High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 242: The Power of Passion

Episode Date: April 5, 2019

“There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.” Nelson Mandela   High performers cultivate their passion. They work to get and keep the good kind of passion – harmonious passion.  They work to keep their results separate from their identity and stay focused on improving their craft.   Power Phrase this Week: “I stay passionate about my craft. I stay focused on the process and being the best I can be.”

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. We are joined by Dr. Sindra Kampoff for High Performance Mindset on The Country Club today. Good morning, Sindra. Good morning. It's great to be here. Good to be back and saddle up here. I need this now to get my whole mindset correct again after a week-long vacation. He's been eating and drinking

whatever he wants. That's what his problem is. Just all the things in front of me. They were gone. Well, they were paid for, so I prepaid for them. I felt like I had to get my money's worth, so I did that.

Why not, huh? Yep, sat back and watched my basketball. Did you do a bracket this year? I did. I did it with my family, and I'm winning right now. not, huh? Yep. Sat back and watched my basketball. Did you do a bracket this year? I did. I did it with my family and I'm winning right now. Oh yeah, baby. I was doing so well for a while. I was bouncing around between like first and second and maybe third.

And I thought, hey, you know what? I'm actually all right at this for not having watched any basketball this season. And then yesterday. I know. Yeah. Then yesterday. Now I'm in fifth. And I'm not going to win.

There's only one guy in our whole pool that picked Michigan State. Oh, wow. And so he's, I'm guessing, going to win that now. In the Final Four or to win? Yeah, I think he picked them to win the whole thing. Oh, wow. But they just knocked off Duke, so that was big points for him. Wow.

Everybody else in the league, I think everybody but me and one other person besides him, picked Duke to win it all. And so they're all going down the drain now. So anyway, on to our topic for today. And we'll kind of work the bracket in for those of you that played one here in just a moment. But our topic is the power of passion. And we always start with a quote. What's today's quote?

Nelson Mandela said, There's no passion to be found playing small and settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living. Okay, that's pretty cool. An example for us. All right, so last year in the NCAA men's basketball tournament, Virginia men's basketball was the first number one seed to ever lose to a number six seed in the NCAA tournament. So there's a lot of publicity about that. And this year, their coach, Tony Bennett, said that this actually, this moment of adversity

and national adversity brought their team or their family together, he said. And he said, what happened last year, it created a fire in me that I wanted to become a better coach and pursue trying to get these guys as far as they can. And this year, they're in the final four. So I like how they took this moment of adversity to get better. Sure. And you hear about that from time to time, but you never really study as just kind of going about your daily life as to how to make that work in your everyday life too. So what are we talking about today with the power of passion? So for a team to rebound and really embrace

the adversity, the experience, and maybe even embarrassment at a national level, they really had to stay passionate about what they're doing. And today we're talking about two types of passion, something that's called harmonious passion and another type that's called obsessive passion. Ooh, that doesn't sound good. No, no. So kind of a good type and a not so good type. All right. And the key is to keep it good, helpful. Let's dig in here. What is the power of passion? So we know that following your passion is linked to long-term performance,

to health, to vitality, and overall life satisfaction. And I think the good type of passion, you're engaged in the activity because you really experience joy when you're doing it. You're doing it because it's something that you love, not because of the rewards or the results. And I think cultivating your passion is something that we have to deliberately do. It doesn't always happen by chance. This is the harmonious. So there is a bad side to passion, right? There is. And this is when your passion can allow you to be kind of blind to anything else. But your passion can take over your life and you can burn out. You can lose excitement and joy.

We in sports psychology, we call this obsessive passion. Your passion can become dark, can be tied to your self-worth and to things outside that you can't control, achievement or external results. And when it's tied to external results, that's really when you burn out. So it's a bad type. I feel like I'm trying to think of a good example, like someone who loves to go fishing, right? And then they decide they're going to open up a charter fishing business. And now the business part of it becomes so much that it's the passion of fishing has gone away.

And now you're struggling with that. You still love to fish, but it's now work. Absolutely. Absolutely. So if you think of it along those lines, and it has to be something you're very, very passionate about But it's one thing to grab some bait and go fishing

And another to have a boat and insurance and clients And make it your livelihood Terrifying a little bit too though But sometimes you've got to step outside the box So what if people don't know what they're passionate about? How do you figure out what your passion is? That's a good question I would encourage you to think of somebody do you figure out what your passion is? That's a good question.

You know, I would encourage you to think of somebody who you would say that you know is passionate. And, you know, they started by trying something. I think that's the key. If you're not sure what your passion is, you've got to try new things. You know, when something piques your interest, try it. Give yourself, you know, just a yes to try it. And how else will you know? Right. I think that's really important.

So what do you think the take-home point is today? I think the take-home point is there is this fine line between obsessive and harmonious passion, right? But you can decide which you'll follow. And the key is to focus on the process of getting better, enjoying the activity because it's something you like, and less about the results. I think that's when it becomes obsessive. And when I think about in my life when it has become obsessive, it's tied to the results, like maybe winning a race or something like that. And the key is to stay focused on improving your craft,

being the best that you can be. I kind of like this topic, I'm not going to lie, coming out on a Monday after spring break for a lot of people. And I'm sure there's a lot of this, of this thought going on between kids and parents and everybody. Yep. Got to get back to real life. So what is a good way to summarize today's topic for us? So high performers cultivate their passion.

They work to get and to keep the good kind of passion, harmonious passion. And they work to keep their results separate from their identity. Stay focused on improving themselves and their craft. Nice. And there's always a power phrase that goes with these segments on Mondays. What's that? I stay passionate. I stay focused on the process and being the best I can be.

All right. We put a lot out there today, but of course, there's always so much more. If we want to get in touch with you, Sindra, how do we do that? You can head over to Dr. Sindra. So D-R-C-I-N-D-R-A dot com. And that's where you can find the book or more information about the podcast. All right. There's a lot of good stuff on those podcasts, too, if you're looking for some good stuff to listen to, whether it's while you're working out or

walking or driving to work or, I mean, driving home from work after you're done listening to The Country Club with TJ and Lisa. But of course, High Performance Mindset is right here every Monday morning on The Country Club. Thank you, Sindra. Thanks for having me. Thank you for listening to High Performance Mindset. If here every Monday morning on The Country Club. Thank you, Sindra. Thanks for having me. 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 Sindra's free weekly videos, check out DrSindra.com.