High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 336: How the Best Handle Adversity

Episode Date: May 11, 2020

We can think like the world’s best by seeing adversity as happening for us, not to us. Adversity helps us grow into the person we are supposed to become to reach our goals and step into our dreams. Everything magnificent that we’ve likely accomplished required or even perhaps demanded difficulty, struggle, and grit. We can embrace adversity and believe this is a time to learn and grow.  This week's Power Phrase: “I embrace adversity. I see adversity as happening for me, not to me.”

Hi friends, my name is Dr. Sindhra Kampoff, a national leader in the field of sport and performance psychology. Every week I'm on the local radio sharing my top tips on exactly how to develop the mindset of the world's best, so you can accomplish all your dreams. Get ready for a jammed, packed episode focused on practical tips to help you get after your goals and step out of your comfort zone. Let's go. So last week I was watching this interview with Magic Johnson as part of LeaderCast. And so for those people not familiar with Magic, he played point guard for the Lakers for 13 years, won four championships and three MVP awards.

And there's something he said at the beginning of the interview that really caught my attention. And the person interviewing him was asking him how does he approach adversity and he actually said like I love challenges I love when people say I can't do something I love to prove people wrong and I'm going to show you that I can do it and he was talking about like when people actually say he can't he just continues to learn and grow and prove to them that he can and i've just been thinking a lot about this idea and what this means for us right now given all the adversity we're experiencing so cinder how does this relate to other work that you've yourself done with some pro athletes well so i really witnessed this idea of kind of this prove it mentality like when pro athletes are told that they can't, they use it as motivation.

And I think the majority of people like me sometimes, or like people listening when we're faced with adversity, like when someone tells us we can't do something, we can easily let that kind of negatively impact our confidence, maybe even fear our confidence, fear our belief in ourselves. But what I see that magic is describing, what other people have done that I've witnessed is when they don't back down, they use this as fuel. Right. And what's important to understand about adversity?

Well, last year we conducted a study where we interviewed current and pro athletes about how they developed their grit. And their grit means like their ability to stick with something. And we found this one commonality that they all had overcome significant adversity to get to where they are. So like a death in the family or their own cancer even. And it was actually their response to this adversity that set them up as a career, as a pro athlete. Like they said if they wouldn't have experienced this adversity, they would have never gotten to the highest level.

So the point is that adversity can help us grow into the person that we're supposed to become to reach our goals and dreams. And I think we're experiencing a lot of adversity right now. It's really about how we're approaching it. And if we see it as an opportunity to learn and grow, that's really important. How would you say high performers handle adversity? Well, I'd say like exactly what I was saying, that they work from this idea that adversity helps them grow and learn. And they don't view adversity with like this victim approach,

right? That they realize they're in control of their response. I like this idea, you know, that we see things as happening for us, not to us. So just embracing the things that are happening because they are helping us be the people that we're supposed to be. And there's this great quote I have in my book and it says this, like everything magnificent that you've likely accomplished required or even demanded struggle and difficulty. So remembering that. So what gets in the way of us embracing adversity? Well, I think two things. I think first, we can give up.

We can believe that we can't do it or that we're not strong enough or talented enough. But I think if I go back to what Magic was saying, the second thing is we can really take things personally. And we really need to train ourselves to care more about what we think about ourselves and what other people think. I call it OPP or other people's opinion. So kind of caring less about that, I think, is really important so that we can really handle anything that comes our way. Sandra, how do you summarize today for us? I'd say that the world's best really see adversity as happening for them, not to them. And we want to take this idea that adversity can help us grow into the person we're supposed to become, to reach our goals, and to step into our goals.

So the idea of embracing adversity and believing that this is a time to grow and learn is really important. And what's this week's power phrase? All right, I embrace adversity. I see adversity is happening for me, not to me. For me and not to me. So, Cyndra, how do we get in touch with you if we want more information or want to follow you on social media? Sure, you can head over to Dr. Cyndra, so D-R-C-I-N-D-R-A dot com.

Way to go for finishing another episode of the High Performance Mindset. I'm giving you a virtual fist pump. Holy cow, did that go by way too fast for anyone else? If you want more, remember to subscribe and you can head over to Dr. Sindra for show notes and to join my exclusive community for high performers where you get access to videos about mindset each week. So again, you can head over to Dr. Sindra. That's D-R-I-C-I-N-D-R-A.com. See you next week.