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You Are a Badass Review: Back-of-Book Description
My Thoughts
I don’t even know how this book ended up on my shelf. I honestly think my boyfriend might have bought it? In any case – I liked the title and I thought it would be good to start the new year with some motivation.
You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life is a pretty short and fairly quick read. It’s broken up into manageable, easy-to-read chunks. Five parts, with several chapters and sub-sections within each of those chapters. So it’s great for starting and stopping as needed, as well as referring back to later on. This is great for a really good self-help book – you should want to revisit parts of it!
The writing was pretty good for the most part. I chose to read a physical copy of the book and I gotta say, I think listening to the audio might be the better choice with this one. You can tell the author is trying to make jokes and be funny, and sometimes reading the words falls a little flat. However, if you listen, it probably brings a whole lot of life to it.
The anecdotal stories are good, most of them are relatable, some are very aspirational (like traveling the world with a steady 8 to 5), but I think that’s the whole foundation – what seems aspirational and out there could really be yours if you commit.
The author talks a lot about your inner. self-talk. I don’t think she actually uses the words affirmation or mantra, but those are basically what she suggests – telling yourself that you can do x or y, rather than telling yourself you can’t. I have never been big on affirmations, but I do think there’s something to the idea of repeating positive phrases to yourself in order to change your way of thinking. So I might give it a try.
Without giving too much away here, I can only add that the author really stresses the fact that you have to make hard decisions and then stick with them. Only in your commitment and relentless drive will you achieve what you’re looking for. I’m leaving a lot out, actually. But this and the below quotes should be enough to tell you whether you want to give it a shot!
Buy It Now!
Favorite Quotes from You Are a Badass
“You’re going to have to get rid 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.”
“…it’s not your fault that you’re fucked up. It’s your fault if you stay fucked up.”
“Try seeing yourself through the eyes of someone who admires you. They get it. They believe in you leaps and bounds. They aren’t connected to your insecurities and negative beliefs about yourself. All they see is your true glory and potential.”
“What you focus on, you create more of, and if you keep expecting people to annoy you they will not let you down.”
“…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.”
“One of the best things you can do to improve the world is to improve yourself.”
“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.”
“It’s the willingness to keep pushing through new challenges, not shrink from them back into your comfort zone, that separates the successful from the unsuccessful.”
You Are a Badass Review: In Conclusion
I kind of think You Are a Badass is better suited to people who are new to the self-help genre, so I don’t think I’m the target audience. That being said, I did enjoy the morale and motivation boost I got from reading it. So 4 stars for this one.
It was a great way to start the year, and remind myself of my goals. I would recommend this book to other people who need that boost, or if you’re looking to dip your toe in the self-help sand – this is a good one to try for that. Would probably make a great gift, too!
The author has since written other versions of this book about money and habits and other things. Might be worth checking out the whole four-book series?
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