High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 105: How to Consider Your Purpose

Episode Date: May 5, 2017

Mark Twain once said that: “The two most important days in your life are the day you were born, and the day you find out why.” High performers, or people who are working to reach their greater potential, live on purpose. They know their purpose. They know why they get up in the morning. They are committed to something bigger then themselves. This week's affirmation: I live and play on purpose. No one else has the same experiences, knowledge and gifts as I do. I have a unique purpose and live that purpose.

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. Dr. Sindra Kemp, out for High Performance Mindset today in studio with us. Good morning, Sindra. It's great to be here. So how about this little Yahoo thing that came out this weekend that I saw you retweeted and I was like, It's great to listen to. Inspirational stuff. That'll really get you through your workout. And number two on their list, High Performance Mindset with Dr. Sindra Kampoff. Isn't that awesome? Right behind a podcast

of people reading their childhood journals, which I bet is hilarious too. Probably not as growth mindset oriented as High Performance Mindset with Sindra is, but awesome. Congratulations on that. Thanks. It was really awesome. That's cool. Just, you know, humbling to get listed there. Yeah. And we'll

make sure we let people know how to get to the podcast here when we're done having our conversation today. Today's topic is how to get clear on your purpose. And this is one of those things when I listen to a lot of your podcasts, I know you ask everybody what their why is.

And I hear more and more people asking, you know, what's your why or this is my why. Why do you do this? It's become a mindset thing lately where a lot of people are trying to figure out, what is my why? What is my purpose? And it's something that up until recently, I don't know about everybody else,

but myself, I didn't really think, I didn't hone in on it. You know, what is my why? And I'm not exactly sure I know exactly what my why is right at the moment now. Anyway, I mean, I know. Well, and I always wonder if it changes for me because sometimes it changes depending on what realm I'm in at the time. Absolutely. I think it changes as you age, as you grow, as maybe you are even changing careers or different paths you're gone.

Yeah. Yeah. And I thought I kind of laughed when I thought about it because I thought when you graduate from high school and you go to college, you're like, this is my why. I'm going to college. I'm going to become this. And three mind changes later, you get into your career. And so your why definitely can change at any given moment along the way. And I think of the college student in that deal. We usually start with a good quote to kind of get us going in the right direction on clear on your purpose. Where do we go today?

This is a Mark Twain quote. And he said the two most important days in your life are the day you were born and the day you find out why. I like that quote. That's good. And we're all inspired. We meet people in our lives that inspire us. We remember them. And they stand out because they're committed to something bigger. They genuinely care about what they're fighting for. And it shows just in their behavior and how how they show up and they're not just kind of going through their emotions but they're really acting with purpose so as we start think about maybe somebody that you know in your life who lives with purpose and as I was brainstorming this and I know quite a bit of people but one one of the persons locally people locally who I'm really thinking about is Jonathan Zier I

interviewed him on my podcast a few months ago, and he talked about just when he was diagnosed with cancer, how that really changed how he lived and how his purpose changed. And he wanted to show people how you could thrive with cancer. That's a great example. Really good. So why is considering our purpose important? As I said, it's kind of something that you don't always kind of hone in and focus on, but some people probably need to be better at it. Mys myself included, my hands in the air. So psychologist Abram Maslow, he arranged our needs in a hierarchy. In the bottom was our air, food, shelter at the base. And he said those are our most basic human needs.

And the ones in the middle are, you know, our desire to feel safe and secure, even recognition and connection. But the highest level is our need to operate with purpose. And this is what he said. A musician must make music. An artist must paint. A writer must write if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. And so, you know, what we can be, we must be.

And when we thrive, when we're at our best, when we consistently follow our purpose. Do you have an example for us? I do, and this is a pretty cool example. So it's amazing to see when I work with people one-on-one to help them just improve their performance and their level of just showing up in the world. And this is an example of an NFL client that I worked with, and he wanted to perform at a higher level. And when I met him, he was focused on things he couldn't control, kind of dreaming small about his future. And writing his purpose statement gave him a different level of just being intentional. He started changing the way he viewed his future time and his money, and he started seeing the important role that he played on his team.

So he did some cool things after writing his purpose statement. He developed a trust fund that helped his family go to college and increased the time he spent in the community. As importantly, he saw the impact of his performance and how when he showed up at his fest, it created ripples on his team and how it helped his team win. And so you might be asking, OK, what was his purpose statement? This is what he wrote. He said, my life's purpose is to be driven and kind, have a growth mindset, and create powerful

ripples for my teammates, friends, family, and community. Cool. And now you wrote down your purpose too. I did. A few years ago, I wrote it down and I actually have it framed by my bed. And it's this, the purpose of my life is to be authentic, to live passionately and play big for others. So I believe that we all have a purpose and that our purpose gives us a reason to stay gritty and persevere and gives us courage to kind of follow what we're intended to.

All right, so question. You said in your purpose that you play, you want to play big for others. So others. An author named Richard Leitner, he wrote The Power of Purpose. And he said, when our purpose is larger than ourselves, we can see that we can become the best version of ourselves. And so he basically said, in other words, we want to contribute to the world and make it a better place. And we flourish when we're contributing to the world outside of ourselves.

All right. So what do you see are the benefits of actually writing your purpose? And like you said, you have it by your bed. Yeah. I see the real reason why you should write it down is it's kind of like driving your car with a full tank of gas. You can't get anywhere if you don't have gas. Right. And so your purpose gives you fuel and energy

and helps you stay gritty when times are tough. And so, you know, the research shows that people who know what their purpose is, they report being happier, they have a better life, a good life, and they report being able to kind of focus on the most important things. But to me, it's like you want to drive your car with fuel. And that's why this next question will help you think about your purpose. Yeah. So what do we do? What do we do from there? Okay, so in my book, this is actually a chapter in my book and I have an outline in my book of how to actually write your purpose statement.

So I was looking at this and I'm like, well, it's kind of hard to talk about on the radio here. So I'm going to have you think about the most important question in the series of questions and that's this, what do you want to create or do for yourself and others? And so, you know, the client I was talking about, he wanted to create powerful ripples. I want to play big for others. So kind of what that means is like, whenever I run a marathon, it's like,

how am I inspiring other people today? Sure. Or whenever I record a podcast, you know, how can I inspire others? Or how can I get out there bigger so that other people can do the same, kind of be a role model? So think about the big question I'd have you think about this week is, what do you want to create or do for yourself and others? Our purpose is what makes

us unique. We all have different experiences and knowledge and dreams, and no one else in the world can contribute the way that you can in your community or on your team. So what do you want to create or do for yourself and others? And others. Got to throw the and others bit on the end there to create those ripples. I like the mental picture of that. Yeah, nice, nice, nice. So how do you summarize all of this today?

Okay, so high performers live on purpose. They know their purpose and they know why they get up every morning. They're committed to something bigger than themselves. And when we wrap up every day, we usually have an affirmation too. This shows up on Twitter and Facebook and then we'll give along the contact info to go with it. So you can check out that awesome podcast we were just talking about a little bit ago, but today's affirmation is... I live and play on purpose. I stay fueled and excited for my life. I have a unique purpose and live that purpose. Awesome. Now, if we want to be in a close connection with you via Twitter or Facebook or even email or the

website, get involved in the podcasts and get started listening to those. There's many, many really good ones there to choose from. How do we do that? So you can head over to iTunes and search High Performance Mindset. That's actually how you can subscribe to the podcast. And then you can head over to my website, Dr. Sindra, so D-R-C-I-N-D-R-A. And that's where you can find videos that I've been creating. You'll learn more about my book launch coming up. And I'm always on Twitter at Mentally Underscore Strong. It's probably where I spend most of my time on social media. How to get clear on your purpose. And of course, involving others in that is very important, as we learned today with Dr. Sindra Kampoff for High Performance Mindset. Thank you very much. Thanks for having me today. Always good to have

you in. 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 Sindra's free weekly videos, check out DrSindra.com.