You are a Badass (25 page)
7. GET YOUR BODY IN ON IT
Your mind will follow where your body leads. If you’re in a bad mood and remember to stand up nice and tall and straight, your mood will automatically lift. And when you’re in shape and have tons of energy, you feel like you can take over the world. If you’re serious about getting your act together, stop being a lazy cow. Get the blood flowing, eat food that excites you
and
nourishes you, get your breathing deeper. Use your mind, body, and soul together to make this thing happen for yourself.
ADVANCED BODY OPTION: Okay, so this is totally weird and won’t go over well, but I’m going to give it to you anyway because it works. If you want to really get yourself rock solid and determined and pumped up, pound your chest and punch your fists in the air while you repeat your affirmations at the same time. Yell things like, “I am powerful, I am confident, The Universe has my back, and I am going to kick ass!” Or whatever your deal is in the affirmations department. Get your body engaged and anchor in the words physically and your affirmations will have far greater power. The mind and the body are way more powerful together than either one is alone.
8. USE YOUR SECRET WEAPONS
Make a playlist of songs that gets you pumped up, listen to motivational tapes, surround yourself with pictures of people who think you’re awesome, wear clothes that make you feel sexy and smart, dance, scream, pound your chest, go for a run while listening to the theme from
Rocky
—figure out what makes you feel like you could carry a horse over your head and do it as often as possible. You are going for the gold here, you have to stay in The Zone.
9. LOVE YOURSELF
With a kung fu grip.
Nothing is impossible, the word itself says “I’m possible.”
—Audrey Hepburn; actress, icon, fabulist
My grandmother on my mother’s side lived to be one hundred years old. Nana was as WASPy as they make ’em: prissy, reserved, able to avoid confrontation with the skilled precision of an F-16 pilot. For as long as I can remember, she always looked exactly the same. She was eternally adorned in a cardigan, pinned together at the top by an antique broach, her pink lipstick and sparkly brown eyes shining through a face-full of wrinkles that erupted in a series of “oh dears” every time she laughed.
In her long lifetime, Nana witnessed the birthing of such pivotal
human achievements as the phone, the car, the TV, human flight, the computer, the internet and rock and roll.
The two things that blew her mind the most, however, were putting a man on the moon and the soda dispensers at McDonalds. She’d stand there watching, gripped by disbelief, as an employee placed a cup, small, medium or large, beneath a spout, pushed a button and walked away, leaving the machine to fill it up the perfect, proper amount. “How does it know where to stop?” Nana would shake her head, mortified, “How does it
know
?!”
After we figured out how to clone a sheep, she pretty much threw in the towel on ever questioning anything again.
One day my family took her out for lunch to a restaurant on the top floor of some giant hotel. When we got into the elevator, someone accidentally pushed the button for the floor we were already on the moment the doors closed, making them open right back up again. Thinking we’d just gone up forty-five-flights in a split second, we watched my sweet little grandmother exit the elevator, nervously patting her hair as she wandered down the hallway muttering to herself, “Why not?”
I want to sign off here by encouraging you to pursue your dreams with the same belief that anything is possible as a little old lady in knee-high stockings and sensible heels who was born in 1903 and lived through the most technologically flabbergasting century to date.
Whatever you desire to do with your precious life—write jokes or rock out or start a business or learn to speak Greek or quit your job or raise a bunch of kids or fall in love or lose your flab or open orphanages around the world or direct movies or save dolphins or make millions or live in a canyon in a loincloth—believe that it’s possible. And that it’s available to you. And that you deserve to be/do/have it.
Why not?
Give yourself the permission and the means (yes, this includes the money), to be who you are REGARDLESS OF WHAT ANYBODY ELSE THINKS OR BELIEVES IS POSSIBLE. Do not deny yourself the life you want to live because you’re worried you’re not good enough or that you’ll be judged or that it’s too risky, because who does that benefit? No one, that’s who. When you live your life doing the things that turn you on, that you’re good at, that bring you joy, that make you shove stuff in people’s faces and scream, “check this out!!!” you walk around so lit up that you shoot sunbeams out of yer eyeballs. Which automatically lights up the world around you. Which is precisely why you are here: to shine your big-ass ball of fire onto this world of ours. A world that literally depends upon light to survive.
You are powerful. You are loved. You are surrounded by miracles.
Believe,
really
believe that what you desire is here and available to you. And you can have it all.
Love Yourself
You are a badass.
Below is a list of some of the books I read and teachers I studied with while honing my own badassery. And while these are some of my all-time favorites (that I strongly suggest you check out), my list is constantly growing and evolving, so if you’d like more all-inclusive and up-to-date suggestions, please sign up at
www.JenSincero.com
and I shall keep you abreast.
BOOKS
Ask and It is Given: Learning to Manifest Your Desires
by Esther and Jerry Hicks
This is an excellent starter book. Well-written and not hellishly long, it talks all about the Law of Attraction in depth and how to manifest what you want into your life. The Freak Factor is super high: co-author Esther Hicks was your average housewife until she suddenly started channeling this spirit named Abraham. The book, and all her work, contains the teachings of this dude Abraham, whoever the hell he is/was, but his information is good AND Esther is pretty entertaining in her live recordings, although the book is more straightforward. First half is teachings; second half is to-do’s.
The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom
by Don Miguel Ruiz
Good, short, based on the wisdom passed down from the author’s Toltec ancestors. Basically, it talks about the four things you need to do to live an awesome life: be impeccable with your word, don’t take anything personally, don’t make assumptions, and always do your best. It’s worth a read for sure as it lays out some very simple and profound truths that will absolutely change your life for the better if you live by them. And it looks really good on your coffee table.
The Game of Life and How to Play It
by Florence Scovel Shinn
This book constantly refers to The Bible and Jesus, but it’s easy to love whether or not you’re religious because it’s crammed full of valuable spiritual lessons and lots and lots of old-timey stories. The writing is real pedestrian and very grandmotherly, but I love the simplicity and how well the stories illustrate what she’s talking about. It’s short, to the point, and blunt, much like sitting down with an old lady who wants to give you a talking to about the way things are around here.
The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
by Eckhart Tolle
If you’re new to the whole Ego (or Big Snooze) thing and really want to grasp the transformative nature of being present, this is basically The Bible. It challenges you to see the world in a different way and does a great job of at helping you grasp some pretty deep theories about reality and time and perspective. This is another one where the Freak Factor is very high: Eckhart was suicidal, all ready to do himself in and then woke up one morning all enlightened and transformed and was in such a state of bliss that he spent the next two years sitting on a park bench, playing with his lip (I’m not kidding). Then he channeled this book.
As a Man Thinketh
by James Allen
This is, shockingly all about the mighty mind and how to use it to master your world. Considering the fact that if you can really truly get that skill down, you can create the most awesome life ever, reading this book, over and over and over until it becomes second nature is time well spent. It’s another old-timey one written back in ye olde day, but it’s still extremely quotable and relevant today.
The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It For Life
by Twyla Tharp
Written by no-nonsense, world-renowned dance choreographer Twyla Tharp, this is one of the best spankings I ever got in the old get-your-act-together department. As the title suggests, it’s all about creating good habits, which, if you do nothing else, will completely change your life for the better. Full of stories and tips and whip cracking, this is one of my favorites. ‘Cuz she kind of scares me.
Losing My Virginity: How I’ve Survived, Had Fun and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way
by Richard Branson
This is an awesome read—I devoured the whole thing in one sitting. Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Records and Virgin Airlines, is a maniac and one of the most inspiring people on two legs as far as I’m concerned. The book details his life from when he started his little record shop to becoming one of the most famous and radical entrepreneurs who went on to buy his own island and fly hot air balloons over the ocean in the jet stream. I would like very much to party with this guy.
IMPORTANT BIOGRAPHY NOTE: I’ve listed Richard Branson’s biography because it’s one of my favorites, but pretty much any biography/autobiography about the people you personally find inspiring is
totally worth reading. I could list about seventy more here, but you may not find the life and accomplishments of, say, Dolly Parton or Eleanor Roosevelt, as riveting and inspiring as I do. I strongly suggest you actually take the time to read books about the people who light you up, because it’s one of the best ways to get inspired to change your life.
Practical Intuition
by Laura Day
Long hailed as a leading master of intuition, Laura Day has worked with everyone from high-powered business people to hippies to celebrities to financial analysts to housewives. She is the queen of showing people how to access their intuition so they can make more informed decisions and design more authentic lives. This book gives all her secrets and tried and true tips on connecting with your inner GPS via exercises and case studies.
The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success: A Practical Guide to the Fulfillment of Your Dreams
by Deepak Chopra
I’m a huge fan of not having to read too much to get the information I want, and of knowing how much I’m gonna have to do ahead of time to get where I want to go. Good old Deepak breaks achieving success down into seven, easy-to-follow steps based on spiritual principles. This is one of my all-time favorites for its small size and profoundly potent advice. It delivers deeply spiritual and powerful information in bite-sized chunks and gives clear exercises on using it in your everyday life to achieve what you want.
You Can Heal Your Life
by Louise Hay
Louise Hay is a modern day self-help pioneer who cured herself of cancer using her highly-lauded principles of self-love and who now has her own empire with a publishing company and everything. This book is one of my faves, even though it’s SUPER woo-woo, full of
affirmations and general gooeyness, but in the ever-critical self-love department, it doesn’t get any better than this. The back of the book is all about the body and how all our injuries and dis-eases can be traced back to negative thought patterns. So if you break your leg, you can look it up and see that it’s because you’re scared of moving forward (or something, don’t quote me on that) and get an affirmation from Louise on how to heal yourself. I have a friend who completely cured himself of something the doctors were baffled by through reading this book and doing what it says.
Creating Money: Keys To Abundance
by Sanaya Roman and Duane Packer
The title of this book is a tad misleading because it’s about so much more than money, yet since most people want to make more money, the good news is they’ll pick it up and get way more than they bargained for by reading it and doing what it says. While it does indeed teach you how to create money, it also gives clear instruction on meditation, clearing blocks, manifesting, working with energy, gaining clarity, etc. All of which contribute to manifesting money, as well as pretty much everything else, into your life. Easy to read and follow with simple exercises and deceptively deep concepts broken down, this is an awesome starter book as well as one to always have around to provide important reminders and re-alignment.
The Science Of Getting Rich
by Wallace D. Wattles
The very first sentence of this book made me slam it shut and leave it untouched for years. It reads: “Whatever may be said in praise of poverty, the fact remains that it is not possible to live a really complete or successful life unless one is rich.” Hello? How gross is that?! It offended me to my hippie core, until I understood what it was really saying and that, erm, you kind of can’t —not if you want to fully
express yourself, anyway. “Rich” simply means that you have everything you need to share your gifts fully with the world and stay at the highest vibration while you do it, whatever that looks like for you. This is now easily the book I recommend to people the most, and the one I read over and over. But you have to let a lot go because it will absolutely go up your nose if you’re still working on your issues around it being okay to make money.
