One of the books I read in January (book club post here) was You Are a Badass by Jen Sencaro. I greatly enjoyed the book, and wanted to give some thoughts about why you are a badass.
Watching someone else totally go for it can be incredibly upsetting to the person who’s spent a lifetime building a solid case for why they themselves can’t.
I felt this as a personal attack. All of my friends are incredible at what they have set for themselves. And then there’s me. I am incredibly upset (at myself) when others go for it, only because I convince myself I can’t.
It’s just as easy to believe we’re awesome as it is to believe we’re giant sucking things.
It takes the same amount of brain power. So utilize it for something fulfilling.
We are all perfect in our own magnificent, fucked-up ways.
One of my favorite quotes in the whole book. We are magnificent, we are fucked up, we are us.
Do not waste your precious time giving one single crap about what anybody else thinks of you.
This was in all caps, so it must be important. I think too much about what others think of me. It’s what I set for myself after traumatic bullying. But so much of my own limited time was spent worrying about someone else when I should have been worrying about me.
THE FOLLOWING IS HUGELY IMPORTANT SO PLEASE PAY VERY CLOSE ATTENTION: You have to change your thinking first, and then the evidence appears. Our big mistake is that we do it the other way around. We demand to see the evidence before we believe it to be true.
I love the way she wrote important messages. I do make the mistake of acting on evidence before faith when it comes to my self worth. Time to change.
Forgiveness is all about taking care of you, not the person you need to forgive.
Forgive. Let yourself heal; who cares what happens to them afterward. It’s hard, impossible some may say. I’m well aware. But it lets me take care of myself, not letting the other off the hook or giving them my happiness.
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.
Another personal attack. Although, I have been getting a lot better at changing this, and I wanted you guys to be aware of what you may be too afraid to do too.
Do what you can in joy, instead of trying to do it all in misery.
Working in joy helps better your overall attitude and helps it go by easier. I’ve had jobs I loathed, and I’ve spread that complaining to my family and friends. It’s not good for anyone, especially me. A better job and a better confidence comes when you find even the smallest joy and focus on it, rather than letting the overall misery be its defining factor.
Never apologize for who you are. It lets the whole world down.
Boom. No more needs to be said.
The only failure is quitting. Everything else is just gathering information.
Another favorite quote. Everything is learning. You are doing better than before; the only way you don’t is when you quit.
New level, new devil.
Life.
Alexandra TG 