High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 179: How to Keep Going When You Don’t Want To

Episode Date: May 8, 2018

“When your brain says that you're done, you're only 40 percent done.” David Goggins, Navy Seal and Ultramarathoner High performers know they have more in their reserve tank. They keep in mind the 40% rule which means they have up to 60 percent more to give. They embrace the suck, but don’t live there. They think and act like pros by welcoming and embracing the discomfort. They realize they need to stay the course, put their heads in the sand and stay gritty. Power Phrase this Week:  I have a reserve tank that hasn’t even been tapped. I put my head in the sand, stay the course, and remain gritty.   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. She's here. It's just a matter of whether or not my computer is going to play the things

that I want it to play while she's here. Dr. Sindra Kampoff with us today for High Performance Mindset. Good morning, Sindra. Good morning. Thanks for having me today.

Yeah. Have a nice weekend. It was beautiful. It was great. My son's birthday was yesterday, so we had a big party yesterday. It was long. Oh, cool. Happy birthday to him.

I saw you got to hang out with Kerry Tollefson a little bit. Was that this weekend as well? Yeah. I spoke at the Moms in the Run. They had a training, and it was really fun. I saw Dennis Baker, one of the really great coaches in the Twin Cities, and Kerry Tollefson. It was really fun to see them. And I was talking about mental strategies with running. That's awesome. That's cool. I find that the Tollefson family is very approachable when they were here for Marathon Weekend. Yes. She was super pregnant and her

husband was pushing a stroller full of kids. And we were standing in the corral for the 5k all together and i took a moment just to introduce myself because i was like oh my gosh yep and uh you know and she was they were very nice and so with quick chat and then they went off and won their um their age groups one pregnant one pushing a stroller yeah and it was people don't know carrie telson's a olympian and she has like Sea Tolly Run videos and podcasts. It's really fun. Yeah, yeah.

She covers the Boston Marathon and some other races as far as media platforms go. Yeah, and a huge runner. You know, I see her online all the time. Well, went out for a short run today. It was, like, 14 miles. But, yeah, they're still out there short run today. It was like 14 miles. But yeah, they're still out there, as she would say, getting after it. Hey, we are going to get after a question from

a listener today, which I think is really cool. So I have the question for you here, because this is something we've talked about. And we'll kind of revisit what this rule is that this person brought up, because it's in your book. It says you mentioned the 40% rule in your book. How do you push yourself to keep going when you feel like you don't have anything else in the reserve tank? So let's start with the quote about that 40% thing and then talk about first what that 40% rule is. So the quote for today is, when your brain says that you're done, you're only 40% done. It's a quote by David Goggins, a Navy SEAL and ultramarathoner. And we have talked about this before, but it's very, very interesting

when you stop and think about that. Can you tell us what the 40% rule is? You know, so a few people really kind of talk about what separates high performers from the rest. And, you know, high performers, they can do more, they can push harder, they can endure more than we thought was possible. And so we kind of maybe call this straight

in sports psychology, grit or perseverance, dedication, drive, ambition, something like that. But Jesse Eitner was the first person who kind of popularized this 40% rule. So he hired a Navy SEAL for a month to come in and live with his family. And the Navy SEAL was David Goggins. And so he brought them in or brought him in to teach his family mental toughness. And so this is what the 40% rule is. When your mind is telling you that you're done, that you're exhausted, that you can't keep going further, you're actually only 40% done. It's interesting because your brain is telling you, hey, it's time to stop. Chill out.

This isn't going to be enjoyable. But you're able to, if you're trained for it properly, to push past that. So what do you think the 40% rule is really all about? I mean, obviously, we can think of it in an athletic standpoint. Yes. But if we're going to apply this to everyday life, what is it really all about? So the mind is a really amazing thing, and it can really propel us forward or really hold us back. And the 40% rule reminds us that no matter how exhausted we might feel, that there's always possible to kind of draw on this

untapped reserve of energy or motivation or drive. And I think it's important to realize that we do have this reserve tank and that when you feel like giving in, you probably have, you know, 60% left. So that just means that you, you are more capable than you realize. You can run faster, you can lift more, you can work more efficiently. You can do one more thing today to go after your goals. So other than the fact that it's Monday, why is this so important for us right now? I think we give up too easily as a society. You know, I like this. I could agree with that. Yeah. This quote by Winston Churchill, you know, that he said once that, you know, success is stumbling from failure to failure with no lack of enthusiasm.

Nice. I think sometimes we just fail and then we give up. We think, well, that goal isn't for us or I guess I can't do it. And I don't think that success is a matter of being smarter or tougher than anyone else, but it really is about not giving up and sticking with your goals. And I think high performers, they don't get distracted. And when they do fail or when they're struggling, they get comfortable being uncomfortable. So something we talk a lot about in my field and what I would describe that as is like the best really get

uncomfortable and they do things that are just a little bit scary. They find that reserve tank to keep going. So why is embracing the uncomfortable so important? So the way I kind of think about it is there's two ways we can embrace it. Kind of this physical discomfort, you know, like when running, we might think about it, but this also this emotional discomfort. And I don't mean pain. So sometimes I think we can get off balance or maybe we're pushing too hard. I don't mean you should keep pushing if you feel off balance. Yeah, to the

point of like injuring yourself physically or emotionally. Yeah, yeah, for sure. So it's not about pain. But I think that, you know, in when we're exercising, the discomfort is kind of this, this dull, weak, generalized feeling over our legs or of our body. That's where we need to realize we do have another level. And if it's emotional discomfort, you know, what that means is like, we need to realize that to go after our big goals is going to be a little bit scary, but that's what's going to give us the biggest source of satisfaction. You know, the way I think about it is if you want to go after your goals, you have to get uncomfortable. You have to embrace the discomfort and you can't wait until you feel good because you, you have to get uncomfortable. You have to embrace the discomfort

and you can't wait until you feel good because you're never going to feel good. You just got to go out and do it. Right. Okay. All right. So you've got a strategy for us today to address how to keep going. So I would say that awareness is the first step, right? Just the awareness that we do have a different level and that you can find it. And once you find it, you know, that becomes a different set point and you, you know, can, you can push yourself. As I talk about the strategy, I'll give you an example of me. So with the weather getting nicer and school concluding, I have a little bit more time to run. So I've been pushing myself to run more, but I find myself thinking about all the things that I'm not, that I wasn't as fast as I was six months ago. Right. Or, you know, all the things that I don't, that I wasn't as fast as I was six months ago, right? Or, you

know, all the things that I don't like about it instead of what I like. And so I think we have to connect back to why we're doing it. What do we love about what we're doing? What do we love about our goals? And what do we love about how great it's going to feel to accomplish that goal? And then we need to make sure that we really address that negative thinking that comes up when we're pushing ourselves. So the acronym I use is CAR. We have to catch it. We have to notice that negativity and then address it. Tell ourselves all the reasons that we can and then get out of our head.

You know, in running, we talk a lot about like counting up the hills or counting while we're running to kind of distract ourselves to get out of our head. So we're not thinking about how much it hurts. So you've got a final point for us this week. I do. So the final point is, you know, that you are so much more capable than you think that you are. You know, and if you really tapped into that, what would happen? An example I think about is, you know, Roger Bannister became the first person to run a four minute mile in 1954. Right.

And because he did it to the next two years, 37 people achieved the same goal. So I think it's about finding finding something you're going after and sticking with it and believing it's possible. I always find that to be interesting where it's never been done, never been done, never been done. It happens. Then it's like a waterfall. Just, you know, like trying to break that two-hour barrier. If they can do it, I can do it, right? Exactly. And they were so close.

But we have to think we can do it before anyone else does. It will happen. And then once someone goes, well, look at that, I could do that. Yeah. And then all of a sudden it just starts happening all over the place. How do you summarize this today then? Because there's a lot of people that are getting up thinking, I can maybe give you 40% today. Yeah, exactly. I'm going to have to tap into that other 60. So high performers know

that they have more in the reserve tank. They keep in mind the 40% rule, which means that they have 60% more to give. And when they want to give up, they welcome the discomfort. They catch their negative thoughts and address them. And they realize they need to stay the course, put their head down and stay gritty. Nice. And a power phrase for this week with this topic? I have a reserve tank that I haven't even tapped. I put my head in the sand, stay the course and remain gritty. All right. Well, if sand is going to keep you gritty, that's for sure. If you have a question like this particular listener did, if you would like to email it to Lisa or myself or send it on the text line, or more importantly, if you happen to be listening to this on Syndra's podcast,

after the fact, we can email them to you, correct? What's your email address? Yes, you can go over to syndra at syndracampoff.com. All right, and that's C-I-N-D-R-A-K-A-M-P-H-O-F-F.com. There we go. All right. And other ways to connect with you. I know that you're on social media.

That's where I saw what you were doing this weekend. If we're interested in the book and all of that stuff, how do we get in touch? Yeah, I spend my time on Twitter in terms of social media. So you can find me at Mentally Underscore Strong. And then you can always head over to DrCindra.com to look for some videos on mindset and find the podcast. All right. Well, thanks to our listener for the question today. It was a good one to start a Monday with to get into that 40 that we're tapped into and the other 60 that's just sitting there waiting for us to take advantage of. So thank you very much, Cindra.

Thanks for having me. Thank you for listening to High Performance Mind 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 Sandra's free weekly videos, check out dr. Sindra.com.