Books That Change Lives – You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life

Book Review – You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life,  Jen Sincero

First Published: 2013 by Running Press Books Publishers

My favourite find of 2017!

A super super read. Really witty, makes you squirm, resonates deeply and gives practical ways for catching your own gibberish and helping you move from apathy to action. Jen takes so many of the books I have read over the past few years, philosophies I have been interested in and approaches to self-realisation and packages them for us into 27 short, page-turning chapters.

Unlike other self-realisation books, it really made me laugh out loud at a number of points. Her dry sense of humour and let’s call it as it is, crass and down-to-earth way of presenting the facts is catching. Chapter titles like ‘ Lead with your Crotch’, Your Brain is your Bitch’, ‘Loosen Your Bone, Wilma’ I’m sure you will agree are not your usual self-realisation chapter titles.

She places a lot of emphasis on self-limiting beliefs, most often they are not even our own, but rather those of our parents, friends or other significant people in our lives. ‘Most people are living an illusion based on someone else’s beliefs’. They exist in our subconscious for the most part, and stop us, in the name of protection, from doing what we really want to do in life. She talks about getting subconscious beliefs into alignment with the experiences you really want and eliminating the conflict between the two.

She recommends the Work of Byron Katie as a way of questioning and changing these beliefs. In the book, she breaks it down –everything we want is already out there, we just don’t know it and our self-limiting beliefs keep us in our comfort zone and keep it out of our reach. The Big Snooze (a.k.a the ego) helps keep us stuck in these beliefs. She talks about how reaching for what we want is going to be uncomfortable, unpopular and may bounce us back a number of times along the journey –BUT it is all possible.

For her it is clear, we need to question our thinking first and then life will show us the way. Quite simply get out of your own way, take action, meet new people and surround yourself with those who see limitless possibilities in life and decide to reach your goals. She turns up the volume by saying ‘ commit to releasing your attachment to low-frequently thoughts and experiences, trust that the Universe loves the crap out of you, kick fear in the face, and head bravely into the unknown’.

Lucky for us she also gives us some practical and clear guidance –become aware of what your stories are; become aware of what you are gaining from your stories; get rid of your stories; get a move on; get out of your routine; sidestep the spiral and love yourself. Every chapter finishes with practical how-to sections and her key message at the end of every chapter is simple–Love Yourself.

A really excellent book, don’t miss it.

“Holding onto resentment is like taking poison and waiting for your enemies to die”, Jen Sincero

Books that change lives – You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life,  Jen Sincero

Review by Nadine Ferris France, a graduate of the Diploma in Executive and Life Coaching