High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 437: Turn Stress into Excitement

Episode Date: June 15, 2021

Today on the podcast, Dr. Cindra talks about the importance of when you feel stress or pressure to interpret that as “I am excited” instead of trying to calm down. We all experience moments of stress and pressure in our lives. We cannot live a life without stress and pressure. Seeing your stress or pressure as excitement will help you feel more confidence and perform to your potential.    Power Phrase this Week: “I am excited for anything that comes my way.”  Quote of the Week: “When you change your mind about stress, you can change your body’s response to stress.” Kelly McGonigal 

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. Time to check in with Cyndra Campoff this morning. And Cyndra, we've got a good way to get started

turning stress into excitement, which a lot of us experience stress a lot. How do we start today with our quote? Yes, this is by Kelly McGonigal. And she said, when you change your mind about stress, you can change your body's response to stress. So do you have an example to start us off with? Well, this week, Lisa starts the Olympic trials for USA Track and Field, and that's one of the teams I work with. And the trials determine who competes at the Olympics in Tokyo at the end of July. And so the top three advance. And other athletes have told me that it can feel like the atmosphere, you can kind of cut it with a knife when you're at the trials,

because it's so intense. And so we really need these mental skills we're talking about today for these kind of moments, like if you're a track and field athlete. But I think, you know, even when we're not like you and I, we all can experience stress and pressure and times where it can feel like, you know, you walk into an atmosphere that can feel just so intense. So we need these strategies to be able to deal with that. So how are you connecting it with our topic for today? Well, the way we are successful in these moments of pressure really largely has to do with our mindset. Okay, so let me give you an example. And for everyone who's listening, I want you to kind of imagine that you work with an organization with hundreds of people

and you're about to give a presentation to the whole group. And the CEOs there, the board members are all in the audience. And you've really been anxious about it all week. You kind of feel your heart pounding and your palms are sweaty and your mouth feels dry.

Okay, so Lisa, as you're picturing that, do you think it's best in that moment to try to calm down or do you think it's best to feel excited? I would think that it's best to try to calm yourself down. Yeah, absolutely. So most people think that. In fact, there was a Harvard Business School professor named Allison Wood Brooks

who asked hundreds of people this question. You know, do you think you people this question, you know, do you think you should calm down or you should feel excited? And 91% actually thought you should try to calm down. And, you know, in moments of stress and pressure, that's what we're told, just calm down. But, you know, today we're really talking about is that true? And is it, you know, better to feel excited instead and embrace anxiety? So should you try to stay calm or embrace your anxiety? Yeah, good question. So this is what Alison Woodbrooks decided to do.

She decided to test it and she brought people into her lab and had them prepare to give a speech. And half of them said, I'm calm. And half of them were told to embrace their anxiety and say, I'm excited. And although both groups really felt nervous, the group that embraced their anxiety actually felt more confident and they were better able to handle the pressure and stress. So that's what we really need to do. How does that all relate to us? Well, I think, you know, most people do believe the best strategy under pressure is to calm down and relax. But, you know, the opposite is true. And I think this relates to us because you might be a student who is, you know, has an important exam coming up or maybe you feel pressure at work to do something particularly well.

Or maybe you're an elite athlete who wants to try to make the Olympics. Last week, Lisa, I was speaking to 150 doctors and nurses and healthcare workers. And before that, I felt, oh my gosh, I'm really nervous. You know, and I thought, okay, I'm going to see it as excited. So, you know, these are the moments where we can really, the way we're interpreting our anxiety is most important because when we're feeling anxious and excited, we have the same symptoms, meaning our, is most important because when we're feeling anxious and excited, we have the same symptoms, meaning we have sweaty hands and our heart might race. So it's important that we interpret it as we're excited.

Do you have a final point for us today? Yeah, at least I'd say, you can use this phrase, I am excited the next time you feel anxiety or pressure. And the power of this is it's found to kind of boost your confidence and improve your performance. And so by seeing yourself as excited, you can really transform kind of your fear-based anxiety to more courage to really help you be at your best.

All right, I'm going to try that. I've got a very busy schedule, lots of different interviews this week that go in all sorts of different directions. So I was feeling a little bit of stress about that. I'm going to try to frame that as excitement and go forward with that. So I'm excited. I'll try it out. I'll try it out. Can you summarize today for us? Yeah, Lisa, I would say, you know, today we talked about the importance of when you feel stress or pressure to interpret that as I'm excited instead of trying to calm down. You know, we experience moments of stress and pressure every day.

We can't live a life without stress or pressure. So we want to see it as we're excited for the opportunity, and that will help us feel more confident and perform to our potential. What is the power phrase this week? I am excited for anything that comes my way. And Dr. Kampoff, how do we get in touch with you or follow you and then read your book, find out what you're doing? Yeah, you can head over to Dr. Sindra, so drcindra.com. And you can find my book and podcast, everything over there. Turn stress into excitement. Thank you so

much, Sindra. Thank you, Lisa. 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.