In this week’s post, I’m reviewing Jen Sincero‘s book You Are A Badass – How To Stop Doubting Your Greatness And Start Living An Awesome Life. Jen Sincero is an author, speaker, and international success coach. Her book is upbeat, humorous, and inspiring. It is a self-help book that will wake you up and galvanize you to be “the perfect expression of you” with help from the Universe and your own intention to change. Her advice focuses on:

  • How our thinking creates our reality;
  • How changing your mind changes your life;
  • How understanding that everything you need is already here; and
  • How being intentional is absolutely necessary.

You Are A Badass belongs on different kinds of bookshelves: Self-help and Personal Transformation as well as with books on New Thought and the Law of Attraction.

My Personal Connection

I discovered the power of spiritual ideas and thinking when I stumbled onto the Quest bookstore on the Upper East Side of N.Y.C. in the 1980s. I was taking a walk, and there it was. I could never resist going into a bookstore, so once I discovered this unique shop, I spent my lunch hour there several times a week.

The shelves were overflowing with books with titles and ideas I’d never heard of before. Reading these books changed my life — divine intervention for sure.

I’ve read the New Thought/Law of Attraction books written at the turn of the twentieth century, as well as the books written during my lifetime. I used the techniques from these books to overcome my childhood indoctrination into fear, suspicion, and scarcity (courtesy of my parents) and learned to allow abundance, joy, and faith into my life. This stuff works!

Many of the books were written in the late 1880s, the turn of the century, or the early 1900s. They were lengthy, dense, and dated. All the same, I was fascinated by these ideas, and I kept reading. I went back to the bookstore several times a week, reading books and buying books and learning things I never knew.

I’ve kept these books, and I reread them from time to time. I’ve come to love some of these old books. However, I hesitate to suggest them, knowing their outdated language and backward-looking examples could easily override the message.

Enter Jen Sincero and Badass. I recommend this book with no hesitation.

Why This Book

There are many contemporary books about manifesting the life you want using the law of attraction. I’m not naming them here (because you know them or can look them up or I’ll devote a blog to the entire category at another time). None of the books I’ve read had me identifying with the author’s stories and laughing with recognition until I read Badass. Metaphysical magic and funny! That’s rare.

The book is fast-paced. Jen Sincero puts many of these old, valuable metaphysical ideas into our contemporary vernacular, and makes them accessible, recognizable, and immediately useful. You want to keep reading.

What You’ll Learn

At the end of every chapter, Jen reminds us to love ourselves. In case you’re unclear about what “love yourself” means, she explains that loving yourself is not buying into the belief that you’re not good enough. Instead, what if you were sure of your own lovability? Release your shame, guilt, self-doubt, and self-loathing. Allow yourself “to be, do, and have everything your little heart desired.”

To love yourself, you need to embrace your inner Badass. Jen offers nine suggestions that will help you change your negative self-talk and thoughts:

  1. Appreciate how special you are
  2. Drown yourself in affirmations
  3. Do things you love
  4. Find a replacement (for your negative self-talk)
  5. Ditch the self-deprecating humor
  6. Let the love in
  7. Don’t compare yourself to others
  8. Forgive yourself
  9. Love Yourself

You Are A Badass is about becoming a person who manifests an awesome life. The choice to live that awesome life is in your hands. The book offers plenty of suggestions, some of which you are already practicing and some of which will be new for you. The big ideas and actions have their own chapters. They include the following plus others not listed here:

  • Get clear about your limiting beliefs and change them.
  • Be grateful for everything.
  • Practice forgiveness.
  • Stop procrastinating.
  • Get aware of your excuses.
  • Get out of overwhelm.
  • Make money your friend.
  • Replace fear with faith.

Each chapter lists specific, doable steps you can take today. The steps will help you implement the broader suggestions listed above. You’ll be able to clear out what’s in your way and start living your life from a cleaner, clearer mental space with greater self-awareness and self-love.

On Making Decisions

One of my favorite chapters, The Almighty Decision, addresses one of my biggest obstacles: making decisions quickly. Making a decision when the stakes are high can immobilize me at times. That’s when my negative self-talk is having a holiday in my head. The chapter on decision-making was right on target:

“Deciding is freedom. Indecision is torture.” Indecision keeps you stuck. Successful people “make decisions quickly and change them slowly.”

When other people challenge your dreams and desires, it can be daunting to make a decision and carry it out. In this chapter, she offers up practical ways to get unstuck. Those of us who find decision-making stressful need these practical strategies:

  • Get honest about what you want, believe it’s available to you, and go for it.
  • Practice making decisions quickly on small things: order quickly when you’re at a restaurant and don’t change your mind.
  • Stick to your decision: don’t negotiate with yourself, stop wasting time, just do it.
  • Be tenacious; pick yourself up when you blunder and keep moving.
  • And love yourself.

Whatever is holding you back, you will find ideas and suggestions in this book that will help you to “stop doubting yourself and start living an awesome life.

What’s your experience with the Law of Attraction? What’s a favorite book that has helped you live more fully and abundantly? We’re waiting to hear from you! Share in the Comments section below, or email me directly.

 

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