You Are a Badass by Jen Sincero
I was really excited for this book. I have the day-by-day calendar and I love it. It's posts are quick and witty and there's a bonus on the back of every day that tells you something interesting, or is a little puzzle, or something to get you thinking. It's great. The book version was...a let down, for a few reasons.
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| (Source: Kelsey Darling) |
How Not To
- So yeah, I get how repetition is good in a self help book, but this was a bit too much. If I never hear any of these phrases again, it'll be too soon: subconscious mind, conscious mind, love yourself, change your thinking, become aware. Almost every chapter contains a list of what you're supposed to do to realize that you are a badass, and every list contains all of those in some form or another. By about chapter 6, I got it.
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- There are a lot of "I" statements, and not the kind that instruct you to change how you structure your thoughts (those are there, too, just not as much). You Are a Badass is an autobiography of Jen Sincero's life.
"I felt like I was going through the motions of my lukewarm life..." (p. 11)
"When I discovered my calling as a coach..." (p. 75)
"When I was a little kid,..." (p. 113)
"Here's what India taught me about taping into the Mother Lode:..." (p. 132)
- I feel like there are multiple instances throughout the book where she insults the reader, and I feel like that is counter-intuitive for a self help book. In the beginning of the book, she says that the reader has picked up the book because areas of the readers life needs improvement, and then she lists multiple reasons why peoples lives need improvement. From there, when she isn't talking about herself, she is talking about people dig their heels in and set their selves up for disaster, and how all of this can be fixed by just loving yourself.
Well you know what? I'm calling BS. In the last year or so, I have figured out a lot of things, but loving myself wasn't one of them. I've loved myself for quite some time now; I made that obvious when I climbed out of my depression. I got my shit together when I was real with myself; when I had a come to Jesus moment with myself and said that I wasn't happy with my body, I wasn't happy with the fact that I had given up on my education, I wasn't happy with my lack of social skills, and I wasn't happy with pretending to be all these things I wasn't in hopes of making everyone else happy. Yes, there is love in those motions, but the big thing was being hard on myself and owning up to all of the ruts I was putting myself in.
And yes, a lot of that required with changing the way I was thinking, but even more, it required me telling people how I felt or why I did what I was doing, because without that, people thought that I was changing myself when really, I was becoming the me that I had hidden away. I always told people that I believed in God, because in America, that's the norm. Finally, I told everyone I was agnostic; I don't know what's out there, but I don't think it's a God that hates someone based off of their sexual preference or if they're pro-life/pro-choice or all of those other things that God is supposed to hate. I live my life based off of how I want to be treated. I'm not going to hate on someone because their lifestyle is different from mine because it doesn't hurt me, just how my beliefs don't hurt you, no matter what you might say.
And yes, I have used many "I" statements in this post, but this is my blog. This book is supposed to help other people. If people want to listen to mistakes someone has made and how it made them into who they are today, they'd talk to a friend. When I'm reading a book that is supposed to better my life, I want to know how to make my life better, not what you did. What worked for you might not work for me, and vice versa.
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I don't know, maybe I'm already a badass and that's why I didn't like it; but I really didn't learn anything new from this book that I haven't read/heard a million times before.
Rating: 1/10
Genres: Self Help, Non-Fiction
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