High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 291: What is Your Superpower?

Episode Date: November 25, 2019

“No one is you. And that is your superpower.”— Anonymous High performers know and embrace their strengths. They use their strengths to make a difference in the world and work from their strengths. They are self-aware of their kryptonite so they understand themselves and what takes them off their best. Power Phrase this Week: “I embrace my superpowers to be at my best more often and make a difference in the world.”

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 with Dr. Sindra Kampoff. Happy birthday, Sindra. Thank you. Celebrated yesterday. Do anything fun? Oh, we just had great dinner, friends over, family time.

It was a really great birthday. It's nice when all the teams are on a bye. Yeah, I know. It was a free day for Sandra to do what she wanted. It was a great weekend. That's pretty cool. Today we're talking, what is your superpower? Let's start with a quote.

Okay, this is an anonymous quote. No one is you and that is your superpower. That's pretty good. I heard something similar to that recently and I can't remember it. So we'll just glance over it and move on from there. You have an example to start with today? So last month I was providing leadership training for consolidated communication. So much fun. And every morning one of their leaders would speak about their job. And one of the leaders one day talked about his superpower and his kryptonite and had us think about ours. And I've been reading about the idea ever since and thought I'd provide it

just as a summary today to help people. All right. So what are we talking about today in regards to the practices in your book that help us with this superpower thing? So this connects to practice eight in my book, Beyond Grit, about embracing your authenticity. And so today we're talking about, you know, not like the superheroes, not Batman or Wonder Woman or, you know, Thor or Iron Man. But it's really about you and what makes you uniquely you. What are you really good at?

And that's your superpower. And so superheroes use their superpower as a sense of great responsibility. They know that their superpower helps them make a difference in the world, and I think we can all use our superpower in that way. Okay, good. So why are understanding our superpower is important, and do you have some examples for us? Yeah, and it doesn't need to, you know, you think about superheroes, you're maybe thinking,

well, I can't jump from tall buildings to another or I don't have this great strength. I think physical attributes, but it's not necessarily always that. Absolutely. In fact, our strengths can be really simple and simplicity doesn't make them less powerful. So here's a few examples. Maybe you persist through adversity really well. Or maybe your superpower is that you really like to understand things and you often know a lot about a lot of things. Or maybe your superpower is you're confident and you're willing to take charge.

I've been thinking about my superpower since then. And I think my superpower is to take really complex psychological ideas into really easy to understand terms. Sure. I think that's kind of what I try to do. I would say, I know you're going to ask me I'm not afraid of the public speaking thing That so many people are afraid of I'll get up on stage

I'll facilitate something Or I'll host an event if you need me to I don't know if that's a super power or not But I know a lot of people list Public speaking as terrifying to them And I'm just Not necessarily that way. It's not that I need the spotlight, but it's just something that I can do.

We can get through it. We can get it done. And some people are so worried about making a mistake when they do something like that. And I've gotten fairly decent at being able to brush that off, but not always. And I think you're great at you're uniquely you two up there, right like you don't worry about what other people are thinking about you and that's what can really get in people's way when they're public speaking is they're thinking about the audience instead of just enjoying the moment. I've never had to picture everybody naked let's go that way. That's good. I'm not sure that works. Right so now that's superpowers we're talking

about why is this important to understand that? What our superpowers are? How do we go from there? So I think when you know your superpowers, you can really work from them. You can embrace them and use them more often. And what the research shows is that when we know our strengths and use them, we have greater satisfaction at work, more engagement, and we're more productive. All right. Because it just takes less effort when we're really working from our superpowers. So the key is that you've got to grow them, develop them, and celebrate them. So let's talk about what none of us want to talk about now.

Yeah, exactly. What's our kryptonite? So the flip side of your superpower is your kryptonite. And this is either something that gets under your skin, something that doesn't help you, or something you really struggle with. And this is a thing that really keeps you from reaching your potential, maybe even creates damage around you or something you really struggle with. And this is a thing that really keeps you from reaching your potential, maybe even creates damage around you or within you.

All right. So do you have examples for us? I do. So I have a really good friend who's so empathetic that she can get caught up on other people's drama or difficulties. And she takes so much like on herself. And that really is her kryptonite. Maybe you like to learn and learn and learn about something, but then you don't take action. Like I have another friend who just like does all this research about a Christmas gift and then never buys it. Right. Right. Or maybe you don't handle conflict well and try to avoid it. I think my superpower is negativity and particularly other people's negativity because I can just spin and spin

and spin on it and then it can easily impact me and I'm not myself, right? When I'm thinking about other people's negativity. All right, you're going to ask me, aren't you? No, you know, it's looking at you. Well, this is something that I noticed and I've tried, I mean, for 15, 20 years, I've been trying to be conscious of when something's bothering me. Let's say it's a work-related thing that's bothering me. Don't bring it home with me.

I've had times where I've had to cut things loose and say, I just can't do that anymore because I bring the stress of it home and it affects the rest of my life. It's better if I just don't do it. And I think that's something I'm not very good at. And I notice it a lot when I'm exercising. Maybe I'm out for a run. And if I go, let's say I go for a three, four, five mile run. So I have anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour to think while I'm running.

And if all I'm thinking about is something that's bothering me, then I know I have a problem right there. And then that's just kind of snowballs into more negativity, I guess, on that part. But when I'm in a good place like that and I go out for 30 minutes to an hour or whatever, I think a lot more creatively and come up with a lot of good ideas. So I can tell when I get done with, like, let's just say a run, for example, and I'm crusty and pissed about something, I'm not in a good place right now. That's my kryptonite, I think. And I carry that with me into other parts of my day and I hate it. Yeah. So I think it's really important that we each know our kryptonite so that we can intervene with ourselves. And then,

you know, because that's the thing that does help us or really get in our way of reaching our potential. All right. So let's summarize today's topic. What is your superpower? So I'd say high performers, they know and embrace their superpower. They use their superpower to make a difference in the world and they work from it. They're aware of their kryptonite so they can understand themselves and just what helps them take them off their best so they can reach their full potential and intervene

with themselves. I'm going to grab a post-it note right now and write down the power phrase for this week because clearly I need that from time to time. Me too. So I embrace my superpower to help me be my best more often and make a difference in the world. Nice. If we want to learn

more or read up on this practice, practice 8 and Beyond Grit in your book or any of the other things that you're up to and the podcasts are always good too. And which, by the way, if you ever hear one of these podcasts or one of these shows, they end up on the podcast as well. So along with a lot of great guests and information that Sindra has for you, these will slide in once in a while and you can go back and listen to them again or play them for your kids or coworkers or employees, whatever you want to do.

It's always good stuff. How do we get in touch? So you can head over to DrSindra.com. So D-R-C-I-N-D-R-A dot com. And then these are always on the High Performance Mindset podcast on iTunes Stitcher Radio, iHeart Radio. So you can check it out there. You don't have to be wearing a cape but you

all have a superpower. What is it? Think about that today. Thank you, Cindra. Thank you. 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.