High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 419: How to Set Yourself Up for the Future

Episode Date: March 31, 2021

This week on the podcast we talk about how to set yourself up for future success. Cindra describes how to engage in the “Best Possible Self Exercise” to get clarity on your future self which has been found to increase possible affect and optimism. This week spend some time visualizing a date in the future, and then write about it in detail. A small dream will limit you. A big dream is a prerequisite for reaching your potential which is limitless.    Power Phrase this Week: “I am gritty. I go after hard and difficult goals.”  Quote of the Week: “Everybody has their own Mount Everest – we were put on this earth to climb.” Seth Godin 

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. It's our time. We check in with Sindra Kampoff. And Dr. Kampoff, let's talk a little bit about what we're going to be speaking on today. Lisa, we're going to talk about how to set yourself up for the future. And I love this quote by Seth Godin. He said, everyone has their own Mount Everest. We were put on this earth to climb.

And yesterday, Lisa, I had an exciting day. I submitted the first draft of my next book to the publisher. Oh, wow. Congratulations. Well, a whole year of writing. It was like, oh, it felt so good. And I was finishing the section that I'm going to talk about today on grit. And what grit really means is having passion and perseverance for your very long-term goals. It's a definition by Angela

Duckworth. And this week on my podcast, I was also interviewing a woman named Caroline Adams Miller, who wrote a book on grit, just like I did. And we were talking about how we all need really difficult goals to keep us happy. And actually, the happiest people wake up every day to hard goals, really outside your comfort zone. So today, what we're going to talk about is this exercise called the best possible self exercise, which is really the first step in cultivating your grit, because it really helps you unlock this vision of where you want to go and the road that you want to take. And I first read about this exercise, Lisa, in an article published in the Journal of Positive Psychology. And these researchers from Berlin were analyzing like 34

studies that did this possible self-exercise. And they found that people who went through it had more positive emotions, reported more optimism, they were more excited about their future. And doing this exercise did what was called reducing goal ambivalence, which is just like the feeling that you might get when your goal isn't worth pursuing. So can you share a bit of the exercise with us? Yeah, I'd love to, Lisa. So I'm going to share like a shortened version for people to do this week. And so if you're not driving, you can close your eyes and just listen to my words. If you are driving, don't close your eyes.

But the best possible self-exercise goes something like this. I want you to think about your life sometime in the future. Let's say 1, 5, 10, or 15 years from now. And imagine it in detail, the way that you would like it to go, and the best it could possibly go. You know, that you've worked hard, you've stayed gritty, and you've achieved your goals. And as you're imagining, you want to kind of step into your dreams and imagine it in detail. Like how does it feel? Who do you imagine being with? Where are you at? What have you accomplished? Kind of imagine your future self in detail and

you want to feel it in your body. And then when you get done with that exercise, you want to actually write about it in detail. Like what did you imagine in detail? You don't want to be very abstract or vague, but actually write it out for about 10 minutes, write out everything you imagined. And this, just doing this short exercise can really have a lasting impact on your future. So what would you tell us to do given the research? Well, so the research shows that this is a really powerful exercise, and it also helps you, if you're struggling with anything right now, do what's called mental contracting, where you kind of do this exercise, picture yourself, you know, in the future,

and then come back to the present where you can really contemplate any obstacles that are in your way and help you get more clarity on the next step towards where you want to go, which sometimes that next step can be really overwhelming. And do you have a final point for us, Cendra? For sure, Lisa. I would say, you know, grit is really what we're talking about this morning. It's really developed by working towards hard goals. And those hard goals can take years or months to achieve, just like, you know, the first draft of the book that I submitted. So I'm just going to encourage people to think about what are the big goals that you're really working towards and what will take years

of hard work and dedicating and sacrificing to build. When you do this best possible exercise, it gives you some clarity on what those big, difficult goals might be. And Cinder, can you summarize today for us? This week, I encourage everyone who's listening to do the best possible self-exercise, which has been found to improve positive emotions and optimism. So you could spend a few, some time kind of visualizing a date in the future, and then write about it in detail. Because really, a small dream will limit you. But a big dream is a prerequisite for really reaching your potential, which is limitless.

And Dr. Kampoff, let's go with the power phrase this week. What is it? I am gritty. I go after hard and difficult goals. If people want to get in touch with you and find out more about what you do or keep track of you so when the new book comes out, they can get that as well. What do we need to do? Yeah, you can head over to Dr. Sindra. So D-R-C-I-N-D-R-A dot com and you can find out everything you need over there. 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.