High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 210: It’s Necessary to Develop Grit

Episode Date: October 3, 2018

 High performers know it’s necessary for them to develop their grit. They engage in their daily grit session – thinking about where they want to go and why. They dream about their future like Olympians, golfers, and baseball pitchers. They imagine it with VICE . They claim their goals and dreams.   Power Phrase This Week: “I determine my success. I claim my goals and dreams.” 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 is time for High Performance Mindset today on The Country Club with Dr. Sindra Kampoff. Good morning, Sindra. Good morning. It's great to be here. Good to have you here. And I like the topic today. It's necessary to develop grit. Yes.

Have you, this is just a side note before we get into this, have you seen the new Philadelphia Flyers hockey mascot? I did. I saw it last weekend on Twitter. And his name is Gritty, and he's terrifying. He's the thing of nightmares, although also quite hilarious. So, it's necessary to develop grit is the topic today. What's the quote we're going to start with? Okay, this is George Sheehan. He said, success means having the courage, the determination, and the will to become the person you believe you are meant to be.

That's awesome. That's great. So we have a story that we like to start with every week. Where do we go with this? So I've been, you know, I'm watching sports. I watch them differently, I think, than most people, to be honest. But one of the things I always notice is when like Olympians or high jumpers, for example, Major League Baseball pitchers, golfers, you know, their pre-performance routine, and they always imagine success before they start.

You know, so you'll see the high jumper, for example, stand there and imagine the rep before they go and do it. And they see it, they experience it, they feel it, and they see themselves going over the bar before they even do it. And they connect to that feeling. And we all need to do that. I think too many of us kind of let the conditions of our life determine our success instead of imagining what we want and going after it.

And that's what GRIT is all about. I like the track and field reference because there's so much visualization that goes into events and track and field. I mean, not just to take away from any other sports. It also is very big in golf and everywhere. I mean, we've talked before about even baseball. You know, it just is a really, I think the visualization thing is underrated and not enough people do it or know about it or learn about it.

So why is this topic important today? Well, it's not someone's talent that leads to success. It's really their grit. And this research comes from Angela Duckworth. And she talks about how their persistence and passion for their long-term goals is what drives them to commit hours and hours to what's needed. And to have grit, I think you need to imagine what you want and connect with what you want and stick with it. And that's a big predictor of success is imagining success.

And it's a person's grit that leads to being successful, not their talent or gift that they were born with. So what would you tell us to do here? I'm thinking about people that are now, what, three weeks away from Mankato Marathon weekend. Yes, I know. And training is ramping up and not everybody is in the taper phase yet. So things are sometimes, you just got to be pretty gritty to get through a long run to get to the ultimate goal.

So that's one of the things I thought of. So where do we go with that? What do you tell us to do? Well, I think you need to imagine what it is that you want and then pursue that dream passionately. And I think most people kind of go after their goals half-heartedly. Every time they maybe start thinking about it or dreaming about it, they tell themselves the reasons that they can't. Or that what we really need to do is we need to keep that hunger alive and that desire to go after our goals. And I see what the best do is they really do have this deep excitement or hunger that there's something more for themselves.

And then they try to work towards that and they seek it. So if we want to be like the best, if we want to be grittier, like I think most of us probably think, yeah, I could be grittier, right? Yeah, for sure. What do most of us do before I ask you what we should be doing? I think most of us kind of become our problems. And I was thinking about this analogy, sort of like a deer in the headlights, that when we have a problem, we stay so focused on the problem that we get hit by the problem.

And so most people kind of disqualify themselves because maybe someone told them that they can't. Or when they do think about their future, they imagine themselves failing in their mind. And then, you know, every time they start dreaming, they tell themselves the reasons that they can't. All right. So what should we do instead of these reasons we can't? Well, today we're really talking about claiming that goal and that dream and then imagining it. And I think why we need to claim it is because they belong to you. And we talked about this a little bit last week that no one else can do what you were intended to do when you fill a unique role in this world. And when we don't pursue our dreams, like something

is missing. And so it doesn't matter what's happened in the past or, you know, the key is to really claim those goals and declare what you want. I think if you write them down, it becomes more concrete. And then imagine what it feels like to accomplish those goals. So why do we need to be really careful with ourselves and be patient? Yes. I think it's, you know, okay, so today we're talking about it's necessary to develop grit. Grit doesn't mean just like thinking about what your goals are and then forgetting them, right? It's necessary to stick with them and it's necessary to continue despite adversity or setbacks. And I think the key is, is that we shouldn't panic or give up or quit. And every single person has to overcome

difficulties and obstacles along their way to reach their goals. And lots of times we have to search within ourselves, you know, on what it's going to take and how we need to make it happen. But everybody experiences obstacles. I think sometimes we put these other people on pedestals and say, well, they don't experience difficulty, but every single person does. All right. We have these conversations in my house all the time with our kids. Let's talk about personal responsibility. It's important to take responsibility for your thoughts and your actions. Yeah, for sure. So, you know, today we're talking about developing your grit. And, you know,

I think when you think about goals and going after your dreams, it's easy to kind of blame conditions or maybe blame someone else like a coach or a teacher or a parent. But I think it's important as we're talking about grit is to think about, you know, that you determine your success. And, you know, it's not the obstacles or conditions that determine your success or, you know, people wouldn't get over them. But you can see, you know, other people moving past these obstacles. So no one, no one can ever do what you do. Right. So I think owning that is important. So what happens if, what do you say to somebody that they're not sure of their goals? We're not sure. I'm not sure of what I want to do.

I'm not sure of how to get there. I don't know. That's a good question because I think a lot of people are searching for that. And even if you're 30 or 40 or 60, you know, and you're listening, you're like, I don't really have any goals. You know, I think people experience that a lot. I think the key is they have to keep searching and looking and trying something new. And then ask yourself like is this is this what i'm intended to do is this meant for me would i do this if i wasn't paid for

it i think that's that's really a good question to ask yourself it's a hard because that's your passion right yeah that's what you do yeah absolutely and then keep asking yourself for that like don't don't settle and i think that's really really important. I think of Jim Carrey, and when he first moved to Hollywood, he would engage in what's called, well, at least I call his daily grit session, where he would kind of look over Mulholland Drive and look over the city. And every

day he would think about what he wanted to do and where he wanted to go. And one day he wrote himself a check. Oh, I love this story. After making a $100 gig as a stand-up comic, he knew that's exactly what he did. He didn't want to be a stand-up comic, but he wrote himself a check. Oh, I love this story. After making a $100 gig as a stand-up comic, right? He knew that's exactly what he did. He didn't want to be a stand-up comic, but he wrote himself a check for $10 million.

And it was in his own checkbook, and he put it in his wallet, and then he would see it every day when he was going to get groceries or going to pay for gas. But he imagined success, and then actually, five years later, he got a $10 million check for Dumb and Dumber. I think because he said his intention is what he wanted to do.

That's great. So how do we imagine our own success then? So kind of what TJ was saying when we started, imagery is a powerful mental skill. It's reported to be used by 99% of the world's best. It's almost everybody at the highest level uses imagery. And the more you use it, the better you become at it. And so I just tweeted yesterday a VICE acronym and got a lot of retweets and likes. And so the VICE acronym is like how to do the imagery. And it stands for V means vivid. So imagine what you want vividly.

I is intensity, like with the same excitement and feeling. And then C is controllability. That just means like controlling the image. And E is feel the same emotions that it would feel to accomplish that. And I think just like Jim Carrey, you can give yourself time for your daily grit session to think about what do you want and where are you going, especially if you're really not sure. I think you got to reconnect with that. So safe to say some people manage it a little bit better and maybe it's a little bit more in the forefront for them. But everybody has the ability to be gritty. Some of us just need to train ourselves on it a little bit more. Like you said, to have that daily grit session to figure out what you're going after.

How do you summarize this topic today? So I'd say high performers, those people who are working to reach their greater potential, they know it's necessary for them to develop their grit and continue to develop their grit. They engage in this daily grit session that we're talking about, thinking about where they want to go and why. And they dream about their future, just like Olympians and golfers and baseball pitchers. They imagine it with vice. And they claim their goals and dreams. Good stuff on a Monday morning. What's our power phrase to wrap up with?

I determine my success. I claim my goal and dreams. Get out and get after it today. Let's go. If we want to get in touch with you or listen to the podcast, or I know that, like you said, you tweeted this vice thing, and you're right. I watched it blow up on Twitter, and people were very excited about it. We can follow along with you in several ways. How do we do that? You can head over to my website, Dr. Sindra. So it's D-R-C-I-N-D-R-A. And then the podcast is on iTunes, iHeartRadio, Switcher Radio,

and it's called A High Performance Mindset. So you can re-listen to this or others on there or share them with other people like your kids or colleagues, friends. Excellent. Good stuff to listen to in the car, on the way to work maybe when you're not listening to the country club in the morning. Exactly.

But always listen to the country club. Right. Always listen to the country club. And then mindset. And then mindset. In the afternoon. Yeah, on the drive home. Yeah, there we go.

Nobody needs to learn that coolly. Right. Dr. Cinder Kampoff with us today for High Performance Mindset. Thank you very much. Thanks for having me. Thank you for listening to High Performance Mindset. If you like today's 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.