Audio Review: Girl, Stop Apologizing: A Shame-Free Plan for Embracing and Achieving Your Goals by Rachel Hollis

Rachel Hollis, #1 
New York Times
 bestselling author of 
Girl, Wash Your Face
 and host of the top-rated 
Rise
 podcast, urges women to stop apologizing for their desires, hopes, and dreams and instead to go after them with passion and confidence.

Rachel Hollis has seen it too often: women being afraid of their own goals. They’re afraid of embarrassment, of falling short of perfection, of not being enough. But the biggest fear of all is of being judged for having ambition at all.

Having been taught to define themselves in light of other people—whether as wife, mother, daughter, friend, or team member—many women have forgotten who they are and what they were meant to be. In Girl, Stop Apologizing, entrepreneur and online personality (TheChicSite.com) Rachel Hollis encourages women to own their hopes, desires, and goals and reminds them they don’t need permission to want more. With a call to women everywhere to stop talking themselves out of their dreams, Hollis identifies the excuses to let go of, the behaviors to adopt, and the skills to acquire on the path to growth, confidence, and the biggest possible version of their lives.

I will admit that I had never heard of Rachel Hollis until the book Girl, Wash Your Face came out and it was all over the book blogs. I decided to start with Girl, Stop Apologizing because I felt that this book talked about the same issues that I am facing in my own life. This year has been a massive change for me as I set goals and started achieving them, and well, some people were attempting to make me feel guilty about stuff. For example, I am finally starting to make some money with the blog, but it seems that the people who are unhappy in their work  are trying to make everyone else feel guilty ( including me) and to be honest I have had enough of that, so I downloaded Girl, Stop Apologizing and started listening. I was hoping for some advice on how to deal with the haters AND some advice on how to stop feeling guilty about what I have accomplished in the last couple of years. As a dear friend keep telling me

I know I am a bit of a self-help junkie, but if I am honest, most books have started sounding the same. The same old story with the same ole lousy advice. I was afraid that this one would spout the same info that I have heard a million times before, but I was thrilled when I started listening to the audiobook and felt as if I had FINALLY found someone who gets it. I mean I am from Hillbilly Elgy country but damn if I want THAT dude to be a “role model” I mean how can you grow up amid the most poverty-stricken area in the USA and be a Republican? And his ole “you have to pull yourself up by your bootstraps and go for it” is offensive. Ok yes I did get out of the whole generational poverty thing, and I lived in a city for almost 15 years, but I would never tell a person here that being poor is their own damn fault.  I mean to borrow that same cliche how can you pull yourself up by the bootstraps if you have no boots?

Anyway, Rachel Hollis is not that kind of person Thank God. When I was listening to Girl, Stop Apologizing, it felt as if I was listening to an older wiser friend. And when she brought up one of the most favorite songs of my life Sorry Not Sorry I knew that I was in for a treat. I mean anyone who loves that song as much as I do is bound to have other qualities that I admire right?1?!

While I was listening to the audiobook so much of what she said struck home for me. It seems that I am always the one trying to keep the peace even if I don’t like what was going on. I also used to tell people that I got lucky with my online writing when luck had nothing to do with it. I put in my 10,000 hours and experimenting until I found what works.

I read some reviews on Goodreads that her humor was off-putting, but I felt that she was hilarious. If you like starts dry humor, then this book will be right up your alley as I listen to the audiobook I just wanted to say that I thought that the narration was excellent. I could understand her with no problem ( I only had my CI Implants for four years). The only thing is that some parts cracked me up, and a few times, I was sitting in the Dr office, and I would start laughing and get allll the dirty looks. I guess that a Dr office is not the appropriate place to laugh. Everyone is usually so damn sad it seems in a Dr’s office…

Overall I would recommend this book to all of my female friends as I feel that this book takes on some critical issues related to being a woman in this day and age. We should all lean into our abilities and not give a fuck about what anyone else thinks.