High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 35: How to See Your Problems as Puzzles

Episode Date: March 18, 2016

In this episode, Cindra talks about how high performers and the most successful people see obstacles, difficulties, and problems. They see them as "happening for them, not too them" and see them as puzzles they can solve. High Performers are persistent and gritty. They are persistent. They stay the course committed to their goals and dreams. You are a high performer! This Week’s Affirmation: I am persistent. I am committed to my goals and dreams. I see difficulties as happening for me not to me. I solve my problems like puzzles.

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. What's up high performers? This is your host Sindra Kampoff and I'd like to welcome you to the High Performance Mindset Podcast. I'm grateful that you're here listening to today's message about how to see difficulties happening for you and how to solve your problems like puzzles. So today we're going to get started and I'm going to go to iTunes.

I have it opened up here on my computer, and I'd like to start with a comment that W.T. Durham provided. And he said, W.T., thanks so much for your comments and your review. I so appreciate it. I'm grateful for your comments here. And that helps us reach more people and get the podcast out to more high performers who are ready to master their mindset. So if you'd like to review the podcast, we'd love you to.

You can go on iTunes to do that. Or if you're listening on Stitcher Radio, you can do that there as well. And I will be reading your comment on the next podcast. Okay, so today we're talking about a really powerful message about how we can see difficulties happening for us, not to us. And I'm going to start with a quote by Walt Disney. He said, all the adversities I've had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles have strengthened me. You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you. So good. Now, why I chose that quote is because of what Walt Disney says. He says, all the troubles and obstacles have strengthened me. Right now, I'm writing my first book I'm

really stoked about. And at the center of this book is this concept called grit. Now, grit means having passion and purpose and perseverance for your long-term goals and your dreams. And that means that you do that, you have passion and persistence and purpose, despite obstacles or difficulties. And I think one way to do that is to change your perception on how you're seeing your difficulties and how you see the obstacles in your path. Because to experience success, it takes more than talent and skill. It takes grit and persistence and passion. Because high performers in sport, business, and in life keep going, they keep pursuing their goals even when the odds are against them and even if and when their enthusiasm has waned. So I want you to

consider these examples of famous people that despite obstacles kept their focus on their goals and their dreams and their commitment paid off just like your commitment will. So Walt Disney was fired by an editor. Listen to this. He was told he lacked imagination, had no good ideas. Several of his businesses failed before his breakthrough film, Snow White, which, you know, was produced. And the Walt Disney brand now is the 11th most valuable brand with an estimated market cap of $179 billion. Veer Wang was a successful figure skater growing up and she failed to make the U.S. Olympic figure skating team. And what's amazing about her story is it wasn't until age 40 that she began designing wedding dresses. She's now one of their premier designers in the fashion industry, and her business is worth a billion dollars.

Or J.K. Rowling was a single mom and was living off welfare. Her first Harry Potter novel was rejected by 12 publishers. As you probably know, she's now an international known best-selling author, wildly successful, and her Harry Potter series have sold over 450 million copies. I share these with you, these examples, to show you that difficulties, disappointment, adversity, it all comes along our path on our way to success. Adversity, difficulties, and disappointment is a given. You will experience it. The key is how you're perceiving the difficulty is what's going to make all the difference. Because when we experience adversity, failures, or problems, we have a choice. We have a choice in how we see the situation and how we see the difficulty.

And we have a choice in how we perceive what's happening to us. So the first strategy that I'm going to talk about today to become more persistent and to become more gritty so you can stay focused on your path to your goals and your dreams is to see your difficulty as happening for you, not to you. Now this quote, everything happens for you, not to you, is a quote by author Byron Katie. And what she suggests is that everything, even pain and difficulty, happens for you. The difficulties have occurred to lead you on a course necessary for your success. The difficulties have happened to show you how strong you are, to lead you on a course necessary for your success. The difficulties have happened to show you how strong you are, to show you how much you can persist, and they have occurred to

help you understand your true potential and your true power. Because the difficulties you have in your life or in sport or your business have happened not to destroy you, but to show you how persistent you are. And this is a concept I've been really trying to practice consistently in my life for the last about a year and a half. And I've begun to see all of my difficulties and obstacles as happening for me, not to me. And one of the things that's really helped me is as I think about my past and my my path to kind of get to where I am now one of the difficulties that I experienced was as a college athlete I had incredible potential received a full-rise college scholarship to run cross country and

track at the University of Northern Iowa. But it wasn't my physical ability that held me back. It was really my mind. And, you know, I've talked about this on previous podcasts, but I feel like I left something at the University of Northern Iowa. I did not reach my full potential. And I've begun to see that as something that's really, it's really important in my path to where I'm at right now. Because I see this happening for me, not to me. I wouldn't be working with the clients that I am now if that difficulty wouldn't have happened for me. And what I mean by that is I

learned something really important about my mindset. And that experience as a college athlete fuels me every single day as I'm working with high performers. Because I want to be able to provide athletes and leaders and business people, I want to be able to provide them with strategy so they can really work to master their mindset. So they don't feel the way I did. They don't feel like they left, you know, their potential just kind of like hanging at some point in their life. I want them to play full out and to play big so they can really reach their full potential. So I see that difficulty is happening for me, not to me. So my friend, what problem or difficulty that you've maybe experienced in the past, or maybe you're experiencing right now, how can you see that as happening for you, not to you?

Such powerful stuff. The second strategy that we're going to talk about today is how to stay more gritty and how to remain persistent in your goals and your dreams. As to see your situation or adversity or problem as something that you can solve. So to see your problems as puzzles. Now if you see the situation as a puzzle, you realize you can figure it out. You'll be creative in your ability to be successful because you're not emotionally or physically fatigued because of the problem. You're just seeing it as a puzzle that you can solve. And by seeing the situation or the adversity as a puzzle, you have a lot more energy and are ready to take on the challenge. Again, I've been using this in my own life as I'm writing my book.

I've been really seeing it as a puzzle and you know I've been thinking whenever I get a new idea or a new strategy or a new story I want to tell, I think about how is it going to fit in this puzzle. Maybe it can fit in this chapter in chapter three or Maybe it can fit in this chapter in chapter three, or maybe it can fit in this chapter in chapter 50. So I'm starting to see my problem as a puzzle. So maybe your business is not generating the profits that you'd like. How is that a puzzle instead of a problem? Or maybe you're not on the team that you'd like to be on right now. How is that a puzzle, not a problem? Maybe you know that deep down you're not on the team that you'd like to be on right now. How is that a puzzle, not a problem? Maybe you know that deep down you're not performing up to your potential in your business or your sports or in your life. How is that a puzzle, not a problem?

Or maybe you're not losing the weight that you really want. How is that a puzzle, not a problem? Or gosh, maybe you're not finding time to work out and exercise daily. How is that a puzzle, not a problem? Or maybe at work or in your sport, your teammates or your co-workers are so negative. Ask yourself, how is that a puzzle, not a problem? So my friends, is there a problem that you're experiencing right now that you could see as a puzzle? And as you're thinking about that, how does that change the level of energy that you have? Do you start experiencing more energy instead of seeing, you know, the puzzle as draining your energy?

I'm hopeful that it does. Because the choice is draining your energy. I'm hopeful that it does because the choice is yours. How will you see the next difficulty or the next obstacle you experience? Because my friends, high performers are persistent. They see obstacles and difficulties as happening for them, not to them. They see their problems as puzzles that can be solved and they believe that they are persistent. They stay the course because they're gritty, committed to their goals and their dreams. So today we're going to end with an affirmation.

And I'd encourage you to say it out loud after me. Because when you say things out loud, it gets in your body. And I've also posted this affirmation statement on my Twitter page, Mentally Underscore Strong. So you can go aheaditty. I see difficulties as happening for me, not to me. I solve my problems like puzzles. Awesome, my friends. Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. I'm grateful that you are here. I'm grateful that you were able to listen to this message.

And I would love to hear what you think, how it helped you in terms of thinking of your problems and your difficulties in a little different light. And it's something I'm writing about right now, so I'd love to hear your feedback. You can send me an email at syndra at syndracampoff.com or always I'm on Twitter at mentally underscore strong. We'd love to hear from you. Make it an outstanding day, my friends, and be mentally strong. Thank you for listening to High Performance Mindset. Are you signed up for Cindra's weekly email with free mental tools and strategies for high performance? Why the heck not?

Text mentally strong, all one word to 22828 or visit syndracampoff.com.