You Are a Badass: Book Thoughts, Book 3

Sincero, Jen. You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life. Philadelphia: Running Press, 2013. Print.

I picked up Jen Sincero’s You Are a Badass because I desperately WANT to believe that I am a badass. I think a little more playful, genuine self-love and respect would make my life a lot less painful and even more amazing than it already is.  I just have trouble grasping the concept on my own.

 All my friends and family are awe inspiring. I love nature, words, the universe, and being alive.  I totally adore other people and their talent, but MYSELF? Not as much. Sure I have a great time hanging out with myself now, but I am also my biggest problem. I am the person I get most angry at, the only person I can never really forgive, the person in whom I have the least faith. I thought this book might help me with changing that.

Guess what?  It already has. Just reading the title and first fifty pages helped me determine that I had to finish this blog. I had to do the thing and have fun with it even if no one read it. I had to do it even if the worst possible result occurred: everyone read it and was disappointed.

I saw the book and thought, “If I read one self-help book in my entire life, it should be the one called You Are a Badass. In general Ms. Sincero’s opus did not disappoint me. She uses a playful, sarcastic, incredulous, superhero-friendly tone throughout the book. Sincero pretty much writes the way I think sometimes, so her book brought me plenty of chuckles and grins. It also brought me a few eye rolls.

The philosophy of the book comes partly from the law of attraction, which sounds a little crazy to me when it gets into vibrations and frequencies and energy. Yet, the basic idea is not that far fetched. It just means that thoughts matter. Thoughts can influence actions, actions can influence realities, and therefore we can start changing our lives by changing what we think. That’s not so crazy, is it? It is really hard, often unlikely, but not completely crazy.  Amazing people throughout history have made it happen.

One of my favorite sentences from this book is one I’m sure I’ve heard, read, even said before: “Time spent enjoying yourself is never wasted” (132). What made me almost believe it this time is the way the author learned it. She learned it from a bunch of Indian people who kept getting of the bus to go join wedding parties or do some extremely festive praying.

 I thought, “What if I stop secretly, subconsciously believing I wasted all this time not getting a PH.D. or winning the Nobel Peace Prize or something. What if I just got off the bus to attend the School of Joss Whedon and Friends, become a contributing editor, and meet my ‘French sister’ Skype pal?”

I’ve basically had a five year sleepover with my childhood best friend. In these five, going on six years, my relationships have generally been less stressful because I’ve had less stress in my life. I went on a cruise with my family, thus fulfilling my lifelong dream of seeing Caribbean “blue water!”

 I could list all the ways enjoying yourself might be a waste of time, and I have certainly participated in some of them. For now let’s just say the book encouraged me to see that I’ve wasted…a lot less time than I secretly thought.   

What if I can now get on whatever metaphorical bus I want, starting with this one, this silly, almost flop-wreck of a blog bus, work hard, and just “see what I can get away with?”(106)

You Are a Badass is full of fun advice, stories and exercises that I can use, but another reader could easily think it’s just vulgar nonsense and close it after the first few pages. My brother, for example, picked it up on his own. I think he’s a badass, but he hasn't gotten past the first mention of frequencies yet.  I don’t mind.

PS. If I had one short quote to share with everybody, it would be: “LOVE YOURSELF

 And the bluebirds of happiness will be your permanent backup singers” (108).