High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 39: Confidence is a Decision & Other Wisdom with West Point’s, Angie Fifer

Episode Date: April 8, 2016

Angie Fifer, Performance Excellence Trainer at the United States Military Academy at West Point, talks about all things performance. In this interview, she describes how confidence is a decision we make every moment and she shares ways to be more confident. Angie shares how athletes should have a mechanism to “let their mistakes go” which provides “unbelievable power.” Angie describes about how and when to change your attention from the outcome to the process, and how to do that. Finally, she talks about her journey to be “100% comfortable with who she is and what she brings to the table” as she crosses gender boundaries working with Army West Point Men’s Basketball, Men’s Gymnastics, and the Men’s Boxing teams. Angie also practices performance excellence herself as a marathoner, ultra marathoner, and Ironman triathlete. You can reach out to Angie on Twitter @afifer1 or email her at [e-mail].  

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. Welcome to the High Performance Mindset Podcast. This is your host, Sindra Kampoff, and I'm delighted that you're here ready to listen to an interview with Angie Pfeiffer. Now, Angie Pfeiffer has been a performance excellence trainer at the United States Military Academy at West Point for the last six years. And at West Point, she provides mental skills training to many of the Division I teams, as well as she works with the coaches and the

individual athletes. Now, one of the cool things about this interview is we talk about crossing gender boundaries. Angie works with Army U.S. West Point's men's basketball team, men's gymnastics team, and then the men's boxing team. So she talks about in this interview how to establish a professional relationship with coaches and athletes, but also how to be true to your authentic self. So I think you're really going to like our discussion. Now Angie also practices performance excellence herself as a marathoner, an ultra marathoner, and a tri Ironman triathlete. So she is tough and gritty. Now, there are three things that we talk about in this interview that really, I think, were

important and stand out to me. First, we talk about how confidence is a decision, and she shares some strategies on how to be more confident. We also talk about how to deal with mistakes, which is one thing that I think that everybody deals with, and especially just I see that athletes really struggle with mistakes. And then towards the end of the interview, we talk about the difference between focusing on the process versus the outcome, and she shares a strategy on how to shift your focus back to the process during the event. So I think that you are going to thoroughly enjoy this interview.

I love Angie Pfeiffer's energy, and you can tell that she shows up as her authentic self. So without further ado, let's bring on Angie Pfeiffer. Welcome to the High Performance Mindset Podcast. This is your host, Cyndra Kampoff. And today I'm excited to provide an interview with Angie Pfeiffer. So Angie, can you tell us a little bit about your passion and what you do? Sure. Thanks for having me. I think my greatest passion is being able to help people to understand and recognize how great they are and to take those limits that either they set on themselves or others have set on them and just smash them. And that makes me so excited. I get really jazzed talking about it, thinking about it, and absolutely helping people to fulfill that. That's really inspiring, Angie.

So can you tell us a little insight in how you do that, how people smash their barriers? Sure. I think it starts with talking about what you want and being willing to say something really bold out loud even something that has no possibility of being true and to to just put it out to the universe like hey I'd like to chase this I don't know how close I can get I don't know if it's even possible for me to do it but I want to chase it. And that's where it starts. And then what are the little things that we can start doing to set ourselves at least on track to set to accomplish

that. And then let's see how how close we can get. I think that so many people are scared to dream really big like that and put themselves out there and really dream a big dream because they might fail. You know, so what you're saying, you help people do, a lot of people don't do because it can be really scary. I totally agree. And I work at West Point in the Center for Enhanced Performance. And at West Point, our athletes are, first of all, they're unbelievable kids. And to come to West Point and make that decision, to be drawn to serve your country, and to be drawn to do that at such a young age, they're amazing kids. But a lot of them are athletes who don't have a ton of other Division I scholarship offers. So some of them come to West Point to be able to do those things in terms of

the military, but then also to see how great they can be athletically and live their, fulfill their dream of playing Division I. With that said, sometimes they get a little bit inside themselves in terms of, well, what's my possibility here? How great can I be within the NCAA? How great can I be against other schools and big conferences? And it's something we've been talking about a lot is stop playing the jersey. Let's play the game. And we're starting to beat some great teams, and it's been really exciting to help them see that just because this team plays for the Big Ten,

that doesn't mean that we're not close to them. And we have the potential to beat them. So it's been a lot of fun to get them to see what their potential is. Awesome. I like that. Stop playing for the jersey and just play the game. Because so many times you're right. It's like you can get in your own head thinking about who you're playing. So Angie, tell us a little bit about how you got to West Point and, you know, your path to get there.

Sure. Well, from an academic perspective, I did my undergrad at Penn State and had the awesome opportunity of getting involved in our sports psychology lab there with David Conroy. And I just got to be around the field to be around the graduate students there. John Metzler was there at the time as a graduate student, so I got to hang out with him every day. And I knew I wanted to do do this so I got a chance as an undergrad to go to the conference and met a whole bunch of great people one of those great people was Ken Reviza knew instantly that I needed to study under Ken so I went out to Fullerton for my master's had the unbelievable opportunity of spending two years just following Ken around, asking him any kind of question I could possibly think of. And at the practice of sports psychology

and to be able to arm athletes with the tools and the skills to go into their battles and be able to perform at their best no matter what the situation is. What a great academic background, Angie. I was just reading an article yesterday about Ken Reviza, and somebody called him the grandfather of sports psychology. So for those people who don't know who Ken is, he works with lots of different baseball teams right now with the Chicago Cubs and Professor Emeriti at California State Fullerton. So Angie, you get to work with some of the nation's best, not only at West Point, but in your other work that you've done. So what do you think really separates those

who are really outstanding and who get to the highest levels? That's a great question. I think it's multifaceted. Talent matters, but it only matters to a certain point. Where talent doesn't matter is if you don't have the composure, the mentality, the ability to skills, those are the things that I see. And they're trainable, but being willing to train them. So those are the things that I see kind of rise to the top in some of the athletes that I work with. So their ability to bounce back, to be resilient, and then to train their mindset. Yes. Yeah. And what do you really see, you know, the people that you work with struggle with mentally?

The issue that comes into my office the most is confidence. And it's not that the confidence is gone. It's that I've made a couple mistakes. I've had a couple bad practices or a bad game. And now I'm thinking too much. And I'm judging myself and not allowing myself to let it go and move on to the next play. So I'd say that I probably deal with on an everyday basis.

And how would you best address that? If someone came into your office and said, my confidence is really struggling, I'm thinking too much, I'm judging. Maybe they wouldn't use these words, right? but you'd figure it out as the consultant. Tell us what you do with them. I start with helping them to understand that confidence is a decision and it doesn't have to be based on our results. When it's tied to our results, it's so much out of our control

and it now is in the hands of the referees sometimes, the umpire in their strike zone, the opponent. And to me, that's just, we're giving up way too much of our own power. So for them to recognize that they have the ability to decide every single day, every morning, as soon as they wake up, I'm confident today. I believe in myself, I'm going to get it done. And so that's the first step. Then once they understand that, and I tell them, hey, you might be saying this to yourself, and to the side be saying that Dr. Pfeiffer, I don't know what she's thinking, making me say this, she's crazy. Keep thinking that, keep doing it, until the moment where you're like, holy cow, I do believe it, this worked, and then we might struggle again, but then

we're going to have more of those moments where it does work, and we believe it again, and pretty soon, we don't just, we're not faking it, we become it, and I think that's just so, it's so awesome to see an athlete to go through some confidence issues and then grab hold of it and recognize that it's something that really truly is in their control. Angie, that's awesome. I think, you know, what's really important, I think about what you're saying is the importance of continuing to practice confident self-talk. And sometimes athletes will say to me, oh, well, Sandra, I tried that.

I thought confidently, but it didn't work. Well, it's not something you do just once in a while. It's a moment-to-moment decision of really choosing confidence. So I like what you're saying a ton, and I agree with you. We also have the general cadet population is they're very high achievement oriented. And because of that, a lot of them are perfectionists. And they don't just want to be great cadets or great academically. They want it all.

And that can be, it's awesome because they're going to push themselves. They're going to strive. They're going to push themselves, they're going to strive, they're going to work really hard, but where the Achilles heel is when they're not reaching that success and they're frustrated, they're overthinking, they're going down that negative path and then they're losing confidence. So we have a very interesting population that they're really trying to be the best at everything, and it's hard. So to help them to see that you can decide to be confident, and we're going to have little successes, and we can actually pat ourselves on the back for the little successes too, even not just the big ones.

And I think that helps them recognize that, all right, I can do this, I can, I can have everything I want. It's just that I have to be intentional about how I think, and how I approach it. So besides, you know, patting yourself on the back, and, you know, just celebrating your little successes, I really like that, because I think there's a lot of athletes that don't necessarily do that, especially if they experience a lot of perfectionistic tendencies. Do you have any other strategies that you might recommend for those who are listening who might be perfectionists or, you know, call themselves as a perfectionist? Recognize that wanting to be perfect isn't necessarily a bad thing, but that we're not going to be perfect all the time so

it's okay to want to be and to push yourself that hard but what's your process what's your plan for when you make mistakes and when you experience failure failures what teaches us failures what helps us grow and if we don't have that we're not going to become the best of ourselves that we can be. So when we are in those moments, let's, you know, obviously, we're gonna be a little frustrated. But when we step back, let's appreciate it. And then how can I grow from this? And let's have a plan have a process of, okay, what am I going to do when I experience this mistake? I always tell the teams that I work with that we're gonna we're not going to have a perfect season.

We know that right off the bat. Even if we win every game, which we probably won't, but we're not going to have a perfect season. So let's throw that thought out the window. And now what I want us to do, though, is be the team that's going to be best prepared for adversity. We can be the best team in the country at that. Awesome. So Angie, what's the, you know, mindset topic besides, we've talked a little bit about confidence and perfectionism, but what's the topic that you cover with all of the teams or the athletes that you work with? And tell us why you think it's important. So I do spend a lot of time with my teams talking about leadership and the reason being that we're at the

nation's premier leadership academy so they're talking about leadership all the time they have classes on leadership they're doing leadership details team and within that team if they're not the captain or uh the senior so our seniors are called firsties if they're not in that role when they're in the cadet world you're supposed to keep your mouth shut so i have to help them to understand that we can't take cadet world and bring it to the athletic field. When we're on the athletic field, we have to be athletes and we have to be a team. And that means we have to communicate. We have to open our mouths.

We have to lead. And sometimes you have to lead as a freshman. And sometimes it feels like you're stepping on somebody's toes, but we got to get over it. And so I think that conversation I have with every single team I work with. And it's about understanding and figuring out what that relationship is together. And how do we best navigate whatever situation we're in, in terms of who our official leaders are, who our other team leaders are that emerge, and then how do we work together to make it the best season and best team that we can be?

So I hear togetherness, and I hear that they really have to maybe sometimes unlearn what they've learned in other areas so they can really work together to be the best team or, you know, the best on purpose that they can together. Absolutely. It's so challenging. One example is the freshmen or plebes, they can't even talk outside. So you go from not being able to talk outside to maybe you're the starting point guard on the basketball team and you've got to direct the team. So you really have to turn off all that training from earlier and all that military indoctrin that you're just getting slammed with and be able to be a basketball player.

So it's a big challenge for them. Yeah, they really have to switch roles depending on the situation that they're in. So Angie, tell us about a signature technique that you use to help your athletes really master their mindset and their thinking patterns. I think one of my signature techniques is the letting it go. And I definitely got a lot of this from Ken, but I also have molded it into my own over the years. I think part of that dealing with failure, going through adversity, is being able to recognize that it's happening and then have a mechanism where we finally stop beating ourselves up over and over and over. And to be able to actually let something go, it's amazing. Because once you do that, you feel lighter, you're more open, you're ready to think about, okay, well, what's next? How do I refocus? And so I think that letting go is absolutely

huge. I use it in two different ways. I use the letting go for big things. It's an injury. Maybe it is a really bad experience, a really bad game. Maybe it's a problem that has been ongoing. And so for that, I have the athletes think about it, talk about it, and then I'd like them to get to the point, and we talk about, you know, when is the right time on it. Maybe later that evening when they've had some, they've thought about it, they let all

this simmer in their minds, and at that point I want them to write it down, and then I want them to absolutely destroy it. So whatever they've been thinking about, whatever's been that overwhelming, the negative thoughts, the judgment, the personal, the stuff that really got you. And when you destroy that, there's an unbelievable feeling that comes with destroying it of power. This no longer has power over me. And so I think it's really powerful. And then it's also an image that you have, and you can remember that image or recreate that image when it comes back. And it probably will come back. A couple different ideas I have for destroying it. A couple of them will, they

will say, hey, I'm going to light this on fire. As long as they don't get in trouble, that's fine with me. I also suggest having them write it on toilet paper and then throwing it in the toilet and flushing it. Powerful image to see all that crap that was going on for you, circle the toilet bowl and go down the drain. I love it. So that's another way I use it. And then you can also do the letting it go in the moment. And in the moment, maybe it's wiping your hand down your leg. Maybe it's making a fist and letting it go.

Maybe it's just looking at the trash can and imagining yourself throwing it away. So I want them to have a process, have something to go to, so that we're ready for the adversity. We know it's going to happen. But if we're ready for it, if we have a plan, now we're equipped. We've got the tools to deal with it. And when you say, Angie, like the mechanism, do you mean like the process of what you're talking about? So it's like you writing it down, that's the mechanism.

Or you swiping your hand across your arm or imagining the trash can, is that the mechanism you're talking about? You recognize, hey, this was something that really got in my head. It was something that was pretty powerful, and I gave it some power at moments, and now I'm choosing to take that power away from it can feel when you're saying the power you know how it when you let it go gives you unbelievable power the way I describe it to teams is and what this is what I see it's like the teams that can let it go the quickest are the teams that perform the best because they're not spending this extra time thinking about the past, right?

They're really staying in the moment. And it's pretty cool that you're using that to help your athletes perform better. And then you're seeing really what happens on the court. So, all right, let's talk about you, Angie. So tell us why you do what you do. Because, you know, here at the High Performance Mindset, we really believe that keeping your why is really important and a powerful motivator. So why do you do what you do? Well, I think it goes back, and I love this question. I'm a huge believer in understanding your why and to us breaking out of what we think we can do and be and becoming the best version of ourselves. We get one shot at life and it's full of judgment.

It's full of comparison. can figure out how to let go of some of that and refocus just on some of the more positive things and figure out how we can become that best version of ourselves. How great can we be? And then it's not even just in that one performance thing, it's in everything that we're performing. That's another reason that West Point is such an interesting and unique place is that all of our students are getting ready for what's next. And they're very aware that what's next is being an officer in the U.S. Army. And so as an officer, they're going to go out and lead soldiers. They're going to go out into combat situations. And all of the skills that they're learning are going to be immediately put to the test.

And we're not talking anymore about the competition field. We're talking about the battlefield where lives are at stake. And so I think for them to recognize that what we're doing on the court or on the field is, this is great, and I hope that it's going to help make them the best ballplayer that they can be, but really I want to help make them the best person that they can be, and so that when they get out there and they're performing, they can use these skills when they're driving and they're frustrated. They can use them in their relationships to have the best relationships they can have, and that they can use them in their

future career and really make a huge impact. I don't want them to just even use them on themselves as an officer. I want them to be able to teach their soldiers so that they have all these skills and that's where I see it to be the absolute most powerful. And I going back to your question about what's my why, when I get those emails back from a cadet that has graduated and they're now out in the Army, and they say, hey, I loved what we did on goal setting. Is there any way you can send me some of that material? Because I want to do the same thing with my unit. And that is, that's where really to me it's a home run. You know, Angie, when you talk about being your authentic self and being your best self, that's one of the things that I think that you do an incredible job of personally.

And so I can see how that's really connected with your why. Because whenever I interact with you, you are definitely yourself and work to show up that way. I can tell by the way that you, you know, by your spirit and by your energy. So one of the things I really wanted to talk to you about, Angie, was your work and kind of showing up as your authentic self with a lot of male teams that you work with. So you work with, you know, male boxing teams, male gymnastics, men's basketball. And, you know, we had a really awesome opportunity this year to present together at the Association for Applied Sports Psychology.

And we talked about working with male teams. Just kind of tell us about that and how do you really work to show up as yourself? I think it's such a great question. And really, if you sit back and you think about it, it can be intimidating. But what I've done, and actually kind of going back even to when I took the job at West Point, one of my conditions on taking this job was, can I be myself? Because I don't have a military background. I'm not an officer.

I don't really have much family that was in the military. So that's never been part of really my genetics and my DNA. So I had to know that I was going to be able to come into this work environment and still be Angie Pfeiffer. And so when I got the thumbs up on that, that was great. And then finding out one of my teams was men's basketball, it was really an opportunity to practice what I preach. And, okay, I talk a lot about being authentic, and now here's an opportunity to do so with a pretty great masculine team. So I think the biggest thing for me is being 100% comfortable in who I am and what I'm bringing to the table. I've never played basketball. I'm also really short. And I'm very much a female. So going into their environment, it is obvious who's the odd man out or the odd woman out. And I had to be very clear

with the coaching staff that I am not a basketball player, but what I am is a performance psychology consultant. And what I can bring you are looking at your game from the mental perspective and teaching you those insights. So I do a lot of observation. And I think what I find when I'm working with undergraduate students or mentoring students for ASP certification is that observation is really hard and really scary because you don't feel like you're doing anything, but that's what you're doing. You're being around. You're learning. You're understanding their culture, their sport. So I spent a lot of time. I was really patient.

And I waited until they were ready for me. And during that time, I got to learn a lot about basketball, which is awesome. So now I know more about basketball. They're also learning more about me. And then when the time comes and I'm able to present to the team, I'm working with them individually. Now we have a relationship and there's buy-in. And once you've got that buy-in, it doesn't matter who, it doesn't matter what gender you are, what sport you used to play. All that matters is that you've built

and created this relationship and now you're there working together. There's a lot of things I think you just said that were really important, Angie. So you said like being 100% comfortable with who you are and what you bring to the table. But then I also heard that you communicated that to them, that you said, you know, hey, this is what I'm not, but this is what I am. And I think that's such a powerful message. Angie, when you were describing that, you know, you when you took the job, you had to figure out if you could be Angie Pfeiffer. What kind of questions did you ask to really help you realize if you could really be Angie Pfeiffer? So one of the funny questions I asked was, do I have to wear black every day? I was really concerned that I couldn't wear pink or purple.

And once I got the thumbs up on that, I was like, all right, so I can be myself and be a female really, and be able to wear bright colored clothes, be able to wear colors that make me happy. So that was a big thing. And then another piece of it was, I am an endurance athlete, and I do a lot of running, triathlons. And I wanted to make sure that I was going to be able to train and also, you know, sometimes be able to train at lunch, sometimes be able to train in the morning. And while it doesn't directly impact the hours I'm at work, sometimes it impacts in terms of the time of day. So during lunch, or cadets are at lunch, but I like to be in the pool. And that's an opportunity that I have. And I can be myself and be the endurance athlete that I want to be, or at least work towards it. And, and West Point supportive of that.

You know, Angie, one of the reasons I put in my top 10 traits of high performers, this trait of consciously practicing authenticity is because of what you're saying, you know, that I think it's really difficult to be at your highest potential, when you you're you are choosing that to be yourself, or you're not really sure what that even means. And you're not comfortable with who you are. So I love your message about, you know, showing up as you and, you know, making sure that you can do that in the environment that you're in and then consciously practicing that. So let's talk about yourself as a high performer, either as a consultant or an endurance athlete,

because, you know, love to talk to you about that as well. But tell us a time that you failed, because we think here at the High Performance Mindset that you learn best from your failure. So tell us about a story and what you learned from it and what we can learn from it as well. I actually have a great example. The last marathon that I did was Chicago in 2015. So it was back in October. And I would say I was the most trained, in the best shape that I've been. And when I run a marathon or do an event, I'm not doing it just to finish. And I think a lot of people get confused on that because of the boom of marathoning. And finishing is an awesome goal, but I have some other goals that I want to accomplish.

And so everything was right on track. Everything went perfect in training. I felt awesome and get to race day. And for whatever reason, my body did not cooperate. And I ran 20 minutes slower than I wanted to run. And to me, that was, it was a huge failure. I was really, really disappointed in that race. And I think another part of putting yourself out there is I tell my students, I tell the cadets I work with and my coaches when I have a big race. And part of it is because it's real and that's what I'm doing but another part of it is to be willing to to put my high goals on the line if I'm asking them to do it I will I need to be able to back it back it up for myself so my coaches knew a couple of my coaches knew what I wanted to run

and I got a couple texts afterwards like oh, ouch, are you okay? So it was really cool that they understood and were willing to put that out there in a text. So that was awesome. But I think what I really learned is that shit happens. And we're not always going to have a great day. So it's unfortunate in the endurance world when you've got maybe two big events a year. And so six months of your life went into training for that race. But I don't just train to race. I don't just race to accomplish the goal. There's so much else that I love about it. I love the daily. I loved when I taught class at 840 in the morning and got in 10 miles before. So I call them my 10 mile Tuesdays. And so I get to get to class and the class asked me, you know, hey, how much did you run this morning? And I take a lot, have a lot of pride in saying, oh, it was a 10 mile Tuesday and got 10 in this morning.

So I definitely don't just race and do the endurance stuff for the outcome. And it was a really good reminder that the process matters and that I get just as much joy in that process. I also learned that I need to strength train as well as run. I get in the habit of I just love to run, so that's all I do. And I think that was another thing that hurt me this time. So love the process. The process matters, not just the outcome. And when you love the process, then the outcome takes care of itself.

And I love what you said about you love the daily. I think that's a really cool way to say it. You love the daily grind or you love the daily commitment that you make to running to help you accomplish your goals. One of the things I'm doing right now, Angie, is I'm writing my first book. And at first I had a lot of barriers, you know, just sitting down and writing it. A lot of mental barriers. And things started changing, actually, when I started loving the process, when I was just like loving what I was doing.

So I think there's a lot of really important things that you just said. So tell us about an aha moment that you've had in your career, you know, something that you've really learned, maybe a moment in time that you learned something important about either what you do or who you are. I'm going to go back to the process here. And coming from Ken's master's program, Ken talks a ton about the process, and I also talk a ton about the process, but I think I had an aha moment when I realized that even though the process is so, so important,

results do matter. We really want to win. We really want that great result. It want that, like, great result. It just can't be the only thing. Yeah. I think that it's helping an athlete to understand that we can have both and that I want you to have big goals. I want you to put it out there.

I want you to be able to say, hey, this is what I want to hit. This is where I want to finish. And to have those be big, but then to also be able to shift and get into the process and, okay, what do I need to do to get there? But you still can love and want and crave the results. So Angie, when do you think that athletes or high performers should be focusing on the process? And when do you think they should be focusing on the outcome? Well, I think the outcome is something that we can think about ahead of time. So what's the goal?

What do we want to achieve? And then we can think about it in the debrief. Did I get there? But in the preparation and as much as possible during, that's where I think the process is so valuable. And during, I think it's a back and forth. It's, okay, here's what's happening. I'm doing it. Okay, bring it back. What do I need to do to get there?

I'm doing it. Now I need to go back. What do I need to do to get there? Or I'm not doing it. Crap. Okay, what do I need to do to change things around? So I think that that's real. I think that's where athletes' minds go anyway. So very few people are going to really be able to stay immersed in the process the entire time. So to be able to just recognize and pull yourself back when that happens. You know, and when I watch teams, one of the things that I really notice is like when they're focused on the outcome, you can tell by their body language because they just get tight and

their shoulders, you know, just rise. And you can tell by the look on their face, they're not as relaxed and they're focusing on the scoreboard or, you know, the result instead of what's happening moment to moment. So cool. So you're suggesting that really like athletes and high performers work to whenever they're noticing themselves focusing on the process during to move their attention back to the process. Yeah.

How might they do that? What do you think? Well, I think it's self-awareness. So recognizing in yourself and then again, it's having a way. Like, what is your way to bring it back to your process? Is it a word? Is it a focal point? Is it a deep breath? But what is that thing that's going to move you back to the process? Is it a reminder? I love reminders. I put reminders everywhere. Reminders of goals, reminders of the process, reminders of being authentic. And so I think having those little reminders, a lot of, like, for example, a lot of our softball players will write something on their glove or they'll write something on their shoe. And I think that's just, it's a great way to have something to run into. Like you are out of it.

You're not focused on the process at all. But then you look down and there's your reminder. So I think that's really useful. And I think the strategy is so important because when we talk like really high level about these things, you know, and just say focus on the process. But if we don't teach athletes how to do that, you know, it's like they don't know. Right. So I like what you're saying about using a mechanism, either a reminder that you write down or a phrase or a deep breath to get you back to focusing on the moment-to-moment instead of the result or the outcome. All right, Angie, so tell us the top ten traits of high performers.

Which one do you think that you exhibit the most? Well, I read through these a couple of times, and while I do love the consciously practicing authenticity daily, I'm actually going to pick the gritty one. So I think that as I read that trait, I pride myself on my ability to grind it out, to find a way to get it done. gritty when it comes to performing myself, whether it's in performance areas that I've chosen with marathons, ultras, and Ironmans. And so that fits. And then I think I'm also really gritty in my profession.

Like, I am willing to wait you out. I will wait and wait and wait and be patient. And then when you need me and you're ready to open your mind to the mental game, I'm going to be there and we're going to start working together. So I think I'm really gritty. I think you're gritty too. Well, on your story about working with men's basketball and just hanging out and being, you know, observing, and then you waited for them until they were ready to, you know, for you to start working with them and, and teaching them, you know, mental strategies or, or mental tools.

So it makes sense to me why you said that. Which of those traits, Angie, do you think that you see yourself still working on? And the reason I ask you that question is because I think it's very difficult, perhaps even impossible to be, you know, 10 out of 10 on all these 10 traits. So which one of those do you think that, you know, right now at this moment that you're working on? Absolutely. Again, as I read through these, there was one that stood out that I need to keep working on. And I know that and that's the self-compassion and I am a lot like a lot of the cadet athletes that I work with in that I strive to accomplish really high goals and I want to be perfect in everything um I remind myself that perfectionism can be a good thing and that I'm going to have bumps along the way and make mistakes.

But I think I'm not always great at being kind to myself in those moments because my demand is so high. And that's definitely something I know that if I'm a little kinder, if I can get the teaching and really practice what I'm preaching in this area, that that's going to help me in everything as well. Thank you, Angie, for just being open and honest. And if anybody who's listening would like to get the PDF of the top 10 traits of high performers, you can visit my website at cindracampoff.com. Or I got a short URL now that goes to the same place, drcindra.com. I couldn't buy cindra because it's a dog food, by the way. Oh, no. Nice, huh?

So, Angie, let's go to the speed round. Can you recommend a book for us or maybe a resource for the audience? And tell us why you'd recommend that. Okay. Well, my go-to book of late has been Mind Gym and it's by Gary Mack. And what I love about Mind Gym is that the chapters are super short, so athletes will actually read it. And so sometimes I have a bunch of them PDF that I can just shoot out just one chapter.

But I really recommend them to get the whole book. And if they're going to read it, if they even read a couple of them and they connect with somebody in the book or they connect with an idea or topic, hopefully that's going to get them to start to think about the things we're talking about at a deeper level. So I love Mind Gym. I use that one a lot. I think it is a great resource as well for athletes because it's really easy to read. And it puts these concepts about mental training and sports psychology into really easy, understandable language and strategies. Cool.

What is one word that people describe you, Angie? One word. Okay. One word. I would say loyal. Loyal. I choose loyal because I think it goes to and that if I'm all in in a friendship or a relationship or a partnership or working with a coach and a staff being part of that program, I am going to be all in for you. And I'm going to give you my honest opinion and be there for you in that way, too. But I'm going to be very, very loyal. And what is the best advice you've ever received, Angie? I think the best advice I've ever received is don't take yourself so seriously.

I love it. Or who gave that advice to you? Honestly, I can't remember. I think I've heard it more than once and I think I keep needing to hear it so but it's great advice because life is fun and all of the things that we're doing all the things that I'm doing it's fun um one of my good friends says we're going to ride our bikes when we we go out for these 100-mile bike rides, and you can get kind of nervous. You can get worried about how it's going to go.

And she always reminds us, we're just going to ride our bikes. And it's a great way of also thinking, stop taking yourself so seriously. So final question, Angie. What advice do you have to those high performers who are listening? So I'd say my advice is dream really big. Chase those dreams with everything you have. If and when you fail, don't give up. Be proud of the things that you did accomplish and then continue to dream and chase. Dream and chase, dream and chase.

And how could those who are listening reach out to you? Do you have a Twitter handle that you'd like for us to reach out to or what are the ways that you'd like us to connect with you? So email is the easiest. My name, AngelaPfeiffer at USMA.edu. Or my Twitter handle is a Pfeiffer one. A Pfeiffer one. Awesome. So we'd love for you to connect with us on Twitter. Tell us what stood out to you about this interview and you can tag myself mentally underscore strong and a fifer one or you can reach out to angie and her email and tell us angie again that email

address sure it's angela.fifer f as in frank i f as in frank er at usma.edu. Angie, I would like to thank you so much for playing full out today. There's so many golden nuggets that you provided, and I want to tell you three that I heard that seemed to be really important. To me, one thing that you said was that confidence is a decision, and that sometimes when athletes are not confident, they're focused on the results or the outcome. But instead, you're encouraging us to every minute to really think about that confidence is a decision, that we can decide to think confidently. And it's something that we can train our mind to do. And we need to continually do it.

It's not just a one time thing. So I heard confidence is a decision. I also loved what you said about showing up as yourself and being 100% comfortable in who you are and what you bring to the table. But telling people what you bring to the table and also being really comfortable in your own skin and how that's really important in your own performance. And the last thing that I thought was amazing was what you talked about related to mistakes and having a mechanism to let it go. And the way that you described it was using like a, you know, a piece of toilet paper and having to go down the toilet or putting the piece of paper on fire or throwing it away. And a cool thing that I thought you talked about was how that can provide unbelievable power. You know, just you take back the power. You're not letting the mistake or your past control you or have the power.

So I want to commend you for, you know, sharing your knowledge and your advice with those who are listening and I really appreciate you being here today to share your wisdom with us. Thanks so much for having me. This was really fun. And I love to talk about the mental game.

And then I also love to have an opportunity to be my authentic self and share that with everyone. Awesome. And I love your energy. I so much appreciate you being on here today. And it was awesome connecting with you. Great. Thank you. Great. Thank you, Sindra.

Thank you for listening to High Performance Mindset. Are you signed up for Sindra's weekly email with free mental tools and strategies for high performance? Why the heck not? Text MENTALLYSTRONG, all one word, to 22828. Or visit SindraKampoff.com.