Category: A book you can finish in a day
The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are
by Brené Brown
I chose “The Gifts of Imperfection” by Brené Brown mainly because of her power packed TED Talk. With over 6 million views she might have something to say- and might be able to say it with brevity. The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are is a waterfall of gut punches, forcing you to think, maybe for the first time, about who you are, who you really are, and decide if that’s the life you want to live. Brené is a living oxymoron; Ph.D, researcher, writer, professor, soccer mom, blogger, and potty mouthed church go’er. So, trying to determine what to expect is a useless task.
The book opens with a sweet italicized sucker punch that made my head spin, and this was just the Introduction. We’re talking the opening sentence.
“Wholehearted living is about engaging our lives from a place of worthiness. It means to… wake up in the morning and think, “No matter what gets done and how much is left undone, I am enough.”
Ok, that’s not what I thought we we’re talking about but I’m sold. That’s not me. That’s not even close to me but somehow I feel, I know, that’s who I should be.
Before you can blink you’re thrown into the deep end of years of research and reading sentences about your personal life, like you were interviewed.
“[When] you stop believing in your worthiness [you] start hustling for it.”
On dealing with shame – “Shame hates it when we reach out and tell our story. It hates having words wrapped around it – it can’t survived being shared.”
Chapter after chapter is filled with powerful research on not just who we are but why we are and how we can get better. She’s taken a 3 day conference on behavior health science and condensed it down to a high protien shake – dense but easy to digest.
My 3 Word Review was Stunning Then Drifts.
While the book does come out swinging it begins to slowly lose steam and drift away from its core power about half-way. The context itself changes and thus so does the message. The final 10 chapters (2-3 pages each) feel more like edited blog post than uniquely created material supporting the book’s premise. While insightful; does not compare to the first 50 pages.
While The Gifts of Imperfection could be finished in a day – it probably shouldn’t be. It’s rich in its power to provoke and empowers you enough to change. It will help you “embrace who you are.”
-N