Your Mixtape: What's Playing in Your Head?

I grew up in the era of the MIXTAPE!

The mixtape was the only way you could get all of your favorite songs in one place on the cheap.

Making a mixtape was an art form with no equal... hitting the buttons at just the right time to avoid the DJ voicing his introduction, then cutting it off at just the right moment, adding appropriate lead time into the next song... art, pure art!

Additionally, giving someone a mixtape was one of the highest forms of appropriate affection you could show. I remember my wife giving me a mixtape when we were dating... that was the moment I realized that things were getting serious!

The best part of the mixtape was knowing that all your favorite jams were in one place at any time on repeat. Today we call this our playlist and we have lots of them on many different platforms.

What's in your playlist? Going beyond music, what's the playlist of thoughts you have running through your mind on a daily basis?

I work with lots of people from all different ages and walks of life and we all have one thing in common: an inner dialogue that drives our daily actions and interactions.

For some people, our inner playlist literally fires us up and pushes us way beyond whatever we thought possible (Note: If you're interested in seeing a driven mindset in action, check out anything from David Goggins on youtube or read one of his books).

For many however, the inner playlist is literally the thing that's holding us back on a daily basis. We get caught up thinking: I can't, I'm not, I don't, I'll never... you get where i'm going with this.

The scary things is, we often tell ourselves things that we would never say out loud to anyone else!

If you had a friend who constantly told you that you were broke, stupid, unworthy, not enough, or unskilled... that relationship wouldn't last very long! So why do we allow our own minds to speak these kind of things to us EVERY DAY?

Here's a suggestion I got from an amazing author named Jon Acuff for filtering your thoughts and personal playlist. Ask yourself these three questions when hearing or thinking anything:

• Is it True?

We listen to a lot of stuff that is opinion and not necessarily proven truth. We also tell ourself a lot of stories, things that aren't necessarily true, but rather opinion derived from experience and places we've succeeded or let ourselves down.

• Is it Helpful?

Again, it's hard to turn down the volume on the hundreds of unhelpful thoughts and opinions we have thrown our way daily. The worst is when we get in the negative spin of toiling over things and situations that we have no ability to control. Everyone has an opinion... they're like belly buttons... and I'm never really interested in checking yours out - hahaha! Deal with the things you've been the authority and responsibility to handle and let the rest take care of itself. We live in a social media and podcast world where everyone feels the need and is given a platform to vent their opinions. Remember, it's not a requirement to deal with ALL the problems EVERYONE has... just handle your biz my friends.

• Is it Kind?

I think we can all agree, our world is short on kindness in general. Don't let your inner playlist beat you up... or the people around you!

Life, in general, is difficult to navigate. You and I don't have to make it harder by allowing our minds  to lead us places we never needed or intended to go.

Let's make sure we keep our minds and hearts in the best condition possible!