High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 9: How Successful People Think

Episode Date: September 25, 2015

Do you ever wonder how to deal with that voice inside your head? Do you ever doubt yourself for what seems like no reason at all? Do you have big dreams that seem scary so you don't go after them?? Dr. Kamphoff discusses how the most successful people are a master of their thoughts. This is a daily process that can make all the difference in your career success, athletic success, happiness and satisfaction with your life.  You can find this list of the top 10 traits of high performers at www.cindrakamphoff.com.

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. Today's episode is sponsored by Worldwide Access Solutions Incorporated, a 24-7 clear advantage, a call center providing inbound and outbound services, and a licensed life and health insurance agency. You can visit them at wasi.com. Welcome to the High Performance Mindset. This is your host, Cyndra Kampoff.

And I'm really excited that you're here joining us today for this podcast because I think what we're talking about today is the most important topic related to high performance and that's mastering your thinking patterns. That's going to be our focus today and it's one of the things that I think is essential to high performance and for you to be at your best every day is to master your thinking. We're going to be talking about the importance of not believing every single thing that you think and the way that our mind tends to go to the worst case scenario. And what we're going to do is we're going to turn to a radio interview that I did with radio hosts TJ and Lisa and we're going to be talking about how successful people think. Now there's a few things that we referred to in this interview that I thought it would just be really important to point out before you start listening and that

is we talk about my top 10 traits of high performers. Now if you'd like to get this list you can get this on my website cindracampoff.com and I also provide free videos every single week about high performance and mindset so you can receive those videos by entering in your name and your email address on my website. Now I'd also really love to hear what you think about this episode but also the podcast in general and I personally reply to all of my emails. So I would encourage you to shoot me an email at cindra at cindracampoff.com. If you haven't already, make sure you subscribe to the podcast below. And feel free to provide a rating if today's episode or another episode, if you found that really powerful and meaningful in your life or in your performance.

So let's turn to the radio interview with TJ and Lisa. Dr. Cindra Campoff is here today. And it is time to talk to her. To win the day. So let's turn to the radio interview with TJ and Lisa. a list of the top 10 traits they master their thinking patterns. Where do we go from here with our third topic? I would ask the listeners, you know, have you ever had a negative voice inside your head that you weren't sure what to do or what to do or how to do with? Have you ever been in a bad mood that you didn't know how to change? I know everyone's answers is yes to this because this is part of the human experience. Okay.

And what I mean by that is we have lots of different thoughts every single day. And I want you to guess how many thoughts we have every day. In one day? In one day. What do you think? I'm just going to throw a random number out and see. 20,000. I would guess more than that.

100,000. Well, somewhere in between. We have between 50,000 and 70,000 thoughts a day. Okay. Okay. Everything that we do starts with a thought. And so that's why I think that our thoughts are the most important part of our success is our thought. Because every single thing that we do starts with a thought.

Psychology research says that up to 80% of that can be negative. And that we tend to have what you said, TJ, the same thought over and over again. Or we have more thoughts about ourselves than anything else. And so the key is to recognize that the negativity is sometimes automatic. Our thinking patterns can be more negative than positive. And so... So how do you, once you recognize that, how do you begin to change that? Because we know we can change our behavior. That's a habit, right? Absolutely. The first thing to recognize is that you can't, my goal used to be that I should always have like no negative thoughts in one day, but

that's actually impossible. Yeah. And impossible because of our minds and the way our minds work. And so the automatic negative thoughts are part of human experience. So the first step is self-awareness. We know the most successful people are self-aware. The second thing is we should just recognize that a thought is just a thought. We don't have to believe every single thing that we think. And sometimes when we're beating ourselves up, it's really important that we don't believe it. We don't have to believe every single thing that we think. And then I think you have a couple of choices on what to do next. So you have three choices on how to address the negativity. Okay.

First, you just let it go and just say, well, that's just a thought. I don't have to believe it. So that's one choice. The second choice is that you challenge it. So you provide evidence of why that's not accurate. And then the third choice is just you replace it with something that's more powerful and productive. And that really helps you. And I'll give you an example of how I did this.

And what we know is the most successful people master this. This isn't just something that they just do like one time, but they master it throughout their day. And so Saturday I'm running Grandma's Marathon. Right. Good luck to you. Thank you. I'm really excited because it's my first marathon with my husband. Awesome. Fun. Very awesome. That's awesome. And his first marathon?

Yeah. He's done some halves, several of those, right? Yeah. Good for him. First one. So it's going to be an awesome Saturday. Sometimes during the taper, which is kind of when you start cutting back your mileage so you're ready, your mind can go a little crazy. And so this week I was running and started just, you know, thinking some really negative things like I'm in terrible shape. I'm going to crash and burn at grandma's like this isn't going

to be a great race. You know, I could easily let that spiral out of control and just keep on thinking negatively about the race. I think sometimes that's what can happen is we just the negativity can grow and grow and grow. And that doesn't help us be successful. And so I had to, okay, recognize it. And then I had to realize, I don't have to believe what I'm thinking, right? It's just a thought. And then what I did as I gave myself evidence and why that was not right. So I said, remember that 20 mile run you just crushed two weeks ago? You got this. Yeah, you totally got this. It's going to be an awesome day.

You're fit. You're ready. You're talented. The most successful people recognize that positivity is linked to so many important things like performance, but happiness and enjoyment in your life. So that's the reason that you should master your thinking and avoid negativity spiraling. And I find that when you do have a negative thought come up and you're aware of it and you say, you know, it's just a thought and you switch it, you know, even if it's one

time that day and then the next day you notice it and you notice it two times, then pretty soon it becomes a habit. It's a regular thing. And then when the negative thoughts creep in, you're quickly able to counter them and say, it's just a thought. I can keep this positive. Yeah. You know, uncontrollables are out there.

You know, the weather leading up to our last weekend was a big thing for us that we're like, why do we keep looking at this? There's nothing we can do about it. Quit the negative thinking. Go have fun. Yeah. Regardless of what you're doing.

Yeah. Sometimes when I teach this stuff, like, for example, I taught it in my class last year in psychology of coaching. And one person was like, oh my gosh, how do I not know this? Yeah.

You know, or, you know, how come they didn't teach us this in high school? Right. So I'm hopeful that people are listening. And even if you know this and something you do every day, that it's just a reminder because I think we can all use that just a little bit of reminder of the importance of thinking in the most productive way. Cintra here. And thanks again for listening to that interview with TJ and Lisa. You know, this is one of my favorite topics because our thoughts are the most important factor in our success and our failure. And I can make this bold statement because everything we do starts as a thought.

Our thoughts lead to our emotions, and then it leads to our actions or what we do. And this negativity, man, it can break us out in a sweat, make us feel scared or paralyze us, shallow our breathing, make us feel uptight and weaken us. But positive and productive thoughts that are focused on all the possibilities of things that you can do, do just the opposite to our bodies. They can keep us relaxed and centered, even alert, and make us want to do something. They can motivate us to make a difference in the world. But it's impossible to completely eliminate all the negativity. In fact, even the most successful, they do have negativity. We're talking about Olympic athletes, pro athletes. We're talking about successful athletes, pro athletes. We're talking about

successful entrepreneurs or business leaders. I know that they have negativity and unproductive thoughts because I've worked with them. But the key is, is to recognize that negativity and address it. And what I have found personally is that whenever I'm pushing myself, either emotionally or physically, that's when my negativity can creep in the most. And it can really be loud and it can be a lot of negativity. So for example, like when I'm doing something new emotionally, like starting a podcast or writing a book or speaking in front of a group that I've never spoken in front of before, that negativity is more likely to creep in. Or when I'm physically exhausted,

like at the end of a marathon, it's really difficult to master your thinking patterns when you're both emotionally or physically exhausted. That's why it's so important to do your best to take care of your mind and your body. And when this negativity creeps in, high performers recognize it. They recognize it and then they decide, you know what, do I really need to listen to this? They don't.

They recognize, that's a crazy thought. They might even laugh it off because they recognize they don't have to believe every single thing that they think. And then they might provide themselves evidence on why that is inaccurate or replace it with a statement that is powerful and productive that makes you want to do something. So my challenge for you today is don't let your negativity spiral out of control. Don't let it grow and multiply. You don't always have to believe them but the key is is to replace them with positive and productive thoughts because positivity is linked to better daily performance. It's linked to more satisfaction and happiness with your life, less disease, stronger relationships with your family, your

friends, and your colleagues. And positivity is linked to a life up to 10 years longer than negativity. So let that thought go. Give yourself evidence on why that thought is inaccurate. And this is the daily process that the highest performers use. This is the daily process that can make all the difference in your performance, your success, and your happiness. Your brain is a beautiful thing. When it is working for you, you can do beautiful things with it. So use your brain today. Use your brain this week as your gift in a beautiful way. Thank you for listening to High Performance Mindset. Are you signed up for Sindra's weekly email with free mental tools and strategies for high performance?

Why the heck not? Text MENTALLYSTRONG, all one word, to 22828. Or visit syndracampoff.com.