High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 407: How to See Challenges Happening for You

Episode Date: February 9, 2021

In this episode, Dr. Kamphoff talks about how you decide the meaning you provide to every difficulty or challenge. The key is to be consciously aware of the meaning you place on an event. When you see challenges as happening for you, you choose grit and your potential. When you see challenges as happening to you, you choose a victim mentality.  The Power Phrase this Week: “I see difficulties and challenges as happening for me, not to me.”  Quote of the Week: Hal Enrod, the Bestselling Author of The Miracle Morning said, “It is our responsibility to choose the most empowering reason for the challenges, events and circumstances of our lives.”  

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. Checking in with Sindra Kampoff today, Dr. Sindra Kampoff joining us to talk about how to see

challenges happening for you. You usually start with a quote, Sindra. What's the quote today? This is a quote by Hal Enrod. He wrote a bestselling book called The Miracle Morning and said, it is our responsibility to choose the most empowering reason for the challenges, events, and circumstances of our lives. So what are we talking about today? We're talking about really the meaning that we create around difficulties. And last night, Lisa, I was watching the Super Bowl as many people I know were, the Bucs beat the Chiefs.

And I think this would have never happened without the power of mindset. And what I mean by that is, you know, the Chiefs won against the Bucs in Week 15. But if the Bucs wouldn't have taken the lessons that they learned from the loss and turned it to an opportunity, I don't think the Bucs would have won last night. And I thought it was so incredible that Tom Brady's, you know, first season with the Bucs after, like, six Super Bowl wins with the Patriots, you know, starting over with a new team. He could have seen it as a difficulty or a struggle, but he didn't. That's not his mindset.

So what's the best way that we can view these challenges or difficulties that come up in our own lives and sport or business? I think Lisa, what's important is to recognize that everything in our life is based on the meaning that we give it. And what I mean by that is we're meaning-making machines. And really, we can choose a different meaning we want to give to anything. We can choose a meaning to give to our past experiences, and we do sometimes unconsciously. And that meaning gives us, you know, can empower our future. So kind of what I'm saying is that there are two ways to look at anything. One as to me and one is for me. When we think about it as for me, we learn from it. We're better because of it. And when we're thinking to me, we create more of like a victim mentality.

So the key is to be really proactive and consciously choose the meaning we make towards our past events or even our current events. And when we see it as for us, we're ready to take on the challenge, even despite setbacks or failures. So, Dr. Kampoff, how would you tell us to do this in practice and use this of seeing things happening for us? So, I would encourage you to think about a situation in the past that you gave a negative interpretation to. And then think about, you know, what was the impact? How did it impact you today? Maybe it strained a relationship or maybe it ruined an opportunity or it led to some type of negative emotions.

And I think the key is to recognize that's just a story we told ourselves and we interpreted that story. Even, you know, the point is that, you know, our life is based on what we focus on, what we give meaning to. And we can focus on the gains, the opportunity, what we learn from the struggle. And even if you're thinking about this past event, you can reinterpret that story. And I think that's really powerful. So how is this ideal of seeing our challenges for us connected to grit or our potential? Sure. Well, our natural tendency is to focus on the negative and inflate this negative.

But when we do that, I think we just give up on our dreams and our goals easily. You know, we don't kind of tap into our grit. And we might think to ourselves, if we haven't achieved our goal, like, oh, this isn't for me or I can't do that. So the key is to focus on how you can continue to be gritty in those difficulties. And when you see those difficulties as happening for you, they show you how strong you are, how persistent you are, and that's how you understand your true potential and power. And they show you what will work for you. Do you have a final point for us today? Yeah.

Today, what we're really talking about is how life is based on the meaning that you give it, and we can reframe anything that limits us in our past to really help us give energy to the future. So choose the meanings that empower you, not enable you. Choose meanings that make you better, not bitter. And choose meetings that will help you in the future, not hinder you. Can you summarize for us today? Sure.

I would say, you know, we decide the meaning that we place on every difficulty and challenge. So the key is to be really consciously aware and proactive about the meaning we're placing on events and really shape it to what's going to help us. And when we see challenges and difficulties that's happening for us, we're choosing our grit and our potential instead of like to us, which is more of a victim approach. So what is the power phrase to help us go through the week? I see difficulties and challenges as happening for me, not to me. For me and not to me. I like that one. And, Cyndra, where can people get in touch with you if they have more questions?

You can head over to Dr. Cyndra, D-R-C-I-N-D-R-A.com. And you can find out about the book Beyond Grit where I talk about this topic. Or you can find the podcast information there called The High Performance Mindset. 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. Sindhra 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.