Shows / Cowgirl UP
Cowgirl UP
Cowgirl Up is the daily mindset elevation podcast for competitors and high achievers who are serious about their mental game. Hosted by Laurie Blickenstaff — team roper and Certified Mental Performance Coach — this podcast delivers short, powerful episodes - Monday through Friday - to inspire, challenge, and empower you to develop and maintain a champion's mindset for greater consistency, confidence, and joy — in the arena and in life.
Episodes
- Cowgirl UP
Mindset Book #3: The Battlefield of the Mind
Joyce Meyer opens Battlefield of the Mind with Ephesians 6:12 — our struggle is not against flesh and blood. In this episode Laurie unpacks why the real fight…
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Mindset Book #2: Beyond Grit
Today Laurie opens Dr. Cindra Kamphoff's Beyond Grit and reads a passage on the power of our thoughts. The takeaway: we can't leave our mindset to chance any…
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Mindset Book #1: The Inner Game of Tennis
In this episode Laurie opens Mindset Book Review Week with Self 1 and Self 2, and author Tim Gallwey's discovery that the mistake is almost never the problem…
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Pressure is a Priviledge
Pressure is a privilege. We were not made to eliminate it — we were made to rise to meet it. In this Friday wrap-up Laurie recaps the full week and closes with…
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POP the Pressure — A 3-Step Strategy for Any High Stakes Moment
Laurie shares Dr. Cindra Kamphoff's POP strategy to give us a simple three-step plan for any moment pressure arrives — power breaths to return to the present…
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Pressure Isn't Real — But It Shows Up Anyway. Here's the Bridge.
How do we hold the truth that pressure is self-created alongside the reality that it shows up no matter what? In this episode Laurie wrestles honestly with…
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The Expectations Trap — Where Pressure Really Comes From
Pressure almost always has an expectation underneath it. In this episode Laurie explores the role of expectations — our own and everyone else's — as the engine…
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What Is Pressure, Really? — The Science Behind Why We Feel It
Pressure is not happening to us — it's being created by us through the meaning we assign to a moment. In this episode Laurie unpacks the science of the stress…
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The PGA Tour's Secret Weapon — And It's Not a Golf Swing
Full Swing Season 2 Episode 3 follows Wyndham Clark's transformation from anger and negativity on the course to US Open champion — five months of working with…
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Michael Jordan's Question That Every Competitor Needs to Hear
Why would I think about missing a shot I haven't even taken yet? In this episode Laurie digs into The Last Dance and pulls out the mental performance lesson…
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What Do You Want on Your Epitaph? A Golf Score?
Life will be measured by significance — not by a score. In this episode Laurie goes deeper into the book Seven Days in Utopia and the question that stopped her…
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She Was the Most Nervous She'd Ever Been. Then She Won the World Title.
Simone Biles said her World Championship comeback was the most nervous she had ever been for a competition. Then she won the all-around title. In this episode…
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Keep Believing — What Rory McIlroy's 17-Year Wait Teaches Us About Mindset
Rory McIlroy collapsed at the Masters at 21. He won it at 41. In this episode Laurie unpacks the mindset lessons from his extraordinary journey — including the…
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One Goal, One Day, One Step — Your Goal Setting Recap
We don't need a perfect plan. We just need one goal worth pursuing, one plan to break it down, and one step to take this week. In this Friday wrap-up Laurie…
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The Surprising Connection Between Goal Setting and Confidence
Setting clear goals with a plan was rated the number one confidence driver in Dr. Cindra Kamphoff's 2025 national study. In this episode Laurie connects goal…
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Reverse Engineering — How to Make Any Big Goal Feel Manageable
When we reverse engineer a big goal into yearly milestones, monthly targets, and weekly actions, it stops living in the abstract and starts showing up in our…
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The 95/5 Rule — Why Less Outcome Focus Is More
Performance psychology tells us we should only focus on our big outcome goals 5% of the time — and spend the other 95% on daily process goals. In this episode…
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Why Your Brain Loves a Goal — The Science of Goal Setting
When we set a clear specific goal, we program our reticular activing system (RAS) to start filtering in everything that moves us toward it. In this episode…
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Eight Confidence Drivers - Part Two
The final four confidence drivers from the 2025 national study — celebrating accomplishments, being your own inner coach, regulating emotional responses to…
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Eight Confidence Drivers - Part One
The 2025 national confidence study didn't just identify the problem — it identified eight specific solutions. In this episode Laurie walks through the first…
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Why Confidence Doesn't Transfer
Confidence is situational — and it doesn't automatically transfer across contexts. In this episode Laurie gets personal about her own experience moving into…
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What the Research Reveals About Confidence
Women report significantly higher rates of harsh inner critic, feelings of not being enough, comparison, and fear than men. In this episode Laurie unpacks the…
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America's Confidence Problem
A 2025 national study reveals 66% of Americans believe there's a genuine confidence crisis — and the numbers on Gen Z and women are even more striking. In this…
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Perfectionism Is Fear in Disguise
Perfectionism wears the costume of high standards — but underneath it is fear of judgment, fear of not being enough, fear of what a mistake says about your…
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The Black and White Trap — Why Nothing Is Ever All or Nothing
All-or-nothing thinking sees everything in extremes — perfect or worthless, great or terrible, success or failure. In this episode Laurie unpacks this common…
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The Mindset Trap of Catastrophizing
Catastrophizing disguises itself as preparation — but imagining worst-case scenarios before you compete is literally flooding your nervous system with cortisol…
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The Thief of Joy — And How to Get It Back
Comparison steals your focus, your confidence, and your ability to stay in your own lane. In this episode Laurie unpacks why we always compare our insides to…
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The Mindset Trap That Steals Your Power
Victim mentality doesn't always look dramatic. Sometimes it's just a quiet belief that life is happening to you rather than for you — and that nothing you do…
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You Are Who You Show Up As
You are not who you intend to be — you are who you show up as, consistently, over time, in the small moments nobody sees. In this Friday wrap-up Laurie recaps…
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When Motivation Fades, Identity Takes Over
When motivation disappears — and it will — what keeps you going? In this episode Laurie shares James Clear's identity-based approach to habit formation and…
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Building a Daily Routine That Actually Sticks
Willpower depletes. Smart design doesn't. In this episode Laurie shares practical strategies for building a daily routine that survive real life — and explains…
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1% Better Every Day — The Math Behind the Compounding Effect
One percent better every day for a year equals thirty-seven times better. That is not a motivational saying — it is math. In this episode Laurie breaks down…
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Motivation Is a Mirage — Here's What Actually Works
Motivation is an emotion — unreliable, temporary, and not a foundation for consistent performance. In this episode Laurie draws the line between motivation and…
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You Were Not Made for Fear
Fear is not your design — and scripture has been saying that for thousands of years. In this Friday wrap-up Laurie recaps the full Fear of Failure week and…
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Three Tools for When Fear Shows Up
Understanding fear is important — but you still have to show up. In this episode Laurie delivers three practical tools for the next time fear tries to run the…
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What God Says About Fear
Fear is not your design — and scripture has been saying that for thousands of years. In this episode Laurie shares six powerful verses on fear, draws a…
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When Fear Gets Personal
Most people don't fear failure — they fear what failure means about them. In this episode Laurie shares what happens when identity gets tangled with…
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What Fear of Failure Really Is
It's not the failure that scares us — it's what the failure means about us. In this episode Laurie opens Fear of Failure week by unpacking the real source of…
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Soul Surfer — Getting Back in the Water
At thirteen, Bethany Hamilton lost her arm to a shark attack and returned to surfing within a month. In this episode Laurie closes Resilience Week with…
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Rudy — Resilience In A Small Package
Rudy Ruettiger was told no his entire life — too small, too slow, not good enough for Notre Dame. He walked on anyway, spent four years on the practice squad…
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Don't Waste It
John O'Leary was nine years old when he was burned on one hundred percent of his body and given a one percent chance to live. He went on to become one of the…
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Unstoppable — The True Story of Anthony Robles
Born with one leg, Anthony Robles became an NCAA Division I wrestling national champion — undefeated. In this episode Laurie shares the true story behind the…
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Resilience and Why It Matters
Resilience isn't a fixed trait — it's a trainable skill built through mindset, experience, and deliberate practice. In this episode Laurie opens Resilience…
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The Strategy That Changes How You See Every Setback
One hundred episodes — and for this milestone Laurie introduces the 3 Opp Strategy from Dr. Cindra Kamphoff's Beyond Grit. Laurie walks through exactly how to…
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Two Lenses, One Story
Same circumstances. Completely different meaning. In this episode Laurie uses her own story — the teaching job she didn't get, the years of burnout and…
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Same Situation, Completely Different Outcome — Here's Why
Two people face the exact same circumstances and walk away with completely different experiences. In this episode Laurie breaks down why perspective is a…
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Life Is Happening For You, Not To You
What does it actually mean to believe that life is happening for you, not to you? In this episode Laurie unpacks this powerful mindset shift — not as toxic…
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Is the World Out to Get You?
Most of us are running on a worldview lens we've never examined — and that lens is either working for us or against us every single day. In this episode Laurie…
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You Were Made to Take Up Space
In this Friday wrap-up Laurie recaps the full week and closes with a faith-filled reminder: there is nothing arrogant about standing tall. You were fearfully…
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The Double Punch: Power Statements + Big Body Language
When you pair a power statement with big body language at the same time, your words and your body are telling the same story — and your brain receives it as…
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The Fastest Way Out of a Funk
Motion creates emotion — three words from Tony Robbins that change everything. In this episode Laurie breaks down what low state versus high state body…
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Two Minutes Can Change Your Brain Chemistry
Harvard researcher Amy Cuddy found that just two minutes of intentional power posing measurably raises testosterone and lowers cortisol. In this episode Laurie…
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Your Body Is Talking to Your Brain
Your body and your brain are in a constant two-way conversation — and your posture is not just a reaction to how you feel. It's an input to how you feel. In…
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From Worry to WIN
In this wrap-up episode Laurie recaps Worry Week and delivers three practical tools you can use in the moment to break the worry loop: the Control Check, the…
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The Hard Truth About Worry
Worry isn't just a mental habit — it has a real, measurable cost on your body and your performance. In this episode Laurie breaks down the physiology of…
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What Scripture Says About Worry
What does God actually say about worry? In this episode Laurie bridges the gap between scripture and the mindset principles we practice every day. Faith and…
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Worry and the Ego
Worry doesn't come from nowhere — it has a source. And that source is the ego. In this episode Laurie traces the worry spiral back to the false self that…
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What Is Worry, Really?
Worry feels productive — like your brain is solving something. But here's the truth: 85% of what we worry about never happens, and the physical and mental cost…
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Don't Bury What You've Been Given
Jesus told a story about three servants — two who invested what they were given and one who buried his out of fear. In this wrap-up episode Laurie unpacks the…
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Good Luck, Bad Luck — Who Knows?
An ancient Chinese parable over 2,000 years old asks a question that will change how you see your next setback — good luck or bad luck, who knows? In this…