High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 623: Move Towards Your Fears

Episode Date: June 7, 2024

The World’s Best choose courage instead of fear. They feel the fear, but don’t let it keep them from doing what they want to, have to, or were designed to do. As Jimmy Johnson, the coach who led the Dallas Cowboys to two consecutive Super Bowls, once said, “Do you want to be safe and good, or do you want to take a chance and be great?”   This Week's Power Phrase: “I embrace my fear and choose courage.” Quote of the Week: “Do the thing that you fear to do and keep on doing it…that is the quickest and surest way ever yet discovered to conquer your fear.” - Dale Carnegie (American author)

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. It's time to check in with Cinder Campoff today for our chat about moving towards your fears. Cinder, start us off with a quote. I love this quote by Dale Carnegie, an American author, and he said, do the thing that you fear to do and keep on doing it. That is the quickest and surest way ever yet discovered to conquer your fear.

I've had this conversation recently with people. It's interesting. What inspired the topic? Well, what inspired the topic, Lisa, is everybody I work with one-on-one that might be, you know, high-level athletes or executives, they experience fear. And what coaching can do is help you address that fear. And what's helpful to know about that is everyone experiences fear, right? We can't grow towards the person we're meant to become with actually out fear. So meaning you can't reach your goals and dreams without fear because everything you want in the future involves getting over your fear because you'll need to do something new and try new approaches to get what you really want. So, Cinder, what's the most important thing for us to understand about our own fear? First thing I would say is fear applies to all of us. And so, you know, we experience fear a lot

of different ways. It might be pain, fear of difficulty or embarrassment or rejection or the outcome, right? There's lots of things we can fear. For example, you know, you might think to yourself, what if I try something new and I fail? What if I don't get that position that I apply for? You know, so many what ifs and fear lives in the what ifs. So the most important thing is we all experience fear. However, you know, what I fear might be different than what you fear. So this idea that fear is universal, but also very personal. So when we are afraid of something, when we're fearing something, where is our mind?

What's it doing? Our mind, I would say, is in the future. And so when we feel fear, our focus is on the future. And so you can experience fear when reflecting on the past or when your mind is in the present. And that's helpful to know because fear is a future-based emotion. And you're likely just imagining the worst case, you know, when you feel fear. Again, lots of what if. And so we're at our best and experience high performance when we're in the present, and fear takes us out of the present moment.

So why is moving towards our fear important for us to reach our goals? It's important because, you know, whatever you're trying something new or taking on a new project or going after a new goal, like you're going to be stressing yourself emotionally or physically in some way. And that's when you experience fear. And so the very thing that you fear might actually provide the greatest growth experience. And the very thing that you fear is a thing that, you know, will help you reach your goals. And so the goal today that we're talking about is not to just completely eliminate the fear, but to move towards it, to move towards holding you back and make a conscious choice to be courageous despite the fear and take action towards it. All right. Courageous despite the fear. What's the difference between fear and courage then? Yeah, great question. I would say, you know, courage is feeling the fear and walking into it.

And so courage is not the absence of fear. In fact, you can't feel courageous without fear. You need to, you know, you need fear in order to act in a courageous way. And so the goal is not to be fearless, you know, completely lacking fear, because I think that's impossible. But the goal really is to fear less. And so fears, you know, will be there as you continue to take courageous action. And, you know, being brave really means or being courageous really means, you know, that you have the bravery to move towards the fear. All right, give us a little example. Okay. So today, what I've been talking about is, you know, the thing that we fear is what we need

to take action towards. And for me, when I was writing my first book, Beyond Grit, I was so scared, Lisa, that like, no one was going to read the book. And, you know, I was like, why? Sometimes I was like, why am I even writing this book? No one's ever going to read it. Right. But I also knew that this thing that was I was most scared about, I was meant to do. And I needed to move towards it, even though it was scary.

And I'm so glad I did because it, you know, it has helped a lot of people. And so maybe for you, that might be, you know, let's say you want a different position that pays more money. Well, you'll need to apply for that new position, even though it's scary, even though you might get rejected. And maybe, you know, there might be this like unknown, or maybe you want to ask a new person out, right? But they might reject you, right? And so the key is, is to move towards what's scary, because that's really what is what you really, really want. And how would you summarize today's topic for us? I would say the world's best use courage instead of fear. And they feel the fear, but they don't let it keep them from doing what they want to do or have to do or were designed to do.

And I love this quote by Jimmy Johnson, who was a coach who led the Dallas Cowboys to two consecutive Super Bowls. All right, here it goes. He said, do you want to be safe and good or do you want to take a chance and be great? Aha, I like that one. Can you tell us today's power phrase? The power phrase today is I embrace my fear and choose courage instead. And so, Cinder, if people want to read a little bit more about this topic, maybe learn a little bit more about what you do, listen to a podcast, is there a central place we can go? Sure. You can head over to DrCyndra, D-R-C-I-N-D-R-A dot com and all of that's over there. 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. Sindhra 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. Sindhra. That's D-R-C-I-N-D-R-A dot com. See you next week.