Soundtracks to listen to
Jon Acuff’s thesis in his book Soundtracks is wonderfully simple and impactful: the ‘soundtracks’ — thoughts and narratives — we repeat to ourselves profoundly impact our emotions, actions, and subsequent life outcomes for better or for worse.
I tested twenty-or-so tracks over the last month, here are the five that had had the most influence on how I thought, acted, and produced:
- Do hard things because of what they do to you. Growth only happens when you give yourself an occasion to rise to.
- The best way to fail is to start tomorrow. You may not be able to finish today, but you can almost certainly start today. The act of insisting on making progress today, however incremental, instead of waiting until tomorrow compounds overtime.
- Doing is becoming. If you want to be a runner, run. If you want to be writer, write. If you want to be a builder, build. The becoming happens the moment you take action.
- Excuses don’t solve your problem. The world is unfair, curveballs get unjustly thrown, bad luck happens. None of these, however valid in the moment, are in your control. You’re much better off pouring your energy into what you can control.
- “My life is dope and I do dope sh*t”. Taken from Acuff, who took it from Kanye. The thought of pursuing cool, remarkable things isn’t going to cross your mind if you don’t first have the thought you are a the type of person to pursue them. Decide you are that type of person first.
I have a note in my phone where I revisit these daily — I’ll often say them out loud or write them down in my journal during the day, both help significantly with reinforcement. Five seems like a reasonable number to have; the more you add the harder it becomes to take them all to heart.
I hope you find some of these helpful. Even if they aren’t right for you, I hope you’ll find the set of soundtracks that serve you best.
Happy listening!
