Book review: You are a badass

Book review of You are a Badass

You’re a badass by Jen Sincero is a personal development book. With her own experiences as the base, Sincero lays out different tactics for leaning into your own badass personality. The longer title is You are a badass – How to stop doubting your greatness and start living an awesome life.

I picked it up after having seen many other book-bloggers and a few youtubers had read and loved it.

You are a badass

“You are a badass is the self-help book for people who desperately want to improve their lives but don’t want to get busted doing it.

In this refreshingly entertaining how-to-guide, bestselling author and world-travelling success coach, Jen Sincero, serves up 27 bitesized chapters full of hilariously inspiring stories, sage advice and easy exercises, helping you to:

• Identify and change the self-sabotaging beliefs and behaviours that stop you from getting what you want.
• Create a life you totally love. And create it NOW.
• Make some damn money already. The kind you’ve never made before.

By the end of You are a Badass, you’ll understand why you are how you are, how to love what you can’t change, how to change what you don’t love and how to use ‘The Force’ to kick some serious ass.”

The above text is kindly borrowed from the back of the book.

Stop doubting your greatness

First of all, this book is obviously not a one-size-fits-all as these books rarely are. But it actually started off nicely for me, with a focus on the things you would want to get rid of, before becoming your most awesome self. Because it resonates with me, that we have to identify those negative beliefs about ourselves and our circumstances, before we can work on changing it. That is true for most things. I could use some more tangible advice though. On how to find these negative beliefs, as they are often hiding from our conscious selves.

But the core message I got from it, was to be compassionate with myself, when uncovering myself. In all areas of my life, as well as identifying privileges and external circumstances holding me back from things I do want. Identifying these things is always step number one.

So what do you want, and what don’t you want? If you start believing that you are worth it, Sincero argues that you will be more likely to actually go and get it. Why shouldn’t you be worth it!

Start living an awesome life

As the book moves forward, it is clear that one of the central themes in You are a badass is that you should try to love yourself. Sincero is also clearly religious, even though it’s not a central element in the book. It just is a bit too spiritual for me, with all the talk about the forces of the universe. Even though I am a believer in that what you think and speak to yourself eventually becomes the truth in some form or other. But I don’t believe in higher powers, as much as I believe in our capacities as individuals with subconscious and conscious potential. We always create ourselves, and it’s about not forgetting that.

You are a badass hightlights this thought, that we constantly are creating ourselves. It’s not all going to happen overnight, but you have the power of just doing something else, if you don’t like where you are. Your choices might be more or less limited, but you almost always have choices.

So, are you going to live the awesome version of your life?

You might not need to read You are a Badass to get there. Especially if you have read other personal development books. Many of the core themes and advice are similar to what I have read in Ikigai and The Life-changing magic of not giving a Fuck, both of which I enjoyed more. Also, Sinceros language is a bit too funny for me. Not in an amusing way, but more like I don’t know all the every-day-terms used and can’t see what is her own made-up words from more well-known terms. Some of it just seems silly.

You are a Badass is perhaps a better fit if you need a quicker little peptalk and a reminder, that you do in fact have it in you, to be badass. It’s a decent book, but not so unique for me.

Do you occassionally read personal development books? I enjoy them from time to time and have also started a “MuchelleB reading list”. She is a youtuber who focuses on intentional living and productivity.

If you’re curious and want to browse through other book reviews on this page, feel free to have a look at my collection of book reviews right here>>