“You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life” by Jen Sincero

Now I can see why Sincero’s books are bestsellers. She’s so inspiring and motivating that after reading this book I was even more energized to work on attaining my goals.

I wasn’t interested in Sincero’s books at first. I’ve read some self-help books, but they aren’t what I often gravitate to unless the subject is art/creativity. But I needed something to listen to at work while doing dull tasks, so I decided to give You Are a Badass a try since it was available on my library’s Overdrive app.

I was so hooked, I almost completed the book in a day, and as soon as I was done, I went out and bought a physical copy of this book and You Are a Badass at Making Money.

Genre:

Nonfiction – self-help

Series:

N/A

Pubbed:

April 2013

Quick summary:

You Are a Badass is a hilarious self-help book about building faith in what you want to achieve to manifest your goals. Sincero uses her experiences to show us that it’s possible to attain whatever we put our minds to. If there’s something we really want to achieve and wholeheartedly believe we can achieve it and work toward doing so, then we will get it. (Goodreads)

My thoughts:

I listened to the audio book, which is narrated by Sincero. Apart from just wanting something to listen to at work, I also picked up the audio book because I’d listened to a podcast featuring Sincero from the Free Library of Philadelphia in which she discussed her books and answered questions from the audience. I liked what she was saying and wanted to know more. Her message and emphasis on being careful about the language and words we use made me think of another motivating book I read years ago when I was in a low spot and felt like a failure — Fail, Fail Again, Fail Better by Pema Chödrön.

Both authors talk about the power of words as well as our internal conversations, which can either build us up and propel us to keep going or stagnate our progress and prevent us from moving forward. I can attest to the truth of that because when I felt like a failure and kept telling myself that I was one, it felt impossible to progress pass that moment. I had to push myself to see the new possibilities that arose because I failed and stop thinking of myself as a failure but instead as someone who tried one way of attaining a thing and will now try a another. I appreciate both books for presenting such outlooks on progress.

I also liked Sincero’s book because she pushes her readers to take a chance in the direction they want to go. It can be daunting sometimes to actually work at achieving your goals. Working at it means that you can achieve it or not, and both possibilities can seem scary for some people.

Since I listened to the audio book a while ago and didn’t write down my thoughts soon after, some of the tips and tricks Sincero mentioned have faded away from my memory. That’s why I bought the physical copy. I knew this would be a book I’d want to revisit to keep pushing myself toward my goals.

Overall: ★★★★★

I really liked it and was uplifted by it. I also had a great experience in the bookstore when I recommended it to a customer. Turns out that she’d already read it, but we had a great conversation about how much we enjoyed it and benefitted from its message.

Buy | Borrow | Bypass

It’s worth it.

Quotes from the book:

“The more emotion you feel around what you’re saying, the more power it will have to bring about positive change.”

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