Help build our 'Not Too Late' playlist

This member-curated bucket of songs will help you 'get it done' — and do it better. What would you add to picks below?

Warmup

This weekend, I broke the “cycle of sameness” when it came to my workout music. Doing so improved my running cadence, helped me think differently and made me smile.

And I have the NOT TOO LATE community to thank.

It’s easy to get trapped in ruts. What restaurants we frequent. Our running route. How we approach problems at work. And yes, the music we listen to.

So with your help, I’m creating a way for us to shake up our listening routine together with a member-curated NOT TOO LATE playlist — and sharing that new, evolving playlist here.

THE ASK: What song do you feel best taps into the spirit of — “Yep. Let’s get it done. It’s not too late.”

For example:

• Music that motivates you when you exercise or before a race.

• Songs that make the impossible seem, well, more possible

• Songs that make you feel 10% better when you hear them while driving.

I’d love your song suggestions either by email or in the comments below. I’ll add them to the playlist and highlight your pick in a future newsletter.

Post

To get us started, I asked a handful of engaged, paid N2L subscribers for their picks. You can read the stories behind the choices below.

Then I pressure-tested the playlist by listening while cranking out Michael Easter’s February “Burn the Ships.” (Michael’s own selections are below.)

You can sample the songs in the player at the top of this post or get full versions:

On Spotify.

On Apple Music.

Note: You might need to create a Spotify or Apple Music account if you don’t have one already.

My selection protocol is simple.

1. Two song limit per person from different artists.* If you suggest more, I’ll pick two I’m least familiar with. (* My mother gets a pass on the “different artists” criteria, because, well she’s my mom.)

2. No bias about genre. Country, heavy metal, rap, rock, show tunes. It all, I found, strangely works together in a cool crockpot-y way.

3. I’m not attempting to scrub musicians from the list who might have said or done stupid, bad or crazy things at some point in their life. So don’t consider this list an endorsement of the artists as humans. It’s just a playlist. Nothing else.

Sample member picks …

There are 23 songs on the list so far. Here are a few, in alphabetical order of members:

Peace of Mind, Boston (N2L member: Nils Akerman)

You Can Get It If You Really Want, Jimmy Cliff (N2L member: Casey Barrett)

Have it All, Jason Mraz (N2L member & my mother: Norva Bounds)

Pinball Wizard, The Who (N2L member: Candace Bruder)

Enter Sandman, Metallica (N2L member: Anne Marie Chaker)

Lose Yourself, Eminem (N2L member: Jean Chatzky)

Geronimo, Sheppard (N2L member: Sarah Dean)

Cowgirl in the Sand, Neil Young (N2L member: Michael Easter)

Top Gun Anthem, Harold Faltermeyer, Lady Gaga, Hans Zimmer, Lorne Balfe (N2L member: Erle Norton)

Weather Man, Valley of Wolves (N2L member: Marshall Peterson)

People Watching, Sam Fender (N2L member: Rich Rinck)

Confident, Demi Lovato (N2L member: Kyle Shepard)

Supernaut, Black Sabbath (N2L member: Paul von Zielbauer)

Why members chose their songs

Some members shared stories behind their selections.

• Paul von Zielbauer who writes the Aging with Strength substack, says of his choice, Supernaut: “One of the greatest guitar licks in rock 'n' roll history + early Ozzy lyrics = energy for squats & deadlifts.”

• Pinball Wizard makes Candace Bruder “appreciate how people can overcome challenges and be AMAZING at something unique.” Bruder says this song motivates her as she attempts to master obstacle course racing in her 50s. For running uphill or when tired, she dials up Ain’t No Mountain High Enough (Marvin Gaye, Tammi Terrell.)

• Founder of the Two Percent community, Michael Easter, explains how he generally leans “into the energy of the song rather than its lyrics.” He also prefers “fun, laid back songs rather than angry ones (I’m a semi-closeted hippy.)” That might explain why Michael added 15 minutes and 47 seconds to our playlist with just two songs: Cowgirl in the Sand and Bertha (Grateful Dead). But he’s allowed as the godfather of doing hard things. Of Cowgirl, he says, “It's just so epic. I used to run in the desert with this song on repeat during the start of COVID. It felt appropriate for what felt like the end of times.”

• Sarah Dean hits play on Geronimo when she’s cycling on her trainer in the garage.

• N2L friend, Kyle Shepard, writes the Resilient Mental State substack and is so hard core he doesn’t listen to music when he exercises. “It definitely adds motivation and fuel during workouts, which is exactly why I don’t use it …haha.” For inspiration, he picked Confident because it’s his “daughter’s favorite song that I love for motivation” and Eye of the Tiger (Survivor) because “Rocky has been telling me ‘no pain’ in my head while I push the limits listening to that song since I was a teenager.”

• Financial guru and TV personality, Jean Chatzky ran her first New York City Marathon at age 59 last year. You can read our interview about her journey. She says: “Embarrassingly, my songs are largely Broadway related though Lose Yourself is a longtime favorite and Texas Hold ‘Em (Beyoncé) is a new one.” Jean - no apologizing for Broadway tunes. I once crushed a run listening to the soundtrack from Cats.

• Anne Marie Chaker, who wrote a new book, “Lift,” about becoming a professional bodybuilder, chose Enter Sandman, noting “if I were a baseball player, that opening riff would totally be my walk-up song.”

• N2L frequent contributor Marshall Peterson explains his Weather Man choice this way: “I pick songs generally for an energizing beat rather than a message. The beat has gotten slower as I age. :)” He also selected a song I’ve now had on repeat: Note to the Unknown Soldier (Five for Fighting). “I think it’s useful to remember that no matter how much we are hurting, others have suffered and given more.”

• My mother, Norva Bounds, who is now regularly back in the gym with my father, selected two Jason Mraz songs: Have it All — “so uplifting and positive and happy” — and Let’s See What the Night Can Do — “Reminds me of when Dad and I were dating.” (I feel a slight urge to look for an emoji that shows me covering my ears with that second pick.) Love you Mom.

• Finally, Nils Akerman sums up his Peace of Mind selection by saying: “Aren’t we all looking for this?”

Cooldown

You probably won’t love all of these songs. But try listening to each in full at least once.

I found that if I pushed back on my initial reaction — “I don’t like this type of music” — that the truth was, in some cases, I actually hit replay.

This is what breaking the cycle of sameness is all about. It helps us reimagine our limits by expanding our notion of “this is who I am, and this is who I am not.”

I look forward to hearing more song suggestions from you.

Thanks for reading N2Lers. As always, find something you love. (Maybe reconsider a song you think you don’t love.) Dig in. Stick with it when things get hard.

Wendy