It's Time to Get a New Playlist

You have a default playlist that you listen to everyday. I’m not talking about rocking out to your favorite jam. I’m talking about what you say to yourself. Your internal dialogue.

The things you are saying to yourself every day are either reinforcing your negative outlook or are pushing you to become all that God has created you to be.

Your playlist starts the moment you wake up and doesn’t stop until you go to bed.

Have you ever stopped and listened to how you talk to yourself?

What do you say when you wake up?

“Oh man! I over slept again! I’m such a loser! I’m a lazy slacker.”
“Today is going to be awful! I can’t believe I have to meet with her.”
“I’m dreading today and can’t wait to just get through it.”

I wished the playlist stopped once you got out of the shower, but it continues all throughout the day. The playlist is reinforcing your insecurities or it is helping you pursue your purpose with passion.

Stop and listen to what you are saying to yourself today. The question isn’t if you have a playlist, the question is what is your playlist.

Where do we get our playlist from?

It comes from our parents, peers, culture, beliefs, and perspectives. Some of those are helpful and others are hurtful.

Our playlist doesn’t just affect us it can also affect those we love. We can get so caught up in our own internal music that we can forget to help others with theirs.

The other day I realized how I could do a much better job of helping my kids with this.

We were visiting some dear friends in Syracuse and hanging out in their pool. We started playing a game of “horse.” One of my children kept saying before each shot, “I hope I don’t miss it.” “I might not make it.” My friend Bob spoke up and encouraged this child to change that around and say, “I’m going to make this. I’m going to nail this shot.”

Bob saw something I didn’t see…a negative playlist…and he encouraged them to replace it with a new tune. You might think it was just a harmless game, but if we are insecure in the small things we will be paralyzed in the big things.

Bob is the most generous, positive, and encouraging person I know. Everyone is a better person for spending a little time with Bob. In fact, every week he shoots me an email with a quote or a line he liked from my most recent blog post. He always is encouraging. When I picture Barnabas in the New Testament, I picture Bob. I love Bob! (Of course his wife is awesome too!) Everyone needs a friend like Bob who believes they can do anything and pushes them to get there.

Bob has helped me in so many ways and on this day he helped my child reprogram a playlist that was creating self-doubt and insecurity. I wished I had been as alert as he was.

Getting a new playlist.

The most helpful thing I’ve found in reprogramming my playlist is having a list of affirmations that I read. The closer the affirmations are tied to what God thinks about me the more powerful they are.

I have one list that I read before I speak every single Sunday. It never fails that I needed one of those 10 affirmations. This playlists gives me the confidence and courage to lead and communicate in the role God has called me to.

Recently, I was challenged to create an affirmation list to read every morning before I start my day. I’ve just started to compile the list.

Listen today and tomorrow as you go throughout your day and see what you say about yourself to yourself. Turn up the volume right when you are about to do something you dread or know will be tense and stressful. In those moments your true colors will shine through (I hope that song is not your jam).

No one can hear what you say to yourself, but everyone can see it in how you treat yourself and others.

If you want more confidence, it starts with your playlist.
If you want more friends, it starts with your playlist.
If you want more respect, it starts with your playlist.