Your Brain's Playlist

Your Brain’s Playlist

Picture this: You're on a run or in the middle of an intense workout at the gym. Your playlist is firing you up, each beat syncing perfectly with your stride or creating just enough of a motivational spark to help you maximize your lift. Then, all of a sudden, a song comes on that’s completely off the rhythm you’re looking for. Perhaps, it’s a slow romance ballad or a hit that brings back awkward middle school dance memories. You hit skip once. Twice. Three times. By the time you land on a song that fits the vibe, the rhythm of your workout has been interrupted. The flow you were in? Gone.

What if we started to view our inner thoughts like our brain’s playlist? In essence, your thoughts function like a personal soundtrack for your life and your work. Unfortunately, most of us leave our minds on “shuffle” and find ourselves listening to a full library of outdated and unhelpful songs (aka thoughts) that sabotage our performance and flow.

Athletes and high performers leverage music all the time in preparation for competitions, but what if we started being more deliberate with our “mental playlists” during competition. Just like you can curate a workout playlist with your favorite songs to keep you in the zone, you can proactively create mental playlists that help you flow and perform in the moment. It’s time to take control of the aux cord for your brain and hit play on the soundtracks that fuel your best performance.

Don’t Listen to Yourself, Talk to Yourself

Out of curiosity, “How long would you be friends with someone who speaks to you the way that you speak to yourself?”

Bottom line: You are the most important person you speak to every day. There’s no simpler way to enhance one’s mental game than to audit your brain’s playlist (aka self-talk).

Unfortunately, most performers don’t realize they are listening to one primary artist over and over again. The #1 artist on the music chart for our brain is the “Inner Critic.”

High performers are not immune to the Inner Critic. In fact, some believe that their success is a direct product of their Inner Critic (e.g. the voice of “Not Good Enough”) and the obsession that better is always within arm’s reach. Unfortunately, the “Not Good Enough” soundtrack is perpetually playing in the background, slowly eroding confidence with an endless loop of dissatisfaction and shame.

Ultimately, in pursuit of excellence, you’re going to hear voices of doubt, negativity, despair, and weakness. Hearing these voices isn’t the problem, the problem comes when you start to believe these broken soundtracks.

Even the best performers in the world need to remind themselves of their greatness. The clip below illustrates a perfect example of Cristiano Ronaldo being intentional with his self-talk prior to a free kick.

Think about it like this: If an athlete’s body is a Ferrari, self-talk is the GPS. A positive soundtrack is the equivalent of typing in the destination and getting clear, actionable directions. A broken soundtrack, on the other hand, is like setting the GPS to "whatever" and ending up lost in the middle of nowhere.

3 Applications for Coaches:

Here are three ways you can help your players hit play on better soundtracks and mental playlists.

1. Identify and Remove Broken Soundtracks

Awareness is the first step to editing a playlist. Start by encouraging players to notice and retire their broken soundtracks. Below are some helpful questions you can pose to help athletes audit their internal playlists:

• “Is that true?” – (This question helps them see if there’s objective evidence for a thought)

• “If this thought were a song, would it pump you up or drag you down?” – (This question helps them see if a thought is helpful or hurtful)

• “Who would you be without that thought?” – (This questions helps identify limiting beliefs)

2. Create an Inner Coach

Instead of leaving your mind on shuffle and continuously getting stuck with songs from your Inner Critic, create a mental playlist with a different artist: Your Inner Coach.

Identify moments in competition where you proactively create reminders for yourself that a wise coach might offer. Below are some potential examples:

• “Fear only gets louder when you are doing things that matter.”

• “Be where your feet are.”

• “Fear is a reaction. Trust is a choice.”

• “Action beats doubt.”

3. Pair Actions with Thoughts Using “If-then” Scenarios

I like to tell players ‘I care more about your second thought than your first thought.’ The second thought is your “response,” while the first thought represents your “reaction.” In a similar fashion, I care more about your actions than your thoughts.

Mental performance is not about positive thinking. It’s about taking positive action no matter what you’re thinking.

With this in mind, coaches can help athletes create more effective responses in game situations by empowering them to use better soundtracks AND productive actions. For example, you could utilize “If-then” scenarios where athletes complete the following prompt:

If _____(Insert Situation)______ occurs, then I’ll respond with ____(Insert Helpful Soundtrack)____ and _____(Insert Productive Action)____.

Final Chorus:

Nothing gets better by accident. This applies to our self-talk too so it’s important to encourage athletes to practice their new playlists often. By helping your players take control of their mental aux cord, you’re giving them the tools to swap chaos for clarity, and doubt for trust.

Inspiration for This Piece:

• Acuff, J. (2021). Soundtracks: The Surprising Solution to Overthinking. Baker Publishing Group.