High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 665: How to Turn Self Doubt into Confidence

Episode Date: February 13, 2025

In this episode of the High Performance Mindset Podcast, we dive deep into the power of self-awareness and how to silence your inner critic. That disempowering voice—often fearful, judgmental, or angry—holds many of us back. But here’s the truth: your inner critic lies to you. Instead of accepting its negativity, we can train ourselves to challenge it. By consciously replacing limiting thoughts with empowering and truthful statements, we shift our mindset toward confidence and success. This week, we challenge you: Every time you hear your inner critic, pause. Acknowledge it. Then replace it with the truth. Growth starts with self-awareness—let’s rewire our thinking and unlock high performance from the inside out! Power Phrase of the Week: “I talk to myself powerful instead of listening to my inner critic.” Quote of the Week: “Talk to yourself like you would to someone you love.” - Brene Brown

Hi, friends. My name is Dr. Sindhra 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 Cyndra Kampoff, and we talk a little bit about how to turn our self-doubt into confidence. Cyndra, start us off with one of your favorite quotes. This is one of my favorite by Brene Brown. She said, talk to yourself like you would to someone you love.

Aha. And what inspired the topic today for you? Well, you know, as an executive and performance coach, I work with a lot of different people one-on-one. And when you work one-on-one with someone, Lisa, you hear kind of all the ways that we get in our own way, right? So it's common for people to tell me their deepest thoughts and beliefs that create barriers. And we create these barriers without actually even realizing it. So, for example,

here are some of the thoughts that hold the people I work with back. Things like, you know, what will they say if I fail at this? Or what if I can't actually do it? Or, you know, I'm from a small town and there's no way that I can be successful in this job. Right. And so, like, tell us what you mean by your inner critic. Is it's that person that's always inside that voice in your head that's always like, you can't do it. Why are you trying this? Exactly. And that's, you know, we all have this inner critic. And that's exactly how I would describe it. It's really this disempowering voice that maybe sounds scared or afraid or judgmental or maybe even procrastinates. And it might sound like, you know, I'm such an idiot, you know, I could have done better. I'm not good enough. I must be perfect. You know, I can't make a mistake, blah, blah, blah, you know, you know, even as I say this, you probably could hear yourself saying some of these words. And I think what's pretty fascinating is, you know, we all experience some version of our inner critic. And knowing that you have an inner critic just helps you realize that

you're not alone. And it allows you to better understand your personal inner critic's tendencies and allows you to move on past that. So we all have one. And what is the first step at silencing that inner critic so it doesn't affect us negatively? Well, we'd say the first step is awareness. And I think that's always the first step in mastering your mind in general. And then I would say the second step is daily mental conditioning. And kind of what I mean by that is when we listen and believe our own inner critic, right, we don't take risks. We fear failure.

We compare ourselves to others. Maybe we feel a lot of shame or nervousness. And I think the important part is it's part of all of us. We can't make it completely go away, but we can choose how we respond to our inner critic. And I think one important thing is just to realize your inner critic keeps you safe. And so just we're hardwired for negativity. And that's really important to remember, you know, your inner critic's job is to protect you from harm. Why is it important?

Well, I think all this is important because when we level up our own thoughts, we level up our own life. And your ability to master your thoughts really determine your potential, including your level of happiness and what you can do with your career. So mastering yourself really involves daily mental conditioning that allows listening to the inner critic and then really talking to yourself more powerfully. And I think the key is you must notice the thoughts and beliefs holding you back and really choose powerful self-talk to build beliefs that will help you realize your vision and be your best. Cindy, is there anything else that you could suggest that we do with our inner critic since it's with us all the time? No doubt. First, I'd say, I guess two things. I'd say be curious about your inner critic since it's with us all the time? No doubt. First, I'd say, I guess two things.

I'd say be curious about your inner critic. You know, when did your inner critic go into overdrive and just noticing when your inner critic and what triggers it, you know, what happens to your body, your emotions when you listen and believe your inner critic. So that's the most important. And then the second one is to really challenge your inner critic. And, you know, would you say that to a best friend? Could you say something that's more empowering? Is that actually true? You know, what do you know to be true about yourself and your potential? And so, for example, this week, I'm going to encourage people to write down a common phrase that their inner critic tells them, and then reframe it into a more empowering statement

that you know to be true. For example, maybe you might have this common phrase that says like, I'm not good enough. You could rephrase it to I'm always learning and growing. All right. Well, how would you summarize today for us? I would summarize it by just saying your inner critic is your disempowering voice that can sound scared or angry or judgmental. And we just want to be aware of that inner critic to reduce it. And we all have it. So remember, your inner critic, you know, tends to lie to you. And we want to respond to our inner critic with more challenging, more empowering and truthful statements. So again, this week, when you notice your inner critic, just pause and tell yourself the truth. So do you have a power phrase that will help us remind ourselves to do that?

Yeah, this is a good one, Lisa. It's, I talk to myself powerfully instead of listening to my inner critic voice. All right. And if people want to read more about the inner critic or any of the work that you do with mental toughness, where do we need to go? Head over to Dr. Sindra, so D-R-C-I-N-D-R-A.com, and you can find my books Beyond Grit and Beyond Grit for Business over there, and you can learn more about the podcast. 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.