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

by Jen Sincero

WRITE YOUR THANK-YOU NOTES

Forgiveness is all about taking care of you, not the person you need to forgive. It’s about putting your desire to feel good before your desire to be right. It’s about taking responsibility for your own happiness instead of pretending it’s in somebody else’s hands. It’s about owning your power by giving all your anger, resentment, and hurt the heave-ho.

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

One of the best tricks for doing this is to imagine the person you’re resentful of as a little kid. Think of this little person acting out of fear, doing the best they can to protect themselves and attempting to deal with their own suffering in the only way they know how. People act poorly because they are in pain or confused or both.

When someone does something awful to you, take that person out of the equation so you can open yourself up to have a more pleasant, and productive, reaction (and life).

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.

What you choose to focus on becomes your reality.

“If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.”

BECOME AWARE OF WHAT YOU’RE GAINING FROM YOUR STORIES

Once you identify the false benefits you’re reaping from holding onto your stories, you can start the process of letting them go and replace them with new empowered ones that serve the adult you.

Take your list of “can’ts” and “shoulds” and “I nevers,” etc., and write stream of consciousness in a journal (see example below), and really feel in your body what you’re getting from these old limiting beliefs such as: “I feel special, I feel safe, I get to live with my parents and never get a job,” etc. Make a list of these false rewards.

I am powerful and in control of my life. I choose to love and be loved.

Let’s review, shall we? 1. List off your old stories that you’ve gotten into the habit of thinking and saying. 2. Journal about the false rewards you get from them. 3. Feel into these false rewards, thank them for their help, and decide to let them go. 4. Take each false reward and write a new, powerful story to replace it with. 5. Repeat this new story, or affirmation, over and over and over until it becomes your truth.

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.

Procrastination is one of the most popular forms of self-sabotage because it’s really easy.

REMEMBER THAT DONE IS BETTER THAN PERFECT

NOTICE WHERE YOU STOP

I have lived a long life and had many troubles, most of which never happened. —Mark Twain; American author, humorist

Ever notice how if you’ve got six months to do something, it’ll take you six months to do it, but if you have a week, it’ll take you a week?

If you want more time in your life, show time some respect.

Just like chunking down your time, chunking down your tasks takes you out of freak-out and puts things into manageable, bite-sized pieces.