Jon Acuff Soundtracks Quotes

One of the greatest mistakes you can make in life is assuming all your thoughts are true.

Your brain is waiting for you each day. It's waiting to be told what to think. It's waiting to see what kind of soundtracks you'll choose. It's waiting to see if you really want to build a different life

Pick ROI, not EGO.

The New Anthem For thirty days, every morning and every night, find a mirror, stand up straight, and confidently say the following out loud: I, [your name], choose my thoughts. I know that doing my best starts with thinking my best. Like laying a path for an adventure, these thoughts will set the course for my actions. I’m confident that what I think matters. I’m excited to see what happens next. I’m disciplined and dedicated to stick with it. Here are ten things I know: Today is brand-new and tomorrow is too. I’ve got a gift worth giving. The only person standing in my way is me, and I quit doing that yesterday. I am the CEO of me, and I am the best boss. Winning is contagious. When I help others win, I win too. Feeling uncomfortable is just a sign that my old comfort zone is having a hard time keeping up with me. Momentum is messy. Everything is always working out for me. I am my biggest fan. The best response to obstacles is to do it anyway. In the morning I’ve pulled the slingshot back. I’m not leaving this room, I’m launching from it, ready for a day of untold opportunities. I’ve packed honesty, generosity, laughter, and bravery for the road ahead. Watch out, world! It’s time to step up, step out, and step in. In the evening What a day! The best part is I left myself a lot of fun things to work on tomorrow. When my head hits that pillow, I’m off the clock, storing up energy and excitement for a brand-new day.

For example, I screenshot typos that big companies make online. I’m not a grammar Nazi. Their so uptight, and its’ easier then ever too freak them out if your interested.

There’s a reason “dissertation” shares so many letters with “desert.” Both are lonely, boring places where dreams go to die. (Sorry, Arizona. You know I’m right. Turquoise jewelry can only do so much.) The first part of a doctoral program isn’t as isolating. There are more people involved in the coursework for the degree. You have professors, classmates, and a support network that moves you along. But once you’re finished with that part of your degree, you head out into the wasteland of your dissertation. Those can drag on for years and years because you’re the only one pulling yourself toward the finish line. How do you know it’s done? How do you stay motivated? How do you make it a priority when the rest of life gets loud?

This time though, I didn't listen to that. There was a new soundtrack in town that told me, "Everything's always working out for me? I didn't know how that was going to become true, but I decided to believe it was. I wouldn't end up waiting for very long.

.........Frederickson discovered a more reasonable goal. "Aim for a positivity ratio of at least 3 to 1. This means that for every heart-wrenching negative emotional experience you endure, you experience at least three heartfelt positive emotional experiences that uplift you.

Overthinking is when what you think gets in the way of what you want. It’s one of the most expensive things in the world because it wastes time, creativity, and productivity. It’s an epidemic of inaction, a tsunami of stuckness, and thirteen years ago it was dominating me.

You can turn overthinking into action. You can use all that reclaimed time, creativity, and productivity to create the life you want.

Your thoughts are the internal soundtracks you listen to even more than your favorite song.

If you listen to any thought long enough, it becomes a part of your personal playlist.

The most important conversations you’ll ever have are the ones you’ll have with yourself. You wake up with them, you walk around with them, you go to bed with them and eventually you learn to act on them. Whether they be good or bad.

If the soundtracks you listen to are positive, your thoughts can be your best friend, propelling you on new adventures with creativity and hope. If your day is spent overthinking broken soundtracks, your thoughts can be your worst foe, holding you back from ever taking action on all the things you want in life.

Those are called broken soundtracks, negative stories you tell yourself about yourself and your world. They play automatically without any invitation or effort from you. Fear does not take work. Doubt does not take work. Insecurity does not take work.

You can use all that reclaimed time, creativity, and productivity to create the life you want. And it starts with recognizing your thoughts for what they really are—a personal soundtrack for your life.

So our memory lies, and our brain has a hard time telling the difference between real trauma and fake trauma.

Our brain likes to believe the things it already believes.

We’re magnets for information and experiences that confirm the things we already think about ourselves and the world.

If you can worry, you can wonder. If you can doubt, you can dominate. If you can spin, you can soar.

Your thoughts empower your actions, which in turn generate your results.

every morning when you wake up, new baby nerve cells have been born while you were sleeping that are there at your disposal to be used in tearing down toxic thoughts and rebuilding healthy thoughts.”9

thoughts and rebuilding healthy thoughts.”9 Your brain is waiting for you each day. It’s waiting to be told what to think. It’s waiting to see what kind of soundtracks you’ll choose. It’s waiting to see if you really want to build a different life.

I have to be very cautious about taking a thing that I’m experiencing in the moment and then making it the permanent thing. Our brains do that. But it’s not the new normal, you’re just having a crappy day.

Instead of feeling crushed that day, I recognized it for what it was: a chance to share an experience with other people—failure. I had my friend take a photo of me surrounded by a sea of empty chairs.

There are three actions to change your thoughts from a super problem into a superpower: Retire your broken soundtracks. Replace them with new ones. Repeat them until they’re as automatic as the old ones.

When you pick the soundtracks you listen to the most, there’s no limit to what you can accomplish.

Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me” is a fun phrase to say, but it’s not even a little bit true. Words are so powerful that they can age you faster than that one guy who chose the wrong chalice in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Culture is just a collection of soundtracks playing consistently at a company.

Think about how many coworkers waste time, creativity, and productivity on soundtracks that aren’t helpful instead of doing the simple things they know would fix the problem.

Question 1: Is it true?

Is the soundtrack you’re listening to right now, the one that’s on repeat, helpful? Does it move you forward or keep you stuck? Does it lead to a decision or limit a decision? Does it generate action or apathy?

Always ask your soundtracks three questions: Is it true? Is it helpful? Is it kind?

We’re in charge of retiring the old ones and replacing them with brand-new ones.

it’s a dial. The goal isn’t to turn it off forever, the goal is to turn down the volume. It’s going to get louder sometimes. That’s how dials work. But when life turns up the negative thoughts, we get to turn them down. That takes a lot of the pressure off because when you hear one again, it’s not a sign that you’ve failed to shut it off and need to go find a different switch. It’s just time for an action that will turn it back down.

You can ask questions, suggest new ideas and admit you are wrong without being treated unkindly by the team. When you’ve got broken soundtracks firing shots at yourself all day, no wonder you get stuck. Your “team of one” isn’t a safe place for growth or innovation.

Is the soundtrack you’re listening to kind to yourself? After you listen to it a few times, do you feel better about yourself? Are you encouraged about your life and your opportunities?

Instead of berating yourself with phrases like “I’m the worst at focusing” or “This will never work,” all you do is say “Oh well” and begin again.

no matter how my circumstances changed during the course of a day, my feelings weren’t always going to pick a soundtrack that accurately matched what was really going on.

Effort. Each bit of that evidence was born from effort.

If you have a new soundtrack you’ve fallen in love with, fortify it with effort so that if the pocket jury gets loud someday, you’ll have all the evidence you need.

I’m the one who is going to retire my broken soundtracks, replace them with new ones, and then repeat those so often they become as automatic as the old ones.

Momentum is always messy.

Aim for a positivity ratio of at least 3 to 1. This means that for every heart-wrenching negative emotional experience you endure, you experience at least three heartfelt positive emotional experiences that uplift you.

If I saw something that worked out, I needed to recognize it and then say, “Everything is always working out for me.

the only person standing in my way is me, and I quit doing that yesterday.

Self-care starts with self-talk.

What do I want to be true?

The dial will go up. In those moments, we’ll use our turn-down techniques from chapter 3, but the whole process will be a lot easier if you set the dial where you want it to be before even leaving the house.

refreshing to know that I have ‘left myself things to do tomorrow’ instead of failing to get it all done.

I think about my bedtime brain like a rock tumbler. Each night I have the chance to throw a few ideas in before I turn off the light. They’ll bounce around for seven hours and sometimes—not all the time, but sometimes—I’ll wake up with an even better idea in the morning.

You Find the Things You’re Looking For

A pocket jury is a collection of broken soundtracks that judge your life whenever you dare to be more than you currently are.

That’s what’s so annoying about the pocket jury—there’s no statute of limitations. It will pull out evidence from ten years deep if that’s what will knock you off track the fastest.

Fear comes free. Faith takes work.

I wanted to argue with his assessment, but I’m doing this new thing where if I ask someone for advice, I listen to what they have to say.

Everything is always working out for me.

Where do I want to win this week? What soundtracks will help? What actions can I take?

take out your calendar and ask yourself, “Where do I want to win this week?

Looking at the week ahead, where do you want to win with the people in your life?

Replacing your soundtracks is about identifying what soundtracks you’ve been listening to and then owning the responsibility of changing them.

retire the broken soundtrack “I’m not allowed to say no,” you’ll feel a lot better.

Round and round I went, getting angrier with each listen. Do you know what I was doing in that moment? Focusing all my time, creativity, and productivity on the problem instead of the solution. I was overfeeding the problem and starving the solution.

Am I focusing on the problem or the solution?

Tell the truth in advance.’ The affirmations are true.

Saying that the traffic ruined your day might seem minor, but what you’re really saying is “I gave the traffic the power to determine the quality of my day.

It’s only negative if you stay there. What you want to focus on is the solution.