Mindset of Champions with Dr. Jeff Spencer & Jim Kwik

I would like to introduce to you one of my Coaches. So yesterday I introduced you to Jessica Wardner and also Dr. B.J. Fogg, and they took us through areas of mindset and also motivation. Now I am going to invite you to one of my Coaches, a dear friend. His name is Dr. Jeff Spencer. Jeff, could you please join us, please?

Hi, Jim.

How are you doing, my friend?

Just anytime I get a chance to talk to you, it just makes a better day for me. So thanks a million, Jim.

Well, I appreciate you taking the time out of your busy schedule to be here with us. And hopefully— can everyone see Jeff? Okay, good. His video is much better. Yeah, I'm in New York City, so I have some, some, some connection issues right now. Jeff is an author. He is an Olympian. He is a corner man for Olympians. Going on 4 decades. I mean, Jeff, I don't want to—

Creeping up on 5. It's hard to admit, but creeping up on 5.

Yes. And he's also been, he's been an incredible mindset coach for me. And the first M we're going to talk about is mindset. And no better person than yourself. You've worked with everyone from Tiger Woods to U2 to these gold medalists. And I want to talk about the champion's mindset. Right now. And I mean, you know, right now people are facing some, some challenges, right? And you have, you have a blueprint for this. And over the next 20 minutes, I just wanted to deconstruct the distinctions you have about people's mindset. And so let's, let's, let's begin. Where do we start as people are watching this all around the world? Let's give it up, by the way, for Dr. Jeff Spencer, everybody.

Great. Well, thank you, Jim. I think the first place to start on mindset is why is the mindset necessary? And the reason why the right mindset is critical is because it gives us courage. And how we define courage, at least in this context, is the ability to take action despite our fear-based survival impulses. And there's never a moment in history that this could be more applicable to because there's a lot of fear running rampant. And for us to be able to constructively move forward towards our bigger future and limit the downside of this, we have to have a mindset that keeps us in the game, making really solid decisions that we can count on that show leadership to others in moving through this and out the other side. And that's why mindset is so critical. I want to start by saying that when we look at human nature, human nature is interesting because we actually have 2 mindsets that make up our human nature. On the one side, we have what I call the human mindset, which is our fear-based survival default instincts. And because they're default, they're geared towards one thing and one thing only, which is survival. And survival can be the difference between a split second. I think we've all been in an intersection where somehow we know how to turn away from the car that ran the red light, and avoid catastrophe. And that's actually a process that happens faster than we can think. We didn't think our way to do that. You may have slipped on the ice and your hand knew where to put itself to break the fall. And that side of our human nature is essential in moments of critical imminent body harm. But the problem with that is that it's not geared towards excellence. It doesn't care about gold medals. It doesn't care about your bigger future. It doesn't care about the greatness that you have within you, whether or not you manifest it, because that's not what it's all about. But the good news is, is that on the other side of this, we have the champion's mindset. That's a counterbalance to the human mindset. And the champion's mindset is calibrated towards creating life excellence. And that's how we create lives of passion, purpose, productivity, and prosperity. And what I will say about this is that your champion's mindset because it's a higher evolutionarily based brain function, it doesn't get first dibs over our high-speed default reflexes that are fear-based, but it can supersede it. And the actions taken can move us forward through difficulty to a bigger and a better future. And you probably have realized that there's this low-grade battle that we fight day in and day out. in the background of our lives where we just feel a little bit of anxiety, we feel a little bit uncertain about decision-making. And that's because this war between our human nature wanting to control us through our survival impulses and our champion's nature wanting to take us to victory circle are in constant battle with each other. So what's critical about this is that the human nature side, you can't turn this off. It's biologically encoded to our DNA, as is our champion's nature. And because you can't turn it off, it's there every second of our lives. And it's always trying to find a way into our life to talk us out of great things in critical moments, especially when we're on the verge of a personal breakthrough. So you can't turn that off. It's on all the time. We have to transcend it through the application of the champion's mindset. And let me kind of give you an example here. So let's say you're given an opportunity. Well, our fear-based survival instinct that gets first dibs at every moment is going to say, well, you know, what do I stand to lose here? You know, I don't know if I should do this. There's not enough to go around for everybody. So I'm going to hoard this all for myself. I'm not going to share this with anybody. I don't want a hug. I'm cold. Where champions don't think like that. Given an opportunity, the champions are Hey, you know, what do I stand to gain from this? How is it that I can embrace my talent and showcase my abilities and be accountable to my time and amass a great legacy knowing that there are 7 billion planet on people on this planet right now and there's only one of me? And so they know there's plenty enough to go around for everybody. They want to support each other in being able to manifest a life of their greatest capacity. So that's a distinction. in this war is they're 24 hours a day, like working with U2 before they went on stage. I mean, there was a little bit of lunacy backstage before they went on stage, but that was their human nature, trying to cover all the bases to make sure that they were perfect. And they couldn't possibly be accountable for that. So they started to mentally unravel. And I said, well, all you do is need to do that which has to go right when you're on stage. to cross the kickoff concert to a world tour. And that's what they did. So they successfully overrode their human nature with the champion solution. And that's kind of really what this takes is that the champion's actions have to be applied to overcome our human nature that's always in the background. And the beautiful part about this is that you don't have to be fear-free. to do the right thing to move yourself forward. So there's a lot of mythology in terms of, let me say, the imposter syndrome. And let me speak to that for a second if I can. I personally think that the real imposter is the human nature, us, that reacts to life through our impulses. Have you ever said anything that you wish you hadn't said, but it seemed like the right thing to say when you said it and it backfired terribly and everything went wrong? and you may have lost a relationship forever. Well, that's an example of a fear-based survival instinct reaction that doesn't serve us well. That may come naturally to us, but my question is, is that do we want to actually live a natural life or do we want to be supernatural? Do we want to be superhuman or do we want to just be driven by our human nature? And what hangs in the balance of this is the quality of life experience that we create for ourselves and for others and the lessons that we showcase through a case study of our life that other people can emulate. So this to me is absolutely critical. So let's take a look at a couple more examples here. So on the human mindset side, let's say that you're given an opportunity. And the human mindset says, well, you know, I'm doing my best. And champions never think like that because if we say that we're doing our best, we've already decided what it's going to be in advance without even testing ourselves against the reality of what's possible. And champions don't do that. You know, champions given an accountability, it's really, I'll find a way. That's why I'm given a mind, body, brain, spirit, Creativity, ingenuity is to find a path to the unconventional to make the impossible possible. Everybody start to get the difference here? One, fear-based, high-speed biology gets first dibs. Champion mindset overrides, takes us to the promised land. Another example. Well, gosh, you know, Jim, it's in my genes. There's nothing I could do about this. It's just kind of like the way it is. And all I have to say about that is that's unadulterated garbage. It's not in your genes. Your genes don't decide your future. You're the one that decides your future. And what champions do, they know that it's in their power because that's why they're given a mind, body, brain, and a spirit, is to take that and to be able to transcend that which we believe to be our natural future and make it the future of what our hopes and our dreams Really are. Another one here is that in human nature, the natural life, fear-based survival impulses. Gosh, if I was only like others, I just would like to fit in. Oh, I see. So you want to be the same drop of water in the ocean as everybody else. Champions don't think like that because. when we think like that, it's to be accepted, but we have to forfeit our most prized possession, which is our uniqueness in the process of doing that. And the champions know that their uniqueness is their greatest asset. And there's 7 billion people on this planet like right now, and there's only one of you. There's only going to be just one of you in all of creation, which uniquely qualifies all of us to make a significant contribution to humanity. And create a life for ourselves that places a high value on it and also is a significant contribution. If we take a look at the concept of will and talent, I think we can all agree that there's plenty of will and talent to go around on this planet. And we scratch our heads in bewilderment as to why people don't see that and why they don't capitalize on it. Because champions know one thing that others don't, is that will and talent are something, but they're not everything. The champions know that discipline and readiness rule. It's about the discipline to develop the skill to apply what has to go right when it has to go right to find yourself in the winner's circle. Everybody listen up for this next one because This is probably where people take themselves out of the game the most. I was called in to work with an Olympic athlete, and this guy was favored to win the gold medal. And he was a member of the host nation's Olympic team. And just imagine having the hopes of a nation on your shoulders. And he was starting to mentally melt down with 2 and a half weeks to go before the Olympic final. So I got a call from the staff saying, we have an athlete here who has the best coach. He has the best doctor. He has the best equipment. He's got the best of everything, but he's starting to mentally melt down. We don't know what to do. So can you help? And I said, yeah, of course. You know, I'm an Olympian. I'd love to help a fellow Olympian out. I talked with him and he told me what the situation was. And I said to him, well, here's the deal, is that you and your team all think that to put in the jump necessary to win the gold medal, you have to be perfect. You have to make a contingency for everything that could happen to make sure that that single thing doesn't happen that would prevent you from winning a gold medal. And I said, that's kind of a trick and it's a deadly trap that you're now caught in because your fear-based human nature and your survival instincts are controlling your conversation. That's the reason why you're living in terror every moment right now because you feel trapped. And you should feel that way because you're not going to win a gold medal like that. I said, you may think it's about perfection, but it's really not about perfection. It's about the one or two things that have to go right. And as long as you guys think it's about the next detail and you're spending all your time looking for the detail, your brain is going to make up a detail that doesn't exist that you're going to put all your confidence in. You can't win like that. It's not possible. So I said, there are two things you need to do, instant gold medal. I said, the first thing is don't Don't change your warm-up. Don't deviate from what's traditionally worked in the past because your body knows what to do. You start changing this, your body gets scared. It runs in the cave and doesn't want to come out and play, but it wants to please you. It really wants you to win that gold medal. It wants to do that for you. I said the second thing that you do is that you measure your first 4— you get your first 4 steps to the run-up correct so your foot hits the board to get the lift. To win the gold medal. 2 things and you win. And why this is significant for us, like right now, is because there's a lot of reason to be scared in this situation because of what we're hearing. But I could tell you what the champions do. They know that it's not about covering all the bases and being perfect. It's about doing the one or 2 things that have to go right each moment. And that's what they dedicate themselves to. And as they dedicate themselves to that, then what happens is that the overarching umbrella of fear subsides into the background and they start to feel mastery over self. They're getting confidence in that. People that are observing them are learning a lesson on how they too can get through this. So just be mindful is that When you demonstrate these champions' displays of action, when we're going against our human nature tendency to cave to our fear, you're serving as a living, breathing example of what's possible for others. And at this time in humanity, in my opinion, there's never been a greater urgency to have people that are beacons of hope, courage, and sanity that have shown us a way forward. to maintain our dignity, to get ourselves to the other side of this. And so he did those 2 things. He did those 2 things for the next 2 weeks. And what I did tell him, I said, who are your friends? He said, well, it's this and this. I said, those are your friends for the next 2 weeks. Don't get around your friends. Don't get around your family. Don't get around anybody that's nervous about you because they're going to start to obsess about the details that don't matter. It's 1 to 2 things consistently. As long as you keep your eye on that gold medal. And so he did that for 2 weeks. Everybody thought he was crazy. And then what happened? Won the gold medal. Should we be surprised by that? No, because we took a lesson from what the champions do and the outcome was predictable. But just remember how hard that was. It took every ounce of courage that he had to To go against the grain of what his fear-based instincts were telling him. You know what that terror feels like, right? Well, despite that, he did what had to go right to win. It's exactly the same thing for us and what we're facing like right now. Jim, did you have something you wanted to ask?

No, I'm looking at the comments here right now, and, uh, and I hope everybody could hear. Zoom is, is obviously, uh, it's, it's not as limitless, so some of the video and audio might be lagging a little bit, but can everybody hear Good. Very, very nice. Now, this is very extremely— sports is an incredible metaphor for life, that we go through these challenges—

Absolutely.

And where we are under an immense amount of pressure, and we feel like we have to get it perfect. And that added perfection standard, if you call it a standard, adds even more anxiety and more stress. So then when you break things down into bite-sized pieces, give you the most. And now you have a— you talk about 3 Ps often, right? In terms of it's not— people want to perform their best, but it also takes planning and preparation to be able to perform your best as part of your mindset.

100%. Actually, the champion's golden rule is you do the homework and the test is easy. It's really how you prepare really dictates your performance. And You know, if you ask somebody, whether it's an artist or whether it's a business person making a decision, how they did it, they say, well, I don't really know, it just happened. Well, it happened because they trained themselves through a vigorous approach to being prepared for it, to be able to come up with the right answer in the right time to hit it out of the park.

This is an important conversation to have right now because I feel like A lot of people over the past few months, they didn't anticipate— nobody anticipated what's going on right now. And they're uncertain about tomorrow's future. They might have lost— they must have lost a job. They might have lost a family member. They're in an area that they would label crisis. And they have added pressure to be able to perform for themselves and also the people that count on them. And that sometimes can be overwhelming for people. And it can really challenge our mindset.

Yeah.

even if we know what to do, the methods, and we're motivated, part of the mindset is that confusion or that doubt or that fear that people like that. I mean, you're an Olympian, right?

Yeah.

For those of you just joining us, we're here with Dr. Jeff Spencer, Olympian, author. He's a corner man for some of the most amazing performers, including gold medalists. And when you're under that stress, you're preparing all the time to perform for a matter of minutes where the whole world is watching you. Literally.

It's all about preparation. It's like when you're prepared, you have evidence that you're ready to perform at the level you need to when it really counts. That's the evidence that you need. And when you show up and you have to execute, you just have to trust your preparation. You can't think your way to have the skill that you need when you have to be applying it. So it all goes back to preparation. And when you know you're prepared, then your anxiety drops. When your anxiety drops, you have more confidence, time slows down, you can get into flow easier. Presto, instant gold medal, whatever that is for you, whatever it is that you're aspiring to, that's your gold medal. And that's how you do it.

Yeah. And it's funny when people are also, when they're challenged and there's change that's going on in the world, to be able to hold that constant in your mind, even when there's lots of distractions in the world also as well.

Well, again, to your point there, Jim, is that remember our human mindset, our human nature always catastrophizes and goes to the worst scenario because that's survival. And that's where our default is. It has to be overridden by the application of the champion's action. So as long as we don't look at the us as being that which is telling us to do what we know isn't going to work because it didn't work in the past. We do the courageous act of doing that which has to go right to supersede our fear-based survival instinct. And it's a tug of war. And I just want to make sure, please don't mistake that part that's telling you that you can't do it as you— that's your imposter. The champion side of you is the one that's telling you you can. And how we do that is by doing those things that have to go right. Consistently to move forward. As long as we're focused on that, then that keeps this other side of us that leads to failure at bay. It's basically been neutered.

We talk about in our book Limitless, those are your focal points, you know, those key fundamentals. And sometimes people, they want the next thing, the next thing, the next thing, but also focusing on the fundamentals that maybe fear is a trigger Saying that you have to prepare, and that could be potentially useful if it's— if it prompts you to prepare more. There's a quote from Jim, I think it's Jim Rohn, that said, what you practice in private, you're rewarded for in public. What you practice and prepare for in private, you're rewarded for big time.

That's beautiful.

Yes, my friend. So how can— and I challenge everybody right now to go deeper with Dr. Spencer here. How can people connect with you? I encourage everyone to take a screenshot of this. And, uh, I've had the pleasure of interviewing, uh, Dr. Spencer for our podcast. You could search both our names on Google and that episode will come out and he'll actually outline his Champions Blueprint, which is amazing. It is the most detailed blueprint I've ever seen for personal success. So maybe people could take a screenshot of this, tag us both, post it. And, um, final words, please.

Yeah, well, thanks, Jim. A couple things here. Uh, I actually wrote a PDF that I'd like everybody to consider getting. It's called How Not to Blow It Just Before You Win.

Okay.

And it kind of explains the 3 traps that we need to avoid to make sure that we convert an opportunity that takes us to a higher, better, that we crush it when it shows up. And then while you're waiting for that PDF to come, there is also a video that will show you about the Champion's Blueprint and the Goal Achievement Roadmap that Jim was alluding to. The link for that is www.drjeffspencer.com/number1. www.drjeffspencer.com/number1. Yeah, Jim, I'd like to finish up by saying this is, as I said earlier, there's only one of every one of us in all of creation. And there are 7 billion people on this planet like right now. Which uniquely qualifies us to do some extraordinary things in life. And I believe that it's kind of a moral imperative that we honor our talents by developing them to their fullest and we achieve at the highest level possible to amass a massive legacy, not to showcase us for that sake, but to show other people what's possible. Because what we really need desperately in this world, like right now, is examples of people that have gone against the grain of mediocrity And have chosen to create a life of distinction. And why this is important also is that kind of we're accountable for our time and our talents. And at the end of the day, whatever that legacy is, it's going to live on in the human archive and the internet space for eternity. And it's going to say what we did with our talents. And what I want for everybody, I want to make sure that this is a contribution to humanity that shows people what's possible. And if there's ever a time in human history we need to do this, It's now. Thank you, Jim, for the privilege.

Thank you very much. Let's give a hand. Let's thank Jeff for joining us today, for sharing. Go get the PDF also as well. Jeff, look forward to— thank you for the amazing work that you do. You know, you are gold, you are platinum, you know, for so many of us.

Well, thanks, Jim, back at you. And I've learned so much from the book. It's been an indispensable part of my library. My daughter absolutely loves you for doing this. Thanks again. Be well, everybody.

Thank you, Jeff.

Kwik Brain, it's your brain coach. I want to thank you so much for watching this video. 3 things to do. Number 1, make sure you share this, because when you teach something, you get to learn it twice. Update your learning so you can update other people's learning as well. Number 2, make sure you subscribe to this channel so you don't miss a thing, because if you miss a video, you miss a lot. And finally, make sure you hit that bell so you're Notified and you find out when we put out the latest and the greatest. One extra thing, if you want really close attention, then text me. Here is my phone number: 310-299-9362. Did you remember that number?

310-299-9362.

Shoot me a text and we'll stay in touch. Ask me your burning question. And I wish your days be full of lots of life, lots of love, lots of laughter, and always lots of learning. I'll see you in our next video.

Bye.