The Bee Gees gave one to John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever. Leslie Gore gave one to the ladies of the The First Wives Club. What’s that you ask? I’m talking about a theme song. We all have at least one song that gives us the swag we need to make us feel like we can go out and conquer the world. I’ve always been a lover of music and I regularly listen to it throughout my day, especially when I’m working. Depending on what I listen to it either causes me to relax or motivates me to ramp it up. And this isn’t just all in my head either. There was actually a medical music study done that confirms that music does have a significant impact on our psyche. So knowing this, why don’t we use it to push us to do the things we really want to accomplish in life?

What do you think helped me get up the courage to start my non-profit, 20/30 Enterprises? By listening to Queen Bey’s song “I Was Here” on repeat for weeks, I was reminded that I have a purpose. I have ideas and dreams. And I wasn’t given this voice to stay silent.

I want to leave my footprints on the sands of time.

Know there was something that, meant something that I left behind

When I leave this world, I leave no regrets

Leave something to remember, so they won’t forget

I was here ~I Was Here from the album 4, Beyonce

So this week, if you don’t already have one, I challenge you to choose your own theme song. Put together a soundtrack even. I’m always creating playlists in my iTunes and I give them special names like “Motivation”, for those days when it’s challenging to get going. “The Takeover”, is for when I’m feeling especially boss and I’m plotting on world domination. “Smooth” is for when I’ve been on 10 all day and need to bring it down a notch.

Tired of your playlist? A couple of places I suggest you go to fall in love with new music are…

Spotify: This is my absolute favorite app because it allows me to listen to full albums from hundreds of artists, both old and new, all for FREE! Now unless you buy the premium version, from time to time, you have to listen to a pesky commercial or two, but it’s totally worth it! You can even create your own playlists and follow artists so that you can be the first to hear new music released from them.

Pandora: This is a great free music app if you like a particular genre of music but are trying to explore a variety of different artists. You can plug in an artist’s name like Teddy Riley and listen for hours to artists like Teddy in a shuffle mix. I nearly always hear artists I’ve never listened to before and before I know it, I’m buying the music on iTunes and adding them to my playlists.

And just for fun, here are a few other artists and inspirational songs that I’m really diggin’…

• Janelle Monae – Electric Lady from the album The Electric Lady
• Jill Scott – Golden from the album, Beautifully Human – Words and Sounds Vol. 2
• Solange – God Given Name from the album, Sol-Angel and the Hadley Street Dreams
• Katy Perry – Roar from the album Prism

So sound off. What are you listening to that really gets you motivated?