You are a Badass

I read You Are A Badass because I’m going through a big self help phase right now. What’s not to like? Personal growth and self development are at the tippy top of my love list.I was perusing the local bookstore when the bright yellow cover caught my eye in the bestsellers section. “You Are A Badass” It said.“Damn straight” I thought.The subtitle read “how to stop doubting your greatness and start living an awesome life”It occurred to me that I do doubt my greatness an awful lot. The story I tell myself is that I’m “good enough” at things. I’m a good enough housekeeper. Good enough cook. Good enough writer. Good enough at being a red hot lovah and so on. What if I was great instead of good enough? What if I already was great and just didn’t believe it? I felt the nudge. I bought the book.Jen Sincero has a delightful writing voice. This is an easy quick read. I could have devoured the whole book in two days if I didn’t get interrupted every 20 minutes needing to change a diaper or cook dinner or anything like that.Jen is a self proclaimed self help freak. She has read allllll the books, knows all the information, and then spit all her knowledge back out onto the pages of this book in an easy to digest manner. She knows self help can get “woo-woo” and tells it like it is. She’ll tell you some of it is weird-no doubt-but if thats what it takes to be a badass then you should probably know that.I underlined a good portion of this book. There were good reminders such as“Because so often when we say we are unqualified for something, what were really saying is that we’re too scared to try it, not that we can’t do it”And“We are drawn to things we’re naturally good at (which counts more than having a graduate degree in the subject, BTW)”This last thought made me think of something Elizabeth Gilbert said which was “what you are chasing is actually chasing you”  which make me thankful there are such mysteries as gut senses and intuition and that trusting them is as important as trusting logic.Some of her wisdom comes in the form of straight forward, you’ve heard it before, no non-sense advice. She writes: “Successful people have good habits; unsuccessful people have losers habits. Because our habits are all the things that we do automatically without thinking, they help to define who we are: if you’re in the habit of getting up and working out every morning, you’re in shape; if you’re in the habit of never doing what you say you’re going to do you’re unreliable. Pay attention to the areas of your life that your not so thrilled about, figure out which bad habits helped create them and trade those habits for some good ones. Form the kind of habits that successful people have: good time-management habits, good decision making habits, good thought habits, good heath habits, good relationship habits, good work habits, etc. Think of what behaviors would make the biggest positive changes in your life (maybe even the kinds of changes you can hardly imagine coming true) and set about turning them into habits. How do you form a habit? Decide to. Make it part of your regular, every day activities. Make it an non negotiable as brushing your teeth or getting out of bed. Schedule it in. Work on uncovering your subconscious beliefs and rewriting your stories. And if it’s something you’ve tried and tried to do on your own, get some help. Hire a coach, a mentor, a personal trainer, tell a friend. Whatever you have to do, start developing successful habits if you want to be a successful person."Most of her writing though works its magic in the form of inspiration. She tells stories, illustrates points with crystal clarity, is engaging - and hella funny throughout. She wrote so many things I already knew in a way that finally made it click. I had many "ohhhh, I really GET it now!” moments.This is my go-to book recommendation for all you go-getters and wannabe go-getters in 2017.