Book excerpt: Happiness is hard. Authenticity is hard. I know this very, very well.I'm not going to give you some fluffy sermon about how if you just take a bubble bath, smile three times a day at yourself in the mirror, & think happy thoughts constantly that your life will magically be better. These things might help you, but they also might not.But the thing is, you have all the power in the world to change your life.Hating yourself is boring. Feeling ugly & unloved is boring. Living someone else's plans for you is boring. Being depressed & feeling hopeless about your future is boring.You deserve better than that. You were born to live an awesome life. It's your duty to yourself to pursue that, as vibrantly & lovingly as you can.What do you have to lose in learning to love yourself? Or in trying to be happy, & starting to live a life that genuinely makes you feel good? There is nothing to lose.Change is hard. But the ability to adapt is the thing which separates the winners from the losers. You are trying to make your life better. That puts you in the category of the winners, right now. You're strong enough, & smart enough, & determined enough to win.Think about this. You have made it through everything that's happened to you in your life so far. You have made it. If you can do that, you can do this. You can do anything.You can love yourself. You can feel better. You can be happy. You can start living any super-awesome amazing life of your choosing. And you can start today. Right now.-The key to having all this starts when you start loving yourself. Self-love is the backbone to everything else available to you. It's the ship that you're sailing on, & the wind that fills your sails & your lungs. It's the star you see up ahead in the dark of night. It's the start of everything else. The first brick on the yellow brick road.When you start loving yourself, everything else falls into place. You become stronger & more resilient. You start respecting yourself & knowing your worth & only accepting the things you deserve. You start realizing that you can create whatever life you want for yourself, & start empowering yourself to go out there, & go get it.Happiness is hard. Authenticity is hard.But when you start loving yourself, that's when these things become easy.Here's how...