High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 169: How to be Self-Aware

Episode Date: March 27, 2018

“When you know yourself, you are empowered. When you accept yourself, you invincible. ―Anonymous   High performers can perform on demand. They don’t just “hope” they have a great day. They make it a great day.  They realize the self-awareness is key to leading yourself and they have a deep clarity of who they are. They don’t suppress emotions, but embrace is and get back to the present moment.   Week’s Power Phrase: "I am aware of my focus. I don’t hope I have a great day – I make it a great day!"   Dr. Cindra Kamphoff is a Certified Mental Performance Consultant, Speaker and Author. She provide mental training for the Minnesota Vikings along with many other championships teams. She coaches athletes, CEOs and executives one-on-one to help them learn and apply the mental tools that lead to success. Cindra also speaks to and works with businesses and organizations on how to gain the high performance edge while providing practical tools 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 or learn more about her one-on-one coaching, 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. Dr. Sindra, camp off with us today for High Performance Mindset. Good morning, Sindra. Good morning. Let's talk about today's topic, which is a good one. And I know that we like to start, obviously, with what that topic is. Self-awareness is key to the topic today and the quote to start things off. This is an anonymous quote.

When you know yourself, you are empowered. And when you accept yourself, you're invincible. Nice. That's pretty powerful itself. So we always like to start with a good example, one that is topical on the Country Club today. We just gave a guy $260 this morning because he knew all four of the teams in the Final Four in basketball, and we're going to talk about one of those teams, the Cinderella team, in fact. So I love watching basketball this time of the year, and I think the Lila Chicago team has definitely captured our hearts and our attention, and believe, believe, believe has

been their mantra. So they've been the Cinderella team in this year's men's NCAA tournament, winning several games by one point. And they just won this weekend against Kansas State by 16 points, earning a trip to the Final Four the first time since 1963. Wow. And I was reading and following them this weekend. And their senior guard, Ben Richardson, said, you know, this is something I've been dreaming about since I was a kid. This is something, you know, all these guys around me have been working really hard to achieve. We knew we belonged here.

You know, we were capitalizing on our strengths, and we knew we could play with anyone. And we just had to show it. And one of the things that I think I really loved watching is about Sister Jean, who has captured the spotlight as well. And so she's their chaplain and provides them positive energy before the game. She's 98 years old. It's a really good story. So using that story, what point do you want to make from that?

Tell us about what you want to talk about. Well, as I was watching the game and watching this weekend, I was thinking a lot about kind of the attributes of peak performance. And you know that no matter who the team is, you have to believe kind of what they said. But you also have to be really self-aware. You have to know what your strengths are and capitalize on them. And I've had some amazing podcasts recently,

podcast interviews. And there were a few points at the podcast the experts that I was talking to have made in the recent weeks. And I was thinking about a lot about them when I was watching the games. And so here's three that we're going to talk about, and we're going to apply them to us. So a few people talked about like how the best perform on demand. Number two, they know who

they are. And number three, they kind of see their emotions. And I think that all relates to us and just helping us be at our best every day. All right. So what's the first thing that stands out to you about the podcast interviews there? Yeah, so recently I've interviewed two people who have gone to the Olympic Games with teams. And they both talked about this. And so these are some of the people, kind of the highest level in my field that you can get to. And so one guy named Rich Gordon,

he's worked with the gymnastics team and the downhill skiing team for Olympic teams. And he said how the greats perform on demand. And then Colleen Hacker, who just helped the women's hockey team win gold medal, she said the same thing. You know, and this is what she said, you know, that the greatest have, they give 100% of what they have every day, even if it's 80%. And, you know, it's all about sustained excellence over time, and they can do it on fire. They can do it on demand. I like giving 100% of what you have to give that day. That's a great way of looking at that I like giving 100% of what you have to give that day.

That's a great way of looking at that. Even if 100% of what you have to give that day isn't 100% of what you could give every day, but you got to go all in all the time. That's awesome. So what do you think it takes to perform on demand like that then? Well, I was actually talking to the Maverick football team about this yesterday. They just started spring ball, and we were talking about- I had a fun time out in the snow this weekend. I noticed, I saw all those videos, yes. And so we were talking about how it really means like to perform on demand,

we have to have awareness of our thoughts and our actions and our emotions and we have to have control over them. And then this is important. Well, this is kind of one of the main take-home points today is that, you know, people who perform on demand, they don't just hope it's a great day. They make it a great day. But they do this every day, regardless of the circumstances,

regardless of the snow, regardless of the weather, regardless of who's around them or their boss, right? But they don't hope it's a great day. They make it a great day. That's got to take a lot of mental skill or toughness, as you like to say. So what type of mental skills do we need to get that done? I think that takes a lot of self-awareness and confidence in yourself. I think it takes a lot of like ability to stay in the moment and have control over your focus and energy. And I think it also takes, you know, knowing that you can change how you feel by changing your focus. So what's the second point that you've learned from your podcast interviews? So I interviewed Eric Bean a few weeks ago. And so he's worked with Navy SEALs and Army Special Forces

and surgeons. So all these like high level, high performers. And so he talked a lot about like knowing who you are. Right. And he said this, you know, high performance starts with leading yourself and the world's best have a deep clarity of who they are and they don't waver from it. The best can perform when they have to. And the same thing, right? They can perform on demand. And then he says, you know, you have to examine your best in the moment, get there with the conditions you have.

And I think like, you know, we go back to Loyola, Chicago for them to do that. They had to perform on demand and they had to know who they were and not worry about the conditions being perfect. I think that's the same thing for us. So what do you think that takes? Yeah, I think it takes like a constant reflecting of us at our best. You know, really what Eric is saying is like knowing who you are. I think it's reflecting on your passion and what your strengths are, reflecting what you stand for, like why you're here. Right. And I think it also takes like awareness of your self-talk.

And so, you know, one thing that he said, which I think was really powerful, he said, you know, that the best accept. And he said, you know, acceptance is just that, you know, they accept the thought for what it is, separating themselves from the thought. And they decide if they're going to give attention to the thought or not. And kind of what he was saying is that, you know, we all have negative, negative thoughts, right? And you can't perform on demand. You can get really confused about who you are if you've listened to that negative voice inside your head. And I think what he's saying is like, just accept the thought.

Don't fight it, right? And just know that you're going to have the negative thought, but you don't have to believe it. So we talk a lot about how self-awareness is really the first step in reaching high performance, which just goes back to what you just said. But what's the last point from the recent podcast interviews? Yeah, so let's see. Two weeks ago, I posted a podcast with a guy named Rush Rauch, and he started an app called Vision Pursue that we actually can all get to increase our self-awareness. We can get it on our phone, and it's used by NFL teams like the Atlanta Falcons. And so it's designed to help us practice mindfulness. Basically, that means like staying in the present more often. And he talked about like the C model. So he says, you know, when we have negative emotions, we just need to see

them. It kind of is an acronym. It just means like separate yourself from the emotion, like don't suppress it. Right. And then just actually embrace it. Don't fight it. Let yourself feel it, but then evaluate it, get back to the present. And I think really what he's talking about is like knowing when you have these thoughts and emotions and like not fighting them, kind of accepting I'm going back to what Eric just said or what I mentioned Eric said. Why is this important? I think it's because people don't always have awareness of their emotions and their thoughts and how that impacts their body. And I think there's so much stress and distraction kind of going on in our world that we can be under a lot of stress. And so I think you can use these principles that we talked about, like being able to perform on demand,

what that means and, you know, making to perform on demand, what that means, and making it a great day, just hoping it will be a great day and separating yourself from the negativity, the negative thoughts and emotions. Woof. That's a lot of good stuff from a lot of good people. So if we're going to summarize all of that info we just tried to absorb right there, how do we do that today? I would say that high performers perform on demand.

They just don't hope it's going to be a great day. They make it a great day. And they realize that self-awareness is about leading themselves, having a deep understanding of who they are. And then they embrace their emotions and get back to the present. There's always a quote or a power phrase, if you will, that kind of helps us focus on that topic for the week. If you'd like to follow along on, say, Twitter or Facebook or anything like that, what is today's or this week's power phrase?

I am aware of my focus. I don't hope I have a great day. I make it a great day. Awesome. So yeah. And we talked about all these great interviews that you did and the bits and pieces we just took out of it from those great folks and those knowledgeable people that you interviewed. So if we're interested in listening to those podcasts, getting more in-depth on those topics, where can we find the podcast? Do I see some more locations available for Cinder's podcast? Yeah, isn't that exciting? That is great.

So you can always find it on drcinder.com, but it's available on iTunes, which is kind of the easiest way to find it. It's also now available on Google Play and Spotify and iHeartRadio. iHeartRadio! That one's free for your mobile device. You can also listen to Minnesota 93, by the way. I would maybe go with that one. You can have your high-performance mindset

and your Minnesota 93 all on your device at the same time. And of course, being self-aware is key. That's the topic for today with Dr. Sindra Kampoff for High Performance Mindset. Thank you. Thanks for having me.

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.