31 Steps for Feeling Happier, Step 7: Create a motivational playlist

How’d it feel to spend a day doing nothing? Or at the very least, less than you normally do on a Sunday? Full confession from me: I didn’t actually do nothing. I had to do some laundry and pick up groceries for the week. I also had to cook dinner since our restaurant budget is completely blown (already) for this pay period. Had my husband been home, I would have asked him to do that stuff and continued to keep my couch company while I watched Friday Night Lights and did my nails (full disclosure: I am terrible at painting my own toes) but he had to leave for a week to take some extremely important to his career test. So really, the fact that I couldn’t completely do nothing is entirely his fault.

Or mine. Maybe I could have managed the restaurant budget better and gotten the other stuff done on Friday or Saturday. But blaming my husband is more fun so we’ll continue doing that while we work on today’s task.

I figured that a great way to start off our week and to keep the momentum going for this 31 day challenge is to create a motivational playlist. It’s no secret around here that music is extremely important to me. Music gives words to my emotions, provides a soundtrack for my life (seriously. There is a song attached to pretty much every important and not so important moment I can remember), and can keep me going when I don’t want to. It is as necessary to my life as food and water. I’d give up television before I give up music because I can’t imagine living in a world without it.

But the part we’re going to focus on today is the emotions that music elicits from us. I mean, I could go on a soapbox about how music is crucial to making us well rounded people and how it fuels creativity and creative thinking and even helps with math and following directions and improves self-esteem when you learn to play an instrument or finally figure out the lyrics to a song and how for some kids, music is the only part of school that keeps them going back every day.

I could do that.

But I won’t. Because there are plenty of other places and times to discuss that and for the sake of brevity, we’re just going to focus on how music makes us feel and we can use that to keep us motivated or happy even when we don’t feel like it. That’s the power of music. It can change your mood with one 4 minute song. It can inspire you. It can empower you. It can console you. It can make you smile. It can alleviate some aggression. It can give you permission to feel sadness. Sometimes, it can do all of those at once.

Those kinds of songs are my favorite.

Which is why, today, we’re going to tap into the power of music and create a motivational playlist. I have several–one for when I’m working, one for when I’m working out and not at a class, one for when I’m doing housework, and a bunch more for general listening pleasure. But my favorite one is my motivational for life in general playlist. I use it more often that I care to admit, usually daily, because I like that constant reminder that the songs give me. It’s hard to explain so let me give you a sample of what’s on my playlist. Then maybe it’ll make more sense (warning: it’s very eclectic):

Jana’s Motivational for Life in General Playlist

1. Maybe–Sick Puppies (this is one of 3 Sick Puppies songs on my list)
2. Meant to Live–Switchfoot
3. Freak Like Me–Halestorm
4. I Don’t Wanna Be–Gavin DeGraw
5. Troublemaker–Weezer
6. My Life–Billy Joel
7. Heaven–O.A.R
8. Learning to Live–Beth Hart
9. The Middle–Jimmy Eat World
10. Awake and Alive–Skillet
11. Be Good to Yourself–Journey
12. Reach for the Sky–Social Distortion

There are several that I didn’t include but it’s not necessary to mention them to make the point that these songs, for me, serve a much bigger purpose than entertainment. Which is why, for today, I want you to assemble a playlist of songs that do that for you. Your list doesn’t have to be as extensive as mine, contain the same songs as mine, or even use the same genre of music. What moves you, what motivates you is different that what does that for me.

That’s another amazing thing about music. There’s something for everyone. So take what’s for you and use it. Use it for all its power and use it to empower you.