High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 215: Make Adversity Work For You

Episode Date: October 25, 2018

“I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become.” Carl Jung High performers develop their resilience. They don’t suppress negative emotions. Instead, they manage them. They make adversity work for them not against them. They are relentless optimists – always believing something good is going to happen. Power Phrase This Week: "I am resilient. I make adversity work for me!" 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. Yeah! There you go. We got music, lights, action. Syndra

Kampoff in high performance mindset. Good morning, Syndra. Good morning. It's great to be here. We're going to talk a little bit about the Sykes on Bikes. They were so awesome yesterday. Awesome. Thank you for saying that. Riding around, giving people some mental tips, some help, and some support as some people just needed some support to cross the Mankato Marathon finish line. Absolutely. Yeah. So today we're talking about how to make adversity work for you. And I think it's a great example of

what people had to do just to finish the race yesterday. You know, it was at the start, it was 29 degrees with a 22-degree wind chill. It was so cold. We were standing up on the finish line, and we weren't even running, but standing there with blankets and everything. And I know the people that were up at the starting line, a lot of them kind of hide out in quick trip and areas like that. Yeah, it was cold. And so, you know, and the wind was really gusty,

15 miles an hour at times. And so people just had to overcome a lot of adversity and they had to be resilient. You know, I read this article in the Free Press that the marathon winner, Jacob Gallagher, said,

you know, today the wind was brutal. Brutal. It was brutal, yeah. Yeah, exactly. And even the top two half marathoners took a wrong turn, ended up finishing ninth and tenth. And so, you know, all these runners could have thrown in the towel, but to finish, they really needed to be resilient.

And Jacob Gallagher, this is the second year that he's won this race. Amazing. So it's pretty cool. Hey, you know what? Give us a quote. We didn't start with your quote. Oh, sure. I really love this quote.

Okay. This is Carl Jung. He said, I am not what happened to me. I am what I choose to become. So he chose to just keep going. A lot of the runners choose to keep going. Absolutely. And I'm sure being at the finish line, you saw that, right?

Where there's just a lot of resilience yesterday. Yeah. So what do you mean by resilience? So I mean, it's the ability to bounce back. You can kind of think about it as your bounce back factor. It's really your ability to adapt and recover. And I think the important thing is that you need adversity to even be resilient. You can't be resilient without it. And it's not something that we're born with. It's actually something that we can learn and we can develop resilience over time. Why do we need to

be resilient? Well, I think because we're not perfect. What I know, we can experience me. I know, I know. I think you are perfect, Logan. But we know we all experience adversity in some way. So you know, I think about in sport, it's a bad call or opponent, you know, talking trash in your face or a loss or a bad start. I know volleyball tournaments coming up this week. So you know, it might be pressure during that. Or in life, it's, you know, sometimes really serious things like a death of a loved one or a loss of a job or an illness. And then we just experience these daily hassles like the weather or adversity with our coworkers. So to be, when we're resilient, we can adapt and recover.

And it doesn't mean we don't experience it. It just means that we can adapt. Kids. And it doesn't mean we don't experience it. It just means that we can adapt. Kids can develop it as well, right? Absolutely. And we should be good role models for that. All right. So how do we go about developing resilience?

So a few weeks ago, I was speaking at the Association for Applied Sports Ecology Conference in Toronto. And I was on this panel with this researcher, Mustafa Sarkar. And he's actually done all this research on resilience. And then I was on this panel with a few other practitioners like this guy who's the IMG head of mental conditioning, Duncan Simpson, and the USOC sports psychologist, Peter Harberall. And we talked about how we developed resilience with our clients. So it's pretty cool to see a broad range of perspectives. And Mustafa, the researcher said this, this is really powerful. He said, it's not suppressing negative emotions,

but having the ability to manage them better. It's not about positive thinking, but exploring alternative ways to view the situation. All right. So what do you want to focus on? So I think let's focus on those two things that he said, that being resilient isn't about suppressing negative emotions. And then the second one, it's just about viewing the situation differently. Reframing. Exactly.

She's got the terminology down. Like I said, thanks, Dr. Kampa. Let's talk about that first one, not suppressing negative emotions. What do you mean by that? So I mean that it doesn't mean suppressing how you're feeling in the moments of adversity, but choosing to feel it and then choosing to see and feel more positive emotions like gratitude. And so actually we know that, you know, people say that they learn a lot about themselves for moments of adversity when they're struggling. And people say that, you know, after hardships that they

have better relationships, even an increased sense of self-worth, heightened appreciation for life. So, you know, there is good that comes from the difficulty. It's just about working through that, not suppressing it. And the second way is to view the situation differently. Can you kind of expand on that a little bit for us? Yeah, for sure. So I'd say, you know, optimists really see life through a positive lens and they see these, you know, bad events, this is temporary. And they look to, you know, that they know that it's the obstacles and opportunities or, you know, obstacles and setbacks are given, but it's really about how they respond to

them that matters. And they are looking to take the optimistic outlook on things. So in my book, I talk about the three op, and that means when you're experiencing a difficulty, looking to see three opportunities. So first of all, I want to know how we use the three op strategy. And we were talking off air. You have a little bit of research that kind of backs this up.

What does that research say as well? So this cool article we're reading in my class today, Minnesota State, and we're reading about how class today, Minnesota State, and we're reading about how the world's best view situations. And this study said that the world's best perceived stressors as opportunities for growth, for development and for mastery. So they're always looking to see the positive. So the way that I would say to use the three op is to think about a difficulty you're experiencing right now.

Okay, so maybe this is, you know, in sports, maybe your game is struggling in some way, or you're kind of behind in your goals for the year, or you have just a difficult relationship with a coworker at work. And then consider what's three opportunities from that. Perhaps it's, you know, an opportunity for you to mend that relationship or reevaluate your goals or find mental strength and i find if you write down these three opportunities you're more likely to be creative and you're more resilient and excited about the possibilities so we were talking about can i give you an example yeah about how you have some new responsibilities this week what what would you say the opportunity is? Well, just some of the other responsibilities that I'm taking on down the hall here at some of our other stations.

It's a long-form interview, which I don't have a ton of experience doing on a topic that I don't have a ton of or any experience with at all. Neither here nor there what it is, but it's forcing me to learn how to become a more able-bodied interviewer because I'm putting myself in an uncomfortable situation and still having to put forth a product here at Radio Man Cato. So through the adversity, I'm gaining some experience that'll help me down the road. I like it. Sounds like a pro. It's all good, man.

It kind of reminds me of things I tell my kids when, you know, if things are difficult, you look for what can you learn from that. So somebody treats you poorly instead of saying, oh my gosh,

you know, they were so mean. Okay, remember how that makes you feel and don't treat other people like that. Absolutely. So there's something

you can learn from it. Absolutely. And I know there's a lot of people who listen with their kids, so we can be a good role model for that too. Model it. So how do you summarize all of this for us?

So I'd say high performers, those people who are working to reach their greater potential, they develop resilience. They don't suppress these negative emotions, but instead they manage them. They make adversity work for them, not against them. And they're always looking for the opportunity because they're just relentless optimists. All right. What's your power phrase for this week? I am resilient.

I make adversity work for me. There you go. I like it. All right. There you go. Thank you so much. Thanks for having me this morning. Ready to tackle a Monday now after High Performance Mindset.

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