High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 188: 5 High Performance Practices

Episode Date: June 21, 2018

“If you leave your growth to randomness, you’ll always live in the land of mediocrity.” Brandon Burchard High performers are intentional with their energy, time and focus. They choose to be courageous every day. They constantly seek improvement because uncomfortableness is how they grow and needed thrive. They show up as themselves – not trying to do more to be more. High performers are intentional with their mind, they choose to see the positive and feel positive emotions. Power Phrase this Week: I think, act and feel like a high performer. I am intentional with my thoughts, emotions, and actions!   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 Syndra. Alright, I got my coffee. I'm ready. You're ready to go? I'm ready. Sit down and learn a little bit. Figure out what direction you're going to take this week. High Performance Mindset with Dr.

Syndra Kampoff in studio with us today. Good morning, Syndra. Good morning. It's great to be here. Did you guys have a good Father's Day weekend? Did you get out and about? We had a great. Yeah, it was awesome. Good. Just the whole day with the family.

My husband could ask us to do anything he wanted. Oh, I love it. Wow. That's really cool. Yeah, we didn't do that at my house. I think I got out of taking out the garbage once this weekend, which was pretty nice. And I didn't have to do any dishes yesterday after the whole family was around. So that was all really good stuff.

Nice, nice. Yeah, I pretty much just did what I felt like, which was whine about how bad my back hurt. Because I hurt my back doing nothing on Saturday night. Five high performance practices is what we're talking about today. So performing at a high level takes practice. Five high performance practices we're going to discuss, and we like to start with a quote. What do you have for us? This is a quote by Brennan Burchard. He said, if you leave your growth to randomness, you'll always live in a land of mediocrity.

Nice. All right. And so it's kind of funny because this sort of has something to do with Father's Day today. When we get into this, you have a story to start with. Yeah, it's actually a story about my father. So happy Father's Day to all the dads out there. We can celebrate a day afterwards as well. And, you know, although my high school days seem like, you know, just was yesterday, it was a couple of years ago. But I have vivid memories of playing sports.

And I remember specifically like cross country and track was my favorite. And all of my favorite memories have my dad in common. And so, you know, regardless of the outcome of the race, like he was the always the first person to greet me. I remember the big bear hug he gave me after my junior year of conference. I remember the exact words he gave me in the pep talk before my senior year at the state meet. You know, I remember just all these things about him. One of my favorite things about what we did is after every single race, he would debrief the race with me. So it would be after dinner, and we would sit down, and we would talk about what went well, what do I want to do better,

what are my goals, and he kept reminding me of where I was going. And so a lot of what he did was he supported these high-performance habits that we're talking about today. And so he helped me be really intentional, helped me race my style, kept me positive and focused on myself. And those are the things that are really important for us to be at our best every day. All right. So the question, I guess the first one I'll use to lead in is why is this topic important? So today we're talking about high performance. And in my book, really what I define that as is a daily pursuit of excellence and a quest to reach

your potential. And that has, I'm sorry to interrupt, but that's not just in sports, right? I mean, that means just getting up and attacking the day. Exactly. And so performance, we perform every single day, not just in sports, but in our life, in our work, in our jobs, in our role as a mother or a father. And so, you know, really what high performance is, is, you know, reaching your greater potential every day. And it doesn't have anything to do with your background, but it's really reaching your standard of excellence and working to be your best every day. And today we're talking about practices because they are practices.

They're not something we're born with, but we have to practice them over time. So how do we know what high performers, what kind of practices they use and how it works for them? So one of the books I like is a book called High Performance Habits. And it's written by a guy named Brendan Burchard, who I quoted at the beginning. And he talked about all this research about how high performers compare to their peers. So he talks about how they're less stressed, they're healthier, they're 40% more likely to exercise like three to five times a week, and they report more happiness and more positive relationships. So I sort of think like what comes first, you know, us being at our best or all these other

habits. And I think it's these habits that lead to us reaching our potential, right? If we're, if we exercise regularly, if we have positive relationships, if we're happier, then we're going to be able to be at our best more often. All right, let's dig in then. Five high-performance practices or what did you just call them? Oh, practices or habits. Habits, that's what I was looking for. Yeah, so either one. So let's go with the first one.

So the first one is they're intentional. And kind of what I mean by that is they show up intentionally as themselves. They know exactly how this connects with their future. And they've thought about how they want to be and how they want to show up. So they're really intentional with their time and their focus and their energy. And, you know, part of the way to do this is to have a routine every single morning to help you get mentally ready for the day and help you show up as your best. Sort of like an elite athlete has that before the game, right? And they're doing that so they can consistently be at their best. So we want to make sure that we

consider what could we do in the morning to help us be at our best. Maybe it's a mental routine, even as we're driving to work to help us be intentional with our focus and our energy and how we want to show up. All right. Good routine. So you're prepared. What's the second practice? The second practice is they're constantly seeking improvement. So they know they don't want to be stagnant. Right. And so they're continually kind of getting out of their comfort zone, choosing to be courageous because that's actually how you grow. And we know that kind of being uncomfortable is how you grow. So there's no one path to reaching your potential, but that's actually how you grow. And we know that kind of being uncomfortable is how you grow. So there's no one path to reaching your potential, but it's about constantly seeking

your best every day and keep on growing and learning. All right. Okay. All right. So what's a third practice? The third practice is their authentic self. And that means that they make a conscious decision to be themselves every day. And this is a practice. It's not something we're born with. But they choose to be real instead of trying to be someone they're not. And I think sometimes we try to do more, to be more. But really, we just need to be more present, more authentic, and more grounded. And I think when we are ourselves, then we can show our gifts to the world.

I think that's hard to do. It's really hard to do. You would think be yourself is a pretty easy thing, but showing up as there's so many different masks we wear in every different area of life. Yeah. And I think that sometimes we conform to what's around us instead of being ourselves. And I do think it is a practice and takes a lot of courage, especially maybe when you're around people that you maybe want to impress. Right. Right.

Right. So then I think like another one of your practices has to be like how we talk to ourselves, though. Yes. Yes. That's actually our next practice. And this actually has a lot to do with authenticity, because if we're beating ourselves up, it doesn't help us. And so we want to talk to ourselves, not listen. And the listen is the negative self-talk, the negative voice inside our

head. But we really want to be intentional with what we're thinking about ourselves. And, you know, part of our biology is to find the danger. And our mind is really here to keep us safe, not help us be a high performer. So we have to really kind of override this DNA. And we have to really train ourselves to think positively. And I think like we're so self-critical of ourselves that we think the rest of the world sees us that way. Yeah. Yeah. But we need to remember to be kinder to ourselves. And I think that takes intention with what you're thinking about and awareness. All right. What's the last practice that we have? So the last practice is to choose positive emotions. And I think it's really easy to look at the negative because our mind is here to keep us safe.

But we all, you know, are under stress, right? We all, like everyone, has stress. But what the best do is that they realize that they can choose to be happy. And it's really a set of practices. It's a decision. So they let go of kind of this anxiety and doubt. And I realized I've been having this, these aha moments last couple of weeks

that when we're experiencing doubt and anxiety, it's really because we're obsessed with ourselves. We're just thinking about ourselves way too much. So we know that we can choose to be happy and be grateful. And that's what high performers do is they choose to have to experience positive emotions by changing their focus. That's good.

I'm sitting here making notes as you're talking about things. I was like, all right, I feel like I have a pretty good handle on the routine thing. I would even venture to guess being a little arrogant that I have more routine than anyone else in this room right now. I mean, probably I set my clothes out the night before. I have my stuff ready to go in the morning. So as soon as the coffee pot goes off, I come in. I call myself go with the flow. I have the same pen.

I come in and I do the same things. I mean, the routine is there. But everything else, I'm like, okay, I can definitely seek to improve myself more. I can definitely try to be a little more authentic when arriving places. I can definitely, there's times when I think, thanks to you, I've gotten better at listening to myself.

I was thinking that the other day, just in a very general sense, when I was out for a run and it was really hot and I was like, okay, I can't get from here to there. And then I got there and thought, well, now I can get from here to there.

Right. I can get, I can get from here to there. And that's very basic, but I'm getting a better handle on that. You're setting some small goals to get there. Yeah. But sometimes something sets me off and the emotions are the hard one.

They're a hard time to deal with. Well, that's why it's a practice. You know, it's not something we're born with. We have to just practice every day. I might venture to guess, be a little arrogant, that everyone in this room would say yes. You have the hardest time with your emotions than anyone else. But great topic and a good one to start the week with. How do we summarize this whole thing today? So high performers are intentional with their energy, time and focus. They choose to improve themselves every day and be courageous.

And they because they know that uncomfortableness is how they grow and that we need that to thrive. And they show up as themselves trying not to do more, you know, but instead work to be themselves, be more present, be more authentic. And they're intentional with their mind. So they choose positive emotions and choose positive thoughts.

And what power phrase will I be heading to Twitter later on to like? You bet. I think act and feel like a high performer. I am intentional with my thoughts, emotions, and actions. That's a good one. I'm intentional with my thoughts, emotions, and actions. That's a good one. Straight to the point right there, too.

If we want to follow along with you or get more information about Dr. Sindra Kampoff and all the things you're up to, what's the best way to do that? So many of these practices I talk about in my book called Beyond Grit, 10 Practices to Gain the High Performance Edge. And you can find that on Amazon or on beyondgrit.com. And then you can always head over to drcindra.com and learn more about the podcast. Or I have some videos there that I post regularly, too. Well, we thank you for being here Monday mornings. Thank you for having me. It really helps us all out. Dr. Cindra Kampoff with us today.

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