High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 486: The Power of Self-Awareness

Episode Date: March 23, 2022

In order to reduce overthinking, self-doubt, fear – all of our inner limits – it all starts with self-awareness. Your self-awareness is having an understanding of yourself, your emotions, and what drives you. Cindra challenges you this week to notice yourself – how are you feeling/thinking about, and use the PCR strategy that she discusses to keep increasing your own awareness of yourself.  This Week’s Power Phrase: “I choose to lead the hardest person first—myself.  This Week’s Quote of the Week: “Self-awareness is the ability to take an honest look at your life without any attachment to it being right or wrong, good or bad.” Author Debbie Ford 

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 Cinder Kampoff today. And today I am excited to talk about the power of

self-awareness. Cinder, you start us off with a quote. I love this quote by author Debbie Ford, who said self-awareness is the ability to take an honest look at your life without any attachment to being right or wrong, good or bad. So we're talking about self-awareness. How do you want to get started on this? Well, self-awareness is really our ability to understand and be connected to our thoughts, our emotions, and our actions. And it's really about us understanding ourselves. It's the first step in leading yourself. And so actually what research shows is that when we can see ourselves clearly, it helps us be more confident and creative. It helps us communicate more effectively,

build stronger relationships, and build trust with other people. Several people have called it the most important ability that we have as a leader to develop is our self-awareness. And so what would you say about most people? Are we mostly self-aware? Well, actually, most people say that they're self-aware, but the research actually shows is that only about 10 to 15% of people are actually self-aware, which is really surprising. It's, you know, a lot lower than I would have expected. So I think that shows you just the importance of continuing to grow in your own awareness of yourself. And so people who are aware of their emotions, they can recognize their impact on other people. And again, related to like this idea that we're all leaders, when we are able to really

be aware of our own emotions, people say we're, you know, an effective leader and more effective leader. So you've talked about how self-awareness is connected to leadership. How is that? Well, we are highly self-aware. We're able to notice how we're feeling in our emotions. We can recognize and admit mistakes. We're objective with ourselves in the situation and we can, you know, practice self-control over ourselves. And so this helps us just make more effective decisions and helps us be more confident, even if things don't go perfectly or if we experience a setback. And I think all of these things are really important in business and in sport and even in our lives and our families, because when we're able to understand ourselves, we're able to build relationships a lot stronger

and be more effective. So what do you think the bottom line is to this research? I think the bottom line is that when we understand ourselves, you know, self-awareness is really at the heart of our performance as athletes, as entrepreneurs, as salespeople, maybe even business leaders. And so I would say that the bottom line is that high performance, you know, our ability to be our best more consistently actually starts with self-awareness. So you always have a tool for us. What's a tool that we can use for our own self-awareness?

Okay. So the tool that you can use is a strategy I call PCR. And it's a strategy in my upcoming book that's going to be released this summer. And PCR. So P stands for pause. And that means just take a moment, take a breath, just pause in the situation. C stands for consider. So you could ask yourself, you know, how do I want to respond right now? Or what values do I want guiding me right now? And then respond

is the last step. That's the R. And that's, you know, with purpose and intention, asking yourself, what do you really want to do? How do you want to react and respond? And how do you choose? And this is the PCR. It's really quick steps that allows you to be more connected with your thoughts and your emotions and just be more connected with how you're feeling. Cinder, do you have a final point for us? Yes. You know, our final point is that, you know, we all have inner limits. And what I mean by that is we all can experience overthinking or self-doubt or fear. And all of this overcoming our inner limits starts with our

own awareness of ourselves. So understanding ourselves and our emotions and what drives us. So I'm going to challenge everyone to think this week and just notice yourself. How are you feeling? What are you thinking about? And you can use the PCR strategy to increase your own awareness of yourself. And what is this week's power phrase? I notice my thoughts and emotions and check in with myself today. Notice my thoughts and emotions and check in with myself today. We should all strive to do that. Cinder, if people want to get more information or maybe be notified when the new book comes out, where do we need to go follow you? You can head over to Dr. Cinder, so D-R-C-I-N-D-R-A.com.

And my book, Beyond Grit, is there. And then you'll get more information about the book this spring when it comes out. 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 dot com. See you next week.