High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 366: How Do You Define Failure?

Episode Date: September 1, 2020

Zig Ziglar said it best, “Failure is an event, never a person; an attitude, not an outcome; a temporary inconvenience; a stepping stone. Our response to it determines just how helpful it can be.”��   In this week’s podcast, Cindra talks about how failure is inevitable and when we define failure on our terms, we are able to see failure as an event, not who we are. We are able to keep pushing outsides our comfort zone because that is how we learn and grow.  This Week’s Power Phrase: “I see failure and mistakes as opportunity to learn and grow. I take an easy-going approach when I fail. 

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. Cinder Kampoff on the line with us to talk a little bit about how you define failure. And I

think this is a really interesting conversation. Good morning, Cinder. Good morning. It's great to be here. Thanks for talking to us about failure today. Sometimes we all have different views on what failure is and how that makes us feel. You have a quote to start off with. It is by Zig Ziglar. He said, failure is an event, never a person, an attitude, not an outcome. A temporary inconvenience, a stepping stone, our response to it determines just how helpful it will be. So what inspired the topic of failure today? So on my podcast, since I've had since 2015, I've interviewed hundreds of experts on mindset. And every time I ask them, you know, how do you define failure? And what does it mean to you just so that we can

continue to learn from their failures. And it got me really thinking about that it's important how we define failure, because there's a wide variety of definitions. And so many times we fear failure, right now hold us back from really being in our back. So I know that you've had a lot of celebrity types and authors and everybody else on the podcast. Let's talk about bestselling author Jack Canfield. What did he have to say? So, you know, he wrote the book or all the, you know, several of those books, The Chicken Soup for the Soul book. And he actually submitted the first book to 142 publishers and all of them rejected it. So he said, failure is simply a delay in results. And he said, you know, if we learn actually about failure when we fall, like when we're learning to walk.

And he said, if our parents would have said, you know, if you fall one more time, you're a serial failure. Like, they would have never said that, right? So he said, instead, the idea is when we fall down, we get back up. All right. So you've got lots of incredible leaders in the field of sports psychology. Any examples from them? Yes. One, Michael Gervais, who is the sports psychologist for the Seattle Seahawks, said,

I see failure as when I know that I have something to say and I don't say it and I hold back. Failure is any time I'm not being authentic. And I thought that's really interesting because really if our goal is to be ourselves, right? Like that's a really interesting, cool way of defining failure. Right. And then sometimes you leave a situation, you're like, I should have done this. I should have done this. I wanted to say this, but I didn't.

Absolutely. Yeah. And so who else? I have one more example. Her name is Amy Morin and she wrote 13 Things Mentally Strong People Don't Do. That's a really best-selling book, good book. And she said, failure is proof that I tried hard, and then I put myself out there, and I tried to do something that was outside my comfort zone.

So why is it important for us to consider how we define failure for ourselves? Well, really, failure is inevitable and really actually essential for us to perform at our best and be at our best so we should embrace it and i think what's cool is just to ask yourself what is the definition of failure that you want to guide your life and maybe how has failure gotten you where you are today and so we really define failure on our terms it takes the sting out of when we experience it and i think we go back to the quote by Zig Ziglar that failure is not a person, right? It's an event. And so perhaps maybe failure has gotten you to where you are today. So reframing it, I think is important. How would you summarize today for us? I think failure is inevitable. And when we define failure in our terms, we can see failure as an event, not who we are.

And we're able to push past our comfort zones because that's how we learn and grow. And a power phrase for this week on a Monday? I see failure and mistakes as opportunities to learn and grow. I seek an easygoing approach when I fail. Cinder, how do we get in touch with you if you want more information? You can head over to Dr. Cinder at drcindra.com. Cinder Kampa, thank you so much. Good to talk to you. Have a fantastic week. Bye, Lisa you so much. Good to talk to you. Have a fantastic week. Bye, Lisa. See ya.

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. Cinder 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. Sindhra. That's D-R-C-I-N-D-R-A.com. See you next week.