Is your soundtrack broken or badass?

I love me a good Jon Acuff book. His latest one, Soundtracks, is a knock-out. Acuff’s message is everything you think is part of your soundtrack. The more you listen to these thoughts, the louder your soundtrack gets. The louder your soundtrack gets, the more powerful it is. 

If your soundtracks are broken – negative messages spinning in your head – then it’s really hard to succeed. Let’s face it, if you’re a human, you have at least one (or one hundred) broken soundtracks.

Working with clients, I call these broken soundtracks “limiting beliefs,” but they’re the same thing. Broken soundtracks/limiting beliefs are the stories we tell ourselves in order to stay safe and small. They’re what the little (but surprisingly loud) voice in your head says when you want to try something new or step out of your comfort zone. 

Which begs the question: is your soundtrack broken or badass? 

Let’s do a test. Read aloud each set of statements below, pausing before you move onto the next one. In that pause, listen to your internal response. 

• I can’t wait for tomorrow’s sales call. I am definitely the right person for this potential client.
  
• I’m under-valuing myself and my services. Time to raise my prices by 50%. Actually, make that 100%.
• I love my new workshop series idea. Even though I don’t have all of the details mapped out, I know enough to get started and offering it to clients. 

Tell me, what was your response to each statement? Were you more hell yes! or heck no?

If you’re 3 for 3 hell yes, congratulations! I’ll bet you have some good soundtracks playing in your head. But if any of those statements made you feel queasy, perhaps there’s an opportunity to rewrite them so they’re more positive (which helps you get better results). 

Much more to come in my next newsletter. In the meantime, try this exercise Acuff suggests in his book. For every soundtrack playing in your head, ask three questions:

1. Is it true?
2. Is it helpful?
3. Is it kind?

Anything less than YES/YES/YES means you may want to roll up your sleeves and tackle these broken soundtracks.