High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 629: How to Understand Yourself

Episode Date: July 11, 2024

To reduce overthinking, self-doubt, and fear – our inner limits  – starts with self-awareness. Self-awareness includes understanding yourself, your emotions, and what drives you. Dr. Cindra challenges you this week to notice yourself – how are you feeling, what are you thinking about, and then use the PCR strategy to keep increasing your own awareness of yourself.   This Week's Power Phrase: “I choose to lead the hardest person first—myself.” Quote of the Week: “Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves” - Psychologist Carl Jung

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 Kampoff today for a little positivity. We talk about how to understand yourself. Cinder, start us off with a quote. I like this quote by psychologist Carl Young, and he said, everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves. So we're talking about self-awareness, and how do you want to get started on this today? Well, self-awareness is really the first step in leading yourself and

it means understanding yourself and your tendencies. And what research actually shows is when we understand ourselves really clearly, it helps us be more confident and creative. We communicate more effectively, build stronger relationships, and have more trusting relationships with others. For example, people might have read the book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. And the author Stephen Covey wrote, self-awareness is necessary to discovering your voice and understanding that you have freedom to consciously choose your response. And it was rated as one of the most important capacities for leaders to develop. Well, Cinder, would you say that most people are or are not self-aware?

Well, even though most people say that they're really self-aware and they understand themselves at a deep level, what actually we know is that only 10 to 15 percent of people are actually really self-aware. And I think that's really surprising because, you know, I've noticed that my own self-awareness has grown the more I have, you know, the older I've gotten. And so it's important to develop our awareness of gotten. And so it's important to develop our awareness of ourselves. And obviously, this predicts leadership effectiveness, like we just said. But it also, you know, the research also shows that leaders who are aware of their own emotions and can recognize their impact on others are more likely to be rated as

effective leaders. And so you've talked about how self-awareness is connected to leadership. How exactly is that? Because we're able to notice our own emotions and respond effectively the way we want to. When we're self-aware, we can recognize and admit our mistakes. We can be more objective with others in situations. We can practice self-control. We can see situations from outside our own perspective. We make better effective decisions and we maintain our confidence even when things can get hard and we experience adversity and setbacks. So what is the bottom line to this research about being self-aware? I think the bottom line, Lisa, is just that understanding ourselves is the heart of our own performance.

And leaders today we've talked about so far, but also as athletes, as parents, as entrepreneurs, as salespeople. And I'd say, you know, really high performance starts with self-awareness. And you always have some sort of a tool for us to use. So what is a tool that we can use for self-awareness? So this tool is written in my book, Beyond Grit for Business, and it's called the PCR tool. And this is one way we can grow in our own self-awareness. So the first step is P for pause. And that just means, you know, take a moment to pause and take a breath just to pay attention to what's going on with you.

The C stands for consider. And that's, you know, how do I want to respond right now? What are maybe some values that are personal values that I want guiding me right now? And just take a moment to consider. And then R is respond. And that's the last step. And I think the power of this is that we can, with purpose and intention, we can choose how we want to respond, not just react. So just asking yourself, you know, what do I want to do?

What do I really want to do? So PCR is a great tool you can use. PCR. All right. Sandra, do you have do I really want to do? So PCR is a great tool you can use. PCR. All right. Sandra, do you have a final point for us today? Yeah, the final point would just be to reduce overthinking and self-doubt and fear, which we all can experience. And that's, you know, our inner limit. It starts with self-awareness. And it's hard to lead ourselves beyond our inner limits when we don't really know ourselves. So understanding yourself, your emotions, and what drives you is key. And I'm going to challenge everyone listening this week is to notice yourself.

What are you feeling? What are you thinking about? And using the PCR strategy to increase your own awareness of yourself. All right, Sindra, leave us with a power phrase today. I choose to lead the hardest person first, which is myself. I like that. And if people want to read the book or get more information about you, follow along with your podcast, where do we go? You can head over to Dr. Sindra, so drcindra.com

and all the information about my book and my podcast and my speaking are 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.