You Are a Badass®: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life

by Jen Sincero

Most people are living in an illusion based on someone else’s beliefs.

The trick is to have both parts—energy and action—working in unison: unless your energy is lined up properly with that which you desire, really desire, any action you take is going to require way more effort to get you where you want to go, if it gets you there at all.

Holding on to my bad feelings about this is doing nothing but harming me, and everyone else, and preventing me from enjoying my life fully. I am an awesome person. I choose to enjoy my life. I choose to let this go.

You are responsible for what you say and do. You are not responsible for whether or not people freak out about it.

It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not. —André Gide; French author, Nobel Prize winner, fearless self-explorer

MAKE A VISION BOARD

Forgiveness means giving up all hope for a better past. —Lily Tomlin; actress, writer, comedienne, absurdist

Lugging around guilt, shame, resentment and self-loathing is the Big Snooze running the show, pitching a fit, demanding to be right and to be seen.

Holding on to resentment is like taking poison and waiting for your enemies to die.

Do not fall prey to the false belief that by forgiving someone you’re letting them off the hook. Because when you forgive someone you let yourself off the hook. Forgiving isn’t about being nice to them, it’s about being nice to yourself.

Start paying attention: What are your favorite, self-sabotaging stories? What do you hear yourself think and say over and over again that has become who you are (or rather who you think you are)? Bust yourself in your own tired old broken records right now so you can set about rewriting your stories and create the kind of life you love.

Keep envisioning (or writing down) what it looks and feels like to have the real, adult you replace your old childhood story. Feel it. Get excited by it. Then make the decision that you’re ready to change and take positive action in the direction you want to go.

If you’re serious about changing your life, you’ll find a way. If you’re not, you’ll find an excuse.

We tiptoe through life hoping to safely make it to death. —Unknown