High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 146: See Yourself Being Successful

Episode Date: December 8, 2017

“If you can imagine it, you can achieve it. If you can dream it, you can become it.” William Arthur Ward In this episode, Cindra talks with TJ and Lisa about how high performers imagine past and future success regularly. They create in their mind first, and then they live it. They imagine accomplishing their goals with VICE – vividness, intensity, controllability, and emotions. High Performance Power Phrase: I imagine success. I create success in my mind first, and then I make it happen. 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 

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 is time for High Performance Mindset today with Dr. Sindra Kampoff, who is here in studio with us. Good morning, Sindra. Good morning. It's great to be here. Good to have you in. You were a traveling family here this past Thanksgiving, I noticed. We went to Utah. My sister lives in Park City and had a great time. Amazing weather there and got to see some great sporting events, which was really fun.

Cool. Well, we had amazing weather here too, so we're not as jealous as we could be. Yeah, for sure. But I'm glad you had a good time. I missed a really, I'm sure you were paying attention if you weren't watching online, that MSU football game. We were watching on the big screen. Yeah. We were pumped up. Unbelievable. Everybody kind of went uh-oh right at the beginning of the game and then there was no looking back after that. That's amazing. Just ridiculous. And then how about speaking of resilient, the Texas A&M Commerce team. I know. That took out

Central Washington and guaranteed another home game at the Blake this Saturday. We were watching that as well, and I was like, oh, I was cheering for the Commerce team. They're the underdogs, right? And it would have guaranteed that home game for us. It's really good for everybody, but the MSU Mankato

grounds crew's got their work cut out for them here. Thankfully, they have some great weather this week. They'll be able to keep that field in real good condition for Saturday. All right, let's get down to business. We have a lot to talk about today. I like this topic. See yourself being successful. Let's start with a quote. This is from William Arthur Ward. He said, if you can imagine it, you can achieve it. If you can dream it, you can become it. All right. I have in my mind a little bit of an example, but I'm going to let you go with your example because I love it.

So I was talking to my son, Blake, who's eight, about Adam Thielen, the Minnesota wide receiver and former Minnesota State Maverick. And we were talking about how he was the first person or the first Viking with 1,000 receiving yards through 11 games. And it's the first person since Randy Moss. And how Adam was eight years old when Randy Moss had the 1,000 yards. And he had this like aha moment, and he was like, oh my gosh, Mom, I'm eight years old. I could be the next person to do it. That'd be awesome.

Just like, you know, Adam was eight, I'm eight, and, you know, I could be the next person. That's cool. I am totally going to rock a Blake Campoff jersey when he gets the 1,000 yards. Me too. I was like, let's go, Blake. You know, my response was, of course you can do it.

You know, it's going to take a lot of hard work, but you could do it. And I love just the focus on the possibilities and, you know, how he was dreaming about himself being successful and doing something that he's imagining it. And sometimes we forget to imagine things and imagine our goals and to dream big when we get older. So that was a great example to start us off with. goals and to dream big when we get older. So I thought that was a great example to start us off with. So the importance of it's an important topic. I like it.

What is the importance of today's topic? Well, the last couple of weeks we've been talking about like committing to a big goal. And last week we talked about four strategies to stick with it. And today we're talking about imagining yourself accomplishing the goal and seeing that it's possible. And I was thinking about the Monday after Thanksgiving, you know, it might be kind of hard to recommit and you had a long weekend. So I just think imagining success and imagining your goal and accomplishing it can be really motivating this morning. That's called imagery, right? Like I imagine getting back down to that belt buckle that I was on before Thanksgiving and maybe I'll get there.

Yeah. So we're talking about imagery today, and sometimes people call it visualization, but it's really systematically using your senses to create an event either in the past or the future. And so what that means is like a time that you have been successful in the past, and if you imagine that, it's more likely to happen, or a time that you be successful in the future. And it's not just daydreaming, but it's really like systematically imagining your goal so you can improve your chances of success. I feel like this is kind of a silly question, but just to clarify the whole topic, why is it important for us to see ourselves being successful? Well, you know, imagery is so important and powerful because your mind doesn't know the difference between a vividly imagined event and a real one. That's pretty cool.

And so we also know it's the most used mental skill. Ninety nine percent of Olympians use it. And we know that the research shows that when you imagine success, it increases your confidence and motivation, decreases your anxiety and you just helps you be more calm and in control. So and you can use it at any point. You know, it's not just the sports, but you could imagine it for any kind of goal. So if it's like, you know, speaking in front of the public or preparing for a job interview, nailing a presentation, you can use imagery for any of that. One of my favorite things about you is the acronyms that you come up with to help us

remember these things. And you've got one for this. I do. And so as we're going through this, I'd encourage people as you're listening to think about a goal that you'd like to accomplish. Okay. And then kind of follow along as we're going through this acronym. So it's called VICE.

And, you know, so VICE is just about how to use this powerful tool of imagery. So V stands for vivid. So as you're thinking about whatever goal that you'd like to accomplish, you know, create a clear image and a detailed image in your mind. Like use, you know, colors or senses to create this clear image and kind of picture yourself Like, where are you? What are you wearing? You know, what are you hearing? Who's with you? So see yourself accomplishing your goal. And the more vivid the image, the more effective the imagery will be for you and the more it will come alive. All right, Vice, the second letter is I. And so now imagine you accomplishing the goal with kind of the same intensity as actually accomplishing the goal. And so kind of feel it in your body. And the goal with kind of the same intensity as actually accomplishing the goal.

And so kind of feel it in your body. And can you imagine kind of the same intensity as you're actually accomplishing it? Intensity. Intensity. And then think about, like, what's the process that you have to go through to accomplish that? And, you know, what's the small things you have to do to be successful to go on that vacation that you're working towards or win that championship? And try to feel the same intensity in your body. All right, C. C is for controllability. And that means like sometimes it's really hard to imagine like to control the image. And it just means like

being in control means that you're imagining what you intend to do. And this is really important to the success of using imagery. And so try to manipulate the images in your mind like so you're imagining exactly what you want to. And if you imagine yourself screwing up or not accomplishing the goal, just like imagine yourself being successful again, because sometimes, you know, your mind wanders. Okay, and E would be? E would be emotions. So now think about the goal and think about, you know, and feel the same emotions or energy, feel the same excitement, or happiness or satisfaction, just, you know, that you would same emotions or energy, feel the same excitement or happiness or satisfaction, just, you know, that you would, you'd get when you accomplish the goal.

And, you know, that you would, you need the same emotions you'd feel when you stay gritty and you reach your goals. So, you know, feel and imagine like how excited your friends or your coaches or your parents would be. So what would it really feel like to accomplish that goal, to, you know, score that game winning goal or rock that presentation in front of other people? How excited or stoked would you be? I think about when we were younger, long before the days of Photoshop, you used to be able to get your picture put on a fake magazine cover that looked like a Sports Illustrated or whatever your

favorite sport or magazine or whatever your thing was. Now in the days of Photoshop, you could do that yourself. There's a great SportPix picture of Sindra hitting the finish line at Mankato Marathon with her hands in the air. You could Photoshop your head onto her body and put it up in your office cubicle and say, I am going to run a marathon someday. Or maybe

I am going to look like that one day because I got into some weightlifting or some exercise routine or whatever. You can actually get the visual nowadays so much easier and put it right there in front of your face. And if you know somebody's goal, maybe

you can do that for a Christmas present. Yeah. Because I'm thinking that might be a good one for Blake. Yes, there you go. How do you summarize today's topic? It's a good one. So high performers, those people who were going to reach their greater potential, they imagine success. And they can imagine the past success or future success, and they do it regularly.

They create it in their mind first, and then they live it. So they imagine accomplishing their goals with vice. So vividness, intensity, controllability, and positive emotions. Wonderful. This week's power phrase? I imagine success. I create success in my mind first, and then I make it happen. Wonderful. This week's power phrase? I imagine success. I create success in my mind first and then I make it happen. Awesome. Well, people are always asking,

how do we get in touch with Sindra? How do we find her podcasts? How do I get the book? All of those things. How do we do all of that? You can head over to drsindra.com and the book information is on there. The podcast, you can just search for High Performance Mindset on iTunes or Stitcher Radio and that's where you'd check it out. All right. Sounds good. Dr. Sindra Kampoff with us today for High Performance Mindset on The Country Club. Thank you very much.

Thanks for having me. We'll see you next week here on Minnesota 93. Thank you for listening to High Performance Mindset. If you liked 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.