Book Review; The Gifts of Imperfection by Brené Brown

I thought I had read some amazing personal growth books over the past 2 years but nothing came close to The Gifts of Imperfection.

Brené Brown proves once again that she has a way with words. She speaks directly to the soul and sparks something inside.

It’s time for my long-awaited book review on The Gifts of Imperfection.

Let me start off by saying I am in love with Brené Brown.

Full-on head over heels in love with her voice, her words and everything she puts out into the world. I think she is an incredible role model for all women.

She is raw, honest and talks openly about vulnerability, shame and human connection. And she is not afraid of saying what’s on her mind, getting things wrong and learning to grow.

Something that I find is lacking from other female role models in my life.

Ok, so who the hell is Brené Brown?

Brené Brown is primarily an American professor and researcher who has spent her life’s work on researching vulnerability, shame, courage and empathy.

She is also a TED speaker, author, podcaster, mother, wife and all-around inspirational person.

Ok, I’m going to try and calm myself down a bit now.

If you’re not familiar with Brené’s work yet, I really encourage you to find some of her stuff and allow her to change your life.

Here are a few recommendations to check out;

read

Brené currently has 6 books out in the universe, including The Gifts of Imperfection and Daring Greatly.

I also highly recommend you check out Dare To Lead and I Thought It Was Just Me.

I also just found out she has another book being released in November called Atlas Of The Heart which is now on my pre-order list!

listen

Brené has been a guest speaker on several podcasts and currently has her own 2 shows; Unlocking Us and Dare To Lead.

All episodes are available on Spotify.

watch

As well as Brené’s Ted Talks, you can watch her in The Call To Courage on Netflix.

The Lowdown on The Gifts of Imperfection

Quite simply put, The Gifts of Imperfection teaches us how to live a wholehearted life.

And to do that, we need to embrace our imperfections, flaws and vulnerabilities.

We need to step into our truth, own our story and live a truly authentic life.

Brené states very early on that wholehearted living is “not a onetime choice.” It’s a life journey.

And the daily tools needed for this journey are courage, compassion and connection — our gifts of imperfection.

“Wholehearted living is about engaging in our lives from a place of worthiness. It means cultivating the courage, compassion and connection to wake up in the morning and think, no matter what gets done and how much is left undone, I am enough. It’s going to bed at night thinking, Yes, I am imperfect and vulnerable and sometimes afraid, but that doesn’t change the truth that I am also brave and worthy of love and belonging”

brené brown | The gifts of imperfection

Spread out over 10 chapters, otherwise known as guideposts, Brené shows you how to start letting go of the things holding you back, like fear, comparison and perfectionism and start cultivating the things you need more of, like intuition, gratitude and laughter.

Within these guideposts, Brené draws on her own life experiences, stories from friends and thoughtful quotes from others to demonstrate her points.

How easy is it to read?

I sometimes find that with self-help and personal development books, I zone out halfway through.

The amount of information that gets piled into these books becomes extensive and too overwhelming for me to follow.

But The Gifts of Imperfection is different.

Wholeheartedly different! (See what I did there 😉)

The advice Brené shares is extremely actionable and digestible.

Just make sure you’re in the right headspace to read it. As it’s heartbreakingly honest.

There is also a ‘dig deep’ section at the end of each guidepost which encourages you to explore each topic on a deeper level.

These sections consist of top tips, questions to ask yourself and resources for further reading.

My biggest takeaway from The Gifts of Imperfection

You could probably say the entire book was one massive takeaway. I swear every sentence that Brené wrote literally made me pause and think.

But if I had to dig a little deeper it’s probably that I am worthy.

I have always been worthy.

There is a huge emphasis in this book on what society thinks makes us worthy and what actually makes us worthy.

Brené argues that if we want to feel worthy of ourselves, we need to stop listening to today’s culture “where our self-worth is tied to our net worth, and we base our worthiness on our level of productivity” and start to embrace our own version of worthiness.

“If we want to live a wholehearted life, we have to become intentional about cultivating sleep and play, and about letting go of exhaustion as a status symbol and productivity as self-worth”

brené brown | the gifts of imperfection

This was a huge takeaway for me.

Since starting my online business and beginning my wellness journey, I have been on an emotional rollercoaster of stepping away from the norm.

And choosing to no longer follow the rules.

This has allowed me to realise that rest and self-care play a huge part in who I am, just as much as what I do for work.

Worthiness isn’t about how much money you make each month. Or how many likes you got on an Instagram post. Or how productive you’ve been that week.

Worthiness is how fulfilled I feel in love, life and in myself.

It’s about doing meaningful work, spending quality time with myself and less time comparing myself to others.

Worthiness is me accepting that I am enough.

And I will always be enough.

Final thoughts

I know I have spent this entire blog post gushing over Brené Brown and I’m sorry. I just can’t help it, she’s great.

Brené provides me with so much guidance. Guidance that I don’t usually get from other people in my life or social media.

I feel as though Brené speaks directly to me.

She gets me even though she hasn’t even met me.

I recently started reading You Are A Badass At Making Making by Jen Sincero and to be truly honest, the tone of the book is way too sassy for me.

I can’t seem to resonate with Jen’s boldness and energy.

But Brené on the other hand is softer, more gentle and mindful.

Which is what I tend to gravitate towards.

I am more likely to follow someone’s advice if they tell me in a compassionate way rather than in a way that stresses me out.

So if you, like me, prefer a more wholehearted and warm approach to life, then add The Gifts of Imperfection to your TBR list.

And if you just so happen to be a huge fan of the You Are A Badass series then I still recommend you check out this book.

It’s a must-read for everyone!

Until next week,

♡ Thalia xx

Let me leave you with this one last quote…

“In this world, choosing authenticity and worthiness is an absolute act of resistance. Choosing to live and love with our whole hearts is an act of defiance. You’re going to confuse, piss off, and terrify lots of people. Including yourself”

brené brown | the gifts of imperfection