High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 495: You Don't Need a Crystal Ball

Episode Date: June 7, 2022

In this episode, Dr. Cindra talks about the practice of "future-tripping" where we experience anticipatory anxiety and how address future-tripping. She provides us a reminder that you may think that mastering your mindset is like riding a bike—once you learn it, you can always do it—but actually stepping into your potential and living the High Performance Mindset requires ongoing attention. Your mind is a muscle; it takes daily practice to master it. She teaches us how to visit the future without dwelling on it.   This Week's Power Phrase: “My mind is a muscle. It takes daily practice to master it.”  This Week's Quote of the Week: “I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.” —Mark Twain  HIGH PERFORMANCE MINDSET SHOWNOTES FOR THIS EPISODE: www.cindrakamphoff.com/495 FOLLOW CINDRA ON INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/cindrakamphoff/  FOLLOW CINDRA ON TWITTER: https://twitter.com/mentally_strong  Love the show? Rate and review the show for Cindra to mention you on the next episode: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/high-performance-mindset-learn-from-world-class-leaders/id1034819901   

We check in with Cinder Kampoff today, and the topic, you don't need a crystal ball. Cinder, you start us off with a quote. I like this quote by Mark Twain. He said, I'm an old man, and I have known a lot of great troubles, but most of them have never happened. So tell us about the topic today. Well, Lisa, I work with a wide variety of people one-on-one. So some executives, some professional athletes, salespeople, leaders. They all have one thing

in common, and they know that they have more inside of them. And they really want to get out of their own way. And so there's this one person they work with, who's a professional athlete, who went to the Olympics last year in Tokyo. And now she feels like she has some pressure on her because, you know, she went to the Olympics, and now she kind of has this target on her back. And we can all experience kind of these worries like she is right now, right? She's wondering, you know, how well she'll do this year. Will she meet her own expectations? She's worried about how, you know, other people might beat her. And she's worried about not making it to the world championship. So what we're going

to talk about is future tripping, tripping over her future and worried about the outcome. And we can all do that as well. So why is today's topic important? Well, what future tripping really means is we experience what's called anticipatory anxiety. So we worry about something that really hasn't happened yet. In the field of psychology, we call this fortune telling. We, you know, fortune tell, we kind of predict the worst possible outcome of the situation. So let's say we apply for a job and we predict we won't even get an interview, or we predict we won't get the sales, you know, if we work in sales. And the problem is, when we predict that and the things that will happen in terms of if they're going to be bad, then we make those bad things happen. And so fortune telling really hurts our chances of

just experiencing overall success and feeling good and just enjoying the moment in general. So what is the negative impact of us future tripping? Well, the negative impact is we're not really living up to our potential because we're living up to our potential. We have really little worry or tension in our body in general. And so we want to just notice the signs of future tripping when we're experiencing a lot of worry or just worrying about our future. So we might, you know, signs might be like tightness in our body or racing heart, or again, lots of future based thinking or self doubt. And so the negative impact is that we're not really in the present

moment where our best happens and we're not productive. We can just waste a lot of energy. Cinder, what do we do instead then? So first step would be to consider what your worries are. You know, as people are listening, I'm just going to encourage them to think about what keeps them up at night. And I found that the things that I worry about are the things that I really care about. And most of our worries don't even turn out, right? They tend to not happen. And so we can certainly kind of plan for the future, but worrying is different.

When we worry, when we future trip, we tend to kind of overthink things and we play it over and over again in our mind. So I'd say the first step is awareness, awareness of what we're worrying about. And so what do you want us to do after we gain awareness that we are future tripping? I'd say the second thing is just to look at your thoughts without judging them. You know, you're not your thoughts. They're typically not the truth.

And so you can really just examine them without judging them and, you know, ask yourself, are you worrying for a reason or is this worry really unnecessary? And then I would encourage you just to get your mind back to the present. The best way to do that is to take a breath, maybe even count with your breathing, like four counts in, hold for four counts, out for four counts, because when we're counting, we can't really think about the future. We're really in the present. And so the point is, is really just to notice these thoughts without judgment and then get your mind back to the present moment. How would you like to finish

today for us? Well, I think we can all worry, just like the athlete that I was sharing with you, you know, at the beginning of our conversation. And so I think the thing is, is to remember that kind of mastering your mindset is like riding a bike. You know, it's not like riding a bike. It's not like once you learn it, you're always great at it. And so instead, it really does require ongoing attention. Your mind is like a muscle and it takes daily practice to master it. So what I would say, you know, to close is just notice when you're future tripping and bring your mind back to the present. Cinder, what's this week's power phrase?

My mind is a muscle and it takes daily practice to master it. And if people want to get in touch with you, learn more about this or some of the other work that you do, where's the best place to follow you? They can head over to Dr. Cinder, so drcindra.com. 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.