High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 207: How to Believe That “Impossible = I’m Possible”

Episode Date: September 20, 2018

“Nothing is impossible…the word itself says ‘I’m possible.’” Audrey Hepburn High performers turn “Impossible” to “I’m possible.” They believe that impossible is an opinion. They consider all of the ways they can make it happen. They continuously check in with themselves and their emotional needs. One way they do this is by reading. In other words, they develop the daily discipline to make their goals into reality. Power Phrase: “I do the impossible because I am 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. Dr. Sindra Kampoff with us today. High Performance Mindset on the Country Club. Good morning, Sindra. Good morning. It's great to be here. Crazy day yesterday. Just crazy in all sorts of ways, right? Yes. So let's focus on one of the really positive crazy things that happened yesterday. Just crazy in all sorts of ways, right? Yes. So let's focus on one of the really positive crazy things that happened yesterday. Let's not talk about that game.

Let's do something else. Good idea. We didn't lose. That's true. We're spinning a positive angle there. When there was four seconds left, I looked at my wife and said, we can't lose. We either win or tie. And she goes, yeah, you got a point there. We'll get a chance to play them again at least one more time, right?

At home. At home in our house where things will hopefully go our direction. So a completely different topic than football today. Yesterday, the world record. World record. I was going to say records were broken. And the marathon was broken in Berlin. And so our topic today is what we can learn from the marathon world record holder.

We always like to start with a quote. Go for it. Audrey Hepburn said, nothing is impossible. The word itself says I'm possible. All right. So let's start with the story. So this weekend, Kenya's Elliot Kipchoge smashed the world record marathon world record by clocking a time of two hours, one minute and 39 seconds.

So that equals a four minute and 38 second mile for 26.2 miles. He ran a negative split too. And for those that don't know, that means he ran the second half of the marathon faster than he ran the first half. Ridiculous. Ridiculous. I know there's a lot of people thinking that's impossible. And even if you don't care about distance running or world records, I think Kipchoge's accomplishment is worth talking about what the body is capable of and how we can put limits in our mind that end up becoming part of what we do. And so I think one of the reasons that the marathon is so popular

just for us everyday people is because it really does help us push our bodies and see what we're capable of physically and mentally. He is, there was an endeavor not too long ago, and I stayed up in the middle of the night to watch it on the internet. They were trying to break two hours in a marathon. Nike was sponsoring this. And it wasn't going to be a legal world record if they broke it because they

used a number of different things. Like they had a pace car out there and they were able to draft behind it. And they had rabbits, which are people that go out and help pace them and then drop off and jump in. But they were just trying to see if the human body could actually, in fact, get under two hours in that distance. And it didn't happen,

but it was two hours and something seconds. He came close. I think 25 seconds. Yeah. They came very, very close to it. Weather conditions weren't ideal for it. But this, I mean, being a minute and 38 seconds or whatever it was, 39 seconds away from breaking that,'s possible it is quite possibly possible and i think about

that we've talked about that four minute mile before absolutely and how everybody thought running a mile under four minutes was impossible until it happened until someone did it and then a number of people yeah like 37 people in the next couple of years ended up breaking the four minute mile and so i think it's a great example of like believing it's possible, sticking with it. And then other people say, oh, yeah, I can do that, too. And then you look at these guys that get done and they're just so humble. They come from humble roots. You know, what are you going to do now?

Well, I'm probably going to have a snack size Snickers and, you know, I'm like, no, I even tweeted it. I was like, if I ran that, I'd be doing cheeseburger angels in my hotel room bed while people were pouring beer over the top of me. And then I said, of course, who are we kidding? I'd do that if I ran a four and a half hour marathon. So this was phenomenal to wake up and see that that record was broken. There are others that are pushing the limits of what we think is also possible. Can you explain some of those other people and what they're doing? Sure. So a couple of other examples, even within running, is like Scott Jurek, the ultra marathoner, set a new world record by running the Appalachian Trail in 46 days. And this works out to 47 miles a day for a month and a half. And once he did it,

two other people broke that same record. Or Dean Karnitz ran 50 marathons in 50 days in 50 states and other people followed. And so, you know, whether it's in running or athletics or not in athletics, the point of today is like believing in the impossible. And once you do it, right, other people follow. All right. So let's let's go back to the marathon here. What do you think is at the heart of Kipchoge's success? What got him to this world record yesterday? Which, by the way, shattered the world record by almost a couple minutes, wasn't it? Yeah, it was, I think, a minute and 20 seconds. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, so he is the most declarated marathoner right now. And I think the small things that he does is the small things that make all the difference. So he has intense self-discipline. He gets out of bed at 5 a.m. every single morning for his morning runs. He records every single workout and notebook. He has 15 notebooks now that document every workout that he's had as an elite runner. But he's also humble, you said.

So he still does the hard stuff. He cleans toilets in his village and things like that. So he does the small things that really make a big difference. I read that on his slow recovery run days that he runs like a nine and a half minute mile, which to a marathon runner that's a pro like that. Yeah, that's like on your hands and knees slow. But he's you know, he's doing the things that he needs to do to be successful. So and what he what does he also said about his mindset? So even this morning, he tweeted, no human is limited. And so he says things like, you know, the only disciplined one, one's in life are free. And if you're undisciplined, you're a slave to your moods and your passion.

Then he said, you know, it's not about the legs when I'm running. It's all about my heart and my mind. You know, and even yesterday after the race, he said, you know, yeah, sure, it was hard. But I'm, you know, I never stopped believing in myself. Okay. And he's done a lot of research too, right? He reads a lot. He follows up.

He finds a way to get in the right mindset. Tell us some more about that. So he reads everything from Aristotle to sports biographies to self-help manuals. His favorite book is The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. And if you know anything about that book, it's classic to leadership. Yeah. He takes notes. He writes in detail after he reads. And so he's a studier, and he's a student of mindset.

And one time he wrote this formula in his notes, and it said, motivation plus discipline equals consistency. I think that's kind of at the heart of kind of how he lives and why he's so good. Man. So how does this relate to what high performers actually do? Because we always take this and we're talking about running right now, but really take it and parlay it into any area of your life. Absolutely. And so, you know, the things that he said relates to his success and has led to a success is things that all of us can implement. And, you know, there's two things that I think how it relates first.

You know, the best do read and they get their mind right. And so I just read or I just interviewed Mark Strickland on the podcast. His interview comes out this week and he's a sports psychologist for the Oakland A's in Major League Baseball. And when I asked him, like, what do the best of the best do? And he said, you know, they continuously check in with themselves and their emotional needs. And one of the things that they do is read. And one of the things that Kipchoge said is that he is a study.

He's a student of mindset. So how does this relate to what high performers do? So I think they don't put limits on their abilities or their achievements and they consider all the ways that they can make it happen. And I go back to the quote that we started today. You know, Audrey Hepburn said, nothing is impossible. The word itself says I'm possible. And, you know, he believes that he's limitless and then that's the way he ends up living. All right. So now we're talking to the people that are other going, yeah, yeah, yeah. But why is it so important for us to think about this and consider just like, take a moment, stop and consider it? Well, because we personally don't outperform our self image. And we personally

don't outperform what we think is possible. So we rarely outperform our goals and our dreams. And we rarely, you know, achieve more than we set out to do. So it is really important that we dream big that we really think about what are the ways that we can make it possible and that we think I'm possible instead, so that we push past our own limitations and the limitations that other people might put on us maybe unintentionally. All right. I'm starting to think of some things that people might think are impossible, like I've got all this debt, I can't pay this debt off, or I can't lose this weight, or I can't achieve what I need to achieve in my job. I need to find a job where I'm happy. Absolutely. Those are all the things that I think how we can relate this story.

How do you strategize that to yourself? Like how do I how do I sit and consider that and go, what is possible now for me? So first, you know, in my book, I talk about turning impossible to I'm possible. I talk about it as an exercise in one of the chapters. And so consider what you think is impossible for you to accomplish and then write these impossibles into what ifs. So what if I lost weight? What if I paid off my debt? What if I found someone to spend my life with?

You know, what if I found a job that represents my purpose? What if I ran a race? What if I, you know, got the job of my dreams? And then, you know, so that you start thinking about what are the possibilities, not just once you think of those things, say, no, I can't do it. But then I think the next step is really, what's the discipline and the daily habits that you need to do to get there? And I think maybe that's where

some people say, well, I couldn't do that. But just like Kipchoge, right? You have to stick with something even when it's hard. And just asking yourself, what am I willing to do to put in that effort? Tell me why writing it down is so important. Because you see it, you commit to it, and it's a visual reminder of what you need to do. So when you think about what's a big thing you're going after, what would be your impossible, if you write it down and you put it somewhere like on your mirror or in your planner, you're reminding yourself of it daily, what you need to do to get it done.

We just talked about this an hour ago during our music news because Dierks Bentley got rid of his smartphone and got a flip phone with a... Screensaver. Well, a Denver, Colorado area code because it's where he wants to end up eventually. Nice, cool. And then he's way into making his passwords

into goals that he has. So my password is, you know, millionaire. That's what we joked about earlier. But to set it out there so that every time you have to type in that password, you're reminded of that goal you've set for yourself. Those small things make a big difference because you're programming your mind to think about what you

want. And it doesn't happen overnight. You have to commit to it. And I think this Elliot Kipchoge is a fine example of that. As I mentioned, he was part of that Nike Breaking 2 thing. Almost did it, and I think having maybe run a two-hour marathon

behind a Tesla electric vehicle to draft and all that, maybe gave him a little bit of a hint of, I could get this done. It's possible. And look at what he did. He shattered the world record. So how do we summarize this topic for today? It's a good one. So high performers, those people out there working to reach their greater potential,

they turn impossible to I'm possible. And they consider all the ways they can make it happen. They do continuously check in with themselves and their emotional needs. And they can do this by reading, right? By studying mindset. And they develop the daily discipline to make their goals into reality. Nice. And that's going to lead us right into today's power phrase.

We've said it a couple times this morning already, and it is? I do the impossible because I'm possible. All right. By the way, 12.9 miles per hour is the speed he averaged. I could barely ride a bike that fast. So fast. And he just cruised through to the finish line, and that smile on his face was phenomenal. Congratulations to him.

That was really fun to see. So if we want to do some good reading. Yes. I know there happens to be a book out there that will help us out quite a bit, or maybe even listen to a podcast or learn more or even get in touch with you about maybe a speaking engagement or more. What's the best way to get in touch with Dr. Sindra Kampoff? You can go over to Dr.

So D-R-C-I-N-D-R-A. So DrSindra.com. And you can find the book there. It's called Beyond Grit. And you can put in a free code, free ship, all capital letters and free shipping on the book. And it talks all about mindset and the practices that you need to be a performer. All right, cool. If you're a track and field kind of geek like I am too, you'll also know that not only did the Mar marathon world record go down, but the decathlon world record went down yesterday. Ashton Eaton's record went down and the guy that broke it, also a physical specimen. If you want to Google him, it's ridiculous. The guy looks better than most people should. He's just a chiseled Adonis. Congratulations to him on that. That was a fun day. As far as that kind of

stuff goes, world records going down. Cindra with us today for high performance mindset on the country club thanks for coming in thank you so much for having me today 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 cindra's free weekly videos check