High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 682: How to Level Up Your Belief In Yourself

Episode Date: May 31, 2025

In this episode of the High Performance Mindset podcast, Dr. Cindra shares how the way we talk to ourselves can shape our confidence, performance, and leadership. Drawing from Serena Williams’ affirmation practice before winning Wimbledon in 2015, we explore how powerful self-talk can override doubt and pressure—especially when things aren’t going perfectly. You’ll learn how thought patterns are formed early in life to protect us, and how those same patterns can now limit us unless we choose to rewire them through consistent mental conditioning. This episode covers four tools you can use to shift your mindset, respond to challenges with intention, and talk to yourself in a way that builds strength instead of stress. Power Phrase of the Week: “Speak louder than your doubt.” Quote of the Week: “I am strong. I am a champion. I’ve got this.” – Serena Williams

Hi, friends. My name is Dr. Syndra Kamboff, 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 Cinder Campoff today, and today we're talking about leveling up your belief in yourself. Cinder, start us off with a quote. I love this quote by Dr. Caroline Leaf. She said, affirmations are not wishful thinking, they are rewiring your brain. So what inspired this topic for you today? Well, today what inspired it is, you know, I love watching sports. And I remember watching Serena Williams in 2015 and she was battling illness and pressure and her own personal doubt when she stepped on the court at Wilbilton.

And you know, she wasn't physically your best, but mentally she was. And I later read how Serena repeated this before her match. And she repeated over and over again. She said, I'm strong. I'm a champion and I've got this. And even if she didn't feel like it, you know, she spoke it into existence. And she ended up winning her sixth Wimbledon title. Many times people call this the Serena slam. You know, and she didn't just win because she silenced all her doubt, but she won because she spoke louder than her doubt.

Lylea So we're talking about our own self-talk then. What is really important for us to know about the thoughts that we have swirling around in our brains? Kirsten Yeah, I think one of the most important things is just to know that we've developed our thought patterns really early in our lives. And you know, we all have that negative, disempowering voice that protects us from harm. But as adults, sometimes we don't need these thought patterns the same way. And you know, they may be, instead of protecting us from harm, sometimes they can sabotage our success or get in the

way of our fullest potential and not allow us to reach our goals or our life's purpose. And I think, Lisa, what's helpful to know about that is it's really freeing knowing that these thought patterns are really habitual and automatic, which also means we can rewire our mind and we can think more on purpose. And what I would say is what we have to do is engage in daily mental conditioning. And then when we do that, we develop new neural pathways. And so your thought patterns can change. Gaining new awareness and intention, I think that's really exciting to know that you can change your mind. Well, I know now everybody wants to know how do we do that? What's the first strategy that we can put into this mental toolbox that we have? And why is a mental toolbox even important?

Great question. So today we're going to talk about just four quick strategies you can use to rewire your brain. And I think they're really important because, again, we are programmed for this negativity. And so we really need strategies to combat that. And the first strategy we're going to talk about is something I've talked about in Beyond Great called the 3-OP. And it's really a practice on reframing difficulties. So, and reframing

those difficult and stressful experiences as learning opportunities. And so, when you're experiencing a negative opportunity or an obstacle, what's important is to ask yourself the questions three times. What's the opportunity? What's the opportunity? What's the opportunity? That's the 3-OP strategy to really help you looking for what's good in difficulties. So what's another strategy we can use? Another strategy you can use is just questioning those disempowering thoughts. You know, many of our thoughts limit us and they're false. And so the second thing you can do is just notice yourself talking to yourself in a really

disempowering voice and just asking yourself, is that actually true? And what's the thought that would serve me better right now? And how about a third strategy we can use? A third strategy you could use is just continuing to be mindful of what triggers your negative thoughts and emotions and the idea of just like noticing your thoughts and your emotions from an observer's perspective or standpoint and just asking yourself you know what actually triggers your negativity or your frustration or your anger. Awareness is the first step on really gaining control of your mind.

All right I'm gonna ask you for one more tool that we can put into that mental toolkit. Sure, one more tool would be imagining your own success. And we know this imagery is a powerful tool because your mind doesn't know the difference between something you physically imagine and something that's real. So just asking yourself, you know, what's something you could imagine today that's really powerful about your future, about your day, about this month, about next year. All right. Cinder, how do you summarize today for us? Well, these are really quick strategies that we could go deep into each one of them,

but they all help you remain optimistic and kind of seeing your life through this really clear lens. And so just channeling your truth allows you to really see different situations and solutions and opportunities, again, to rewire your mind. And I think what's important about that is the future of your career and your life really depends on your ability to see the opportunity and the difficulty and to talk to yourself

even more powerfully than you do today. Cinder, give us a power phrase to start with talking to ourselves powerfully. I level up my self-talk to level up my life. Level up my self-talk to level up my life. And Cinder, if people want to follow along with your teaching or maybe check out a podcast of yours or read your books, where do we go? Yes, absolutely. You can head over to drcindra.com. And everything

I've talked about today is in one of my books, Beyond Grit or Beyond Grit for Business. And you can find out more information again at DrCindra.com. 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 DrCindra for show notes and enjoy my exclusive community for high performers where you get access to videos about mindset each week. So again you can add over to Dr. Syndra that's drcindra.com

see you next week!