Hi Ladies,
Hope you all enjoyed the first book review and feel fully engaged with
the science behind confidence and now are all ‘thinking less and taking action’
while also being ‘authentic’.[1] This
month I have chosen a book with a lot less figures and science experiments,
whoop! This month’s book is ‘Girl, Wash Your Face’ by Rachel Hollis.[2] I
read this book while on holiday and I have to say I felt totally motivated
after. Hollis writes in such a fun but informative way and makes all her advice
feel personal to you. Not only does she cover how to be successful in your
career but also spends a lot of time on personal life as well. After all you
have to feel comfortable in both areas to full reach all your goals.
Hollis starts off by explaining, ‘This book is about a bunch of hurtful
lies and one important truth. The truth? You, and only you, are ultimately
responsible for who you become and how happy you are. That’s the takeaway’.[3] I
feel happiness is the most important factor when trying to reach your goals as
unless we are happy we will feel unmotivated to put in all the effort needed to
reach our dreams. That’s why I loved reading this book so much!
The chapter that spoke to me the most personally, was Chapter Two; ‘The
Lie: I’ll Start Tomorrow’ This review will focus mainly on this chapter as I
feel it was the most motivating for me.[4] Within
the chapter Hollis uses an anecdote of a night she went out with a friends an
‘impromptu happy hour that turned into an impromptu dinner and ended up going
later than any of us anticipated.’[5]
Something I’m sure many of us have experience (although I’m sure Hollis has
never ended up in Keller). However, I’m sure none of us have then gone home
after an event like this and worked out, I know I definitely haven’t. Hollis
did this and explains how she ‘put the evidence of that workout on snapchat’.[6]
She then recalls a convocation between her and her friend that snapped her back
after seeing the post;
Friend: ‘You worked out after that dinner?’
Hollis: ‘Yes because I planned on doing it and didn’t want to cancel’
F: ‘Couldn’t you just postpone until tomorrow’
H: ‘No because I made a promise to myself, and I don’t break them ever’[7]
When I first read this exchange I honestly agreed with her friend.
Surely after a big meal and drinks it was okay to put off a workout? I mean what’s
one day or one missed workout do? I mean even as I’m writing this review I’m putting
off YouTube workout I fancied trying. However, once Hollis explained her
reasoning I was totally on board. Hollis points out ‘what if you had a friend who
constantly flaked on you? What if every other time you made plans she decided
not to show up? What if she gave the excuses like “I really want to see you,
but this TV show I’m watching is just so good”?’[8]
Then I got it. If you had someone who let you down contently you would
be annoyed with them and maybe even go as far to think they are a bad friend.
So if I wouldn’t expect my friends to treat me like that, why would I treat
myself like that? This is Hollis point. It can also be explained by saying that
we wouldn’t contently flake on our friends so why would we treat ourselves any
less than what we would treat our friends. Basically a promise made to yourself
is just as important as a promise one person makes to another, this really
spoke to me.
Although Hollis uses this point to motivate herself to do her workouts,
this concept can also be applied to any part of life and definitely to the
goals you are trying to reach by being part of this society. That email to a
potential employer? Adding to and editing your CV? If you have made a promise
to yourself to do something, you owe it to yourself to put it first and not let
yourself down. To summarise the message, I took from this chapter was to treat
yourself how you would treat other people, if not better when it comes to
improving yourself and your career.
Throughout the book Hollis touches on many other examples like this and
has many other motivating lessons from careers to marriage and family life, but
I personally this is the one that spoke to me the most and I don’t want to
spoil the whole book for you all as I highly recommend reading it.
Overall, this book inspired me to see the importance of being proactive
but also to indulge in self-care and doing small things to change my life for
the better. I felt the book gave me a pleasant wakeup call on how to put myself
first and allow my own goals to be achieved but in a way that isn’t selfish.
Although most of the book tends to focus on lifestyle rather than employment
and industry I do feel that this book enables inspiration to allow the reader
to set goals to achieve in all areas of their lives, both proactively but also at
their own pace.
See you all soon for the next book review ladies! Xoxo
[1] Katty Kay and Claire Shipman, ‘The Confidence Code’, Harper Collins Publishers, (New York,
2014), Page 202
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