High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 141: Your Bounce Back Factor

Episode Date: October 31, 2017

High performers develop their resilience - their ability to adapt despite difficulties. In this episode, we talk about 3 ways to develop your resilience. 1) Have a short-term memory and see failure as helpful. 2) Develop the ability to regulate their emotions and choose positive emotions such as gratitude. 3) And be a tenacious optimist – always believing something good is going to happen. High Performance Power Phrase this week: "I am resilient. I have the bounce back factor. I can adapt and recover." Dr. Cindra Kamphoff is a Certified Mental Performance Consultant, Speaker and Author. She provide mental training for the Minnesota Vikings along with many other college and high school sport teams. Cindra speaks to businesses and organizations on how to gain the high performance edge while providing practical strategies that work. Her clients range from Verizon Wireless to Mayo Clinic Health System. Cindra's first book: Beyond Grit: Ten Powerful Practices to Gain the High Performance Edge was published in August. Her Ph.D. is in sport and performance psychology and she is a Professor in Performance Psychology at Minnesota State University. To book Cindra for your next speaking event, visit: cindrakamphoff.com For more information about Cindra's book, visit: beyondgrit.com   

It's time for High Performance Mindset today with Dr. Sindra Kampoff. Good morning, Sindra. Good morning. It's great to be here. Great to have you in today and talking a little bit about developing resilience. This is a good topic and something I think we saw in multiple sporting occasions over the weekend. We start with a quote today.

What do you have? It's an anonymous quote. I don't want to be perfect. I only aim to be fearless and resilient and myself. That's excellent. So an example to start out with today. Where do we go? Well, today's message about resilience is actually similar to the message I gave the

Maverick football team on Friday. And they were playing the number 10th team in the country. We were number third. And we talked about having this bounce back factor, that no matter what happens, being able to have a short-term memory and move on really quickly. And what I was impressed with was just how much energy and focus they came out with. Clearly, they wanted to make a big statement,

but there's a lot of things in the game where they couldn't control, like the refs, for example, and the other team. And they had to bounce back really quickly. And I think the defense was really impressive. Sophomore Jack Curtis had two interceptions. Corey Brent, Alex Gettle each had one. And they came out victorious. But one of the reasons they had to be resilient was just because Winona State did beat them the last couple of years.

So today's message is really kind of inspired by that. It was fun to watch them kind of try to figure out the way to win because you've watched or listened to the last couple of games and they have just run it down, like literally run it down the throat of team after team after team. And they would hand off to the running back and it would look like you could drive a Mack truck through the hole they were blocking, but it would close up, and they'd gain two or three yards. Two or three yards. So they had to find these other ways, be resilient,

and come up with the players to get the job done. And so offensively, they scored the points they needed to score, but the defense just clamped down and was tight. It was amazing. It was a great game. This is a fun team to watch. They have their last regular season home game coming up this Saturday. Then they'll go on the road one more time and then playoffs.

And I would say we're going to host. I would have to say things keep going the direction they're going. You should get out and check that out. So that's the example to start with today with resilience. So really what resilience is, is like our ability to bounce back. It's our bounce back factor. And it's the ability to recover quickly from difficulties, your ability to adapt.

And you can probably think of people who've had some tough things happen that maybe got knocked down, but they come back stronger than ever. And they don't let failure overcome them or drain them, but they rise above. That's really what resilience is about. And the thing that's interesting about resilience

is not something we're born with, but it's something that we can learn. But we have to experience adversity to even be resilient. So it just kind of shows you the importance of adversity in our lives. And why do we need to be resilient? Yeah, you know, because we're not perfect and things around us aren't perfect. And we experience adversity every day. So in sport, like what we were talking about, you know, it might be a bad call or opponent talking trash in your face or a loss or a bad start. But, you know, we have serious challenges that we have to overcome, like the death of a loved one or loss of a job or a serious illness. And those are the kind of the things that we're talking about being resilient about or around and you know even daily like we might experience weather it's coming up here in Minnesota or you know tough feedback from boss or an argument with a co-worker but kids we can we can help develop resilience in our kids too and that's really important is their ability to

overcome and adapt just as important as it is for us. I 100% agree with that, which is good, which is why my next question is, how do we be resilient? And hopefully kids are listening because sometimes a parent can tell a kid something and that kid is like, yeah, whatever, that's coming from you, mom or dad. But if Sindra tells them on the radio,

it might sink in a little bit. Yeah, there we go. So how do we be resilient? Okay, so we're going to talk about three ways today. And with the acronym Mr. T. Okay, so it's sticky. MRT. MRT, Mr. T.

The first one is M, to have a short-term memory of mistakes. And then R is to regulate your emotions. And T is to be a tenacious optimist. Okay, and we're going to talk about each of these today. Right. Well, let's talk about having a short term memory of mistakes. That's kind of hard to do. You make a mistake, it kind of sticks with you, right? It can easily stick with you. So I know. There we go. So you know, I think that high performers really see failure as helpful. And it's essential for us to perform at our best. And some people

might have the kind of this myth that, you know, you can avoid failure if you work hard or, you know, failure is useless, but it actually can teach us more than success can. So the key is, is in the moment to have a short-term memory of your mistakes, but to look back and actually appreciate the difficulties. And so, you know, one big question I'd have for people who are listening is, you know, what have you learned from your biggest failure and how has it led you to where you are today? Because then you appreciate the mistakes or the failures you've made. So I'll give you a quick example of me.

When I was in college, I was a really good cross-country runner, but I really struggled one year. And like that led me to do what I'm doing today and still inspires me to help people kind of get out of their own way because it wasn't my ability, but everything to do with my mindset. Okay. So I really learned a lot from that that helps me today. So how about R for regulate? Yes. So regulate your emotions. And so the best can regulate how they feel. And so, you know, negativity like guilt or bitterness, shame, hate, you know, if it impacts your whole body and makes your muscles weak, tightens, you know, your head pounds, you can't think clearly. And the negativity impacts your family, the culture at your work. It impacts everything. So choosing the positive emotions like gratitude, even in the difficulties, instead of anger or frustration, can help you bounce back and give you that bounce back factor. I mean, you can think of lots of people who, you know, experience a tragedy, but they rose above, right? And, you know, they've actually grown from the loss or the difficulty, and they appreciate life.

So it's really about us choosing how we feel and choosing the gratitude, because there's always good that can come from the difficulties. It's just about noticing it. All right. So then we've got T for tenacious. Yes, tenacious optimist. So that means always looking for the positive lens. And even bad events, you see them

as more kind of setbacks that are just temporary. But we know that these setbacks are given. So it's really important to see the optimistic perspective. And that gives you energy. So one of the things I talked about in my book, Beyond Grit, is always looking for the opportunity and the difficulty. And I call it the three op. Every difficulty you have, looking for three opportunities. Alright, so this is a real good topic and I think I hope the resiliency thing kind of sticks with a lot of people. Whether you're going to work today,

whether you woke up and have a cold and you have to rise above and get the job done today, whether you're a kid that has a test or trying out for a sport or whatever it is to learn from the mistakes. Everybody makes mistakes and you hear more and more professional athletes, I think, even talk about their failures now than they used to and what they've learned from them, which

is great. So how do we summarize this whole topic for this morning? So I would summarize it in Mr. T. So that high performers develop their resilience. They have a short-term memory of their mistakes, but they see failure long-term as helpful. They can choose positive emotions and regulate their emotions, choose gratitude, and they are tenacious optimists. So they always believe something great is going to happen. And a power phrase that hits social media here when we're done with this today and for the week. I am resilient.

I have the bounce-back factor. I can adapt and recover. And I've heard a radio ad on this particular station, and I'm sure others, that you have a speaking engagement coming up later this week. I do. On Thursday, I'm speaking at the YWCA's Women's Leadership Conference about leading with courage and bravery. So you should check that out if you haven't registered. Go to the YWCA's website. Excellent. Sendra Kampoff with us today. If we want to follow along with you or pick up the book or listen to the podcasts, what's the best way to kind of hook up with all of that? Best way is just go over to drcindra.com.

And the book is called Beyond the Grit. You can get it on Amazon or on beyondthegrit.com. All right. And Cindra is spelled C-I-N-D-R-A for people who are curious about that one. Or you could Google it. I'm sure it comes up. I'm sure. Yes.

Cinder, camp off with us today for High Performance Mindset. Thank you very much. Good to see you. Thank you for having me. Have a great week and have fun on Thursday night. You bet. At the Women's Leadership Conference. High Performance Mindset, every Monday morning on The Country Club on Minnesota 93.