Your Life. Your Soundtrack.
When I was 10 years old I had the chance to save up enough money to become the first person in my family to own a CD player. It also had a twin tape deck which meant one thing…
Mixtapes.
Most Sundays I remember taping the radio chart countdown to capture the latest killer tunes, desperately trying to navigate the DJ voiceovers that bookend each song. I would spend hours devoted to crafting my latest soundtrack.
What songs would have featured on your playlists when you were young?
Music moves us, it can lift from our melancholy or act as blanket we pull over our heads when we simply want to wallow in our woes!
The thing is, we choose it. We decide what to tune into.
What are the songs that completely transform your temperament? Which songs pour a different energy into your bones?
This selective approach to our musical tastes begs an interesting question. How come we don’t apply the same decidedly disciplined approach to the other things we tune into if life?
In your encounters with others what do you hear? Do those relationships resonate the right pitch, lifting you, transforming you into the best version of yourself? Is there interference caused by the way in which you already see yourself?
When you catch yourself in the mirror each morning, what broadcast do you find playing about your life?
What will others hear when the tune into you?
Each of us has weak spots, places where the needle jumps, times where we get stuck repeating the same old patterns like a broken record. It’s in these moments that we must find ways to tune into a new station, look to those around us, our friends and community.
Put your trust in their words of challenge, kindness and clarity about who you are.
Fireflies provide an excellent example of community. No Firefly is always shinning but each of them blink on and off and on and so on. No one can always burn bright, but in community the lights are always on somewhere.
A collaborative approach to life alleviates the pressure, reminding us that only together are we truly on form and broadcasting a message worth tuning into.
Ps. Here’s what I was listening to in 1994…