DevCareer BookClub: A Review of Jen Sincero’s You Are a Badass: How To Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living An Awesome Life
ASIDES GIVING THE AUDACITY TO USE SOME SCARCELY PRINTED WORDS IN THIS REVIEW, THIS BOOK IS PURE GOLD IN WEIGHT WRAPPED IN BAD-ASSERY AND FULL OF LIFELINES THAT WILL MAKE YOU THE BEST VERSION OF YOURSELF.
If you are in any doubt about and have forgotten who you are over time, what your strengths are and how to be the person you know you truly are, I would recommend You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life by Jen Sincero as the soul soup you need in your favorite flavor.
In the world of self awareness literature, there exist many authors, but none as refreshing as Sincero. Touching on almost every aspect of life — love, life, money, hope, anger, forgiveness, fear, trust — this book holds some principles that are immutable if you want to live your best life and thrive while you are at it. Chapters range from Loincloth Man to Your Mind is Your Bitch — absolutely what you would not want to say in polite company, but needs to be said anyway.
The crux of the matter
Your life was meant to be enjoyed. You used to enjoy it, until you began growing and listening to what everyone else had to say about it and began doing what they told you to. You lost yourself. That is when the disconnect between your true self and the life you do not really want but are living began. The key to being a badass, to being the person you once thought you were and know that you are deep within, is to listen to your instincts and less to what you were taught. Unlearning is the first step to breaking out of the cage and welcoming your true self.
You can make a change
To help you shed the stubborn ego of old beliefs that have never served you well, here are a few quick points from the book that you can use to begin transforming your life:
- Love yourself — a recurring theme in the book is self-love. If you cannot love yourself, you cannot be anything you want to be. Love yourself because you are the only you, your best person and your most reliable companion. Drown yourself in affirmations, accept the compliments you get from others and let the love of others into your life. Without loving yourself you cannot be present or know who you are supposed to be. Even your interactions with others and your dreams depend on how much you recognize and love yourself.
- Your brain is your bitch — don’t you ever forget this one. Our thoughts are the most powerful tools we have got. They can make and ruin. What you fixate your mind on becomes your truth, your life, and when you take action that is what will manifest. Guard your brain and feed it with what you want it to produce in your life. Commit to giving your brain the reins to victory. As Jen Sincero says, as long as you feed the beast, it shall live.
- Be present — the Universe is favorable to you. Always believe this. Have an awareness that you can have what you want. There is enough time, enough money, enough love, enough hope — enough of whatever you believe you do not have — for you. Remove functioning under a mindset of lack and disadvantage. Focus on connecting with the Universe, the source of everything you desire. Do it consciously and soon enough it will become a part of you.
- Vibrate strongly — the world is a twang of vibrations, and our duty is to vibrate on the highest frequency. This frequency resonates with the top 1% of the world and is where deities reside. Once you tap into that energy, there is nothing you cannot cause to resonate with you and bring about your desired returns: love, a family, a job or a successful business, whatever you desire. The way to vibrate is to believe that everything you want is available to you, against that stubborn ego of old beliefs of yours I mentioned. Remember?
- Forgive others — they are the assholes, but you have to forgive them and move on for your sake. They matter less in the grand scheme of your life and what you want to attract to yourself. Find compassion for the pitiful scum. Decide to be happy and look at it from all angles. Jen Sincero suggests you have a total shitfit about it, because in the next couple of months or even years you won’t even remember it. Let go of it.
- Live in the moment — do what you want to do. If it makes you happy, then it is likely what you should be doing more of. Spend time enjoying yourself and the things you do. Love yourself like that. Enjoy this sweet life. Just soak in it. Start doing so now.
- Meditate — this is the closest you will get to listening to the Universe and getting direct frequency amps in your life. Meditation births the best of you. Keep quiet, focus on the best things you want and your happiest moments, channel it and see how much better things become in your head space and around you. Watch yourself fill up with light and love. It is one of the easiest things to do. The earlier you begin doing it more frequently, the earlier you will begin to reap the rewards.
- Procrastinate no more — only while you can! Doing it now is the best way to procrastinate. The reason you do not start things immediately is because you are afraid of them, not because you cannot. Take note of when you begin to give up and make a plan to overcome it. Look at he fear from the rearview mirror of what it would be like in the future for you if you do that important thing that you must now.
- People are mirrors — everyone you encounter, especially the people you do not really like, are mirrors of you. They reflect how much we love ourselves, how much we think of others and reflect the truth that we carry around us. Accept your flaws and ask yourself why you are like that. Because you are only a reflection of those people you see, you need to see through yourself.
- Money is your best friend — Think big. Create what you want. Do not settle for the crumbs that circumstances have thrown at you. Once you agree that money is your friend, you will begin to attract that truth to yourself and opportunities will open up for you to display that friendship. The reason people live in poverty is in part due to their negative relationship with what should be their best friend. Change your perspectives and watch things go your way financially.
These 10 points are not meant to summarize all that you can gain from the book, but are just a few that stood out. Reading the book will give you maximum benefit. Whether it is learning from Loincloth Man or loosening some bones with Wilma. The important thing will be you making use of what you will read to stop doubting your greatness and start living a fabulous life, the life you could only dream of.
Join me next month for my preview on James Clear’s Atomic Habits!
