Kwik Brain Episode 31: The Champion's Mindset with Olympian Dr. Jeff Spencer

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I know kung fu. Show me. Welcome back, Quick Brains. So here's the question. What is the mindset to success? How do champions do it? We hear all the time that success is an internal game. That's what this episode is all about. And to help us on this journey, we're bringing back by high demand, Dr. Jeff Spencer. Dr. Jeff Spencer is an Olympian and he's the corner man behind a pantheon of athletes and actors and musicians and performers, people who need to be their best and do at their best when it really counts. And so, we're happy to bring you back, Dr. Jeff Spencer. Thanks for being here.

Oh, it's a pleasure, Jim. Thank you.

We had so much, so much great positive feedback from our last episode. I encourage everybody, if they haven't already listened to the episode we did about right goals, powerful, absolutely powerful. Now, this episode, we're going to talk about the secret mindset of what it takes to be able to be a champion. And Dr. Jeff Spencer, you've, you've been the corner man and the secret weapon behind a lot of gold medalists. You're an Olympian yourself. I mean, what does it take? Where do you start when somebody's listening to this right now and sometimes they're losing a little bit of hope and they're a little bit confused because they're not sure. Maybe there's some issues about believing in themselves or their past history is robbing them of maybe their present and their future. I mean, you've worked with champions from every level and every industry. Where do we start?

Well, actually, champions know a secret that most don't. And that's that we actually have 2 mindsets within us. Believe it or not, we have what I call the human mindset. And the human mindset are those born instincts that we have. It's really our primitive brain, and it's calibrated towards one thing and one thing only. That's survival.

Hmm.

It only cares about survival, nothing else. And because it's a high-speed biology where when we're in times of imminent danger, of course we need something to save us that's high speed. So it gets first dibs at every moment. But the problem with that is, is that at the very best, it can only repeat history. It can't make it. And what it does, it perpetuates the habits that have been ineffectual that prevent us from moving forward towards our bigger future. But there is another side to this, which is our champion's mindset. And our champion's mindset is really actually our success genes. And there are things that we're born with. It's our modern brain that's calibrated towards one thing and one thing only, which is excellence. And so because it's calibrated towards excellence, it doesn't have first dibs at every bit of information. Like our human brain does, but what it does do is that it does have override capacity to have final say, to override our natural human instincts to make fear-based survival instinct decisions. And so, as a result of that, it's able to actually create history and make history for us by breaking the chains of our obsolete habits that no longer serve us, that allow us to move forward into our bigger future. And so, we need to be mindful that the turbulence in the battle that we've You'll find in the conflict that we have every day, it's a battle for our decision-making between our human instincts and our elevated modern brain excellence-driven choices. It's a battle. And that's the difference that the champions know that they're going to have to get up to and they're going to have to fight that every day. So, so an important part about this, Jim, is to be mindful. And I want everybody to sort of listen up here for a second, is that human fear-based survival instinct side of us that always gets first dibs. That's where we say something faster than we can think about even saying it. But where did that come from? That's kind of like not us. That's really like a default us that's on 24 hours a day that you can't really shut off. It's part of our biology. So we just have to know that that reactive side of us, that's not a choice that we made. That's something that's hardwired into us. But we can override that through the application of the champion's mindset. And just to sort of give you an example of the distinction between the two. So let's say that we're given an opportunity. And so that fear-based survival instinct, the human nature us, that everybody talks about, it would say, well, God, you know, what do I stand to lose here? Oh geez, I don't know if I want to do this. You know, it's pessimistic, it's fatalistic, it just sort of demotes our confidence. It just makes us like a shivering Chihuahua, right? On the other side of it, you got the champion's mindset that says, you know, what is it that I stand to gain here? And so it's optimistic, it's looking towards a bigger future. So there's this inherent conflict, and we just have to make the choice which side of the aisle that we're going to make our decisions from.

So, how do people— and you had— you're speaking the listeners' languages here because we're using words like excellence and you're talking about the brain behind it. How do people spend more time in that champion mindset?

The most important thing is that every day you have to do a conscious commitment to that before the day actually gets started. And I've created a chart that contrasts the human mindset with the champion's mindset, and it looks at the criteria and how the champion mindset would answer life's challenges and how the human mindset would address them. And when we look at that, we are familiar with that every day. We look at it and we say, okay, I have a choice. I've got 16, 18 hours in front of me where I have to make a deliberate choice about how am I going to show up today? Who's going to make my decisions? Is it going to be my fear-based survival instincts again, where I repeat history, I reinforce the chains, or do I break the chains by applying my success genes, in making decisions that come from the champion's mindset itself. You got to make a deliberate choice on that. You can't defer it until later in the day, because if we wait till later in the day, then we've already started to react from our human mindset, and then we end up creating a day that was dancing through everybody else's hoops, and we didn't get anything done that we needed to do to advance our life towards our bigger future.

So self-awareness plays an important role?

Yeah, it's, it's actually deliberate scheduled awareness to make sure that there's no ambiguity about the fact that we did put on the war paint, we did put on the armor to successfully engage the day. It has to be, I'm going to say ritualistic, but not ritualistic in a sense that we show up and we dogmatically recite something while we're thinking about something else. I'm saying that we're deliberately contemplating the fact that we have a playing field in front of us that gives us an opportunity to step forth with that best version of ourself to create a quality day, not only for ourself, but to show others that it's possible to break the chains of the past in terms of our decision-making.

So, why don't we jump into examples of how the human mind reacts to something and how the champion's mind actually responds to something? For sure.

A great example of this would be, let's say we're given an accountability. The human mindset will say, well, I'm doing the best I can, where the champion would say, no, man, I'm going to find a way. Don't worry about it. I'll find a way through this. And you would also look at, let's say, The human mindset would say, well, you know, I have to be perfect to be able to perform at my best. And the champion says, no, it's not about perfection. It's about doing the one or two things that have to go right to move the needle. You would look at another example of this would be in the human mindset, well, what is it that you can give me? But the champion doesn't think like that. The champion says, what can I give you? And the human mindset would say, well, I feel fear, so I'm not going to even try because I already know what's going to happen. Where the champion says, well, yeah, I feel the fear too, but I'm going to do it anyway. And so rather than the human mindset, like, well, I whine, the champion, well, I'm going to win. So there are key things like that that I think that if we really look at, and these are things that we can actually take an active role in that reinforce our capacity to create a day of value for us. But It serves as an example for other people, some simple things that can be done that are not ethereal, but they're really real. No, it's up to me. You know, for example, again, the human mindset, gosh, I wish I was like everybody else. Champions don't think like that. It's like, hey, I'm my greatest asset. I'm given a brain, body, mind, and spirit to do something with, and that's to create a life of value and distinction here. So again, I think if we had those reminders, even those 5 or 6 things that I said, where we're really looking at it, it puts us at a real choice in real terms, not ethereal, Thinking, the real terms that we can apply each and every day. It's like putting on our armor. It's like an essential daily nutrient, actually. I think you want to really know who you are and who you aren't. And it's like your human mindset is something that's put into you. It's not really you, but the real you is really the champion side of it, that you have to earn it by applying it and you keep it by staying vigilant to it.

Jeff, this has been invaluable. The difference between the human mindset and the champion's mindset. Where can people go to get more information about this specific topic?

Be www.drjeffspencer.com is my website, and that's your best resource, Jim. Thank you.

Jeff, thank you so much for being with us on Kwik Brains. I highly recommend you go to Jeff's site. He has 55 years of experience being a champion and training champions, and so I highly recommend everything that he has there. Post your big ahas on social media, on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram. Tag both of us, and all this information again will be in our show notes. And thanks again for listening. Want to double your brain speed and memory power? If you'd like to learn rapidly and get ahead faster, I'd like to give you my brand new Quick Brain Accelerator program. You will discover exactly what I teach my clients to learn, read, and remember anything in half the time. There is no charge. It's my gift to you for being one of our subscribers. That's K W I K. Brain.com, or simply text the word podcast to 916-822-7246 and we'll send you a direct link. That's 916-82-BRAIN. Growing up struggling with learning challenges from a childhood brain injury, it's been my life's mission to help you have your very best brain so you can win more every single day. Now, want more quick brain? Here are 4 ways to fast-track Fast-track your results and lock in what you just learned into your long-term memory. Remember fast, F-A-S-T. The F stands for Facebook. You're not alone on this journey. I invite you to join our free private online group. There you can connect with me, your fellow brain lovers, links to resources, and even submit your questions for me to answer in future episodes. Go to quickbrain.com. That's K-W-I-K. The A stands for apply. Act on what you learned today. Remember, knowledge is not power, it's potential power. It only becomes power when you use it, so use what you just learned. The S stands for subscribe. Don't miss the next episode and other free brain training. And finally, the T stands for teach. You want to learn faster now? The key is to lock it in right away by teaching it to someone else. When you teach something, you get to learn it twice. Here's a simple way to do that: leave a review on iTunes. Leave a review with your biggest takeaway from this episode. You could also post and share this podcast on your social media. It helps us spread our mission of building better, brighter brains. And of course, tag us so our team could properly thank you. Hashtag Quick Brain. K W I K Brain. Mine is @JimKwik. Kwik, K-W-I-K, on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. So what does FAST stand for? Facebook, apply, subscribe, teach. I'll see you in our next episode of Kwik Brain. Until then, remember, you are faster and smarter than you think.