Podcast Episode 3 – Mindset & Mastery

This episode we will be discussing the powers behind mindset and mastery. Ever curious how to re-energize our problem solving skills and develop a mindset for success?

Full Show Notes:

When I was young, I learned to master a sport of swimming. I built my identity and confidence around the mastery of swimming. I became known as a swimmer. It truly has paid off to skills of life, the long hours of being able to stare at the bottom of the pool to practicing holding it together under tough pressure from making quick decisions during a race of when to expend or hold back on energy to ultimately make it to the finish line. While it was not always easy sticking with a sport and pacing myself over many years but I learned how to evolve over time and adapt goals to each stage of my adult life and. Swimming was a stepping stone into developing a strong mindset to solve problems creatively.

What questions we plan to answer:

–How can mastering another skill help you succeed in life? In business? In your career?

–Can learning to paint or do a sport foster a mindset to solve problems?

Mary – From Athlete to Corporate Mindset

A coach once said to me: “pace yourself.” Optimize your energy and focus on holding a pace in an ideal state of performance. If you go out too fast, then the it is just a survival to finish the rest of the race and in some cases I was unable to finish the race. This also goes as the competition gets greater there are those that can rise to the occasion and those that fold under the pressure. As a triathlete and long distance swimming background, mindset is key. Each year we would set goals for each discipline of a triathlon – example: Run a 5k under 20 mins, Bike 10 miles in under 29 mins, swim a mile in 18 mins. Then we would set A, B, C priority races. From there we would work backwards to achieve these goals in one year. Now there are macro schedules which would be quarterly goals and the micro which would be monthly and weekly schedules. Then on top of that I would set up a weekly schedule of how to dedicate time to training, the food I was going to eat, etc. Each day during the week, I would work on different aspects of the race such as distance training, high-intensity, interval training /threshold and sprint training. During each workout I would have a purpose to my workout and would train my mindset by staying positive, even if I was not having a good workout. Also I would be ritually visualizing a successful race.

• As I would plan out the year – I would also incorporate R&R weeks of rest and recovery as well as vacation… all key to keeping yourself from burn out
• There are four buckets that have to be trained when becoming an athlete:

–Physical, Mental, Emotional, and Spiritual

• How does an athlete transfer to corporate life?

–Visualize success

–Stay positive look at the small wins and focus on learning from the losses

–Set up small goals to reach the larger goals

• What is the ideal state of performance?

–When you are thriving and not just surviving.

–Setting up recovery times and focus on constantly getting enough rest and mind shut off times (example try to get at least 8 hours of sleep)

• Chronic stress without recovery depletes energy reserves, leads to burnout and breakdown, and ultimately undermines performance.

–Balancing your energy across all aspects of life from physical, mental, emotional and spiritual (for example spending quality time with my family and focus on the present)

• When setting an objective or goal for the year. Pace yourself!
• Mindset is key. Visualize success
• Don’t forget to incorporate relaxation and down times

Melissa – Mastery or Expert of Painting

Lately, I have been working on developing a mindset for success on how to become a master/ expert as I would like to bring my own oil paintings up to another level and build a no-fail clear-cut strategic plan to go from novice to expert.  So I have been studying a number of books on mastery to build such a plan and this is what I found:

• Find a targeted subject or aspect you care about and which you in your heart feel others should care about.
• Find that ONE basic “fundamental” skill that can be translated into all the skills and practice it to its essence. Say in painting it maybe a Brushstroke is your key single focus. It could be a stroke in swimming or pose in Yoga.
• Do deliberate practice painstaking refining that small movement or skill until it is integrated into your unconscious. Slow it down and practice over and over.
• Be immersed working on “basic fundamentals” to the point of exhaustion so that they are so deeply internalized. Then build on the next “basic fundamental” and the process continually cycles along the deeper layers of your work. These basic fundamentals are then blocked into clusters that are sequenced correctly to build your skill set.
• Build a pyramid of knowledge from the cluster or blocks of information. Every level is constructed of the technical side of the theories, principles and techniques that explain information and is condensed into a systematic understanding of study.
• Go back and forth from Micro to Macro. Plunge into the detailed mystery of the micro in order to understand what make the micro tick. Micro and macro are equally important. Like parts to the whole. Michangelo would start a painting form the studying the minute detail and build the painting from that.
• Build master study plan with a timeline. Visually see the big master plan on how to get better. Track key training. Build that into a timeline. You have to be in it for the long haul…see the long-term picture. Integrated value system
• Find a mentor and study other master’s work. Find an apprenticeship. Reproduce paintings of the masters. Steven King says if you are a writer you have to continually read works from current masters or the past masters.

Question: How do you get into the mindset of trying to be a master or expert?

• Your work should be a fully intimate deep activity.With all the distraction and surface learning on the internet; we need to learn how to deep work alone. One idea is instead of planning 4 hours straight of deep work; plan ahead for the 10-minute iphone or social media distractions throughout the day.
• Embrace the struggle. Love the process not the result when learning. Need to learn how to feel good in an uncomfortable or failing position. John Singer Sargent used to wipe out parts of his canvas until he was satisfied.
• See yourself as part of a large group of historical and current masters. You are not alone.
• Believe you can be as good and even beat the old masters!

So the action items to build a master’s mindset by…

Finding that ONE basic “fundamental” skill that can be translated into all the skills.

Do deliberate practice painstaking refining the skill into your conscious.

Build a pyramid of skills.

Build master study plan with a timeline.

Linda – Mindfulness 

• Situation: As a corporate marketer with worldwide responsibilities, I was always living months and years ahead of the present. My profession required frequent travel across time zones and climates and it required thinking forward, scenario planning and anticipating the moves of competitors. There were times when I would land at home for a few days and think oh the summer has just begun because my mind was so far into the future.  So when I became exposed to the practice of mindfulness, it was appealing but I was resistant.  I wasn’t convinced that fully focusing on the present was enough.  Enough for what?!  Enough for flourishing in this world.  Nevertheless I enrolled in formal mindfulness training.

• Actions: Mindfulness is a mindset that makes it possible to live fully.

–Mindfulness is not merely meditation.  It is not just an hour or two away from it all.

–Mindfulness is not an escape like a spa day or even a classic retreat.

–In fact what is very appealing to me about the practice of mindfulness is that it is about being fully immersed.  It is not about getting away; it’s about getting all in!

–Mindfulness is about being fully aware now.  When I was in corporate, we talked a lot about employee productivity and presenteeism.  Employers want employees who are not merely physically present but mindfully present.  They want employees to be fully engaged in the task at hand.

–Mindful employees do what is necessary to perform their role to the best of their ability in the moment.  Mindful employees are awake to the environment around them.  They make decisions in full consciousness of present factors, so they make better decisions.

–Mindfulness practitioners do not have their minds in the clouds or in some blissful dreamy place.  They are fully here.  They are fully engaged persons.

–In the mindfulness practice you live fully in the now with the benefit of all the knowledge and information that present awareness and awareness offers, without preoccupation with the past or the future.  The decisions and actions taken in each moment shape the next, so living fully now is the moment that matters.

• Tactics: Much like an athlete or a painter,

–Daily formal practice

–Daily awareness

–Living mindfully

• Results

–Healing

–Stress relief

Questions that were answered:

• What is the daily time commitment for mindfulness practice?
• That’s a lot. How did you find the time for it?
• What are the benefits of mindfulness practice?

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