High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 603: How to Build Confidence

Episode Date: February 26, 2024

Confidence is a choice you make daily. Your belief and trust in your ability is your choice. Dr. Cindra shares how to intentionally decide today to nurture your confidence. Believe and trust that you can! Power Phrase of the Week: “I choose confidence.” Quote of the Week: “Your success will be determined by your own confidence and fortitude.” - Michelle Obama

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 we find out a little bit about how to build

confidence. Cinder, start us off with a quote. I like this quote from Michelle Obama and she said, your success will be determined by your own confidence and fortitude. Okay, so tell us exactly what we're talking about today. Today we're talking about how to build confidence. And, you know, this is a conversation I have with each one of the people I work with one-on-one, and that might be professional athletes, successful business owners, entrepreneurs. The point is we all need confidence. And confidence is really the trust and belief in our ability. And we have to have the certainty that we're going to be successful. And so we know that, you know, having skills and talents isn't enough. We have to believe in those.

And so confidence is also a decision we make every day, Lisa. And I think that it can be fragile. I've seen it be really fragile with people. And so things, disappointments, situations can impact our confidence, but it's really a daily choice that we can nurture every day. But confidence is not being cocky or arrogant. So I want to just kind of say that up front. All right. I like that. Confidence is not about being cocky or arrogant. Why is it so important for us to build confidence? Well, we know research in performance psychology shows that confident people work harder, they set more challenging goals, and they persist longer. So they're grittier and they can stay the course to go after their goals and their dreams over the long term.

We also know confident athletes perform better than less confident athletes. And your confidence is shaped by really what you focus on and your beliefs about the world and about yourself. All right. So what is a way that we can work on building our confidence? One way is to listen to your inner coach. And let me explain. Think about how you have two voices inside your head, your inner coach and your inner critic. I think sometimes of like Darth Vader, you know, from the Star Wars movie.

It's like my inner critic and then Yoda is this inner coach. And so we have both of these voices. And, you know, one thing to think about is, which one do you listen to? And which one do you listen to regularly? Our inner coach is reflective of our self talk. And that's how we talk to ourselves about situations and about ourselves. And this, this self talk directly impacts our confidence and our performance. So if you're not confident, you're likely telling yourself all the reasons you can't do something that's reflective of your inner critic. Instead of all the reasons you can, which is your inner coach.

And, you know, words like I can't, I won't, I'm not, right, disempower us. And so the key is to notice that voice inside your head. And you can always choose to listen to that inner coach instead, like a great coach would, right? Give yourself some evidence why you can experience success. I think about it like the angel and the devil sitting on each shoulder. Exactly, exactly. Same thing. And as I'm talking to you, Lisa, I'm actually, when I was just saying that I was pointing to my shoulders. Oh, right. You and I are on the same page.

Sure. So letting the past go is important to build confidence. Tell us about that. Is it about making mistakes and being able to move on? Letting go of mistakes or the past is really important to build confidence intentionally. This is really hard for people. I see this really impacting confidence in general because overthinking can be the enemy of confidence, or we overthink something about the past. And so what we want to do instead is have some self-compassion, being kind to ourselves, right, listening to our inner coach, and that allows you to let go of the past and, you know, the mistakes or regrets, being kind to yourself and your own mind is key. And this allows you to

move on quickly from failure or disappointment. So Lisa, one way to kind of think about it is, you know, your past has led you to where you are today. So everything has been perfect so far, leading to, you know, you being here. And so instead of looking at the past, you know, feeling regret or frustration, you can see the difficulties these experience as opportunities, because they can allow you to be even more stronger and even more confident. Right. You don't get to where you are today without going through things that brought you here and helped to create you. I get that. What's the third decision we can make to be confident? The third decision you can make is about imagining your own success. And so just thinking about, you know, what do you really want the future to be like?

And creating goals gives you a roadmap to where you're headed. And when you're clear on where you want to go, it's easier to develop the confidence you need to get there. And so I'd say confident people imagine future success. They create that in their minds, and then they live it. So to improve your confidence, you could develop your own personal highlight reel. Think about what you want in the future and imagine that. So imagine future performances is what will help you be your best and help you rise to the occasion in times that really are important to you.

So, Cinder, what's your final point for today? Confidence is a choice that we make every day. And your belief and trust in yourself is really a choice that you make. So intentionally deciding today to nurture your confidence is key. I mean, I challenge everyone to do that. And so really the key is to believe and trust that you can. And what is the power phrase this week? Short and simple. I choose confidence. All right. If people want to read more about this or read more about the work that you do or follow along, where do we go? You can head over to Dr. Sindra, so D-R-C-I-N-D-R-A.com. And you can find more information about my books, also my coaching and speaking.

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.