Girl, Stop Apologizing: 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!

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!

This book literally changed my life. I read it while on vacation, sitting on the beach in Key West. I call it vacation--it was while visiting my husband, who worked hard for our family his entire lifetime and has now reaped the benefits of that work by making it possible for us to purchase a home down there and has retired from working. I work full time as the sole bread-winner, but have begun an Arbonne business as well as a blog. The "why" started out being because of my passion for those things, and to "just see what would happen". But it's grown into wanting more. To be able to be "retired" with my husband, and to be able to continue to live comfortably. Enter my pal Rach. To write the actual, literal roadmap to making those dreams come true, for me to read while laying on the beach, repeating the words, yes, yes, YES as I read those words. Amazing. So much so that I have purchased several more copies of this book. I have gifted one BFF for her birthday. I have 2 more to go this year. I gifted a copy to a recent high school graduate in my family because I feel so strongly that with the technological tools available now, and with that book in her hands, she can do anything she sets her mind to. And even more importantly, to actually set her mind to dream those great, big, audacious, scary dreams. To write them down. To figure out a way to make them happen. Because it can happen. If I had daughters, it would be required reading for them. I have a BFF who has a daughter, going into her Senior year of high school. I'm going to gift her a copy as well. I feel like every girl out there should read this book. Because not every girl even knows to listen to that dream that may be burning in her heart. Every girl says to herself "wouldn't it be cool if I could..." but very rarely does every girl follow up on the end of that sentence. But every girl should. Because what would our world look like if she did? I want to know the answer to that.

If you’ve paid any attention to the personal growth world lately, you’ve probably noticed the name Rachel Hollis and her special best friend brand of making her audience confront their own B.S. Her first book Girl, Wash Your Face is a New York Times Bestseller. She has a sold out personal development conference and a successful company she runs with her husband. But does this new book Girl, Stop Apologizing hold up the hype? Here are six things to consider before buying/reading this book…. Girl, listen to your older sister! Rachel Hollis is known for her engaging and straight-talking style. She truly feels like an older, wiser, sister who’s sitting down to dish with a bowl of ice cream or a mimosa at brunch. This makes the writing approachable and fun to read! There were many times I found myself laughing out loud and smiling. This kept me wanting to read more. Girl, do your research! Recently, Hollis has been accused of stealing quotes from others and passing them off as her own on her Instagram. She seems to that in her book as well. If she does reference something that isn’t her own, she says “A wise person once said…” or something like that. Instead of doing the research and actually trying to figure where the quote came from or the context it came from. This comes off as lazy at worst or at best like a 20 somethings “INSPO” board on Pinterest. For as long as Hollis has been creating content, she should know better. Girl, this is good marketing! Rachel Hollis is a New York Times Best Selling author. But does she deserve to be there? This book is published under the Religion & Spirituality category, and on this date is #1 on Amazon in this category. However, this book really doesn’t fit in this category at all. Yes, Hollis is a Christian. But I think there is a pretty big difference between an author who is a Christian versus a Christian author. She refers to God less than a handful of times. She doesn’t specifically reference the Bible. Now, by no means does that make this bad a book. It just seems more like a marketing scheme that they would choose to put her in the Religion & Spirituality category. Girl, don’t repeat yourself. If you have followed Hollis at all in the last six months to a year, most of the content in GSA has appeared across her social in one way or another. Some of the stories she tells in the book are told in her “Made for More” documentary now on Amazon Prime. She has read from the book on both her Rise Podcast and on her daily live Facebook shows. So, in some ways it’s amazing she’s been giving this content away for free. However, at the same time it leaves the reader feeling a little bummed out to read things they’ve already heard a million times before and didn’t have to pay for. Girl, know your audience! A lot of Hollis’ success has to do with her ability to pinpoint her niche and create content that specifically speaks to that audience. If you are not part of this audience, some of the material might be hard to relate to. Primarily, Hollis speaks to the 30-40-year-old, married, white woman, from at least a middle-class background. Women in MLMs follow her in droves, as proven by the companies (Lularoe, DoTerra, ThirtyOne, Beachbody) that have asked her to speak at their conferences. If you don’t have a few kids at home, a business, a husband….this might not be the book for you or you might have a hard time relating. Girl, take the advice! There are a lot of different pieces of advice in this book. But the thing I love about personal development books is how the reader can decide what they take from them. There are parts of this book that really spoke to me because of my life journey. If you read this book, something totally different might resonate with you. That’s not bad! This book offers lots of moments you can add to your own self-improvement toolbox. Girl, should you read it? Do I think Rachel Hollis is the queen-bee of personal development that many of her followers believe she is? No. Do I think the book is worth a read? Yes. If you haven’t read or followed Hollis before most of the information will be new to you, and you’ll probably walk away learning more about yourself. That’s an opportunity no one should walk away from. Girl, get reading!!

This book is all the best parts of Rachel Hollis, all in one place. When my friends asked me to describe this book in comparison to Girl, Wash Your Face, I said, “GWYF is for the average woman or Mom. It’s the book that makes you say, ‘OMG, Thats SO me!’ But Girl, Stop Apologizing is the Hustler’s guide. It’s the book for everyone with ambition. It’s written for the woman that wants more than just doing the same thing every single day, year after year. This book is for the voice in the back of your mind that says, “Man, I would love to do “x” someday.” This book is like your Mom telling you it’s okay to chase that dream, your coach kicking you square in your ass to stop making excuses, and your best friend cheering you on; all in one place. Its pretty crazy to even try and explain the personal growth I have experienced since finding Rachel Hollis. I use to feel like I was on the treadmill every day. I worked hard at everything, but never felt like I could get anywhere. When I found Rachel wayyyy back, she was just stepping out of the Food Blogger role and into this new space of personal development, and I was up for it. I started waking up in the morning, I started making real big goals and then accomplishing them!! I stopped letting other peoples opinions slow me down or make me feel bad about myself. I lost over 30 pounds. I have a stronger marriage than we ever have. We got our personal finances in a better position than ever. I upgraded our Point of Sale Software (after using Quickbooks for 15 years! Talk about scary!) I built an online store I have been talking about for 10 years. I competed in my very first bike race that was over 28 miles. I ran 5 miles without stopping. I became a notary. I decided to take a step back and look at the people I surround myself with and if they are lifting me up or tearing me down, and I made changes, even when it was hard. If your a dreamer; if you are a hustler; if you can imagine that thing you always thought was impossible for you; if you want to do you better, these books are a great place to start to journey.

To get the most from reading this book you need to: 1) Leave your cynicism at the door 2) Want more for your life (even if you can't put your finger on what). Rachel challenges her female readers to be the best version of themselves again, in a similar fashion to Girl Wash Your Face, but this time specifically for those who want to chase their dreams. She uses the same technique of telling her own embarrassing or difficult stories to help break down a barrier with the reader and check their preconceived notions of what she stands for. The book is broken down into three parts: Excuses to Let Go Of, Behaviors to Adopt, and Skills to Acquire. The first part is the longest, because there are so many excuses we commonly default to before we can even begin to work on a goal. This portion of the book will remind you the most of GWYF because it's a similar concept to the lies we should stop believing. However, Hollis dives into more depth with these excuses and specifically picks ones that block people from pursuing a dream or goal to it's fullest extent. My favorite part of the book were Behaviors to Adopt and Skills to Aquire, because that is where she gets truly specific and gives you real tools and practices that have helped her overcome the common pitfalls of productivity and achievement. If you're already following all that Rachel does via her morning live streams, podcasts, social media, etc. some information may be repeated, but it's wonderful to have it all collected for reference. I have written all over this book and plan to re-read it. And I'm pumped up and ready to apply it! This book is definitely worth checking out if you have an open mind, open heart, and are ready to chase a dream.

"Girl, Stop Apologizing" is like a manual of insider tips from Rachel Hollis about how she has been so successful. The book is a combination of her practical stories about her own ups and downs and her step-by-step techniques and strategies. So it's entertaining as well as educational. If you're someone who is open to learning ways to improve your life, or just looking for a few insights to tweak what you are already doing, you won't want to miss "Girl, Stop Apologizing." Like with any advice, parts of the book will resonate more with you than other parts. But as someone who doesn't have to agree with everything I read, I was easily able to sort out what is useful to me--and there is a lot here--and leave the rest. I've benefited a great deal from her guidance about mindset, for example, and about planning and prioritizing. I found this book priceless, to be perfectly honest. I'm so grateful Hollis took the time to analyze what has worked for her, and was willing to share her personal life and inner thoughts, which can be a big risk in today's hyper-critical world. I've adapted some of her ideas to my own situation and they work! I appreciate how generous she is about sharing all of her expertise!! Give this book a try. You won't be sorry!

This book is Amazing! I was someone who felt stuck and wanted to make a move to be inspired, grow personally and professionally, to stop giving into what society/media and the world has to say about who I am and what I want to do! This book tells her story, but also gives steps to how to make those dreams and goals happen. I have never read a motivational book before! So this was a perfect beginner for me. As a 22-year old college kid who has faced many challenges, hardships and is fixing to graduate, this books gives me a lot to think on as I entered my last year in college and get ready to begin a new chapter in my life. I highly recommend for any women in college and beyond that stage of life to read this! If you are someone who is ready to make a move, but feels trapped by the world and your own thoughts, get ready to learn how to push past those fears and excuses! The table of contents show you a little bit of what you can expect on the topics in the book, but they do what advice or the words Rachel writes about inside the chapters! This is definitely a must read 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