High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 614: The ABCs of Self-Awareness

Episode Date: April 27, 2024

You can use the ABC method to increase my self-awareness and change my thoughts, emotions, and actions when needed. Consider what people or situations push your buttons? What can you do to stay in control in those situations? When you feel pressure or stress, you can pay attention to what led you to feel that way? In this episode, Dr. Kamphoff talks about how to increase your self-awareness and why it is important to your performance. This Week’s Power Phrase: “I master myself to master my life.” Quote of the Week: “There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one’s self.” - Benjamin Franklin

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 are checking in with Cyndra Campoff this morning. A good topic, the ABCs of self-awareness.

And Cyndra, being self-aware, start us off with a quote. I like this quote by Benjamin Franklin, which made me laugh. He said, there are three things that are extremely hard. Steal a diamond and can know oneself. So what inspired your topic today of self-awareness? Well, today, that's what we're talking about, because the high performance starts with self-awareness. And what self-awareness means is just to be able to understand your tendencies and to be in tune with your own thoughts and emotions and actions. And so why do we need self-awareness? Well, it's really important to everything we do.

And it's the foundation of our ability to deal with adversity and challenges and setbacks. And if you have a high degree of self-awareness, understand yourself and are in tune with your body, it allows you to know yourself, right? What you do well, how you can improve, what jazzes you, what people or situation pushes, you know, pushes your button. And Travis Bradbury and Jean Gravis in their book, Emotional Intelligence 2.0, talk about if two people with similar talent and skill applied for a job, the one with the higher self-awareness would likely get it. And I agree with that.

Okay. So when we are self-aware, how does it help us out? Well, what we know from the research is that high self-awareness is related to life satisfaction and our ability to reach our goals. Because when we're self-aware, you understand yourself, you understand your passions, and you know really what you want. And you can work through emotions like fear and anxiety that hold you back. So I would say self-awareness can help you improve your performance in many different situations, like a job interview. If you're in sport, you know, a final play in a game, a championship game,

maybe a time where you really want to do well in a presentation with a client, even if you're a doctor, right, and you're in surgery, negotiate. And even as a parent, you know, let's say your child throws a tantrum, self-awareness can help you be your best in that moment. So, Sandra, in your book, Beyond Grit, you do talk about a method that you have called the ABC of self-awareness. Can you tell me a little bit about that? Absolutely. This is from my practice number four of Beyond Grit, and it covers 10 practices. And number four is know yourself to

master yourself. And it's all about, you know, knowing who you are. And in the book, I talk about these ABCs as a way to take a step back and check in with yourself. And you could do this in the moment, you know, many, several different moments in your day. And so A just stands for awareness of your thoughts and your emotions and your actions. Just taking a step back and noticing how you're feeling, what you're doing, what you're thinking. And B stands for take a breath. And if you just take a breath and then start, you know, especially a deep breath and just, again, just notice your thoughts and your emotions and your actions. And then C stands for see yourself with compassion. So C stands for compassion and non-judgment.

And so many times we're judging ourselves throughout our day instead of just accepting, right? And just noticing. That's really what the ABCs helps you do, is just notice. And it helps you make any adjustments to your thoughts or your emotions that you want. And I think without self-awareness we can really lose ourselves you know our emotions that are actually just going to autopilot and those might not always be helpful and that's

what leads to frustration or self-doubt or anxiety and so how does that help us how does that exercise help us out it mostly helps you get unstuck from your emotions. And you know, I think that every emotion is meant to be felt, even the tough ones. But what ABC allows you to do is just feel it and release it. And the ABCs help you to take a deep breath, not get frustrated or lose yourself and decide how you want to view the situation or the experience. And you get to choose your response instead of allowing your response just to go on autopilot because maybe it's what you're used to or what you've seen others react or what's your default. And it just helps you check in with yourself. So, Cydra, how do you summarize today for us?

I would say you can use the ABC method to increase your self-awareness and change your thoughts and your emotions and your actions when you need to. And I also think, you know, as you're listening, just consider what people or situations do push your buttons and how can you use the ABC method to choose the response you want to. Because when you feel pressure or stress, you can pay attention to what led you to feel that way. And during these moments, you can pay attention to what led you to feel that way too, so you can show up in the way that you want to show up every day. So what is this week's power phrase to deal with self-awareness? I master myself to master my life.

All right. And Cinder, how do people get more information from you? Maybe they want to pick up a copy of the book and read the rest of the practices. Absolutely. You can head over to beyondgrit.com and that's where you can find all the information about the book and purchase a copy and learn more about our work, which we provide 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.