High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 479: How to Develop Mastery

Episode Date: January 25, 2022

In this episode, Dr. Cindra talks about how we can approach any task from a mastery or an ego orientation. A mastery orientation is focused on improving and learning. With a mastery orientation, you engage because you enjoy it and are passionate about the activity. This is the orientation we want to develop because it leads to long-term success. On this episode, we discuss several ideas how you can develop a mastery orientation.    Power Phrase This Week:  “Today I focus on myself and on getting 1% better!”   Quote of the Week: “The time that leads to mastery is dependent on the intensity of our focus.”— Robert Greene 

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 Cinder Kampoff today. And today, Cinder, we're talking about how to develop

mastery. You usually start us off with a quote. By Robert Green, he said, the time that leads to mastery is dependent on the intensity of your focus. The intensity of our focus. Okay, what inspired the topic today? Well, I think there, you know, you and I spend so much time watching sports. We watch our kids play hockey or basketball, football, tennis, lots of different activities. And the interesting thing is as I watch sports more and more, I really see the difference in the way that athletes respond based on where their focus is and based on where the coach's focus is. I see it in their body language and their reaction to mistakes.

I'm sure you see that too. And in sports psychology, we talk about the difference between what's called mastery orientation and ego orientation. And I think it's really helpful for us to know what the difference is. And then how do we really adopt more of a mastery orientation? Interesting. I can't wait for this conversation. What is a mastery orientation or a mastery mindset? Well, we can apply this to really anything in our life, not just sports.

And when we choose more of a mastery orientation, we are really working to be the best we can be. We want to improve our skills, maybe be more confident. We're not concerned about the outcome because we realize we can learn anything from the outcome. So we're not concerned if we win or we lose. And actually, when we adopt more of this type of motivation and orientation, our motivation is really high, as we're doing it for just the excitement of the activity. And so we actually perform better, we get better results, and we're focused more on mastery. Okay, so what is an ego orientation or

mindset? That's when we're focused on the outcome. Maybe we want to avoid losing and we compare ourselves with others. We are focused on the mistakes we make and there's a lot of judgment. Sometimes we create our own anxiety and stress. We want to prove, you know, ourselves. And sometimes people choose this orientation because we think, you know, sort of the ego leads the hard work and the ego can fuel us. But really, the mastery orientation is really what's going to really get us where we want to go. And what's the impact when we adopt more of an ego orientation and we're concerned about the outcome so much? Well, I really see the impact is really severe. And so, you know, it leads to a

lot of kind of fear-based cultures. I even see this in professional sport. It's really interesting. And so when we really have more of an ego orientation, we experience greater fear of failure, more anxiety, and lower motivation. And sometimes we make excuses even before we perform. So how we can apply this outside of sport is let's say we want to try to lose weight. If we're interested in more of like getting healthier, that's more of a mastery orientation. But if we really use harsh criticism and motivation to lose weight, that would be more of the ego orientation. Okay, so how do we develop more of this mastery orientation? It sounds like that's the preferred one. Yeah. So there's a couple of ways.

And I think it can be really difficult, Lisa, because we, you know, you turn on ESPN and there's like, it's all about results, right? But first, I would say, ultimately, we want to set what's called process goals. These are just small goals that lead to us improving. Instead of, you know, winning or losing, just ask yourself, how can you get 1% better today? And then, you know, winning or losing, just ask yourself, how can you get 1% better today? And then, you know, it's really about how we're explaining things. When we make a mistake, do we beat ourselves up? Or, you know, do we ask ourselves, how did we learn? And when we compare ourselves to others, the key is to get our focus back to how we've improved. Do you have a final point for us today, Sandra? Yeah, Lisa, I would say that this topic is really important,

and we want to stay focused on just our improvement. This is going to help us get the results that we really seek, and we're not going to beat ourselves up, or at least we'll do that less, and we won't feel as much regret. So really the key is to focus on improving, getting better, even after you've made a mistake or there's been a difficulty, and this is ultimately what's going to help you reach your goal and your potential so how would you don't focus on the

results okay don't focus on the results how would you summarize for us today i would say you know we can approach any task from a mastery or ego orientation and the mastery orientation is focused on improving and learning um you do things because you enjoy it and you're passionate about it and i think we can help ourselves focus more on mastery. We can help our kids do that. And maybe even an athlete can coach by, you know, judging ourselves less and not comparing ourselves up, comparing ourselves as much and beating ourselves up. Cinder, what's the power phrase we should use as we head through a week like this? Yeah, today I focus on myself and I'm getting 1% better today.

1% better today. If people are interested in following along with your work, where is the best place to go? They can go to drcindra.com and you can find out more about my book, Beyond Grit, where I talk about a lot of these different strategies. Cinder Kampoff, thank you so much for your time today.

Thanks, Lisa. Way to go for finishing another episode of the High Performance Mindset. I'm giving you a virtual fist pump Cinder Kampoff, thank you so much 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.