets done. And they ask them about it. Well, I just had to stay gritty. You hear this a lot because let's say you're watching a sporting event. Someone really grinds through and gets done and they ask them about it. Well, I just had to stay gritty. I just had to have grit. The word comes up a lot and I think a lot of times

people just hear it, get it, but don't really get it. Maybe you need a deep understanding of it. Yeah, like what does that mean? So if you could give us three signs that show

that we are gritty, that would help out. So I'm going to start with a quote by Angela Duckworth. She said, Grit is not just having resilience in the face of failure, but also having a deep commitment that you remain loyal to over many years.

We made a comment earlier about the process. What were we talking about? Oh, Sam Hunt was talking about writing music and comparing it to playing football. And I said, You have to fall in love with the process that gets you to the day first. And so I likened it to the process of writing a song before it's completed, the process of training for a marathon before you actually run it, the process of preparing for a championship football game before you play it.

Nice. You have to fall in love with that first part of it in order to get the results in the second. Nice. I love it. I love it. That totally fits. I feel like I'm being trained by the Jedi Master. I know. I'm hearing something pretty awesome. That's awesome. All right. So I'm going to start with this story. And a couple of years ago, I was running the Twin Cities Marathon and I was on track actually to run a personal best time through mile 17. Felt great until I didn't. And miles 17 to 20 were miserable. My legs started to ache and my hands actually started to swell. And quickly I realized I forgot my salt tablets. You know,

and I usually take salt tablets several times in a marathon. So I just avoid cramping and dehydration. And I really, really beat myself up for those three miles. So this was kind of my inner dialogue. I was like, you're such an idiot, Sindra. No, I can't believe you forgot what you're told. Salt tablets. Just really beating myself up. And we turned to climb up Summit Hill. It's this big, long hill.

And at the start of the hill, the pacer says, embrace the suck. Yeah. And I started to kind of laugh to myself when he was. I love that. You know, I knew he was right. It did suck. And his comment really made me get unstuck. And I looked around and I could just see that everybody was really struggling.

And I was like, you know what? The marathon is supposed to be difficult. Right. And I started to embrace the difficulty. So I started counting the number of people that I passed up Summit Hill. And it just kept me excited and energized and kept me looking for something, looking forward. And by the finish, I passed 90 people up this hill. And I had finished just over 40 seconds of my personal best.

But at the finish, I was just jacked. And what was really cool was as I was posing for this picture, my eyes started to swell. And the event photographer said, you know, Sindra, you're glowing. You're the happiest person I've seen all day. Cool. And the experience made me realize really something important about high performance and that there's joy in the struggle. And I didn't reach my personal best that day,

but I learned so much about kind of the power of pushing through difficulties and kind of the way I see it, you know, difficulties in the race happen for me, not to me. And it proved to me that I could get through an immense amount of discomfort, maybe emotional discomfort or physical discomfort that I needed to to push towards my goals. And next week as I run Boston, the Boston Marathon, I will not forget my salt. You're already packed. Yes. So tell us exactly what you mean by grit then.

Okay. So gritty people know what they want. And in the face of adversity and setbacks, they go after their goals with a deep commitment. So they have three Ps. They have passion, perseverance, and purpose. That really drives them towards what they want, their long-term goals. And I think many people just don't reach their goals and their vision because they just throw in the towel too early. Could have easily done that in the race, you know, just try to find an extra gear.

And so if you think of probably the person that you most admire, I bet they have grit. Most likely. So why is it important to stay gritty then? Well, it's connected to our success and our achievement, happiness. So things like you're more likely to graduate, you're more likely to stay married if you're gritty. And the great thing is that grit isn't something that's just you're born with. You can develop. That's awesome.

All right. So three signs that you're gritty. What is the first sign? Okay. First sign that you're gritty. You know your goals. So goals help you stay focused, help you persist despite adversity. They help you train smarter and harder.

The bottom line is if you set effective goals, they can help you perform to your potential. So super gritty people have their goals written down. So I'd start with maybe your one-year goals. If you don't have any goals written down, I'd go home, go to work, spend some time today writing your one-year goals down. The super gritty people even have their 5, 10, and 20 years goals written down. So what's the second sign that you're a gritty person? You know your why. Without understanding why, you won't achieve your goals. It's pretty

impossible to stay passionate and persistent in that pursuit. When you know your why, things start changing. You're more fueled. You're more energized. You find the inspiration, stronger sense of purpose to keep going. You recognize that you can get through any difficulty. Super gritty people, they don't just know their why, but they own it. So what I mean by that is they

know exactly why they want to do it, but then they remind themselves daily of where they're going and why they're doing it. And the third sign that you know you're gritty. Okay, third sign you keep going despite obstacles. So being gritty means that you don't give up. You don't switch gears when you're bored or you're tired. And your drive keeps you focused on your goals. And you keep going despite adversity, setbacks, failure. And so the key is to expect your journey to reach your goals, that it will be difficult. And when you realize it's going to be difficult, you're going to find more confidence to get there.

Okay, so what do you tell us if we want to be more gritty, if we feel like we need more grit in our lives? There's a lot of things I would say, but the most important thing I think is connected to the third sign that I just said. So super gritty people, they know, they expect adversity and they realize that they can learn from it. So what I would encourage people to do is the next time you're faced with a difficulty and you want to throw in the towel, just remind yourself to see the difficulties as they're happening for you, not to you. They're not happening to destroy you, but to show you how persistent you are. And I like this quote by Byron Katie. She said, you know, everything happens for you, not to you. So difficulties that occur can lead you to the course of success. They can show you how

persistent you are and they help you understand your true potential and your true power. Good stuff here. And I think we could go on and on and on about grit. There's just so many areas. I mean, grit isn't just a physical thing either. It might be the mental toughness to get through a difficult work day. It might be the mental toughness to get through a day when you're at home with a house full of sick kids. There's just so many areas that grit comes into play. We could go on and on, but obviously there's training methods that can be utilized. And if we're going to summarize today's topic, how do we do that? So high performers, those who are working to reach their potential, they're gritty. They go after their goals with a deep commitment. They know exactly what they want and why they want it, and they keep going despite

obstacles. They see the difficulties happening for them, not to them. And our affirmation that goes along with this for today? I'm gritty. I have a deep commitment to my long-term goals, and I put in the hours necessary for success. There you have it, folks. And of course, we said that if you want to follow along and get some of this useful information and just listen to it at your leisure, the podcast is a great way to do that. Sindra has a website. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook, all of those places. What's the best way for us to start following along with you? You can head over to my website, Dr. Sindra, so D-R-C-I-N-D-R-A, always on Twitter at Mentally Underscore Strong. So if there's something that you heard today that you want to retweet or you want to connect with me

in that way, I'd love to hear from you. You mentioned it a little bit last week about expectations for next Monday. So what are you thinking? I'm going to be gritty. I'm going to be gritty. I don't think I'm going to run a personal best time, but that's okay. It's not always about that.

It's about the journey and I love the Boston Marathon for so many reasons. Just three people deep on each side. It's just so energetic. It feels to me like just from listening to, I've been listening to your podcast and the Runner's World podcast quite a bit. Oh, cool. Runner's World talks a lot about Boston, and obviously I'm way behind on their podcast, so they're leading up to last year's Boston where I'm listening now.

And it seems like people really do. They work really hard. They get really gritty to qualify. Yes. And then when they get to Boston, they're like, hey, I'm at Boston. I'm soaking this in. And they're not really worried about whether they're achieving a personal best or not. They just are looking for a personal best experience at a marathon.

Nice, nice. That's a great way to explain it. And it's a difficult course. You run 13 miles downhill, which sounds awesome. But by the end, your quads are pretty tight already. And then you got like 17 to 21 that's uphill. So you just want to be, what I want to do is just run a really smart race and enjoy it because it's the Boston Marathon. Absolutely. That's cool. Are you traveling with several people from this area that are running? Yeah. So it'll be fun. Hopefully we cool. Are you traveling with several people from this area that are running? I am, yeah.

So it'll be fun. Hopefully we'll be able to connect with you on Monday morning at the runner's camp. That'd be really fun. Well, if it works, it works. But if it doesn't, don't worry about us. You guys do you. And if we can be a part of it, that's awesome. If not, then we'll be all right with it. We'll be cheering for you from here.

Thank you. It'll be really fun. Safe travels. Cinder Kampoff with us today. High Performance Mindset on the Best Country Minnesota 93. Thank you for listening to High Performance Mindset. If you like today's podcast, make a comment, share it with a friend, and join the conversation on Twitter at Mentally Underscore Strong.

For more inspiration and to receive Cinder's free weekly videos, check out DrCindra.com.