High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 24: Finish 2015 with a BANG

Episode Date: December 31, 2015

To finish 2015 with a BANG, Cindra provides 5 questions for us to consider as we reflect on the past year. She recommends we answer these questions before setting goals for 2016 to ensure our 2016 goals align with our priorities and values. The 5 questions include: 1. If you had to describe 2015 in 5 words, what would they be? 2. What one event, big or small, made the biggest impact? 3. What new things did you discover about yourself? 4. What was your biggest ha-ha moment this year? 5. What one thing would you do differently and why?

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. Welcome to the High Performance Mindset. This is your host, Sindra Kampoff, and thank you so much for joining me today. You know, a few weeks ago, I ran my 12th marathon, the California International Marathon in Sacramento, California. And I love running and training for marathons for many reasons. I love the training because it's difficult. You know, it takes dedication and commitment to train for a marathon than actually

run it. And what you put into your training is really what you get out on race day. You can't fake it. There's so many things I love about the actual race day. I love the physical and mental strength that it takes to run 26.2 miles. And as I was running this race a few weeks ago, I had an aha moment. Many, in fact, throughout the race. But my biggest aha moment came at mile 23. My pace was spot on until then, just really consistent. And I had stayed really positive with a grateful perspective only using empowering self-talk throughout the first 23 miles and my phrase in this marathon was I am courageous. You're like I just kept on thinking about how much courage it takes to run a marathon but as I got to mile 23 with only three miles to go the fatigue set in. My legs became stiff and more difficult to move.

And the lactic acid set in. My pace slowed. Oh, and for a second I thought, man, this sucks. Why did I sign up for this race? And I could have let that stinking thinking continue. But what I decided to do was to be more disciplined with my thinking, to go back to my positivity. And I actually laughed out loud during the race for a few moments. And I said to myself, keep going, Sandra, stay courageous. And that's exactly what I did. I kept pushing and moving towards the finish line. You know, my aha moment in that race was that life is so much like a marathon, that it takes courage to keep moving. You know, our daily training prepares us for our race that we have in our life. But it doesn't always feel great. In fact, sometimes it

sucks. You know, have you ever felt that way that you really weren't sure how to continue? The fatigue set in and you wanted to give in. But you found a way because you made the decision to keep going, to keep persisting. Even though your legs hurt and your body was fatigued, you kept a good attitude. And that attitude made all the difference. You decided to live courageously. You know, as Socrates said, the unexamined life is not worth living. In this marathon, I had many aha moments.

But this aha moment that I ascribe to you is that it takes courage to keep moving. And courage is the strength in times of difficulty. It's the strength in times of discomfort or pain. It's the strength in times of grief. You can't have courage without the yucky stuff that happens. Now that was my aha moment in this race. But what have your aha moments been this year? This is a perfect time to reflect on the past year. Consider your aha moments and the progress that you have made in 2015. You know it's easy at this time of the year to start thinking about 2016.

You start setting goals for what you'd like to do in the future. But reflecting on the past is equally as important because it allows us to celebrate and reflect on what you've learned. And it allows you to pause to not only celebrate, but to reflect, to take inventory and to think about what you've learned in the past year. And so for many of us, you know, self-reflection is a missing piece in our lives. We get so busy and frankly sometimes we're really tired. So it's really hard for us to reflect on what we really have learned and the progress that we've made. So today I encourage you to slow down, to think about 2015 and to reflect on the past year. And I encourage you to do this before you set your goals in 2016 so that you can ensure that your goals for 2016 are in line with your priorities and your values.

And today I'm going to provide you with five questions for you to consider in 2015. And I would encourage you to write these questions down and to reflect on them write your answers down so that you can really have the insights that you deserve and I recommend that you do this a few few days before you set goals for 2016 so you can really reflect on what happened in 2015 for you. Okay, my friends, here are the five questions. Number one, if you had to describe 15 words or 2015 in five words, what would they be? You know, as you think about this question, just think about what was your year really about? You know, what are the five words or feelings that you lived by in 2015? What was really important to you

in 2015? And that will help you answer the five words that really stand out to you about the past year. And if you have a Twitter account, I would encourage you to post those five words with the hashtag 2015 in five words. Now my five words this year that I tweeted a few weeks ago were dreams really do come true. And I tweeted that for a few reasons. First because that's what I see my purpose in this life is to help people, you know, give them the strategies and the tools and teach them the strategies and the tools. So they can really allow their dreams to become reality. But my dreams have really happened at a new level for this year. The podcast is one of those dreams that I had that I was able to implement.

So, you know, what are your five words this year? How would you describe 2015 the second question is what's one event big or small that made a the biggest impact for you and as you answer this question think about what really happened this past year for you what was exciting what changed your life for the better and I encourage you to write and reflect on that so what's one event or small, that made the biggest impact? Now for me, I was invited to be in this competition last February called Dancing with the Stars.

Now it's not the Dancing with the Stars that you might see on NBC, although it was very similar to that, but it was a dancing competition in my hometown that raised money for the American Red Cross. And I was asked to be one of the people that was paired with a pro, a pro dancer. And in five weeks, just short, five short weeks, I learned dubstep, which is a form of hip hop. And I danced in front of 3000 people. Now what was amazing about this is that I had to really overcome my own fears. And I really had to get comfortable being

uncomfortable. I had to push past my comfort zone. And that's the biggest event that made the largest impact in my life. Because what I really learned about what I could do and afterwards I thought paying if I can learn dubstep in five weeks and a dance in front of 3,000 people I can do anything I put my mind to so what's one event big or small for you that made the biggest impact number three what new things did you discover about yourself as you reflect on that think about what did you learn about yourself this year what new knowledge did you gain about your daily performance what new knowledge did you gain about your own psychology what new knowledge do you gain about the impact that you could have or that you could make in this

world and number four what's the biggest aha moment that you could have or that you could make in this world. And number four, what's the biggest aha moment that you had this year? You know, I consider aha moments as a moment of realization, of inspiration, of new insight, a time that you really saw something differently. What was an aha moment for you this year? And what were your biggest aha moments? I had several.

One is from dancing with the stars. Another was from the marathon that I described above. And the last question is, what's one thing that you would do differently and why? What would you change if you could? What would you do over? You know, we're all imperfect. And I added this last question as last to help you think about next year and where you want to go.

Because reflecting on what you'd like to do differently in 2015 will set you up for thinking about 2016. For me, I spent way too much time worrying. Worrying about the podcast, worrying about my future, worrying about the impact that I would make in this world, instead of trusting, trusting that I had the ability and trusting that I was on the right course. So that's one thing I will change in 2016. As philosopher Soren Kierkegaard said, life can only be understood backwards, but must be lived forwards. So this year, spend some time reflecting on last year so you can be ready to set goals for 2016. What happened in your life in 2015 that was impactful and reflecting on this will allow you to be ready

for your dreams to become reality in 2016 so thank you so much for joining me my friends I hope that you found value today in these five questions and it set you up for a great and incredible 2016. And I would love to hear from you. What questions would you like answered in this new year about mindset? What topics would you like to be to see covered in the High Performance Mindset podcast? You can send me a tweet at mentally underscore strong or as always you can connect with me via email at syndra at syndracampoff.com. My friends, make it an outstanding year.

Have a happy new year, my friends. And this year, be mentally strong. Thank you for listening to High Performance Mindset. Are you signed up for Sindra's weekly email with free mental tools and strategies for high performance? Why the heck not? Text MENTALLYSTRONG, all one word, to 22828 or visit sindracampoff.com.