Girl, Stop Apologizing (Audible Exclusive Edition): A Shame-Free Plan for Embracing and Achieving Your Goals

As a mom of three it’s hard to find time to read, so I tend to listen to most of my books, but I was lucky enough to have a flight right after I received my copy of this book so I had a chunk of time to read, and let me start by saying this is a quick and practical read. True to Rachel Hollis she tells great stories, she’s engaging and she gives you practical tips that you can use in your life today. Are any of the ideas she gives, new or mind blowing, no, but I don’t think that’s what we expect from Rachel, well I don’t. What made me fall in love with her writing and ideas are that she made me feel less alone. I found myself as I read the book, saying out loud to a plane full of strangers, oh my goodness that’s exactly how I feel, or even AMEN (I’m a catholic that converted from the episcopal church, we don’t yell out things like that, we mumble prayers and keep to ourselves) but this really hit home for me. The book is broken into three parts, letting go of excuses, adopting new habits and acquiring new skills. In letting go of excuses she hits you hard, she doesn’t want to hear, but that doesn’t work for me or I’m not that kind of person, she basically tells you to leave your excuses at the door if you want to change. Now did every excuse she wrote about apply to me no, but there were some gems. Some of my favorite excuses were: I don’t have time: I hear that so much in my business and man it makes me crazy. Rachel points out it’s “Not whether or not you have the time, but whether this goal is so compelling, so beautiful, so necessary to your future happiness that you’re willing to trade your current comfort in order to achieve it. You in?” She then goes on to give some great tips about how to reconfigure the time you have to achieve the goal. I’m not enough to succeed: This is where I got all Pentecostal preacher on the plane. I am pretty honest with my experience with therapy and this is something that I have been really working on, not feeling good enough and Rachel hits the nail on the head for me in this chapter. “You are enough. Today. As you are.” Focus on all the things you have done vs dwelling on what you have yet to do! I love when she talks about how for most of us, we hold on to some little nugget, some little lie that we’ve had since childhood. I have a lot of those, in the back of my head, but one that stands out for me is “I’m not a good writer”! But something I’ve realized in the last year is that it’s just not true. Someone told me one day that I wasn’t and I’ve believed it since. Am I an English major nope, do I have great grammatical skills, nope, will you probably find spelling errors or typos in the post, yep! But that doesn’t mean I’m a bad writer. I love telling stories and communicating with people and I’m good at it and what someone once told me shouldn’t stop me from doing something I love! It’s been done before: This is so true in this day and age, I have many times thought why should I start my own business there are a million people doing this, why should I even try. Rachel knocks this one down pretty quickly, I love when she says, ““You can keep talking yourself out of the thing you’re hoping for, or you can decide that your dream is more powerful than your excuse”. She gives some great advice about ho to combine the how with your why to create something unique to you and something epic! I found this to be extremely inspiring! These are just a few of the excuses that stood out to me, but trust me she really hits hard in this section and helps you re-frame how you look at your excuses. That leads us into section two, behaviors to adopt to overcome these excuses! Here is where she really gets into creating new habits to overcome your excuses to move on with your life and to do all the things you hope and dream about . If you want all her tips you are going to have to order the book but I will pick out a couple that I have found to be really helpful and that I’m starting to implement in my life today! Let’s start with the two that jumped out at me, choose one dream and go all in….this could have been written for me. Breanne stop trying to do all the things all at once. You will be burned out and man am I! She says very clearly choose one dream and go all in, “You. Can. Only. Focus. On. One. At. A. Time.” She breaks down her 10, 10, 1 strategy for how to dream big and focus on your goals, want to know what it is?? Well then you have to order her book……see above! The second strategy that spoke to me was learn to say no, and mean it! As a mom with three kids there are so many times I find myself saying YES to things that I don’t really want to do and that don’t bring me much joy in my life. Rachel quotes the amazing Jen Hatmacker and says, if it’s not a HELL YES, then it should be a HELL NO and this is really helping me focus my energy on what brings me joy and what I really want to be doing. The last section of the book is skills to acquire and I think while none of these skills are NEW, they are things that I think a lot of us need to work on. I also love that she doesn’t tell you to go out and change everything in your life at once, see “stop trying to do all the things” but she does talk about how you need to learn new skills to grow and reach your goals. My favorite section was on Planning, she really outlines how she was able to achieve her goals and gives you the steps she took. I thought this section was some of the best advice if you’ve ever felt stuck and not sure how to move forward after you dream these big dreams!! Overall, will this book change your life? No, but I question if any personal development book will change your life. If anyone had the perfect solution they’d be rich and we wouldn’t have to keep reading all these PD books. But what this book will do is shake you up a bit, make you look at how your are currently living your life, and hopefully give you the kick the pants you need to move forward. I have to thank Rachel for speaking to a new audience and making personal development fun and more accessible. What are you waiting for, order your book today and start being the person you dream of being!

When I first heard about Girl Wash Your Face (GWYF). I wasn’t ready for it. It came highly recommended by several friends but I wasn’t ready to have my a$$ kicked. Then came “Made for More”. I bought a ticket and was ready to go by myself. I ended up going with a couple of friends. I was moved and INSPIRED! I finally picked up GWYF. WHOA!! I did get my a$$ kicked a bit, but mostly, I was thankful that I was open to the message. I’m still digesting Girl Stop Apologizing. But I loved the message, it’s empowering. And she seeks to relate and include to all women in her message. I’m ready to move to the next level in my life-this gave some very practical tools to do so. I love that Rachel is so honest with her own story, and puts herself out there so we can learn with her. I love that she cares so much about her tribe. She challenges. She’s vulnerable. She brought it...again. Well done!

Have you read anything by Rachel Hollis yet? Have you listened to her Rise podcast? If you're an entrepreneur--particularly a woman entrepreneur, you need to read this book. If you're someone who dreams of something more, but is afraid to try, this book is for you. If you have goals, but are in "the dip", as Seth Godin so aptly named the space and time in between starting and finishing, you need to grab a copy of Girl, Stop Apologizing. What I love about Rachel Hollis is that she has been at the bottom, but she had dreams and goals like a lot of us do, but she didn't quit. She didn't give up. This woman has drive and she knows how to focus on what she wants and does not give up though all the disappointments, all the setbacks, all the negativity that would crush most people. She's not superhuman, she's just dedicated, and she shows us how to go after our goals. There is practical, usable advice in every single chapter of this book, but not one word is dry or boring. You won't find your mind wandering or read it just because you know you should. Rachel is a great writer! She is hilarious, outrageous, and unexpected. Another thing I love about her is her honesty. She shares deeply personal, even humiliating stories from her life experience because she wants us to know who she is, where she's come from, and how she got to where she is now. She does not hold back and because she's so real, she builds trust with her audience, and makes us listen to what she has to say. Rachel comes against the patriarchal ways of thinking that have held women back for thousands of years. She addresses downright lies about what women are for, how women should behave or what we should want out of life. It is very liberating, life-giving language that, even in 2019, women (and men!) need to hear. Her chapter "Choose One Dream and Go All In" or "Ten Years, Ten Dreams, One Goal" is worth the price of the book alone. In this chapter, Rachel explains exactly how to go after your dreams. This is priceless information! Her chapter "Planning", about reverse engineering your goal, or starting with the end in mind, was another chapter I found extremely practical and helpful. So, yep, it's another highly recommended, "You Need This Book in Your Life", book review. Get it on Amazon or your local library, but definitely put this in your TBR pile for this year!

‘Girl, Stop Apologizing’ was informative and motivational. The author shared tidbits from her experiences for women to go out and be the best they can be. Additionally, the author was a cheerleader to get women to live their best dream by being goal oriented, making no excuses, possibly learning new skills, understanding that mistakes will be made, and knowing that perseverance is not a dirty word while making sure to set aside time to realize their true potential. Overall, I liked her book.

Easy to read, yet with valuable content. Some things that she mentions feel obvious, but I guess it's nice to be reminded of certain things sometimes.

Everyone should get this book

Met our expectations. Good quality & no defects

Rachel is a great writer. Self help books are usually something I avoid but Rachel however, creates an interesting point on a lot of topics from mothers having to show up for EVERYTHING which can stressing. To helping you understand being selfish is a great way to run a business or live your life. I would highly recommend this book - beautiful and insightful!

Amazing book that really resonated with me (and I imagine the vast majority of women too!) with excuses, actions and skills. Beautifully written- it felt like Rachel was chatting to me about her experiences and what she’d learnt. Hugely uplifting too. 10/10