Girl, Stop Apologizing

A Shame-Free Plan For Embracing And Achieving Your Goals

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.

Lifestyle expert Rachel Hollis is the founder of the popular lifestyle website TheChicSite.com and is the CEO of her media company, Chic Media. She is a regular contributor for the Huffington Post and PopSugar, and she has appeared on The Rachael Ray Show, The Talk, Extra, and many other programs. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and four children.

Girl, Stop Apologizing
Harper Collins Australia
Author: Rachel Hollis
ISBN: 9781400209606
RRP: $42.99

Girl, Stop Apologizing
Harper Collins Australia
Author: Rachel Hollis
ISBN: 9781400209606
RRP: $42.99

EXCUSE: I'M NOT A GOAL - ORIENTED PERSON

My instinct is that the majority of the women who pick up this book are goal diggers. Not gold diggers" goal diggers. Meaning, you have a goal or a dream that's been on your heart and you want some advice or encouragement to propel you forward. But chances are, amongst the crowd are also women who are curious or wondering or maybe just fans of my YouTube channel who aren't really sure how this whole goal thing is going to work for them, because, well, they're just not a goal- oriented kind of gal. They've decided that it's simply their genetic makeup; some people are into that whole "personal growth thing" and some people aren't. These people may even wish they were that kind of person but don't have a lot of hope for it, because "that's just not the way I'm wired."

The thing is, I totally understand why you'd think that. I mean, obviously if you didn't come into the world already having mastered something, it was just never meant to be yours. Walking, speaking, eating solid foods without choking to death, driving a car, spelling, using a computer" all of that was just naturally a part of "who you were" from birth, right?

No. Don't be dumb!

You learned those skills just like you learned a million other things. I'm not arguing that you aren't currently a goal- oriented person, because perception is reality and if you believe it's true then it absolutely is. What I'm arguing is that you're missing a word in the sentence. You're not a goal- oriented person yet. Finding your goal, focusing in on it, and learning to work to get closer to it every day is possible for anyone. Finding your goal takes some soul- searching and some clarity, but the other two? Having focus and being productive enough to get closer to where you want to go? Those are just habits. If you don't already have them, it's only because you haven't developed them yet. Not because they'll never be yours.

Dreams are things you hope for, for your life. Dreams are the things that occur to you as you go about your day. Things like, I wish I didn't feel so tired all the time. Wouldn't it be great to get into shape? Or, I'd love to be debt- free. Or, I wish we could take a luxury vacation this summer. Or, I wish we didn't have to live paycheck to paycheck.

Maybe I could start a side business. Because we all come from different places and backgrounds, our dreams are as unique and varied as our hairstyles. Everyone has dreams for their life" everyone. Not everyone admits it to themselves or even considers their idle wishes a possibility, but every single person reading this book wants something.

Those wishes you have? Those are dreams. But a dream and a goal are two different things entirely.

A goal is a dream with its work boots on. A goal is a dream you've decided to make real. A goal is a destination you're working toward instead of an idea you're only considering or hoping for. Hope is a beautiful thing and an incredibly valuable tool to help keep us motivated and inspired about the possibility for the future. But let's be very clear on this point: hope is not a strategy. Simply hoping that life will get better, that you'll get better, that you'll suddenly develop focus and motivation when you're not taking any active steps to make that a reality, is worthless. You've got to plan for your success. You've got to be intentional, and you've got to decide right now that you can be whoever you want to be and achieve whatever you want to achieve.

You've got to believe it.

Taken from Girl, Stop Apologizing by Rachel Hollis Copyright © 2019 by HarperCollins Leadership.
Used by permission of HarperCollins Leadership.
http://www.harpercollinsleadership.com/