Soundtracks: The Surprising Solution to Overthinking

by Jon Acuff

Overview

Overthinking isn't a personality trait. It's the sneakiest form of fear.

It steals time, creativity, and goals. It's the most expensive, least productive thing companies invest in without even knowing it. And it's an epidemic. When New York Times bestselling author Jon Acuff changed his life by transforming his overthinking, he wondered if other people might benefit from what he discovered. He commissioned a research study to ask 10,000 people if they struggle with overthinking too, and 99.5 percent said, "Yes!"

The good news is that in Soundtracks, Acuff offers a proven plan to change overthinking from a super problem into a superpower.

When we don't control our thoughts, our thoughts control us. If our days are full of broken soundtracks, thoughts are our worst enemy, holding us back from the things we really want. But the solution to overthinking isn't to stop thinking. The solution is running our brains with better soundtracks. Once we learn how to choose our soundtracks, thoughts become our best friend, propelling us toward our goals.

If you want to tap into the surprising power of overthinking and give your dreams more time and creativity, learn how to DJ the soundtracks that define you. If you can worry, you can wonder. If you can doubt, you can dominate. If you can spin, you can soar.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781540900807
Publisher:	Baker Publishing Group
Publication date:	04/06/2021
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	39,211
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Jon Acuff is the New York Times bestselling author of six books, including his most recent Wall Street Journal #1 bestseller, Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done. He's an INC Magazine Top 100 Leadership speaker and speaks 50 times a year to audiences around the world ranging in size from 500 to 8,000 people. His large and highly engaged social media following includes nearly 300,000 Twitter followers, more than 175,000 Facebook followers, more than 100,000 Instagram followers, and more than 90,000 email subscribers who look to him for his unique blend of humor, honesty, and hope. He lives outside of Nashville, Tennessee, with his wife and two teenage daughters.

Table of Contents

Introduction 13

1 I Think I Can Do This 15

2 The Choice Is Yours 37

3 Turn Down the Dial 61

4 Borrow from the Best 83

5 Win the Week 99

6 Don't Fight It, Flip it 115

7 Zig Your Way to Positive Thinking 131

8 Put the New Anthem on Repeat 147

9 Gather Evidence 167

10 Make a Soundtrack Stick with a Symbol 187

Conclusion 211

The New Anthem Challenge 217

Acknowledgments 219

Notes 221

Editorial Reviews

02/22/2021

Motivational speaker Acuff (Finish) offers an energetic if trite guide to shutting down the naysayers in one’s head. Virtually everyone overthinks, he writes, yet few people know how to get out of their own heads long enough to pursue—let alone achieve—their goals. As a result, overthinking becomes constant background noise. To turn this around, he proposes three steps—“Retire your broken soundtracks,” “Replace them with new ones,” and “Repeat them until they’re as automatic as the old ones”—and shares stories of how he changed his own self-defeating habits. In order to become an author and inspirational speaker, he writes, he “chose to play new soundtrack at full blast: ‘YOU CAN BE A PUBLIC SPEAKER AND AUTHOR!’ ” Acuff cites lessons from psychology and neuroscience to bolster his take on turning “overthinking from a super problem into a superpower,” but the ideas are little more than repetitive riffs on basic pep talks about creating a positive internal monologue. Acuff’s passion is undeniable, but this has the feeling of a pamphlet padded out to book-length. Agent: Mike Salisbury and Curtis Yates, Yates & Yates. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

The example of memorable songs becoming locked into our brains as adolescents works well to remind us that irrational or limiting beliefs can also become stored—as cognitive mandates that subconsciously guide what we do. The likable Acuff shows how we can take control of our lives so that instead of anxiously overthinking and acting out these unhelpful thoughts, we can declutter our minds and change the destructive soundtracks to narratives that are self-affirming. The personal growth author is a persuasive writer who shares a lot of his own journey and sounds utterly authentic. His audible desire to help and cheery vocal delivery add something special to the listening. Though managing one’s thoughts to improve our lives is not a new idea, Acuff’s performance gives it new power. T.W. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

SEPTEMBER 2021 - AudioFile

The example of memorable songs becoming locked into our brains as adolescents works well to remind us that irrational or limiting beliefs can also become stored—as cognitive mandates that subconsciously guide what we do. The likable Acuff shows how we can take control of our lives so that instead of anxiously overthinking and acting out these unhelpful thoughts, we can declutter our minds and change the destructive soundtracks to narratives that are self-affirming. The personal growth author is a persuasive writer who shares a lot of his own journey and sounds utterly authentic. His audible desire to help and cheery vocal delivery add something special to the listening. Though managing one’s thoughts to improve our lives is not a new idea, Acuff’s performance gives it new power. T.W. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

SEPTEMBER 2021 - AudioFile