High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 197: Impossible is a DARE

Episode Date: July 26, 2018

“What we need is more people who specialize in the impossible.” Theodore Roethke High performers believe that it is possible. Not that things are impossible. The find evidence on why they can do the impossible. They have big dreams they work towards and are pushing themselves consistently. Power Phrase this Week:  I defy limitations. I move boundaries. I do the impossible because I’m possible!   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. It's time for High Performance Mindset today with Dr. Sindra Kampoff. Sindra joins us in studio this morning. Good morning, Sindra. Good morning. It's great to be here. Welcome back after a little vacay time with the family, which is really nice. I saw a post on Twitter where someone was talking about listening to your podcasts with their kids, I believe it was. And they went on all about how they love the little 10-minute segments that you include in your podcast. And I thought, I mean, there's so much good stuff from the best in the world at what they do on this podcast.

But we also put these little 10-minute segments on there, and this guy loved to listen to them with his kids. And I thought that's so awesome. Every single week, they don't miss one. So I was like, that's super cool. It's a quick listen, and you get a good nugget of information. Absolutely. And it is so the point of what we're doing.

So it's awesome. Thank you for that. We appreciate it. And hopefully you guys are listening again with us as we talk about today's topic. Impossible is a dare. All right. So let's start with the quote that you always like to start with. And then I'll have you explain what you're talking about here.

This is a quote by Theodore Rothke. He said, what we need is more people who specialize in the impossible. Okay. So you have a quick story to start with. So last week I was on vacation for most of it, but I spent a day and a half traveling to Texas where I spoke to Kinder Morgan. It's one of the largest pipeline companies in the U.S. I actually learned quite a bit about pipelines. Oh, wow. And oil.

And we talked about a lot of things related to the high performance mindset but one of them was this idea that it's based on an Audrey Hepburn quote who's you know at one point she said the word impossible equals I'm possible and so you know one of the things that in the pipeline industry that's really interesting is that safety has to be their number one goal because you could imagine things blow up right you know people and people get seriously injured and it's really easy sort of like because you know you're just doing the same task every day long or all day long. It's really easy not to pay attention to what you're doing and just kind of go through the motions. And so we talked at the end about how maybe they're impossible or they're impossible is the safety goal of zero.

Like no, no reported incidents of people getting hurt or, you know, for the whole year, which might seem impossible for a big company like that, but it's not impossible. And today what we're talking about is anyone who's done anything legendary or any company who's done anything that's legendary, people believe that it was impossible at one point. Sure. Can we talk about this last week where you said something? Do you remember what Cinder said about running the four-minute mile? Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. Until one person broke it and then a bunch of people. There was like a waterfall of people happened after that. Exactly. Yep. Like you see somebody do it and go, oh, I guess we can do that. Yes. So let's bring that, kind of connect that together then.

You talked to Kinder Morgan, which is like one of the biggest businesses in the world, right? And you also deal with elite athletes on a regular basis. And how does this connect between the two? Well, a lot of people lately ask me, like, what do you see the difference that you see between sort of average athletes and elite athletes? And this is actually what I keep on coming back to. You know, they're talented, but they also keep believing and they keep pushing themselves to be at their best. They have big dreams or they wouldn't be there because we don't outperform our dreams. That's why it's really important to believe in the impossible. But they also have like a lot of people who criticize them.

And so I see that when people like say to them, hey, that's impossible or there's no way that you can do that. They actually take it as a dare or a challenge. OK, they do. And they say like, impossible is a dare. Now it all makes sense. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So that's actually what I'm arguing that we should all be thinking that way. So then what do we need to consider about ourselves here when it comes to that? Well, I want you to think about what is your impossible. And this is what I mean. It's like a goal right now that seems impossible. Or perhaps, you know, other people think that it's impossible.

I think about five or six years ago when I decided I wanted to work with the Minnesota Vikings, people thought it was impossible, you know, and they kind of smirked and sometimes even laughed. Did you have people telling you that you wasn't going to see it? Yeah, yeah. You know, and how are you going to do that? Like, tell me, you know, just you could tell by the question that they were asking that it was, you know, it wasn't something that they didn't think that was going to happen. But we all need something big that we're working towards, like a big vision to go after. We need we need that to keep us thriving. We need something that might seem impossible right now.

And I like this quote by Nelson Mandela. He said, it always seems impossible until it's done. Yeah. All right. So how do you see the word impossible? I see it as just temporary, as not permanent, right? Like just what you're saying about the four minute mile that once people do it, everybody follows. And it's really brief. Muhammad Ali said, impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. It's not a declaration. It's a dare. A dare. There we go. Okay. So some examples.

What's your first one? Okay. So I have four examples here today of people who've done the impossible. And I'm going to kind of explain to you why or their reasoning on why they actually were able to do it. So this is from 1903. Orville and Wilbur Wright piloted the first powered airplane 20 feet above the beach in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. And people thought, you know, that it was impossible. And one of the things that they said, you know, this is a quote by Orville Wright, which I really like.

He said, I got more thrill out of flying before I ever had been in the air while laying in my bed thinking about how exciting it would be to fly. Awesome. So he was imagining flying before he even did it. And that's a great example right there, too. So what was imagining flying before he even did it. That was how he believed. A great example right there, too. So what's another one? Sarah Blakely, the founder of Spanx, was getting ready for a party in 1996 when she realized she didn't have the right undergarment to provide a smooth look under her white pants.

So she cut off the feet of her control top pantyhose. And she got the idea. Innovative. Yeah. And she was actually before that, like selling door to door, selling copy machines door to door. So she was named the world's youngest self-made female billionaire by Forbes, one of times 100 most influential people. You know what, Sarah, a billionaire because of Spanx, like that's impossible. And she said this is her main thing

on why she kept on believing. She said it's important that you're willing to make mistakes. The worst thing that can ever happen is that you become memorable. So what's your third example? The third example is Matt Schuetzman, who hit a long distance target, 930 feet, to own a new world record in 2015. And he's known as the armless archer. So because he doesn't have any arms and he he used his bow and arrow using only his feet and shoulders and he broke a record previously

held by an able-bodied person you know break an archery world record without any arms like that's impossible and so he kind of describes one of the reasons he kept on believing is in the impossible is that he was adopted when he was really young, but his parents would let him try anything. They never jumped in to help. And even when he bought his bow, the sporting good clerk said, you know, how are you going to shoot that without any arms? And he said, I don't know, but I'll figure it out. Cool. Another example for us.

All right. Last example. This is Jen Welter, who became the first female NFL coach in 2015. She coached inside linebackers for the Arizona Cardinals. And people think, a female NFL coach? Like, that's impossible. But she said what fuels her to keep believing that it's possible is she said, I want little girls to grow up knowing that they can do anything, even play football.

Good for her. So there's an exercise that we can do. So I want you to think about what are your impossibles? And to do this, I'd encourage you to think about or write down statements that start with what if. So perhaps, okay, maybe you think it's impossible to get in the best shape of your life, or maybe you think it's impossible to buy a new house, or save money for a big vacation with your family or run an ultra marathon. And then write those into,

what if I did get in the best shape of my life? Or what if I did run an ultra marathon? Or what if I did buy the house of my dreams? So take your impossibles, write them into what if questions. What if I did this? Yep. And then what do you do with that? And then what I encourage you to do is think about times where you have done the impossible in your life. And my guess, you've done

the impossible many times where at one point you thought it was impossible. And the key is, is to build your confidence that you can do the impossible. And then look back at your list. One of those what if questions, maybe that's the big impossible goal that you want to reconnect with today that you want to go after. All right. What's the final point? Remember, when you think it's impossible, that the world's best use it as fuel and a dare.

And I think you can keep these examples of people in mind who've done the impossible because nothing legendary has ever happened without someone believing it was once impossible. Nice. What if I did win the Mega Millions jackpot Tuesday night? That might be a little bit more, but I got to buy a ticket in order for it to happen, right? It's going to literally be impossible if I don't have a ticket. That's true.

Let's summarize. This is a good one today, and a good one to start a week with because you're thinking about maybe the difficult things you have to do, and you might be thinking they're impossible. But if you could just reframe this a little bit, then you can achieve it, get it done. And all thanks to what you heard Monday morning in the car on the way to work or on a podcast. So summarize this today.

High performers believe that it is possible, that nothing is impossible. And they find evidence on why they can do the impossible. They have big dreams. They keep on working towards and believe that it is possible. And a power phrase. We like to use the power phrase every week. It's quick and simple on social media. You can grab that.

And what is that today? I defy limitations. I've moved boundaries. I do the impossible because I'm possible. Great stuff right there. If we want to follow along with you or get the book, the workbook that goes along with it, listen to the podcasts, all of it. How do we get in touch with Dr. Sindra Kampach? You can head over to Dr. Sindra, so D-R-C-I-N-D-R-A dot com, and all the information is on there. You can also subscribe

to the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher Radio or iHeart Radio if you want to listen to these regularly. Always good stuff and always very much appreciated on a Monday morning. Thank you very much. Thanks for having me. 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.