You are a Badass teaches you to let go of your limiting beliefs so you can create the life of your dreams. This book takes mindset principles that other self-development books teach, and presents them in an entertaining and easily-digestible way that others don't. Jen Sincero writes like she's your best friend hitting you with some tough love. This book is to-the-point and fast-moving. It has short chapters that are divided into sections, making this the perfect book to pick up and read a couple pages of here and there (though I didn't want to put this down).
Who should read this?:
I'll always be honest with you. Jen Sincero's tone isn't for everyone. She's direct, a bit aggressive, and quirky. You'll get a feel for it in the quotes below. If you're put off by this, or if you're easily offended, you might want to skip this book. I personally loved the language she uses - it's entertaining and engaging.
I'd especially recommend this book to anyone who's new to self-development. It gets you thinking about how your mindset has been holding you back, and inspires you to make a plan to create your best life.
If you're already well-read in the genre, you won't find original information in You are a Badass, but if her tone is up your alley, you'd probably enjoy this book as a fun boost of motivation.
Criticism:
I wanted to be fair and include a couple negatives, though I highly recommend You are a Badass to anyone who's interested. I think this book should have talked more about the effort required for a person to build their dream life. At times it was a bit woo-woo for my preference. Jen makes a couple overgeneralizations that I didn't 100% agree with. There are some run-on sentences. These things didn't bother me. This book can definitely help you develop the mindset needed to change your life, regardless.
Quotes from You are a Badass:
1. "Figure it out. Don't just hand your life over to your circumstances like a little wuss. You can take your life wherever you want it to go, so grab it by its nether regions and make doing the things you love a priority."
2. "You're going to have to let go of old, limiting beliefs and cling to your decision to create the life you desire like your life depends on it.
Because guess what? Your life does depend on it."
3. "So often, we pretend we've made a decision, when what we've really done is signed up to try until it gets too uncomfortable."
4. "This is about getting mighty clear about what makes you happy and what makes you feel the most alive, and then creating it instead of pretending you can't have it. Or that you don't deserve it. Or that you're a greedy egomaniacal fathead for wanting more than you already have. Or listening to what Dad and Aunt Mary think you should be doing."
5. "When you up-level your idea of what's possible, and decide to really go for it, you open yourself up to the means to accomplish it as well."
6. "If you want to live a life you've never lived, you have to do things you've never done."
7. "Because so often when we say we're unqualified for something, what we're really saying is that we're too scared to try it, not that we can't do it."
8. "But what if you had the audacity to leave your excuses and your shame about wanting to be huge and fabulous behind and really went for it full-on anyway? What if you decided to do the most outrageous, most exciting thing you ever dared fantasize about, regardless of what anyone, including your terrified self, thought?
THAT would be living."
9. "No matter how intimidating your next great leap forward seems at the moment, it will be a pipsqueak when you look back on it someday. So why wait? Why not look at it through pipsqueak colored glasses right now? Envision your challenges from the future, look back on them from a place of victory, and they will lose much of their power to paralyze."
10. "You have to change your thinking first, and then the evidence appears. Our big mistake is that we do it the other way around."
