Embracing The Awkward

Feeling awkward and alone? — Learn how to win friends and build confidence and self-esteem Find your untapped potential: Young adults struggle with lots of issues — finishing up school, finding a career, finding a partner to be with and most importantly figuring out who they are. But who are you? That can often be an overwhelming question to ask, especially when you feel like the people all around you have it figured out and you’re just falling behind them. In fact, you may even have questions that you would NEVER feel comfortable talking to other people about for fear of being judged or even rejected by them. Don’t worry though, you don’t have to navigate life alone, in fact there’s so much untapped potential in you that the world has yet to see. Build your self-esteem and become your best self: It can be hard to see the potential we have to do really wonderful things in this world. Figuring out how to make friends, develop relationships and to be confident is a step-by-step process. Now help is available in Embracing the Awkward, written by the popular teen-advice-YouTuber, The Josh Speaks. This down-to-earth guide will help you feel comfortable taking small steps towards being somebody great. In this book Josh walks through the step-by-step process for sorting out the confusion around teen questions. This isn’t another dry instructional book written by a boring adult who is disconnected from the millennial reality, it’s a guide, a workbook, an empowering step towards trying things out, discovering who you are and truly becoming your best self. Embracing the Awkward gives teens materials for developing their own unique style of speaking and engaging with others. The book contains infographics and workbook elements that offer a step-by-step checklist of activities to follow, along with examples of things to say, topics to talk about and ways to lead into situations. Learn how to: • Approach people • Determine when you’ve hit the point of highest attraction • Lead into conversations with groups of people • Make strong friendships in school • Approach your crushes and ask them out • Deal with failure and rejection • Maintain your family relationships Popular books on social skills: Young adult self-help books such as 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens, Living With Intensity, The Science of Making Friends, and The Gifted Teen Survival Guide have helped people navigate the teen years and build self-esteem. Now Embracing the Awkward is here to take you to a new level of confidence, self-esteem and success.

New York magazine's "Science of Us" editor explains the compelling psychology of awkwardness, and asks: what if the moments that make us feel most awkward are actually valuable? Have you ever said goodbye to someone, only to discover that you're both walking in the same direction? Or had your next thought fly out of your brain in the middle of a presentation? Or accidentally liked an old photo on someone's Instagram or Facebook, thus revealing yourself to be a creepy social media stalker? Melissa Dahl, editor of New York magazine's "Science of Us" website, has. After a lifetime of cringing, she became intrigued by awkwardness: a universal but underappreciated emotion. In this witty and compassionate book, Dahl explores the oddest, cringiest corners of our world. She chats with strangers on the busy New York City subway, goes on awkward friend dates using a "Tinder-for-friendship" app, takes improv comedy lessons, and even reads aloud from her (highly embarrassing!) middle school diary to a crowd of strangers. After all of that, she realizes: Awkward moments are opportunities to test yourself. When everyone else is pretending to have it under control, you can be a little braver and grow a little bigger--while remaining true to your awkward self. And along the way, you might find that awkward moments unite us in our mutual human ridiculousness.

Don’t waste your awkwardness. The most difficult subjects in our lives are also the ones that we find most uncomfortable to talk about: divorce, body image, sexuality, pornography, or depression. Our awkward silence reveals the gap that exists between what we are and what we know we should be. But God loves those awkward moments, Sammy Rhodes argues, because they are precisely where we find connection with God and one another. In This Is Awkward, Rhodes talks directly, honestly, hilariously about the most painfully uncomfortable subjects in our lives. In chapters like “Parents Are a Gift (You Can’t Return Them)” and “The Porn in My Side,” he boldly goes where most of us fear to tread, revealing that we can be liberated by the embrace of a God who knows the most shameful things about us and loves us all the same. Because nothing is too awkward for God.

Does your church make you uncomfortable? It’s easy to dream about the “perfect” church—a church that sings just the right songs set to just the right music before the pastor preaches just the right sermon to a room filled with just the right mix of people who happen to agree with you on just about everything. Chances are your church doesn’t quite look like that. But what if instead of searching for a church that makes us comfortable, we learned to love our church, even when it’s challenging? What if some of the discomfort that we often experience is actually good for us? This book is a call to embrace the uncomfortable aspects of Christian community, whether that means believing difficult truths, pursuing difficult holiness, or loving difficult people—all for the sake of the gospel, God’s glory, and our joy.

Spoiler alert: Talking about Jesus is awkward. We love to share good news with the world. We tweet about a great new restaurant, we share pictures of our newborn child and we celebrate about receiving that sought-after promotion. We are evangelists for many great things. So why don't we do the same with Jesus? It's not hard to see that we bring our own anxieties and awkwardness into every evangelistic conversation. Not to mention the often vast differences between our experiences of God and religion and those of the people around us. And then there's the inner awkwardness of our conversation partners, who are actively contending, even unconsciously, with the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives. Evangelism is awkward, yes. But on the other side of that awkwardness is something amazing: transformed lives, healed relationships, new vision, eternal life. After spending years working with college students and churchgoers, Beau Crosetto hasn't solved the problem of awkwardness in evangelism. But he's learned how to push through it and how we can set ourselves and those we love at ease as we enter into conversations of eternal consequence. Read this book and move beyond awkward into the most awesome privilege of God's people: proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ.

The authors of the New York Times bestselling Awkward Family Photos franchise shine a light on the awkwardness of childhood. Warning: May cause uncontrollable laughter, snorting, and milk-spewing awkward moments for parents and kids alike. Life isn’t perfect, and things don’t always go as planned. Like when you try to feed yourself and the food ends up all over your clothes. Or when you try to ride a bike and end up taking an epic spill. Or when you try to go potty and end up in the potty! But laughing at ourselves makes it all a little easier, and a whole lot more entertaining. So go ahead and embrace all of life’s awkward moments. Because nobody’s perfect…but everyone’s awkward.

Sam and Hannah only have the holidays to find 'The One'. Their lobster. But instead of being epic, their summer is looking awkward. They must navigate social misunderstandings, the plotting of well-meaning friends, and their own fears of being virgins for ever to find happiness. But fate is at work to bring them together. And in the end, it all boils down to love.

The truth is—we’re hardwired to seek comfort, but comfort usually doesn't move us in the right direction. Every day we face a thousand choices between what is best and what is easier. And most of the time, we’ll choose what’s easier, which is why we so often feel frustrated, anxious, and disconnected. But when you learn to embrace the uncomfortable as the gateway to better things, everything changes. Embracing Uncomfortable teaches you how to Recognize what you need to do to find purpose and joy Develop the courage to radically accept your situation as it is Have the courage to do what it takes to move forward You’ll learn practical skills to help you pursue and fulfill your purpose, like “practicing the pause” and “balancing your emotions.” Discover the freedom and joy that will fill your life when you begin to see discomfort as an important step toward reaching your goals.