High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 147: Greatness is Inside You

Episode Date: December 19, 2017

High performers see their greatness. They know they have greatness inside of them and each day they work to show their greatness. They let go of suffering. They don’t believe the doubt, anxiety or anger. They decide to tell themselves the truth about who they are and what they can become. High Performance Power Phrase: I see greatness inside of me and others. Each day I realize my greatness. 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. And here we go. Some positivity on a Monday. It's time for High Performance Mindset with Dr. Sindra Kampoff. Good morning, Sindra. Good morning. I appreciate you having me this morning. Well, we're glad you're here. And I see that you're bringing the sparkly Viking vibe today with that hat today.

Greatness is inside them, Sindra. They will find it. Yes. That is today's topic is greatness is inside you, and we like to start with a quote today. What do you have? An Aristotle quote. He said, we are what we repeatedly do. Greatness, then, is not an act but a habit.

And I've heard that before. Yeah, we are what we repeatedly do. And that can be good and that can be bad sometimes. So what's a good example for us today? All right, so just think about two different people. One person who, when they get out of the bed in the morning, they're saying to themselves, I'm not smart enough. I don't have everything inside me that I need.

I don't know enough of the right people. I don't have what I need to to achieve my goals. Whereas another person says, I have greatness inside me that I need. You know, I don't know enough of the right people. I don't have what I need to achieve my goals. Whereas another person says, you know, I have greatness inside me. And they decided to tell themselves the truth about who they are. You know, they might say, I'm strong, I'm smart, I'm courageous. Today's going to go great. So one drags himself out of the bed in the morning feeling tired, you know, unworthy and stressed. Well, the other person jumps out of bed ready to go after their goals and be their best. And so, you know, similarly, you can think of like two athletes. As they walk into the game, you know, one person says, you know, I don't have what it takes. You know, I'm tired.

Wow, the other team looks a lot, you know, better than us or stronger, faster, more athletic. Whereas the other person says, you know, I have greatness inside of me. I'm strong and smart and courageous and, you know, I have everything it takes. So, you know So which one reaches their potential in that day and which one, if they did that every single day, which one would end up showing what they have inside of them and their talents? So which of these really leads to their true greatness or their potential? And I think about that quote by Aristotle, we are what we repeatedly do. Greatness then is not an act, but a habit. Sure. So you got to get used to that a little

bit more positive self-talk, I guess, even when things get you down. It seems to be pretty obvious, it seems like, but practicing it is the hard part. It is very difficult to practice. So why is that? Why does that make today's topic important then? You know, because I think we all have this greatness inside of us. And, you know, to me, what greatness really means is seeing your true potential and your gifts and sharing them with the world. And it's to me, greatness is really about being the best version of yourself and knowing that you have greatness inside of you. So what do you think gets in our way of realizing our greatness?

Well, you said something really important about, you know, how are we talking to ourselves? And to me, really, that is your mind. And we shouldn't believe everything we think. And so it really comes down to kind of the way that we suffer and we suffer inside of ourselves. And I think that suffering really gets in the way of reaching our potential. And so this is what I mean. You know, suffering can come in forms like anxiety or fear or regret or belief that we're not significant. But I think the really important thing is that we realize it's self-created and it's really our own doing. And it's something I've just been really trying to practice the last month or so is to realize

this is all just something that I'm creating in my mind and I don't need to give in my mind. And, you know, I don't need to kind of give in to that. And so today we're going to talk about three ways that can get in your way of greatness. And so you can decide to do something or be something different. I wish I would have had these three things to talk about in the car on our car rides to hockey games this weekend. I tried to use the take a moment to close your eyes and visualize all the good things you want to happen bit. You know, see the good things happening. It's in trying to tell my kids that, you know, the more you visualize the positive, the more likely it is that they will happen, you know, which is good. But yeah, these, these would have been good to have too. What's the first way?

Okay. So the first way is kind of this belief that you're not enough. So I'm going to call it unworthiness. And so, you know, I'm not smart enough. I don't, you know, I don't have what, what it takes. I don't know the right people. I'm not, you know, you'm not smart enough. I don't, you know, I don't have what it takes. I don't know the right people. And, you know, you can fill in the blank. I'm not blank. We all this, we do this in different ways. And so I think, you know, the more we talk to ourselves this way, it becomes a belief about who we are. And we also tend to sometimes evaluate our worth by what other people think.

And I think the key is, is to not give energy to that. And also to think about, you know, how you think the key is to not give energy to that and also to think about how you think about yourself is most important. And I think what's also really valuable about that is to know that people only give you value as much as you value yourself. And that's a direct relationship of how people treat you is how you value yourself. And so when you think and act like you have greatness and that you're priceless, then others will treat you value yourself. And so when you think and act like you have greatness and that you're priceless, then others will treat you the same. So what's the second thing that gets in our way? So the second thing is anxiety. And kind of what I mean by that is I see it as like a silent

killer of people's dreams. And if you have too much, it can be debilitating. Like you can't think straight and you get tight and tense. And you're usually focused on what you don't have and what you're not instead of what you don't have and what you're not instead of what you are. And so you might be thinking about the result or the outcome or the consequence of not being at your best. Or maybe you might be nervous that you might be embarrassed. And so I think the key is, is to remember that anxiety is in the future. You can do anything you want right now and that you have greatness inside of you. All right.

Okay. So the third way. The third way is anger. And yesterday I saw like an interaction that it was like two strangers and they were swearing at each other for something they couldn't control. And I thought, man,

this is a way that we get in our own way. So anger really just means, you know, I think when it happens is we're focused on things we can't control or what's missing. So, you know, what other people do or they might say. So instead of believing the illusion that you really can control everything that people say or do and that happens to you and you can't control that. So I think it's impossible to be happy and realize your greatness when you're focusing on what you can control or what's missing. So I think the key is to turn yourself, turn attention to what you can control and what you're grateful for instead. Maybe that's actually a gift. Yeah. What do we do? So what should we do about it?

Okay. So what should you do? I think the key is to realize that the suffering comes from your mind and your mind is kind of, you know, it is its own and you don't have to believe everything you think. You don't have to buy into the thoughts that you have, which is really important. And so I think the key is to let that, your thought or the emotion come and go. I mean, we're all human, so we're going to experience, you know, this negativity or this negative emotions.

But instead, shift your attention to what you're grateful for because what you focus on is what's going to experience, you know, this negativity or this negative emotions, but instead shift your attention to what you're grateful for. Because what you focus on is what's going to come to you and how you're going to feel. And I go back to the example at the beginning of telling yourself the truth. What do you really know about you and yourself? And so decide to tell yourself the truth. You know, what do you really know about yourself and who you are? And I'm going to even say that again, you know, decide to tell yourself the truth. What do you really know about yourself and who you are? And I'm going to even say that again. Decide to tell yourself the truth.

What do you know about yourself and who you are? And then get that into your body and realize that this is just the way you're getting inside your own way. And it's just one of those things where, like I said before, it seems to make so much sense, but it's not necessarily habits that we've all practiced our entire lives. So making the change is the hard part, building new habits. So you just got to do that. And hopefully some of this stuff sparks that interest and gets you going in that direction. How would you summarize today's topic?

I like the greatness is inside you and those three things that are slowing us down, the unworthiness, the anxiety, and the anger are things we need to get away from. Yeah, and I do think this is something you have to practice every day, right? Like I know this, but, but it's also my mind's way of getting inside, getting in my own way. So the key is I got to do it every single day too. Just like we all do. Habit.

Habit. Exactly. So, right. I go back to the quote. We are what we repeatedly do. Greatness is not an act, but a habit. So this is how I'd summarize it. High performers see their greatness. They know that

they have greatness inside of them. And each day they work to show their greatness. They let go of the suffering. They don't believe the doubt, anxiety, or anger. And they decide to tell themselves the truth about who they are and what they can become. Awesome. So what's our power phrase for this week as we get ready to wrap things up? I see greatness inside of me

and others. Each day I realize my greatness. Each day. That's the big thing right there. I've got to maybe put that one on a post-it note and put it up in the bathroom. Contact info if we want to get in touch with you. I know you've done a lot of speaking engagements around the area and the country. You've got the book, which is still getting a lot of great pub on social media when people pick that up. There's several ways and of course the podcast we want people to listen to as well. By the way, I think we should mention that if you ever miss one of these podcasts or

you're listening with your kids and you're thinking, oh, I'd love to play that back for them later or something that goes along with your employees at work. These are all available on the podcast. Absolutely. So you can head over to my website, DrCindra.com, and that's where you can find the book information and the podcast or an easy way because you can get all the my website, drcindra.com, and that's where you can find the book information and the podcasts. Or an easy way, because you can get all the podcasts in one place, is iTunes, and you can just search for High Performance Mindset. Awesome.

And next time you're at Winter Park, if you could talk to a trainer and have them come down and look at Logan's ankle. I think he twisted it jumping off the bandwagon yesterday. We'll see, though. The healing powers of game day may change everything coming up next weekend. We'll see what happens with that one. Thanks, Cindra. Thanks for having me. High Performance Mindset today on The Country Club 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 C Sindra's free weekly videos, check out DrSindra.com.