Jen Sincero is taking part in a workshop with Changing Hands Bookstore
5 min read
Jen Sincero, author of a series of books all of which have badass in the title, is not your average self-help author.
Her readers like that she thinks outside of the box of typical self-help book writers who flood their work with facts and studies instead of getting straight to the point. Her advice leaves little room for confusion, giving readers concise steps on how to be their best selves.
Sincero is the author of the bestselling book, “You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life” and recently released the fourth installment of the ‘Badass’ book series titled, “Badass Habits: Cultivate the Awareness, Boundaries, and Daily Upgrades You Need to Make Them Stick.”
Local fans of her work will have a chance to hear from her directly this week. Changing Hands Bookstore will be hosting a virtual workshop with Sincero, at 6:30 p.m., Friday, Jan. 29.
During the event, two participants will receive a live coaching session with Sincero who will also take questions from the audience.
The workshop is part of Changing Hands’ “New Year, YOU Year” series of workshops.
Sincero spoke candidly, as she always does, with The Republic about how she got her start and what exactly sets her books apart from the others.
How Sincero’s ‘Badass’ book series got started
Q: What set you on the journey of writing your ‘Badass’ books?
A: When I was in the process of getting my act together, I read a zillion self-help books, many of which just completely changed my life. But none of which were funny, or crass, or just more like short and to the point, the kind of books I wanted to read. I was like, ‘damn if I’m a writer, I need to go out and write one myself.’ It was seeing what was out there and wanting to write my own version of it.
Q: How did you learn to give the advice in your books?
A: In the beginning, it was through reading other books. I went to a million seminars and was always working with coaches. I was really interested in it. I felt personally like I was getting in on a magic trick. I never heard the idea that your thoughts create your reality and I was really fascinated by the concepts. Once I started implementing them in my own life, and in the lives of my clients, just seeing the profound transformations that we were having, I was like, ‘Oh, my God, this (expletive) works,’ I want to tell everybody.
Q: What do you want readers to take away from ‘Badass Habits’?
A: When we think of habits we often think of the actions we take like flossing our teeth, or working out, or eating healthy food. All the actions matter but thoughts, beliefs and words are also habits and they are habits that dictate the actions we take. I think it’s so important to be aware of that and to start there.
The big question with habits is, ‘I’m all great out of the gate, but how do I keep going? How do I keep my new year’s resolution?’ And I think it’s these sneaky little parts around identity and belief and thoughts and words that are the key because we take action and we hope it’s going to stick but you’ve got to have the thought part and the emotional part in place if you really want them to become part of who you are.
Sincero talks about writing during the pandemic
Q: Did you write ‘Badass Habits’ during the pandemic or were you working on it before?
A: Oh, my God, yes, I wrote it all during the pandemic and believe me, I kicked and screamed. It’s affected everything we do in the middle of this alternate universe. But the beautiful thing was it made the book a lot more interesting and a lot better because I was in such a different space.
Q: Was it hard to focus during these difficult times? I can’t imagine writing a whole book.
A: I have never pitched such a temper tantrum. It’s hard to even focus on taking out the trash, it’s real. And believe me, ever since then, I’ve been doing nothing but puzzles, taking walks, staring at the wall playing with my lip.
Q: How long does it take you to write these books?
A: I am not one of those writers that writes every day by any means. I’m a reluctant writer. This is now my sixth book and I’ve written all of them under extreme self-created duress. I have tried to change my evil ways but I really flourish under panic and deadline and hysteria.
I find that incredible pressure makes my focus razor sharp and I’ve just done them all in a month. I talk about this a lot when people are asking me about procrastination. We can call it procrastination but I also really thrive that way so I don’t consider it procrastination, I consider it part of my process.
Q: You’re so self-aware. This way of working works for me, so why try to change it?
A: It’s so important for everybody to get out of this belief system that you have to do things a certain way. You figure out what works best for you, as long as you get the work done, who gives a crap?
I get my work done, I just do it in this sort of extreme way, and I think a lot of people might see it that way. I certainly know people who love to have to write every day or else they go nuts. That’s great for them, it is not me.
Elizabeth Montgomery is Arts and Culture Reporter for The Arizona Republic, azcentral.com. Reach her at [email protected] or 602-444-8764. Follow her on Twitter @emontnews.
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