Why You Should Read the Book “Girl Stop Apologizing” by Rachel Hollis

I’ve been a book worm for as long as I can remember. And a competitive book worm at that. When I was young, like elementary school young, our local library had a summer book reading contest. They set up this big table in the middle of the children’s section with a library board game type thing, where you moved your token each week based on how many books you read and you got prizes. Because I’m a competitive bookworm, a very competitive bookworm, I aced this every summer.

I’m telling you this not so you know how super cool I was when I was younger, but to try and give you an idea of how many books I’ve probably read in my life. I remember the ones that were exceptional. The ones I read over and over again (like the Harry Potter series, probably read that cover to cover at least 3 times already and I can’t wait until I can read it to Allison!)

I read the book Girl, Stop Apologizing by Rachel Hollis this summer and it blew my mind. Like totally changed how I see myself and what I want for my life. I shared in my last post how I actually went out and bought a second copy of this book just to get free access to a webinar Rachel did. That’s how much I loved this book. I think every woman should read this book because of how it made me feel. Let me try and explain how this book made me feel and how it changed my life.

This book is about how to change your mindset to achieve your goals. Rachel Hollis gives some practical strategies to help actually achieve your goals (like giving up something for 30 days, read in my last blog about how I gave up chocolate!). But what really gave me a punch in the gut was how she talks about the thoughts we all have, particularly women, that get in our way of success.

Here’s the biggest take-away I got. As women we are always downplaying our accomplishments and we don’t even realize we are doing it! I’m super guilty of this one. Ask yourself this, have you ever had a major success that you worked so hard for but then you were out for drinks with friends and brushed it off? Yeah, I got this promotion at work I’ve been working my tail off for three years for, shrug, no big deal. Why the heck do we do that?! Men do it too I’m sure but not nearly as often as women. We should be celebrating our successes and celebrating the successes of others! Next time you achieve success give yourself PERMISSION to be proud. Brag to your best friend. Or do a happy dance in your office. What would you do if your best friend or your daughter had that success? You’d shout from the rooftop! So why do we hold back on being proud of ourselves?

We as women put these gigantic expectations on ourselves. The one that stuck out to me the most in Girl, Stop Apologizing is the lie we tell ourselves that we have to “do it all” and find “work-life balance”. Rachel Hollis says it is impossible to do everything, and we are setting ourselves up for failure by pretending we can. When I was reading this part of the book it really got my wheels spinning. What do you mean I can’t have it all? That’s what I’m working so hard for! I can run a business, be an amazing mom who attends every baseball game and school bake sale, and still come home and cook a Pinterest worthy meal for my family! Right? Can’t I? That’s what they do on TV? Dude, no they don’t! We have to stop comparing ourselves to the social media version of everyone’s life. The next time you are watching an interview with a female celebrity and someone asks them how they manage to do it all and they “oh I just am really good at managing my time” I encourage you to yell bullshit at your screen. Those people have a ton of help! I love that in this book Rachel Hollis talks about all the help she has had over the years, from her mom coming to help on weekends with the kids when she was starting out, to housekeepers, to nannies, to a personal assistant, the list goes on. It really got me thinking about how I can start to ask for more help. If I really want to pursue my dreams I need to be able to ask others for help, from my family, to friends, to hiring out once I’m able to.

Like I said what I really loved about this book is how I felt after reading it. I felt like I understood even more how my own beliefs were getting in my way of success. I felt like I had a real roadmap of how to start the hard climb to reach my goals. And I felt like I had the confidence that I could actually do these things. Like I wanted to yell back “yeah girl I can do this too!”

 For reals guys go read this book. It will light a fire in your stomach that will launch you towards your goals.

If you want more tips on goal setting I made this free downloadable workbook to help you out. Check it out just click here.