Becoming Elite with Erik Westrum, Author & Former Professional Hockey Player

Erik Westrum is a former professional hockey player, author, motivational speaker, leadership coach, and entrepreneur at heart.  

 

During his hockey playing years, he faced daily challenges to make it to the top. By implementing the tools and strategies discussed in his book, Becoming Elite, he was able to consistently perform at the top of his game.  

 

After retiring from hockey and trying to figure out the next step in life, Erik struggled with finding out what success looked like being off the ice. He shortly realized the steps and tools he used as a high-performing athlete could transfer to many other areas of life. And once again, his life changed dramatically. 

 

After coaching hundreds of people over the past 22 years, Erik has helped people break through the obstacles that seem to be holding them back. Through this process, he has established the principles and processes of Becoming Elite and what it takes to transform your life using 4 proven pillars of performance. Life’s too short to not try and become elite.
﷟HYPERLINK “https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BSXQKGFQ” 

In this episode, Erick and Cindra talk about: 

• What it means to “Becoming Elite” 
• How to take failure in stride 
• The 4 shifts to develop to become elite 
• Why it is important to fall in love with the process 
• His “reset strategy” 

 

HIGH PERFORMANCE MINDSET SHOWNOTES FOR THIS EPISODE: www.cindrakamphoff.com/538  

FOLLOW CINDRA ON INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/cindrakamphoff/ 

TO FIND MORE INFORMATION ABOUT ERIK: https://erikwestrumbook.com/  

FOLLOW CINDRA ON TWITTER: https://twitter.com/mentally_strong 

Love the show? Rate and review the show for Cindra to mention you on the next episode: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/high-performance-mindset-learn-from-world-class-leaders/id1034819901 

 

http://thehighperformancemindset.com/

 

 

Cindra Kamphoff: Thank you so much for joining me here today. Erik Westrum on the High-Performance Mindset Podcast. I’m so excited to talk to you today.

Erik Westrum: Yeah, I’m really excited to like we talked about before I did a little Google search. And the stuff that you’re doing is amazing, and that you’ve been doing. I’m honored, and it’s a pleasure to be here.

Cindra Kamphoff: Well, thank you, Erik. I’m excited about You know, talking about your new book becoming elite, and maybe just to start before we dive into that. Just tell us what you’ve been up to, you know lately. Obviously, you’ve played in the NHL. For 12 years, which we’re going to give it get into today. But what have you been up to lately?

Erik Westrum: I think for me I always kind of start with the 2¬†min drill. Right. Keep the sports analogy alive. So for me, growing up in Minnesota and being able to be around hockey sports and just helping people for myself, especially where I’m at now is just being a servant leader. So if you look at you know the history of playing hockey, the things that I’ve been taught the ideas, the concepts probably about 9 months ago. I kind of made that shift June first, to be exact of kind of getting out of the corporate consulting business ownership side of things in kind of mainstream business. Decide to write my book, open up a charity, help hockey players, athletes, business leaders, just kind of small pockets of test samples of, you know, speaking and coaching and leadership. And now I’m here today, and you know 2,023, with a lot of different ideas and concepts and groups that I’m working with, and I’m just really excited to continue to push like. I said, that servant leadership forward, and in a lot of different areas of sports, business, community faith and kind of the list goes on.

Cindra Kamphoff: Absolutely, well, I mean, I think, to play professional sports, for you know I know at least in the NFL. It’s like 2.3 years isn’t it the average career, right, you know, to play it for over a decade is really incredible. So tell us a little bit about what you think we’re the psychological traits and characteristics that it took to either, even, you know, get to the NHL. And then just stay there for that long.

Erik Westrum: Yeah, I think when you look at it, you know, even right now. So during March right March madness and hockey, it’s the Minnesota State High School hockey tournament. So for me, and I talk about it in my book. It started in eighth grade getting cut from a team, so you either have the ability to rise and learn, or you can blame other people, and I just made a post about like Michael Jordan. Right? He gets cut from his team. His mom says, hey. you got a couple of options, you know. What are you gonna do? And I think in today’s world you push the easy button, and for me I was blessed to be around my mom, who was a teacher, my dad, who played professional hockey. So I had kind of that dynamic of, you know. Paddle me and say, hey, Eric, it’s okay.

Erik Westrum: And my dad saying, what are you gonna do next? So for me that mindset started in ninth grade, right? Putting in the extra work shooting parks, you know. Goal setting, watching what I ate, started to write and work out programs. When I was 16, being able to be in a successful situation with players that were better than me. And for me that’s where the mindset started right, doubt creeps in fear creeps in kind of the impostor syndrome, and to be able to take the things that you’ve learned and prepare. And I’m sure you see it. You know, with the athletes you work with the preparation in the process.

Erik Westrum: That’s what gets you to the ultimate destination. So for me, I fell in love with the process. I fell in love with all the day-to-day operations. So goal setting, writing down what my meals were writing, how I felt after a certain game, how I felt after a meal. What was my mindset going into it? Did I visualize? You know what was gonna happen, so I visualize the good, and I visualize the bad right when I win this game, or when we lose this game. What’s my reaction? So I already had that, you know I wasn’t a kid. I wouldn’t cry after a loss. I would take it, and I’d say, you know what Kobe Bryant talks about that, in in his podcast that he didn’t, you know, before he had passed away. Is he learned so much from failure that I think that’s what prepared me all of the failure. I took it in stride, and that’s where I learned the most. And then when I got into playing professional hockey, it was I mean it was a roller coaster, right? You get sent to the miners you play in the Nhl. You get traded, you move cities, I mean. I played in, I think, 7 8 different cities played in. You know the Us. And Canada played over in Switzerland, and you have to have that mental make-up. And you have to have your toolbox ready for anything. So I think to that point, you know, the simple answer is with people like you, with strength, training with skating, with the hockey dynamic. That’s what prepared me, because I knew I had the tools. I knew I had implemented them, and I knew I had put in the hard work to get there, and I knew I deserved to be there.

Erik Westrum: And that’s when that’s when that confidence it’s not arrogance, but it’s confident in your preparation and the love for the process. So I think that’s the biggest for me, even getting into life after hockey that can help make anybody successful.

Cindra Kamphoff: Yeah, Well, excellent, EriK. I obviously what I’m hearing is Really; you had a lot of self-awareness, you know, even as a high schooler, that you were writing things down, just being aware of what you are thinking and what we are consuming, and I think that’s the first step in actually, high performance is understanding yourself and watching yourself, and then I hear just like a lot of flexibility, particularly.

Cindra Kamphoff: Oh, when you got to the NHL and just being traded a lot, you said failure and taking it in stride, and I wanted to talk a little bit more about that. What do you think has been your biggest failure. Let’s say, in your career in the NHL.

Erik Westrum: Yeah, I mean, I think the biggest failure for me was probably giving up on the NHL: too soon, right, I think, for me it was

going in. So when you’re going into professional sports, as anyone will tell you right if you’re in the NFL. And NHL. Any. If you’re not a top draft, pick a lot of times you have to work your way up right. So you got to be on the practice squad, or you got to be in the miners, or you have to get into certain situations. So for me, I grasped that I graphs the identity of being in the fourth line, third line guide role player. And then, as you work your way up, whether it’s in the miners or whether it’s in the NHL. I felt like I belonged right. I felt like I was elite. I felt like I should be the guy I felt like I should be that first line goal score, because that’s how I that’s what I accomplished in home, school and college in the miners. And now it’s the pinnacle, and I probably didn’t give it enough time. and I started to blame people. I started to blame management. I started to blame coaches and started to blame others in that journey. So even the extent of you know, blaming my wife for holding me back in certain situations into your point of the self-awareness. I wasn’t looking at myself right. So all that work that we just talked about to get there. And now you’re at that point, and if it was that easy everyone to do it was that easy? Everybody would play in the nail. That’s why I actually have a Stanley cup behind me because I never won one. So it reminds me of that ultimate goal that I quit. We quit on myself to a certain extent, and I took the easy road to go play in Europe, to go to a different team, to ask to be traded, to be put in a better situation, that I felt I could control, and that never works that never works. And that was probably, you know, outside of losing games or situation. That’s where I said going and str that stuff you can deal with right. But when you don’t pursue your passion and your purpose and you’re on that road, and then you hit bump after bump after bomb, and you try to push the easy button. That’s when you know you see yourself as self-employed: right. That’s where you talk about athletes, and I’m vulnerable. When I talk, you talk about right, whether it was alcohol, whether it was addiction, whether it was, you know, in fidelity what all the stuff you talk about on pro sports. Unfortunately, it’s true. And that’s when that starts to kick in, and then that failure even becomes greater because it starts to blow up in your own face. And I, you know, with concussions and different things going on in my life. That’s where I look back to your point of that was the biggest failure for me was giving up on my dream because I thought I knew better, and I started to blame other people. And that never that never works, whether it’s corporate, whether it’s school, whether it’s marriage, whether it’s friendship. To your point, self-awareness is what I had and what I started with. And then once you get to a certain level and you see it in the news all the time athletes think they’re bigger than the team. They think they’re bigger than the community. And that’s when you get in trouble.

Cindra Kamphoff: Well, I appreciate your vulnerability, Eric. You know I think it’s hard to talk about, you know, just, and being so open with what you just described. I also know that you know blame is how what I would describe as an automatic negative thought like it’s not always something we choose, but it’s a lot easier to, you know. Focus on things that you can’t control. Then to look inside and say, well, what can I do and take responsibility? And I think you know that a lot of people can relate to what you just said, because I know in all of our lives my life, I’ve blamed people from time to time right? And so it’s about noticing when you’re doing that and just realizing, okay, you know. Can you take some responsibility and really take control of what you want

Erik Westrum: When you take responsibility and you take control of that. If you’ve worked on it right and you have that toolbox, right and have assets and resources to put you through, you can identify that and grab it and be like No. right. This is me. I own it, and I have to continue to do that, and that’s what I talk about in the book, too, is like rituals talk about. You know the daily check in the recount all, all of the content and all of the deliverables that you want in your life. It starts when you wake up, and it’s looking in the mirror and the self-reflection to your point of like.

Erik Westrum: You can blame people, but at the end of the day I mean it’s a free world, right especially here in America. You wake up. You know most people have the choice of. Do they want to go on the left? Do they want to go to the right? And you gotta make that up in your mind, and you gotta accumulate step by step what you want. And how are you going to become successful?

Cindra Kamphoff: And what I’m also hearing in your answer is the importance of having the toolkit right? The mental toolkit of these skills in in high school and college before you get to the pros, because there’s so much change in adversity, and I’m curious, Eric. Why did you decide to write your book becoming elite like right now?

Erik Westrum: Well, I think for me to that point. I have a mentor that I talked about between the age of 40 and 50 is kind of your sweet spot right you’ve learned from a lot of failure.

Erik Westrum: And that was just the tip of the iceberg that we just talked about, and you’ve had a ton of success, right or hopefully, you’ve had a ton of success in your life. So for me, I look at that in a book I’ve read numerous times in the second Mountain, and it’s by David Brooks, and it talks about the first Mountain is about Ego. It’s about self. It’s about fulfillment. And it’s almost about like being a false You right, not authentically, you like. I would have never been as vulnerable or talked about, even if Stoic, and I’m strong, and I don’t get phased, and I have never dealt with anxiety or depression, or any of that right. And then, all of a sudden you get to this next phase in this next mountain.

Erik Westrum: And I felt like I’ve been called to it like the last 2 years, 2 and a half years, and it was like calling me, and I kind of push it back like I don’t know. Am I qualified enough? Am I? You know the imposter syndrome right to think like, Can I do this? Can I do that? And as I started to do different you know jobs and consulting and be around more people. I notice that you know, not a lot of people are qualified like you go to church right the past year or the they’re probably not qualified right, but they’re comfortable, and they’re authentic, and they share these stories. You go to, you know a keynote speaker. You go to an event. You go to an experience, any of that. People that talk and are vulnerable and have those experiences are the qualified ones because they’ve learned from failure. They’ve had success so for me now going in. That’s why I have a molten on the now. My cover of my book is, I’m in that second month right. It’s servant leadership. It’s following my purpose and passion. And as I’ve been writing this over the last 2 and a half years, through mind, map through an outline first draft, second, draft everything that you go through to get the content where you want it and deliverable. And I started to find these little nuggets of information, and I wanted to put it into a book that was easily digestible that you could put into your person to your backpack. Throw it on your dashboard. Throw it on your side of your bed, and you can go back to it right? So it’s like a guide. You can easy read. You can read it, you know, probably on a one-way trip on an airplane, and then you can take it highlight certain areas.

Erik Westrum: My wife’s a highlighter in the book, right? I’m a memorizer, and I’ll go back and you can pull out those resources. So for me I felt like it was my calling to go share this information. No matter if you played sports. No matter if you’re a parent, no matter if you were in the workforce, and whether you were an employee or a CEO, you know anywhere from the admin assistant to the owner of a company, whether you were the ball boy to the star player to the GM. This all this information can apply, and my goal always. I always talked about the 1% impact. If you can take one out of this to change your life.

Erik Westrum: The dramatic effect that you’re gonna have is exponential, right? One or one thing you add one thing you know 3 365, you know, added Value. And you take away 365 negatives that’s 730 steps in the right direction, and it shows over time, and that’s what I learned through hockey. It’s the same thing working out with you. You put the work in into your to the point we made before you’ve prepared, and you love the process so much that when you get into the big game you get into the big meeting you get into the big keynote you get into the coaching atmosphere. You’re not nervous. You’re excited to share that, and that’s why I wrote the book I’m excited to share what’s worked for me, and to connect with people because my story I mean you could tell me something about you that went well, and that didn’t go well, and I guarantee I can connect to it right in one way that, or whether it was through sports, family, business, community, faith, any of those topics. You know the psychological, physical, spiritual, emotional shift we talk about.

Cindra Kamphoff: Yeah, yeah, thank you and Eric for those who maybe want to check out the book you just referred to with the ego itself and the servant leadership. Tell us what the name of that book is called.

Erik Westrum: So it’s The Second Mountain, and then it’s by David Brooks. Yeah, so I’d say it’s Game changer for me like I said, about 2 2 and a half year ago, years ago 2 of my mentors had kind of talked about that book, and I read it and read it again. And that’s what I started doing the outline of the book, and that’s what’s kind of drove me to that second one.

Cindra Kamphoff: Yeah, I love that I love that analogy, and you know, and also the other books inspired you. You know the same thing that happened for me is, I love this book by Jack Canfield and I would read it and read it and read it and read it right. And then, finally, I was like, you know. Could I? Could I do this too, you know, and I appreciate you to saying that even you had doubts that you were. You qualified enough because I think everyone can relate to that, even with someone with a PhD. I thought of that a long, long time before I wrote my book. Like, do I even know enough.

Erik Westrum: And when you go into a room right, I always tell people that even I was in insurance and finance and education and real estate, and like almost everything from a consulting ownership standpoint. And when you go into that, the first part I was, as you listen and you learn, and the more you do, the more you realize, not from an egotistical standpoint. Right? I’m like for you right. I have my MBA. So I’m like, oh, I know my business, and that’s not applicable until you’ve experienced it. And once you do you realize, you know, 98% more than most of the people you’re talking with right, and if you go in with that confidence, they’ll be able to still learn and listen. But be able to be authentically you.

Erik Westrum: That’s when you make a complete shift in a mindset, and you can. I could speak in front of 5 people or 500,000 people, and you’re still delivering the same message to each individual or through the book like you talked about. Right you get that. Am I good enough? Do I know enough, right? If you have confidence because you do, right, because you do, because you’re here in this situation, and you’re doing it right. And I think that’s the thing. I even remind myself that on a weekly basis, right? It’s center yourself where you are and how can you continue to deliver what you’re trying to through purpose and passion.

Cindra Kamphoff: Yeah, absolutely. And I actually think that confidence is a choice. It’s really easy to give into those automatic negative thoughts that just you know, you’re questioning, if you really know enough, and when you take a step back right, you can give yourself evidence on why, that’s actually not true, Eric. I was curious about these 4 shifts you talking about in the book, and I love the I love this, the hockey analogy of shift, you know. But you talk about the psychological shift, the physical shift, the spiritual shift and the emotional shift. Tell us a bit about why you chose the word shift, and why you chose these 4 shifts in specifically.

Erik Westrum: Well, and that’s exactly why I did. Right is the hockey shift, right? So if you’re familiar, you’re not familiar with hockey, right you go. It’s different than a lot of other sports. Right? You go out for anywhere from 30 to 55¬†s, in, you know. Normal hockey for a shift, and then you come off. And what do you do?

Erik Westrum: You re-energize right? Grab a drink of water. Your coach might talk to you about a play or an in, so you might talk to a lineman, right? So now, all of a sudden, you’re going into that psychological shift, and you’re trying to get your mindset. Okay, what did we do? Well, I noticed the defenseman went here the forward to the Goalie. So now I’m you know you’re getting your mindset ready, your physical shift. You’re resting your body to go out there next the spiritual shift for me as I phone later in life. Right. But that’s kind of centering yourself, knowing that whether you have a higher power, whether it’s Christianity or right, Whatever religion you are, the spirituality portion is okay. I can control this portion, but there’s something greater even within my team. The coach. Is he going to put me out there next different aspects? And then the emotional part is, you can’t get too high, and you can’t get too low right? So that’s exactly where the whole concept came from. Was when I come off the ice, what was I going through? Right? You’re going through a shift consistently, and you’re trying to take those good things out and do it again. You take those bad things for those learnings, and you try that. Put them into. I always, when I work with athletes, or CEOs, or any type of leadership coach, and I always say, hey, take this virtual box a baggage, put it in here, put it under the bench, and then at the end. If you have a sports psychologist or a High-Performance coach, you can address it. So if we’re sitting in there, I can up, open my box and be like, hey here’s what I got for you after this shift. I started it really because I was doubting this. I was doubting that. So that’s where kind of the 4 pillars of performance I looked at. If you have those 4 pillars right centered, or at least trying to, because there’s no possible way, you can be 100% centered in all 4 of those aspects. Right? I think the part of it is the self-awareness of knowing when you wake up in the morning, and that’s where I get into that disciplined routine is that I would have to work out right. I’ll go through my Bible app. They go through my emotional checkpoint of like, where am I with myself? Where am I? With my 4 kids, my wife, people that I’m surrounded with, and those are the different aspects that now I used to look at. Oh, my gosh! I gotta do this for 15¬†min I did like sit with myself and think about it, and recalibrate and check in, whereas now I’m I won’t stop at 6, am. 5 am. For him. It’s like I don’t. I feel like I don’t even have enough time to do that, and it’s the same thing in a hockey shift. Right? You only have a couple of minutes.

Erik Westrum: So you have to have back to the toolbox, right? And those resources you have to have kind of those easy buttons. But the reason they become easy is because you’ve done it over and over and over again, and you can realize what are your triggers? What are your traumas? Everything that brought you to a place of negativity or not being productive. And that’s what the shift is all about. Like we all have a shift consistently every day. I mean even talking to you. I’m having an emotional shift like I love talking about this. It’s exciting. It gives me energy. It gives me purpose. It gives me meaning. Whereas if I’m talking about something else in a negative aspect, it’s gonna in my shift in that is going to go down.

Cindra Kamphoff: Yeah, yeah, absolutely well. I definitely see. You know, psychological, physical, spiritual, emotional. They all connect to high performance. And you know, just in terms of you’re saying, okay, we can always keep on growing on. It needs every day. I like the different tools that you had in your book, such as like the 10¬†min daily check in, or the midday recalibration some of these other tools. What! What have you found to be like? The most useful tool that you wrote in your book that can help people with one of these shifts.

Erik Westrum: I mean, I think when you look at it, everyone’s gonna find something different right? Some people like for me early on it was the N. The 10 min morning check in right the daily check in, because I would then reassess and kind of look at. Okay, what while yesterday? What could go better today to get to what my goal is for tomorrow? Now that’s kind of an automatic, right? I get out of that, and it just automatically like moves throughout my body in my mind, and I can kind of it’s kind of weird right. It just becomes automatic. It’s kind of like warming up before hockey, and you could ask me what I did. I won’t even know, because I just do it. It becomes a routine then at midnight recalibration. That is probably by far what a lot of people talk about. I had a meeting this morning, you know, with the financial planner that I’m coaching and working with on different aspects. And that’s what we were talking about is the recalibration. You get so caught up in the day that if you don’t bookmark 5 min, a half hour, 10¬†min to look back at what? What did you want to accomplish today? Did you follow that, and if you didn’t, you gotta remember you still have a half a day to accomplish that, and if you did accomplish that right, continue to do it 10x and you’re gonna have even more success. And then then 5¬†min nightly pulse that that for me is. You know it was a game changer, and the fact that celebrating wins I still have a really hard time, and I don’t know if you know, I think a lot of high performers right. You get to that goal, and you celebrate it for about a minute and a half. Right? So I write. I write my book every like. Oh, my gosh, that’s awesome. And I’m like, yeah, whatever you’ll have some dinner. You have a glass of wine with my wife to celebrate. And then I’m like, okay, what’s next? And then I start thinking about my charity events in May and start what’s the next big thing? And I and I’m sure you can relate to that when you coach and athletes like. Oh, you just you know you just got the receiving record for your team, or for this game, or whatever it’s like. Yeah, okay, great, awesome. How can I do it again?

Erik Westrum: How can I do it again? So that’s the midday for me is probably the most impactful still today, because in full disclosure. I struggle to do it sometimes right. The nightly check in is, you celebrate your wins and see what you did, and you have to give yourself grace

right. You have to forgive yourself if you don’t, and I had a hard time with that for a long time, and that’s where the spirituality piece came in for me as that fourth pillar throughout that process, and I think that is all 3 of them are game changing, and it’s not a lot to add like you don’t have to sit down and write it, and you know you just if you’re cognizant about it, you actually pay attention to it. That’s what makes the difference, and there’s other tools and step by steps that go in. And the reason for that is something might stick out to someone

Erik Westrum: That’s more influential to them, and that’s why I put a lot of different information. It’s not like, hey? You have to go through all 42 of these steps, and go through all this process. It’s. You read it, it’s your journey. It’s your version of becoming elite. It’s not mine. This works for me different times. I took some of those different tools, but I think those 3 main daily guides have, or game changing for me, and it can take you 5¬†min a day. It can be 20¬†min. It’s not a lot. But again that 1% increment 1% of a day. It’s about 15¬†min. It’s not a lot to ask.

Cindra Kamphoff: Yeah, that’s great. And what I like about the morning, the midday and the end of the day again helps you increase your self-awareness right? So you can even check in with yourself. And I think so many people just kind of get up, go through the motions. They’re not really intentional with their mindset, and where you know, with their productivity and what they’re thinking about. Tell us a little bit more about Eric, that the 10 min morning routine you might call it, or you call it the 10¬†min. I’m just going back to daily check in. Okay, so it tells a little bit more about it. You said what went well, and then what else would you do in those 10 min.

Erik Westrum: Yeah. So a lot of times right. Wake up and like for me a lot of times. My number One pillar is the physical. If I don’t work out, I can’t think right. So that’s a non-negotiable for me that will start my day, so whether it’s on pilot’s reform or a bike or anything I’m doing, just getting movement, blood, flow, energy, and then that the check in for me is looking through that so like from a psychological standpoint. What did I do yesterday that worked or didn’t work?

Erik Westrum: And then what can I do today to help that? So for me? One of the big things I use mindset apps. I’m huge into like motivational speakers and informational resources. So for me, let’s just say, yesterday I didn’t, you know. Listen to a motivational speaker. I could mark that. What am I going to do today? Actually, what I’m going to do today? Is I’m actually going to record my own 1¬†min motivational topic, right? Because then I can look at me. Am I doing it, or what works? And maybe that helps me. And then, at the end of the day. I can look at that so for me it’s kind of looking from the it’s just like a little one. Of what can I do to improve in all 4 of those categories? And it’s not game changing it’s not like spiritual. I’m going to go to mass, you know, for an hour. It’s not emotional. I’m gonna go check in, you know, with my psychologist, for you know, 30 min and talk about my feelings from yesterday, so it’s not like where you’re encompassing 3¬†h of your day. It’s just small incremental things, and I think at the beginning took me more than 10 min, right? Because I started to want to be perfect right. I wanted that perfect outcome in all 4 of those pillars. Because when you are at a high performer. You always are looking at the end goal, and once you dumb it down, and that’s why I have those tools to your point to 10 min is you have to look at what’s ahead only in small increments, because if you start to look at the final destination right, and I was just in Arizona, and a short side story, as we were doing malt biking with my son and the guy. The guys like, hey, look 10 feet in front of you what’s coming up? And I started to get confident. I’m like with sunset, and I’m like there’s beautiful desert and cactus, and I started going like this, and I start looking like that before I know there’s like 3 huge cacti in front of me. I turn. You can see my hand. Here it’s all chewed up over the handle bars, and I thought of that like I told the guy after I go, because we were talking about my book, and you know different concepts. And I said, that is a great story that I’m going to start to share, because I started to look at the destination, right? I starting to look at the NHL before I even played high school hockey.

Erik Westrum: So it’s the same thing. You have to look at those little incremental things, and that’s for me with what you want to accomplish even today, with my family, my friends, my career, by start to look at that insurmountable huge mountain. It looks like it’s i’m going to step down. I’m not even going to move forward today, and i’m just going to do what i’m doing because i’m comfortable. Everybody wants to be comfortable. And if you’re comfortable you’re not going to do your 10 monthly to check in. You’re not going to recalibrate, and you’re not going to celebrate your wins and check in at night, but when you dumb it down, it’s pretty easy. But to your point. You know I love how you keep bringing in the self-awareness piece, because that’s the key. I mean to any of this, and you can’t blame other people. Oh, I didn’t get this done because my daughter woke up at 20’clock am. Because she had an ear infection I can still work out. I got 24 hours; I can find a half hour to work out. That’s not an excuse. I can’t blame her. I can’t blame other people.

Cindra Kamphoff: Yeah, absolutely good. All really good points that are helpful for people. And I loved the different topics in the 4 different shifts, and that at the end you are talking about the ultimate shift. So tell us a bit about what that ultimate shift means to you. And I thought it was the really powerful idea.

Erik Westrum: Yeah, I think the ultimate shift is almost you know, the ultimate goal. And that’s why, like I said, I have a Stanley cup here, because even when you talk to. You know someone who’s want a Stanley cup. I have a lot of friends or people I played with or against.

Erik Westrum: It’s short-term fulfillment, and you’re actually not at your ultimate destination. Right? So I think that’s part of it is. I talked about 2 things. One is everyone has their own version of becoming a lead, and the second is the ultimate shift, is it’s not attainable right in the big picture. It’s not attainable. But that’s what you’re training, and you’re trying to achieve because it keeps you outside of your comfort zone, and it keeps you in that growth, verse fixed mindset that I talk about at the beginning, and it that’s where it kind of Originated. They came up with the concept of the shift in the book, and it talks about that at the end. Is that bridge? Right? So you have your past. You have to address your pass. You have to. I can talk about it. You gotta like Kiss the wave, right? It’s gonna come and hit you. You got to accept it. Learn from it, and then you have to have goals for the future. and then you spend a ton of that time on that branch. If you spend too much time here, or too much time here.

Erik Westrum: I mean, I just did it 3 what? 5 days ago I just did that, and I spent a ton of time here ruminating on all this my event, and trying to change the world and do all this, and there’s 0 actions taken; whereas when i’m in the present that’s when you can try to get your ultimate shift and your ultimate shift in the bridge, and everything always consistently changes. And that’s why I talked about even that incident in Minnesota when that bridge collapsed right if you’re not paying attention to that foundation and that structure consistently, and those 4 pillars it could be, you, Rody, all 4 of them, and before you know it. I mean you’re down right. So if you can just put a little bit of time into that, the ultimate share I mean realistically, and I talk about that, you know, I said, you’re gonna fail right. You’re not going to get to an ultimate shift, so to speak. But you’re going to get continuously closer and closer to your version of becoming a lead, and I think that’s kind of the key right to the whole picture and kind of the whole book and all the concepts is to take out, you know what if it’s the whole saying right? You, whatever you put in is what you’re going to get out of it. If you don’t put anything into it, you can’t expect to shift in any of those pillars. You can’t expect to be a high performer. You can’t expect to change your life in a positive direction, and the ultimate goal is to help other people become better, because what happens when you do that

Yourself?

Cindra Kamphoff: Yeah, love it. And I love how you’re describing like falling in love with the process. I find young athletes, you know, and we I mean I even have a son who wants to play in the NFL someday, and sometimes actually thinking about that creates a lot of anxiety and frustration for him because he’s. You know he realizes all the work that he has to do, and I love the idea of like falling in love with the process, because it’s like when you’re loving the working out, and when you whatever the goal is, if you’re in insurance, or if you’re in sales, or you’re a teacher right like falling in love with the process is what inspires you and fulfills you, and ultimately helps you get to that

destination, and I think sometimes goals are meant to just keep us motivated and keep us moving towards it, and it’s okay. If we don’t reach it right. It’s more about like. Who can we come in the process of reaching that ultimate shift?

Erik Westrum: Well, I totally agree with that, because I think the process, and I’d sorry I always talked with players about all the time. Everybody would love to right when a super bowl or play in the Nhl, or win a state championship, or when a national title and the reality of it is not a lot of people do.

Erik Westrum: If you fall in with the process. If you have a process, you can pick that up and move it into business. You can pick it up and move it into your family. You can pick it up and move it into pretty much any aspect of your life, and that’s what I find. Now I’m almost addicted to process in a way where my wife’s like, you’re not alright. You’re so process oriented. But and then once I accomplish that, it’s like, okay, let’s start a new one. And just like I said. I’ve shifted in different careers and different paths and different journeys, because as I go through different process, and I check that box of the cool. It’s not satisfying that it the satisfaction comes in the training, right? I For some reason i’m not built to be a runner by any mean as a hockey player. And I decide. You know i’m like i’m gonna run a half Marathon and Marathon. So I did the half Marathon. I love the process, and then once I did it after I was like what was the point of this? Right like the goal? Whole part, I mean. I did it by myself. I didn’t tell my family. I woke up to like 4, am. Went to a place to run quick! Came home. They’re like oh, we’re you. I’m like I just want to ran a half marathon!

Erik Westrum: That’s what I’ve been training for and that’s the point I fell in love with. Like waking up. I fell in love with like kind of the diet the water intake like you know i’m fitness app what I did. How much I did that’s the that’s what I fell in love with, and the goal was like the half. Marathon was easy right. You can go run for whatever an hour and something, and then you come home and they were like oh that’s cool, and then a process for something else, and then it became mountain bike, and then it became something else. So it’s, an it’s an addiction almost, and you probably see that from high performers, and if you don’t have that, that’s when depression, addiction, anxiety, all that starts to kick in and people right, no matter if you’re a pro athlete or your business person right or like, in the sports world. You call it your you become civilian, right? If you don’t have a purpose and passion to you and your statement around the process, you get lost. To help people and help guide them of like. We all have a purpose here, and it’s in it’s in your head, and it’s tapping me on the shoulder. What do you follow it? And that’s you know June first for me. I like. You know what i’m gonna follow this. See where it takes me, and see what I can do with it.

Cindra Kamphoff: I love it. I love it. Well, Erik, you’ve provided so many great things for us to think about. I appreciated your vulnerability of just describing like a tough moment for you, and how you blamed others. I feel like we can all relate to that. A few other things I wrote down that were really helpful was just the idea of taking failure and stride. I do find high performers are very hard on them. Suppose so, you know, just having some self-compassion, and I liked your different routines in the morning that you could use the 10 min daily check in and the midday recalibration, and then the 5 min nightly routine that you shared, and the different shifts you can make to help you fall in love with the process, and really, you know, continue to be elite and be a high performer. So what? Tell us first where we can get the book?

Erik Westrum: www.erikwestrumbook.com, so as long as I always joke my parents went to Scandinavian route. So it’s E R I K. W. E, S. T, R. U. M. book.com. So Erikwestrumbook.com, and it has all the information on there about the book about speaking, about coaching all the content, everything kind of i’m up to, and we’ll be adding, you know, the charity and kind of the experience that we’re creating for me as well.

Cindra Kamphoff: Awesome. Yeah. And I know you’re looking at an event in May to increase awareness of mental health. That’s going to be incredible. So i’m going to encourage everyone to follow Eric on social media and just watch out for that.

Erik Westrum: Yeah, no, I appreciate it. I think that’s where I said. A year ago I created the charity and didn’t really do anything with it, and felt called for some reason, and all of a sudden fast forward the last 9 months you know personally, and in close family members, kids, i’m coaching all of a sudden it just started to pop up everywhere, and I know you’ve seen it, you know, because you’re in it. You’re in the field. And then I started after the book. I’m like, you know, I’m gonna create an experience, an event with pro athletes, with resources to come together to talk about it and to teach people like, hey? It’s okay. It’s okay to not be okay, as they say. And what are those resources and tools? So yeah, we’ll have it. It’ll be May Seventh working on kind of the guest list of a lot of the sports figures, and we’re gonna have some pretty awesome people sharing some pretty neat stories, right? They’re gonna They’re gonna share some stories about what worked for them and be able to. They’ll be an intimate, you know group of people with, you know. Some meet and greet opportunities, autographs, pictures that’s always the conduit to spread the message and then get some information. So yeah, i’m excited again. Yeah, Eric Westrum book.com. That’s where everything driven out of for that. So i’m excited, and I appreciate you having me on here because I think, like I said, looking far from what you’ve done is pretty amazing, and I think that you know each person you help hopefully, they can help another person. And just what we’re talking about today, you know that’s the goal for me is just to continue to spread the word of what you can do to better yourself and make sure you’re taking care of yourself to become elite.

Cindra Kamphoff: Absolutely well. Thank you so much for joining us, Eric. We really appreciate it, and thanks for everyone who’s listening today.

Erik Westrum: Thank you.