Unfu*k Yourself: Get Out of Your Head and Into Your Life by Gary John Bishop.
Unconventional Empowerment
Throughout the book, Gary John Bishop provides unconventional empowerment for personal development. All of us have a self-defeating monologue that plays within our head, along with inner voices of self doubt. There is a constant internal chatter of negative messages. However, there are also internal voices of positive, nurturing messages within us. We have a choice of what internal voices to pay attention. We are perpetually challenged to make a deliberate choice to listen to the internal voices that nurture us instead of harming us. Bishop claims that the kind of talk you engage in has a profound impact in the quality of your life. The goal is to foster conscious, decisive self-talk that is helpful, constructive, and positive. (p. 17)
So how do you change the internal messages in your head? How do you pay attention to the inner voices that help you? What does that look like in your life?
Positive Self-Talk
The author provides a roadmap of positive self-statements to help you move toward change and growth. The positive thinking in these statements is meant to motivate you to take action. Below is the full list of personal assertions to propel you to a different life.
- Willing – “I am willing.”
- Wired – “I am wired to win.”
- Own – “I got this.”
- Embrace – “I embrace the uncertainty.”
- Do – “I am not my thoughts; I am what I do.”
- Be – “I am relentless.”
- Expect – “I expect nothing and accept everything.”
Here are some of the statements that stay with me:
Willingness – “I am willing.”
- Means the quality or state of being prepared, a state of readiness (p. 31)
- Are you willing to engage in life with a new perspective?
- Will you be about change?
- Are you willing to own your choices?
Being Relentless – “I am relentless.”
- Relentlessness is the fuel that drives you to follow through to the end – to accomplishment, to success, to wisdom, to further insight and growth (p. 147)
- Relentlessness is the momentum to keep going, to keep moving in one direction – forward, no matter what is happening
- Giving up is not an option
- Take one step at a time with focused determination and full attention from moment to moment
“…our biggest successes are born out of discomfort, uncertainty, and risk.” Gary John Bishop
Expectation and Acceptance – “I expect nothing and accept everything.”
- Expect nothing and accept everything – means you are not controlled or dominated by anyone or anything (p. 178)
- Allows you the freedom to live in the present moment
- Reflect on your expectations. What are they?
- Hidden?
- Unmet?
- Real?
- Do they get in the way of the life you want?
- When you are free of expectations, you can enter into the “dance of life.”
- Execute your life plan and deal with what happens (p. 183)
“Love the life you have not the one you expected to have.” Gary John Bishop
As Bishop concludes, “if you want your life to be different, you have to make it happen.” (p. 191) Speak truth to yourself to chart your path toward living the life you freely choose. Take action in your outer self to improve your inner self. Make a choice and then act, do, and make it happen.
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