High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 346: 3 Ways to Choose a Good Attitude

Episode Date: June 16, 2020

In this time of change and uncertainty, there are many uncontrollables including when we will get a vaccine for COVID-19 or the restrictions in place. But we are in control of our attitude. In this episode, Cindra shares how your attitude impacts how you perceive events in your life which impacts your actions and the outcome. It’s helpful to remember we do have a negativity bias, but we can counteract that negativity by choosing to not believe everything we think, talking to ourselves powerfully, and remembering to see the opportunity in every difficulty.   This week’s Power Phrase:  “I choose a good attitude regardless of what I cannot control. I talk to myself not listen.”

Hi friends, my name is Dr. Sindra 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. We've got Cinder Campoff on the line with us this morning.

A little positivity on a Monday. How you doing, Cinder? I'm doing great. How's it going? Well, good. I'm glad. I'm glad to see you, but soon. I know.

I know. I hope to see your face soon. We're talking about something that I think is a great topic on a Monday. Three ways to choose a good attitude. It's a good way to start the week off something that I think is a great topic on a Monday, three ways to choose a good attitude. It's a good way to start the week off with, I think. Yeah, I think so too. And I'm going to start with this quote by Maya Angelou. She said, if you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. Kind of sounds like mindset, doesn't it? Now, what inspired the topic today? Well, this weekend I was writing part of my new book,

Applying to 10 Practices of Beyond Grit to Business. And I was writing about things we can control and things that we can. And obviously, during this time period, we can't control when we get a vaccine for COVID-19 or the restrictions in place for us or if we have sports or not. But one thing we can control is our attitude. And when we remind ourselves of that, it really does help us just avoid blaming and complaining and being a critic. And also, when you think about us just being at our best and thriving

and being a top performer, one of the characteristics of a great performance is that we have a positive and optimistic attitude. Yeah, Cendra, attitude is a word that we hear get thrown around a lot, like, oh, you need to have a better attitude. A good attitude is key. Give us kind of a more in-depth definition and understanding of attitude, could you please?

Yeah, I would say attitude is really how we respond to events in our life, and we can choose really how we respond to them, and that impacts the outcome. So really at the heart of it is we can control our attitude every minute of every day. It's not easy, but this attitude and really our attention drives our action. So I just would encourage people as they're listening to take a gut check. Do you choose more of a negative or positive or an uplifting or supportive attitude when you interact with, let's say, your team or your family or your coworkers.

So what's important for us to remember about our attitude? I think what's important to remember is that we do have a negativity bias as humans. So what that means is that negative events and experiences get quickly stored into our memory and they linger longer. So we really do have to choose more of a positive attitude. And one way that we can have these more positive events move from our short-term to long-term memory is just hold them into our awareness. So for about at least 12 seconds, just hold the positive thing into, just notice it for 12 seconds. And that will also help you have a better attitude.

So how do we address the negativity that undoubtedly finds its way in from time to time? Yeah, I think first, just knowing that negativity is your default as a human, it just shows you that you must train your mind and find the good in everything to really counter that negativity. So I think really at the heart of this is just remembering that you can choose. You don't have to believe everything that you think, because much of what we think in our mind is false. And we really just need to talk to ourselves more powerfully. One of the things I like about your practices is you always give us some kind of strategy that we can use to help improve things like our attitude. What do you suggest for us in this case?

So in my book, Beyond Grid, I talked about the strategy called the three op. And this is what I mean. Op stands for opportunity. And when you're faced with a difficulty, the key is you ask yourself, what's the opportunity? What's the opportunity? What's the opportunity? Three times. Because maybe the first time you won't be

as creative, but the third time you ask it, you have three options. And I think that's helpful because it helps you have a better attitude. And perhaps right now, this is an important time for you to improve your business or spend more time with your family or keep growing and learning. And when we know when you choose an optimistic attitude, you live longer, you have less stress, and you're more resilient. Yeah, absolutely. How do you summarize today for us? I'd say this is a time of uncertainty and change,

but we can control our attitude. And this impacts how we perceive events in our lives and ultimately the outcome. So I think it's important to remember that we do have a negativity bias, but we can counter that by choosing not to believe everything you think and really talking to yourself powerfully and choosing to see the opportunity. What is this week's power phrase? I choose a good attitude regardless of what I cannot control. I talk to myself, not listen.

Talk to yourself and say good things today. Sandra, how do we get in touch with you? Follow along if we want more about the book. Sure, you can head over to beyondgrit.com and you could use the code free ship and get it shipped to you for free. So beyondgrit.com free ship. 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-C-I-N-D-R-A dot com. See you next week. So again, you can head over to Dr. Sindra. That's D-R-C-I-N-D-R-A.com. See you next week.