High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 64: Live and Play in the Moment

Episode Date: August 19, 2016

  High performers know that their mind can be in three places: the past, present or future. They also know their flow zone can only happen in the present moment. They can do anything they want to in the present moment. High performers make a moment-to-moment nonjudgmental commitment to be aware of their focus and then make the choice to change their focus in the present moment. The present moment is where a focus on the process occurs and high performance happens.   Affirmation this Week: I live in the moment. I take one play at a time. I can do anything and be anything right here, right now.  

Welcome to High Performance Mindset with Dr. Sindra Kampoff. Do you want to reach your full potential, live a life of passion, go after your dreams? Each week we bring you strategies and interviews to help you ignite your mindset. Let's bring on Sindra. Dr. Sindra Kampoff here today for High Performance Mindset on The Country Club. Good morning, Sindra. It's great to be here. Thanks for having me, TJ.

Yeah, good to see you again. I haven't been around, or I guess I haven't seen you in a couple of weeks because it was a couple Mondays ago. But the Olympic Games are going on, and your name pops up in my head quite often watching these Olympic athletes. You can see them mouthing mantras and talking to themselves, lots of them talking about the mental game and what it takes and the mindset, all of that stuff. Yeah, every time I watch, all of that stuff. Yeah.

Every time I watch, I see some references. I usually tweet them. So last night I was watching and I heard Usain Bolt say this. He said, it's all about who can sustain mental toughness. Right. And then I heard Michael Phelps say, it's all about your mind. So, so many different references. Right.

And you've got to be happy to hear all of that and that people are picking up on that. I don't want to say that people are using it more. I think they probably are, but they're not afraid to admit they're using it more. I think that was maybe more of the thing that went along with it, the stigma that went with it. Yeah, absolutely. And I saw a great article by the sports psychologist,

or highlighting the sports psychologist who's worked with Simone Biles. I think there is more awareness and just more people understanding that it's part of what you need to train. And you get less of a stigma against working on your mind because there's just more awareness that your mind is really important. Well, I was unplugged for a week, and once I got my fingers back on the smartphone and logged on to Twitter, I noticed that one of our all-time favorite wide receivers is the topic of a podcast that you posted. So I got to get caught up on the podcasts with Vikings wide receiver Adam Thielen. And we're talking about living in the moment today.

So give us a little background on the podcast because we want people to go check it out, but it's really what we're going to talk about today. So when I asked Adam what his final advice was for people, he said, live in the moment, take one day at a time, one play at a time. And if you know anything about Adam's story, he grew up in a small town, Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, and played football there, but he wasn't recruited. And Minnesota State Mavericks, the coaches there,

Coach Hoffner and the other coaches, decided just to give him a shot. And they offered him a small scholarship to play. And if you fast forward four years, he had a really incredible season where the Mavericks went undefeated regular season. And he wanted to play the next level. But the draft came and went,

and his name was never called. So the Vikings provided him an opportunity to attend rookie tryouts and an evaluation session. If you know anything about those rookie tryouts, you know that maybe one person makes the squad, or maybe just makes the team right away. But many times, there's not anybody who moves on. And so I asked him, I was like, Adam, how in the world did you believe you could go from Detroit Lakes, Minnesota to Division II team to Minnesota Vikings? And this is what he said. If I would have known then what I know now, I probably wouldn't have made it.

So he said I was oblivious to how everything worked and the chances of me actually making the league, especially coming from a Division II school. I just took it one drill at a time. I was just living in the moment, giving it all I got. And now I'm here. You know, and so the next year he makes the practice squad. And then the year after he makes the team. And last year he was special teams player of the year for the Minnesota Vikings. So, you know, he said, mindset is huge. Your mind can do a lot for you or can hurt your performance. And at this level, you realize it more and more. And there's a lot of other really awesome things he talked about in terms of what he learned from mental training and the work that we did with the football team there when he was a senior.

And he said, you know, just the importance of taking it one play at a time, letting go of mistakes, not dwelling on the past. And, you know, you and I, we perform every single day. Maybe we're not football players and we're not on Sundays on TV, but we perform best in the present moment by taking one play at a time. That's awesome. And that's a great way. I'm totally picturing the conversation you had with the team when he was there about flushing it and moving on to the next thing.

There's nothing you can do about the things in the past. And he took that and got to where he wanted to go with it. And that's an NFL football team. That's awesome. So now not all of us, like you said, are going to achieve NFL greatness anytime soon or ever for that matter. So how does it apply to us on a daily basis or maybe a career-based basis? You know, today we're talking about taking one play at a time. And the play can be like an assignment you're working on as a student, a client that you're

serving right now in your business, or a conversation you're having right now as a leader. Or it could be taking one play at a time when you have a long list of things to do on a Monday morning and taking one thing at a time. And why it's so important is because the present moment is really the only place where you can be at your best. It's the only place where your best performance takes place, where peak performance, high performance takes place, and the only place that you can experience what's called flow, which is you at your best.

So it can't happen when you're focused on the past or the future. And there's a little bit of past, present, future graph here that I know we can't show people on the radio, but we'll give you directions on how to find something like this through Sindra's website when we're finished. But what is this and what does it mean? You know, you can kind of see just in your mind, just make a line in your mind. And you can see, you know, in the middle of the line is your present. And in the past, you know, the left-hand side of the line is the past.

And then the future is the right-hand side of the line. And your mind can be one of three places, past, present, or future. And what happens is when we typically focus on the past, we can experience anger, frustration, regret, depression. And we can just beat ourselves up for things that have happened. This is one of the reasons we don't want to spend a lot of time there. In the future, we can experience a lot of negative emotions like fear, anxiety, doubt, pressure. We're too focused on the outcome or the results. But the present is really the best place

that we can be at our best because we can do anything, we can be anything. And we're focused on really the small things that we have to do to be at our best. So the present is the best place to put your mind. All right. Easier said than done, though. We've said that many times with you before because a lot of people like to dwell on the past or try to find some finger to point and blame. And like you said, the future can be a very fearful,

anxious thing to think about. So how do we train ourselves to stay in the present like that? Yeah, and I think that we all know the importance of staying in the present, but common sense is not common practice. And so, you know, really present moment focus is all about awareness first and then choice second. And what I mean by that is you just have to be aware of your focus and just notice what you're focusing on. And I think the key is to take really like a mindful approach, just not, don't be judgmental. Just, you know,

pay attention to your focus non-judgmentally and just have a moment to moment observation of where your thoughts are. And then just, you know, ask yourself, where are your thoughts right now? Are they in the present? You know, if not, make the choice to bring them back. And the way that you can do this is just gently bring your mind back to the moment. You could maybe even say the word focus to get your mind back. Just bring it back. As athletes, a lot of times what I'll tell them, encourage them to do is just say, next play. So that just symbolizes staying in the present moment.

So again, present moment focus is all about awareness first and then a choice second to bring it back to the moment all right maybe a yeah a word something some sort of word that identifies and brings you back right or phrase like you said next play so in summary then to summarize this how would you say this is chapter 51 51 I'm almost done um so yeah this is part of my um new book so I hope everyone's loving it. And so I would summarize it in this way. You know, high performers are those who are working to be their best.

They know their mind can only be in three places, the past, the present and the future. And they know their best happens in the present moment. So they work to bring their attention back to the moment. They make a choice and they know that their best is really in the moment when they're focused on the present. Awesome. This is great advice. This is good stuff. There's always more stuff coming from Sindra and we like to point people towards the website and all of that. There's affirmations every week that are posted on social media and through the website. What is this week's affirmation? I live and play in the moment. I can do anything and be anything

right here, right now. Great advice for all those kids that are out there, maybe fall tryouts for sports school. It's all going on. You're right. So if we want to keep in touch with you and know a little bit more

about what you're up to, maybe get this graph we were talking about. Know details on the book when it's going to be released. Listen to the latest podcast with Adam Thielen from the Vikings. What's the best way for us to... Yeah, you can head

over to drcindra.com and the podcast links are over there and then you can sign up for videos that I send about every other week and that will give you more information about when the book comes out. But it's on its way soon to the publisher so I'm excited

about just what's going to happen next. So you said you're on chapter 51 and there are how many chapters? 52. So the idea is you could read one a week and they're short chapters. Yeah, great. All on a specific topic and strategy. Fun. I cannot wait to see it.

Just have it in hand just to see all the work you've put into it. I can tell you're excited. I know. You see my smile. DrCindra.com. That's C-I-N-D-R-A if you're looking for a spelling on that one. It can be tricky sometimes.

No doubt. That one's the easiest way to get there. Thank you very much, Cindra. Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it. Good to see you. Cindra Kampoff with us today. High Performance Mindset every Monday on The Best Country, Minnesota 93. Thank you for listening to High Performance Mindset. If you liked today's podcast, make a comment,

share it with a friend, and join the conversation on Twitter at Mentally Underscore Strong. For more inspiration and to receive Sindra's free weekly videos, check out DrSindra.com.