You are perfect. To think anything less is as pointless as a river thinking that it’s got too many curves or that it moves too slowly or that its rapids are too rapid. (page 50) —Jen Sincero; the author

1. The Author’s Backstory.

Jen Sincero was born and raised in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She grew up in a Jewish home.

She later attended Colorado College, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English.

In 2000, Jen Sincero moved and took residence in Los Angeles, California, where she worked as a freelance writer, writing marketing materials for the recording industry, magazine articles, and blogs.

In 2008, she received a job working as a facilitator for workshops helping women entrepreneurs launch their own businesses. She later opened her practice as a success coach.

From 2011 to 2013, Jen Sincero traveled the world while running her business remotely. She completed this book at the end of the three years.

During her travels, she kept busy writing, coaching, speaking, and encouraging people to live their best lives.

In 2014, Jen Sincero won the Audie Award for her narration of You Are a Badass.

2. Why did the Author write the Book?

Jen Sincero’s goal in writing this book was to ease those looking to work on themselves into the self-help world, by sharing the basic concepts that have changed her life. (Page 14)

3. What is the Author’s Thesis?

You have great potential for success. You unlock this potential for greatness by believing in yourself and improving daily.

4. What is the Author’s Purpose?

The author’s purpose is to help you understand how special you are and to give you the psychological tools to achieve your greatness.

5. What were two arguments the Author used in defense of his thesis?

ARGUMENT 1

Chapter 26 is probably my favorite chapter. It was entitled Doing VS. Spewing. My favorite lesson out of this chapter was that leaving our comfort zones regularly is a necessary step to accomplishing our goals.

A great quote from the chapter was,

“People who are successful are not only willing to get uncomfortable, but they know they have to make a habit of it if they want to stay successful.” (Page 231)

I have come to understand to a greater extent that the ability to work consistently towards our goal is a muscle.

Pushing ourselves by going outside of our comfort zones is a great way to build this muscle; another great way to work on this muscle is by developing a Keystone habit (A good habit that we do every day that helps us improve in some way, for example, running, reading, daily journaling, etc.)

There were many other great lessons from this chapter like:

1. The importance of overcoming challenges.

2. Learning to surrender to the outcome after doing everything you possibly can.

3. Believe in yourself, and believe in your dreams.

Overall, this chapter, in my opinion, was by far the best and most helpful to me. Thus I know it will be of help to you!

ARGUMENT 2

For this next argument, I would like to share my experience implementing the strategies instead of my key takeaways.

Chapter 10 is entitled Meditation 101.

After I finished reading, curiosity got the best of me, and I decided to put meditation to the test.

In preparation, I turned off my phone and laptop and found my comfortable office chair.

I then grabbed my bedside alarm clock and set it for 10 minutes.

Once everything was set, I sat down, closed my eyes, and started to meditate.

At first, my mind was busy, mostly with thoughts of random videos that I saw recently on social media.

But after a while, my mind started to get quieter, and thoughts of my to-do list started to float in, and just as this started to happen, the alarm went off, and I was pulled out of that mental state. But what an exercise!

Sometimes I get so distracted by Social media, Netflix, my Disneyplus subscription, etc., which then leads to anxiety about all that I have to do.

Don’t get me wrong, those are not bad things, but I think they become bad for us when we allow them to pull us away from activities that will bring us closer to our business, spiritual, physical, mental, and family goals.

So to round off this thought process, the meditation exercise, as short as it was, helped to short circuit the distracted rut that I found myself in and helped me to reset my motivation back to my goals.

Considering the result that I received through Meditation, I believe this chapter will benefit you.

6. What was the Author’s Conclusion?

Chapter 27 was the final chapter; it was entitled Beam Me Up, Scotty.

Her final advice to us can be summed up in the phrase, “Strong beliefs bring miracles.”

The chapter was short, only 3 pages, but I think she drove your point home very well.

The most important lesson I took from this chapter was to live your dream believing that anything is possible, but success will only come to those whose actions are aligned with their beliefs.

7. What is my Conclusion about the Book?

STRENGTHS

As simple as it is, I believe a strength of the book was that she always ended each chapter with the phrase:

Love Yourself.

This phrase would also be followed by a short sentence related to the chapter about loving yourself.

I think it was a strength because it was a constant reminder that self-love was one of the most important things that lead to lasting change.

By actively thinking about self-love, my thought processes became more positive; this gave me the courage to make choices more aligned with my goals.

Another strength of the book was her many short and powerful quotes throughout each chapter.

One of my favorite quotes was:

“Comparison is the fastest way to take all the fun out of life.”(Page 61)

These quotes were related to the readings but were separated from the body of the text.

WEAKNESSES

I believe a weakness was that this book was geared primarily towards adults, as she would occasionally use swear words and adult humor.

This, I believe, is a disservice to children who would otherwise want to read this book.

But overall, I don’t have any other negative comments; the author did a fantastic job writing to her target audience.

INTENDED AUDIENCE

I believe a major theme in this book was—-Overcoming the limiting beliefs we have about ourselves and seeing our greatness. Thus I believe this book was geared more toward adults trying to find their path to success.

That being said, I also believe that the principles in this book would be of benefit to anyone regardless of success level.

OVERALL EFFECTIVENESS

Overall I believe it was very effective because her concepts were straightforward to understand.

In most cases, each argument gave key takeaways in list format at the end of the chapter. This made the content even easier to absorb and understand.

OVERALL READABILITY

I can say that the Readability was excellent; her writing style was very witty and clever. The chapters were primarily based on her life stories and other stories that fit with the discussed argument.

The stories made each chapter entertaining to read, and her arguments flow nicely from chapter to chapter.

The chapters were also concise, being 2 to 10 pages in length. Finishing each chapter quickly kept me engaged.

The Arguments did not build on themselves; thus, a person can start reading from any chapter and not miss a beat.

WHAT SHOULD YOU EXPECT TO GET OUT OF THIS BOOK?

You should expect to receive sage advice, inspiring stories, and lots of self-development exercises.

Expect an entertaining read that will have you looking forward to the next page.

Jen Sincero had many interesting experiences throughout her life, for example, her time spent in the band named Crotch, or her experience on a camping trip, meeting a total stranger who lives in the wilderness.

There was never a shortage of interesting and cool experiences that I found interesting, which she could draw life lessons from. Overall I really enjoyed reading this book.

Her experience as a life coach, working with people from various backgrounds, has given her a depth of wisdom in life transformation strategies. Thus, I believe her advice will be of benefit to you.

I would give this book a rating of 4.6/5.

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