You Are A Badass

You Are A Badass: How To Stop Doubting Your greatness and Start Living An Awesome Life by Jen Sincero  244 pages

This book came highly recommended to me and I wanted to love it and in most all ways I do, if I just hadn't read the foreword by the author.   Jen Sincero is this dynamic motivational speaker and will surely light a fire under any one who reads her works, however, in her foreword she talks about waiting around in her bathrobe for a month ralking ti her dog and fretting over whether any one would buy this book.   Jen, come on, you are supposed to own belief in yourself and be this powerhouse not mopping around in worry thinking what you have to say is unworthy.   It put a damper on my enthusiasm for what she had to say even though what she has to say is awesome, but, I felt like she is not fully committed to believeing what she is telling her readers.  That lessened my experience with her book but even with that I would highly recommend this book, just DON"T READ THE FOREWORD and you will be fine and highly impressed,

 - Shirley J/

YOU ARE A BADASS AT MAKING MONEY

You Are A Badass at Making Money by Jen Sincero   269 pages


https://slpl.bibliocommons.com/item/show/1379216116

Reviewed by Rae C.

This is straight up motivation for pursuing your dream.  It's 269 pages of hilarious, well-written, and concise cheer-leading.

I think women that want to start their own businesses (or write or paint, etc) will love this book, whether they are new to manifestation and prosperity thought, or solidly schooled.  This book is fun to read!  And Sincero has lots of solid advice, outlines, and stories and testimonials from clients.

I enjoyed it so much I am going to read her other two books!

MAKE YOUR BED

Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life... And Maybe The World by Admiral William H. McRaven (U.S. Navy Retired)   130 pages

Reviewed by Rae C.

I never understood the military's obsession with making the bed.  I've asked a number of veterans and enlisted military personnel about this, and I've gotten the same few answers: "Everything is important in the military.  Everything has to be done right." And "it's the first thing you do and you have to do it right."

But McRaven really made it clear: it's the first thing you do in the morning, and if you do it and do it well, it sets a precedent for accomplishing throughout the day.  (And if you have a bad day, you come home to a nicely made bed at least.)

If you want the motivation, just read the speech at the end of the book.  All of the points are covered.  If you are interested in Navy Seal training and anecdotes about McRaven's life, read the book.  It's a fast (under an hour), easy read, and it is motivating, but there's not much meat to it.  It's mostly just "strong survive, life isn't fair, don't give up."  But I did enjoy reading it.

Here is my favorite quote:

"...we both wanted to be SEALs so badly that nothing in the water that night was going to stop us.  If we had to fight off the sharks, then we were both prepared to do so.  Our goal, which we believed to be honorable and noble, gave us courage, and courage is a remarkable quality.  Nothing and nobody can stand in your way.  Without it, others will define your path forward.  Without it, you are at the mercy of life's temptations.  Without courage, men will be ruled by tyrants and despots.  Without courage, no great society can flourish.  Without courage, the bullies of the world rise up. With it, you can accomplish any goal.  With it, you can defy and defeat evil."

DISCIPLINE EQUALS FREEDOM FIELD MANUAL

Discipline Equals Freedom by Jocko Willink   199 pages

https://slpl.bibliocommons.com/item/show/1399204116

reviewed by Rae C.

This is a great book if you have been reading motivation and self help books and you just want to start doing!  A lot of caveats though, for the average reader.

He's kind of crazy and goes off on some tangents- for example, in the middle of his (excellent) arguments for getting into Jiu jitsu, he goes off on a rant about firearms.

He uses a lot of battle and war metaphors, which can be tiresome. He recommends working out even when you have the flu. And I'd need a whole blog to get into my arguments about the so-called "paleo" diet (our early hominid ancestors were not eating bacon and butter, and fruits predate vegetables and are still a staple for peoples living in undeveloped areas).

He also says things like "some scientists say discipline declines with use" (or something like that).  I can find no evidence on line of any scientists saying this, but perhaps it was something along the lines of "once you do something to the point that it becomes a habit, it's not discipline anymore" which I did find online.

The thing I loved about this book was it was just so direct and kind of like having a Navy Seal screaming at you "Just Go After It!" And "How do you get up early? Set your alarm and get up when it goes off!" And "How do you work out everyday?  You just work out everyday!"

Basically, you begin to feel like you should put the book down and do some burpees and go to bed early.  He's right that a lot of people spend too much time planning and not enough time just doing. 

Recommended for anyone in a slump that can handle the white typeface on black pages, and the excessively macho and somewhat disturbing imagery.

Poke the Box

Poke the Box by Seth Godin        Hardback Book: 83pages                       

 I am a fan of Seth Godin’s books.   He speaks to the reader like your best friend who is in your corner and trying to motivate you to be your best.    He says a lot though his books are not that long.   I think he has figured out a person’s attention span and hits hard with juicy bits fast and doesn’t make his books seem overwhelming.   You come away feeling like you have covered a text book in how do things better in better ways, faster.   I really like his style.   In Poke the Box his message all the way through is to stop sitting back and letting fear keep you from doing what you want to do.   He explores how humans are brought up to think they should keep quiet and not make waves in order to get by in life.   However, never speaking up keeps you out of the notice and under the radar of the powers that be.  Kind of herd mentality.   Just sit in your cubicle with your head down working for 8 hours, leave and come back and do it again the next day until you either die of boredom or retire.     He says you have to poke the box.    You have to speak up, get noticed, if you have a good idea – speak up – if it’s not a good idea, so what?    Every brilliant mind has had so many failures and bad ideas along the way – that is what lets you know what doesn’t work which gets you ever closer to what DOES work.    He calls fear the lizard base nature of man that causes us not to believe in our own abilitites and how well we can handle, accomplish and come up with viable new ideas for doing things from work to home to leisure.    We have to fight the tendency we have to not believe in ourselves and work toward realizing the dreams we hold.   We have to stop sitting back and letting others get the praise and glory for ideas we may have had first just were too hesitant to make them come to fruition.   We have to poke the box and if we are in a place that stifles new ideas does not respect people who try to come up with innovation to increase sales, increase market recognition to push ourselves to the forefront so that we can advance if all of these things are not happening where we are then we need to move on once we have made the way.   He doesn’t advocate jumping off the cliff to see if we can fly, he advocates building a bridge to our next horizon then cross that bridge and go where we are appreciated.    Public school and many corporations forbid their students or employees to start, to stand out and perform at top level they can hold us back and hold us down so that we fit into a controlled mold.   Seth Godin promotes poking the box – ask the hard questions of others and yourself.   Don’t accept the status quo set your standards and Go-Go-Go!   Everybody else will see your bravery  so few have the heart to poke the box.     Achieve and be recognized or be mediocre and invisible.   He ends with a quote from Siddhartha Gautama, “ There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth.   Not going all the way, and not starting.”     Realize your truth and poke the box until you make others realize it , too.

The Year of Less

The Year of Less  by Cait Flanders   187 pages

In this nonfiction book, the author found herself stuck in the consumerism cycle: earn more, buy more, want more, and repeat.  She challenged herself to live and document a year of spending less, and consuming less, from decluttering her physical living space through organizing the mess of her life. This book could have been distilled into a fraction of the pages…more appropriate to a blog format, which stands to reason as this project was a blog. Spoiler alter – Flanders dedicates the majority of the book recounting various excesses in her (past life) – alcohol, drugs, food, debt – and throws in memories of failed relationships, career conundrums, and oodles of self-doubt – so that it feels overall like I’ve just been through a year of someone else’s therapy.

Posted By:   Regina C.  

Can a Princess be a Firefighter?

Can a Princess be a Firefighter? By Carole P. Roman with Illustrations by Mateya Arkova    36 pages

In this delightfully illustrated poem, two little girls, sisters I think, ask their Daddy (I think), “Can a princess be a firefighter?” The illustrations convince me that I’m right.

Daddy goes onto tell them that they can be anything they want, whenever they want. But the girls are worried they’d have to give up their fairy wings and if they would have to stop princessing. Daddy’s answer is what every little girl wants—and needs and should---hear.

Very inspirational for girls of all ages.

I give Can a Princess be a Firefighter? 5 out of 5 stars.