High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 641: Thriving Under Pressure

Episode Date: September 23, 2024

High performers in sport, business and life use pressure to be at their best. They use natural tools inside of them to see pressure as a privilege. They POP the Pressure. This Week's Power Phrase: “I see pressure as a privilege. Pressure leads me to greatness.” Quote of the Week: “I don’t feel pressure. I apply it.” Justin Jefferson, Wide Receiver for the Minnesota Vikings

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. Time to check in with Sindra Kampoff. Today we talked to Sindra about thriving under pressure. Now, Sindra, you usually start us off with a quote. What do you have for us today? This is a quote I just heard yesterday by Justin Jefferson, the wide receiver for the Minnesota Vikings. And he said, I don't feel pressure. I apply it. Ah, I like that one. Do you have an example you want to start us off with?

Sure. Well, I want you to think about a time that you felt pressure, maybe the last time. You know, likely you were doing something that you really wanted to do well at, and it was likely that the outcome was unknown. And I bet you felt pressure or responsibility or maybe judged by the outcome. You know, at least at work, we might have a presentation or a meeting that we feel pressure in. In sports, it can happen, you know, before or during a big play or during a playoff. But if we don't learn to change our perception of pressure and manage it ourselves during when we feel it, then I think we fall the risk of getting behind it, especially those that can

thrive under pressure. So how do people typically respond in a situation where there's pressure? I think we often respond as thinking that pressure is something we want to avoid, you know, something we don't want to experience. And we can get stuck in kind of a lot of future based thinking or what if, kind of feeling all the things that could go wrong and imagining the worst case scenario. But I found, you know, for us to do really well, we want to see pressure differently. And we want to see it as a privilege, even a challenge. A privilege and a challenge. But how should we be viewing pressure that way?

So instead of avoiding pressure, reframe it as something that's good, maybe the situation that it's a good situation. And, you know, the world's best know that if they had not accomplished something really important and wonderful in the past, they wouldn't be in the current situation, you know, capable of rising to the occasion. So we want to distinct pressure of a differently as a privilege is a challenge, just like, you know, the best athletes do. And great things can be accomplished under pressure, just like they already have. Why is it that we experience pressure? That's a really good question. We experience pressure when three things happen. Number one,

the outcome is important to us. Number two, the outcome is unknown. And number three, we feel judged by the outcome. And notice like all those statements have the word outcome in it. Right. So typically, we feel pressure when we're thinking about the outcome or what could happen in the future instead of being really focused on the present and what we can do right now, kind of the small things we can do right now. So let's talk about some of those small things. What do we do when we experience pressure? Well, in their book, Performing Under Pressure, The Science of Doing Your Best When It Matters Most, Henry Weisinger and his co-author explained that high achievers use natural tools within themselves to perform their best under moments of pressure. And so these natural tools are things within us, such as like deep breathing, focusing on the process or the small things we have to do, even reframing the situation. And so I have a tool that I talk about in Beyond Grit called Pop the Pressure that I'll share with you now as just a way to use these

natural tools. So P for Pop the Pressure stands for take a few power breaths. Just taking a few power breaths, I like to count in four counts, hold for four counts, and out for four counts. What that does, especially if you're counting, it brings you back to the present. So we want to take some power breaths. O for pop to pressure stands for opportunity. And this just means asking yourself, you know, what's the opportunity right here in the moment? And then P, the other P for pop stands for process. And these are the small things we want to do. We want to focus on the process, the steps or the how that we need to execute right now. And that's going to help us get back to the present. And that's going to help us, you know, deal with the pressure and thrive under it.

Pop the pressure. I like that. And you said that's in beyond grit? Yes. Okay. How do you summarize today for us? I would say, Lisa, that high performers, you know, in sport, business and in life, they use pressure to be at their best. And they use natural tools inside of them to see pressure as a privilege. They pop the pressure, and that's what we want to do to the next time we feel it. So what is your power phrase today? I see pressure as a privilege, and pressure leads me to greatness. Cinder, if people want to follow along, maybe grab a copy of Beyond Grit and read about it for themselves, where do they need to go? They can head over to Dr. Sindra, so drcindra.com, and you can find

all information about my books and our coaching and speaking 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. 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 dot com. See you next week.