“Girl, Stop Apologizing” Review – a book by Rachel Hollis

I got an advance reader’s copy of this book, and I can’t wait to dive into my “Girl, Stop Apologizing” Review! It’s the latest book from Rachel Hollis, the #1 New York Time Bestseller author of “Girl, Wash Your Face.”

Rachel Hollis first came into my periphery about 8 months ago. I kept hearing mentions of this book, “Girl, Wash Your Face.” So eventually, as I always do after I repeatedly keep getting told the same thing, I decided to read the book. Ok, let’s be honest, I totally listened to it on Audible. Same thing, right?

Since Rachel has a bubbly, uplifting, and energetic personality, having her read her book to me added another dimension that I loved!

My bottom line breakdown of “Girl, Stop Apologizing” for those of you that want the cliff notes version is this: if you either have a huge dream or want to figure out it’s possible for you to, then you also want tangible strategies to MAKE IT HAPPEN, this book is for you!

Order it here on Amazon or Audible! Never tried Audible? Click here to start a FREE trial AND get two FREE Audiobooks! You will LOVE it!

Before You Begin…

When you search for “Girl, Stop Apologizing” on Google, one of the other suggested searches (meaning it has been searched a LOT) is “Girl, Stop Apologizing Christian Review.” 😂 Apparently what the people want is a review of “Girl, Stop Apologizing” from a Christian perspective.

You can consider this my “Girl, Stop Apologizing” Christian Review below 🙂

Rachel Hollis is a self proclaimed Christian. She believes in Jesus Christ. Her books are published by Harper Collins, a Christian Publisher.

Because of those facts, you might assume is that her books are laden with Jesus and Bible verses. If that’s your expectation, you will be disappointed. Point blank.

I’ve read many not-so-positive reviews of her first book “Girl, Wash Your Face” and this book, “Girl, Stop Apologizing.” Most of the complaints I’ve seen would have been completely avoided if the reader/ reviewer changed their mindset and expectations before diving in…

Even though I am a Christian, I love reading both traditionally Christian books and books that fall into the “self-help” category like “Girl, Stop Apologizing.” So I’m completely used to reading books without much mention of God or Jesus… I believe that Truth is Truth is Truth no matter who presents it or what they believe. Sure, I read lots of books that have chunks that I don’t agree with. The reason I continue to read them is that they also have tons of Truth in them, and usually presented from a non-Christian perspective that I’ve never considered before. Reading these types of books has definitely opened my mind up and changed me as a human.

If you’re NOT used to self-help-type books or have never read one, then guess what? This will be your first!

If you go into your reading of “Girl, Stop Apologizing” with the expectation that Rachel will help you discover a dream and accomplish it, I think you will be absolutely delighted!

My “Girl, Stop Apologizing” Review

“I’ve Got a Dream”

Have you seen the Disney movie “Tangled” about Rapunzel? She meets a bunch of burly, and slightly scary, men in a pub, and convinces them all to have a dream. Watch a video clip of the song “I Have a Dream” here.

Apparently, some women don’t have dreams for their lives. They’re busy living the day to day, nose to the ground, without taking a second to look up and think about what THEY want.

Rachel mentions she heard that after one of her RISE conferences: one woman said it had never occurred to her before that she, too, could have a dream and work toward making it a reality.

It made Rachel heartbroken, and I’m not going to lie, I was, too.

The introduction boils down to an argument of why you SHOULD have dreams for yourself!

This is the part where it gets really “Tangled.” In that song “I have a dream,” the men dream up everything from being a concert pianist, to falling in love, to being a florist or interior designer…

It really don’t matter WHAT your dream is. Rachel’s examples? A third-grade teacher, dog-grooming studio owner, or save up for a lavish vacation.

The important, bottom line here is that you CAN have a dream and #goals.

What stops us from even having dreams?!

People Pleasing

I can totally relate to this, as I think nearly every woman can! Rachel says “Like many other women, I’m still in the process of overcoming a lifetime of people-pleasing. I constantly strive to move through every part of my life, unconcerned with the opinions of others, but truthfully, I don’t always achieve it.” (Introduction p. XIII)

Rather than attempting to do things and be someone for other people, Rachel challenges you to look inward. Ask yourself: What do I really want?!

“Embracing the idea that you can want things for yourself even if nobody else understands the whys behind them is the most freeing and powerful thing in the world.” (Introduction p. XIII)

Fear

Aren’t we fearful of SO many things?! “Women are especially brutal on themselves, and they often talk themselves out of their own dream before they even attempt them… There is so much untrapped potential inside people who are too afraid to give themselves a chance.” (Introduction p. XIV)

We’re afraid of our dreams.

We’re afraid of ourselves: “If we weren’t afraid of ourselves we wouldn’t spend so much time apologizing constantly for who we are, what we want out of life, and the time required for us to pursue both.” (Introduction p. XVII)

We’re afraid of others’ judgment: “We’ve got to stop living in fear of being judged for who we are.” (Introduction p. XVI)

Expectations

Other people’s expectations for us and our lives can stop us from doing the things we really want to do! “Have you ever considered how much of your current life is truly made up of your choices and which areas are really just the things that were expected of you?” (Introduction p. XIX)

Misplaced Value

A lot of women in this world struggle with a misplacement of their value.

We tend to think that WHAT we do is what is valuable about our lives “…I was raised thinking that my real value was based on the role I would play for other people.” (Introduction p. XX)

As Rachel says, ” If you live your life to please everyone else, you forget what used to make you, you.” (Introduction, p. XX).

Now that you have a dream, how do you achieve it?

“Girl, Stop Apologizing” is broken up SO intuitively and it makes my over-organized self SO happy.

It is broken up into 3 Parts:

• 1: Excuses to Let Go Of
• 2: Behaviors to Adopt
• 3: Skills to Acquire

You can see just from this outline above how self-help and practical this book is! Rachel is a food blogger turned wedding planner turned blogger turned writer. She’s not necessarily sharing professionally research-proven novel ideas here.

What she’s doing is sharing what SHE has done that has WORKED in her life.

We have plenty of excuses in our lives that hold us back from achieving our dreams. Some of those Rachel walks through are “I Don’t Have Time,” “I Can’t Pursue My Dream and Still be a Good Mom,” and “I’m Terrified of Failure.”

Any of these sound familiar?

She super practically walks through each excuse and rejects it. Then she provides you with the combatting truth. For each of these excuses (almost all of which I’ve made before), I was fully emboldened by the end of each chapter!

You don’t have time? You make time for the things that are most important to you.

Don’t think you can be a badass at your job AND be a killer mom? Work-life balance is a myth: “Figuring out how to juggle all the parts of your life in a healthy way is a scale that slides back and forth.” (p. 47)

The “Behaviors to Adopt” and “Skills to Acquire” chapters are tangible things you can do to accomplish your goals.

I don’t want to reveal too much of this amazing book!!

I’ll leave you again with my bottom line for “Girl, Stop Apologizing”: if you either have a huge dream or want to figure out it’s possible for you to, then you also want tangible strategies to MAKE IT HAPPEN, this book is for you!

Order it here on Amazon or Audible! Never tried Audible? Click here to start a FREE trial AND get two FREE Audiobooks! You will LOVE it!

Have you read “Girl, Wash Your Face” or “Girl, Stop Apologizing”? I would LOVE to know what you think! Tell me below in the comments!

Also, be sure to head to my Instagram for a Giveaway of “Girl, Stop Apologizing”! To read other book reviews, click here.

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