9 Ways to Be a Badass and Live Your Best Life

As I started diving into the personal development world, I kept seeing this bright yellow book everywhere I looked. It had quite a memorable title: You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life by Jen Sincero. I’d find it on Instagram, Pinterest, in Target, Barnes and Noble…literally everywhere!

One day I was feeling rather down and defeated about where I was in life. I was still in my full-time corporate job but knew I needed to start moving forward towards something else. Nothing was panning out – none of the jobs in my area sounded right, and the few jobs I did apply for kept falling through. While I was explaining my situation to a friend over dinner, she told me she had just listened to this Badass audiobook and gave me life-changing advice:

“This might sound a bit ‘out there,’ but I highly recommend you start projecting positive thoughts into the universe.”

Huh?

She continued to explain that once she took the advice from Jen Sincero and started thinking positively and telling herself things were going to work out, her life started to change. She received three job offers and opportunities within the week, one of them came from literally out of nowhere.

It convinced me enough to finally purchase You Are a Badass and see what other advice Sincero had to offer.

Thank goodness I did.

This book is life-changing. I highlighted almost every single page. Each chapter contains actionable and powerful advice and steps to take in order to take control of your life and live your dreams. No B.S., just straightforward truth-bombs on every page.

I chose to share nine of my favorite lessons I learned while reading You Are a Badass. Since there are without a doubt more than nine important lessons in this book (like I said, I highlighted nearly every page!), I highly recommend getting your hands on this book. But for now, here are some of my favorite pieces of advice:

(PS: I was not paid or asked to write these opinions from the book’s author or anyone affiliated. I’m sharing these thoughts because I’m extremely passionate about this book and its advice!)

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The Universe is Powerful

This was a new concept for me. While my friend had mentioned the “Universe” in her earlier advice, I wasn’t 100% sure what she meant. I was raised Catholic but through the years kind of lost my faith and strong beliefs in any particular “God”. What I loved about Sincero’s advice and input about faith in general, was that it didn’t really matter what type of “Universe” you believed in. You could be religious, atheist, anything – you can believe what suits you best. I personally practice and use the same terms that she gives in her book, which is as follows:

• The Universe is made up of Source Energy.
• All energy vibrates at a certain frequency.
• Vibration attracts like vibration.

This might seem a bit far-fetched or “woo woo,” but it’s the basis of everything you learn in this book and everything that has truly changed my life.

Everything you are projecting into the Universe has a certain vibration, and the Universe will send you outcomes and essentially a life with equal vibration levels.

If you’re lost, stay with me. I’ll explain a bit more.

Positivity Changes Your Life (No, Really)

I’m unfortunately one of those natural “glass-half-empty” types. It’s much easier for me to think negatively when given the opportunity. I knew this wasn’t serving me, so at the beginning of the year, I decided that my resolution was to develop a more positive mindset. Little did I know that You Are a Badass was going to show me exactly how to do it.

Referring back to the concept of vibrations attracting like vibrations, this applies directly to positivity. If you think positively, positive vibrations and outcomes will eventually come your way. If you are familiar with affirmations, this is very similar (and can actually work hand in hand).

Sincero isn’t implying that you can just sit back, think happy thoughts, and the world will be served to you on a silver platter. Your actions also need to align with your mindset and vice versa.

For me, my mindset hadn’t caught up to my actions towards finding new job opportunities. This was also happening to my best friend, who had been searching for her next career move longer than me. She was venting to me one night about how she had sent out so many resumes, cover letters, and applications, and had nothing coming back in return. I brought up the same concept I had read in You Are a Badass, and exactly what my other friend told me a month ago: She needed to vibrate at a higher level and project positivity into the Universe. She needed to believe that she was going to get a new job and that the right opportunity will arrive when it was supposed to. My friend was already working hard, but she just needed her mindset to match.

The very next day, she landed an interview.

I’m not kidding. This stuff works.

Your Ego Sucks

Sincero defines your ego as, “…the shadow self, or the false self, or the self that’s acting like a weenie.” Your Ego is there to help keep you safe, but its definition of safe includes staying in your comfort zone.

While I was briefly a psychology major when I first started college, the concept of the ego was truly presented to me when I stumbled across Sheryl Paul’s website last year. I was researching the concept of relationship anxiety, and her work has a much different approach than what you usually find online. She mentions that some people that experience relationship anxiety are also struggling with an internal battle with their ego. Your ego wants to protect you from anything that might cause fear, or push you out of your comfort zone. Love is a leap of faith, which is terrifying for the ego. (If you’re interested in learning more about Sheryl’s work, I highly recommend you visit her website Conscious Transitions.)

You Are a Badass re-introduced the ego in a much more direct and no-nonsense way. Sincero refers to the ego as “The Big Snooze.” If you’re not quite sure if your ego is running the show, ask yourself if these points are how you live your life:

• You operate on limiting false beliefs
• You constantly require validation from outside sources
• You’re usually reactive to situations outside of your control

Sound like you? If so, you’re not alone. It’s easier to live in fear. It’s comfortable staying in your own little bubble. What’s terrifying is pushing past these fears and limiting beliefs and living an incredible life, which is exactly what Sincero teaches in this book.

If You Want to Change Your Life, Change Your Mindset

Similar to shifting towards a positive mentality, one of Sincero’s top pieces of advice is to start believing in what you’re working towards. Truly, fully, believe with your entire being, and your future will begin to manifest itself.

Many people believe they need to see evidence before they start to change their mindset, but it’s the exact opposite of what Sincero teaches in You Are a Badass:

“Keep your thoughts directed at your goal, do everything that you DO know how to do to make it happen, decide with an unwavering determination that it will happen, and be on the lookout for the opportunity.”

Manifesting is a brand new concept for me, but after reading this book and putting it into action, I’m beginning to see the magic it creates. When I first jumped into full-time freelancing, I had a mindset and firm belief that I was going to find new clients and make this new life and career success. The key here is I didn’t simply rest on this belief, I was actively looking for opportunities and trusting the Universe that the necessary outcomes would unfold.

During my second month of freelancing, I had three potential clients arrive in my inbox in the same week, as well as an interview opportunity for a part-time job.

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Quit Whining and Start Doing

Seriously, enough waiting around and making excuses – you CAN do what you want NOW.

I used to be notorious for making excuses and putting things off. Granted, I still sometimes do this when it comes to chores, errands, and the like (the laundry can always wait another day, am I right?). When it came to making the leap and jumping into full-time freelancing and away from a steady corporate job, I kept making excuses.

It wasn’t the right time. I didn’t have enough clients. I wasn’t ready.

The stress was starting to affect my health, both mentally and physically. Finally, the personal excuses weren’t working anymore – I needed to make the leap. In fact, it took my dad nearly yelling at me (lovingly) to finally quit for me to wake up and realize I could take the risk and go for it.

Thank goodness I did.

My boss was crazy supportive, and I haven’t regretted it ever since.

Seriously, enough waiting around and making excuses - you CAN do what you want NOW. Click To Tweet

Start letting go of what’s not serving you, and go take those chances and live your best life.

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Become Best Friends with The Unknown

As someone who deals with anxiety, this was a terrifying concept to grasp. Be okay with the unknown? Live with uncertainty? It was nearly impossible.

This all becomes fathomable when you start to have faith in the Universe (or God, Fate, or whatever you prefer). Sincero teaches, “All it takes to turn the fear factor around is learning to be comfortable in, instead of terrified of, the unknown. And this is done through faith.”

Once you decide to throw away fear and take action, the thrill of the risk starts to take over. Ways to become best friends with fear include living in the moment and looking at your fear from a different perspective. If you’re not worrying about the future or viewing your fears from an outsider’s point of view, they won’t seem nearly as bad as you thought.

Prioritize and Stop Stressing

I honestly still need to remember this. One of the best pieces of advice from this book is to stop stressing and worrying while you’re in bed. Your mind has a tendency to race a million miles an hour right before you fall asleep, but how is this serving you? Is there anything you can do at that moment to change your situation? Probably not.

The best way to beat overwhelm is through prioritization. Stop making excuses about there not being enough time in the day, break your day into bite-sized pieces, and stop talking about how busy you are.

You’re not going to get it ALL done right now, so stop worrying about it.

There are always going to be more tasks, projects, or errands to run. Figure out what you need to do now, and what can wait. Try your best, and you’ll be fine.

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Stop Caring About What Other People Think

For some reason, I grew up always caring about others’ opinions. Whether it was because I’m naturally a people-pleaser, or from growing up with community expectations in a very small town, it’s taken time and effort to let go of feeling self-conscious about outside opinions.

When you’re living your life beyond your comfort zone, you might be crossing some boundaries that others might find “strange.” Maybe you were raised with an expectation to become a doctor and have the education to do so. However, you really want to try your luck at being an actor.

If you decided to take this risk and change your course, the average person is going to think you’re insane.

But you know what? Who cares! It’s YOUR life. Most people judge out of their own fear and insecurities. Often times it’s because they don’t have the courage to step outside of their comfort zones, so they resort to judging others on their bold decisions.

Why should you worry about their insecure opinions?

Related: Ready to set aligned goals that feel GOOD, and no longer care about what other people think? Access the Self-Discovery Starter Kit

Create a New Relationship with Money

I’ve always been a rather frugal person, but jumping into freelancing required a new mindset about money.

It’s not that I find money scary or evil, but budgeting is a new skill I’m still developing since income is rather irregular. A recommendation Sincero includes in her book that I absolutely loved was treating money as your new best friend.

Tying in the previous manifesting concepts and mindset changes, these strong personal beliefs also work with your new relationship with wealth. Instead of constantly believing you’re lacking, come from a place of wealth. Write a letter to money and transcribe all of your current limiting falsities and views on paper. Debunk those myths, and manifest wealth in all aspects of your life.

After all, money is an exchange of energy: “In order to create wealth, you must bring yourself into energetic alignment with the money you desire to manifest.”

Where do you want to be with money? Are you in alignment with these desires?

Take some time to explore your current beliefs about wealth and money. You might uncover some false thoughts you didn’t realize existed.

Sincero has a second Badass book: You Are a Badass at Making Money: Master the Mindset of Wealth. It expands on all of the concepts about money and wealth that she mentions in her first book. I haven’t read it just yet, but I’m very excited to get my hands on it soon!

Love Yourself

Sincero’s number one recommendation for changing your life.

“When we’re happy and all in love with ourselves, we can’t be bothered with the bullshit (our own or other people’s).”

Seriously, nothing is more powerful than feeling confident in yourself and loving every part of you. All of the strengths, flaws, and everything else in between.

You are beautiful. You are special. You can conquer the world.

Recite positive affirmations, do things that light you up inside and set your soul on fire. Stop comparing yourself to others, and start making yourself a priority.

Most of all, forgive yourself. You’re a beautiful human and you deserve the world.

This book is powerful, and I highly encourage anyone and everyone to take time in their day and read it. Even if all you read is one chapter a week, if you start educating yourself and taking action, you’ll see your life start to unfold and change in the best way possible.

Have you read You Are a Badass? If so, what piece of advice changed your life?

If you’re ready to achieve your goals and create a badass life that you love on YOUR terms, join the Self-Discovery Society!