High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 470: The Mindset to Overcome Adversity

Episode Date: December 7, 2021

High performers see stressful situations as a challenge they can overcome instead of a threat to their performance or confidence. This improves their health and their performance. They talk to themselves powerful when experiencing stress – reminding themselves they can handle anything.  Quote of the Week: “Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful. — Joshua J. Marine, Author  Power Phrase of the Week: “I see stress as a challenge I can overcome. I can handle anything that comes my way.” 

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. We check in with Cindra Kampoff this morning. The topic, the mindset to overcome

adversity. And Cindra, you usually start us off with that quote. I love this quote by Joshua Marine. He's an author and he said, challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful. So how should we start today's conversation? Well, many times I think as humans, we want to avoid challenges or stress or pressure. Even during this holiday season, it can seem like a lot of pressure, but avoiding them actually keeps us really from, we play small and for us to really live our potential, we actually need to take risks and we need to feel some stress and pressure. And so really a key part of our ability to do that is how we view the adversity or challenges or pressure.

So what kind of a mindset do we need to be able to overcome adversity in life? Well, it's really about how we see the stress or pressure. So kind of the way we appraise it. So ultimately, the way that we see this stressor as like a threat or a challenge impacts our response to it. And the way we see the stressor actually helps us kind of rise to the challenge and perform at our best. Or sometimes we can feel like we crumble under kind of the weight of expectations and tough conditions. So the way we view it, Lisa really helps us either helps us perform well or hinders our ability to perform well.

But this is also related to our health, correct? Yes. So stress is actually the 12th leading cause of death in the United States. And I was reading the study that included over 300,000 people. And the researchers found that when we view stress as stressful so when we see it as a negative like a negative view of our stress and we feel high stress it actually increases our risk of death by 43 percent so a lot and when we view the stress not necessarily as negative then it actually increases or there's zero increase. So really stressing about what we're stressed about and viewing it as a stress actually is what causes health problems too. 12th biggest killer. That's crazy. So how is a challenge response different than a threat?

Well, when we are feeling like we're challenged by something, we want to conquer it. You know, physically we feel fired up. Maybe we have just the right amount of energy. Psychologically, we feel really confident, like we have the ability to overcome the challenge. And we're focused on the challenge kind of like a laser beam in front of us. And we're finding success because we're seeing it as a challenge. And so, again, it's not necessarily about the reality of the situation. It's about how we perceive the situation and are we seeing it as something

we can overcome. So what helps us see a situation as a challenge versus a threat then? Well, really the key is how we're viewing it. So a challenge feels like we have enough resources in us to cope with the situation. When we see the situation is too demanding, like we have enough resources in us to cope with the situation. When we see the situation is too demanding, like we don't have enough resources or we don't have enough inside of us to experience the threat. So a key part of this is really how we're talking to ourselves about the adversity or stress. So for example, if we say things like, I have the resources within me to handle this and I can handle anything that comes my way or I have everything inside me right now, then we're more likely to see it as a challenge versus a threat.

Cinder, can you summarize today for us? Sure. I'd say high performers see stressful situations as a challenge that they can overcome instead of a threat that threatens their performance or confidence. And this is actually key to our health, but also our performance. So the key is to keep reminding yourself that you have everything inside you that you need. And what is our power phrase this week? I see stress as a challenge I can overcome. I can handle anything that comes my way. And Cinder, if we want to get in touch with you or keep in touch with your work,

or maybe read the book or see what's coming up next for you, where do we need to go? You can head over to Dr. Sindra, so d-r-c-i-n-d-r-a.com, and you can find my book, Beyond Grit, where I talk about this. You can find that 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. Sindra 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. Sindra. That's D-R-C-I-N-D-R-A.com. See you next week.