Published in 2018
240 pages
Andrea Owen , CPCC, has overcome an eating disorder, alcoholism, and divorce to emerge as a powerhouse in the life-coaching world. Since founding Your Kick-Ass Life in 2010, she’s coached more than 100 women one-on-one, reached more than 1.2 million readers through her blog, and taught workshops sponsored by Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty. She is the author of 52 Ways to Live a Kick-Ass Life.
What is this book about?
Andrea Owen gives an honest and refreshing approach to help women get rid of the most stubborn habits of getting themselves down. From listening to their bitchy inner critic to pleasing people. In “How to stop feeling like shit” Andrea Owen shows what lies behind those habits and gives women solutions for this self-destructive behavior. Each chapter focuses on a certain habit, such as self-isolation or perfectionism, so that “How to stop feeling shit” can be read in any order. In 14 short chapters you learn to break through 14 habits. “This book shows women what they are doing and offers no-nonsense advice to get them over this nonsense” – Jen Sincero, author of You’re a Badass.
Best summed up in review by Katie from goodreads:
This book gets four stars because of the chapter on overachieving. I found that many traits either didn’t apply to me, or were ones I’ve read about thoroughly elsewhere (self-compassion vs self-criticism, and perfectionism). But the chapter on overachieving was so on-the-nose, that I have to believe some of the other chapters would be much more meaningful to others:
Overachieving is making your accomplishments who you are. It’s basing your self-worth on your accomplishments. Many overachievers hold extremely high standards for themselves and everyone around them. The two biggest issues overachievers tell me they struggle with are anxiety and insomnia.
THIS IS ME. And while none of this is new or shocking information, it got me to stop and think. Andrea Owen tells you to get to the root of the issue and address why you are the way you are, because when you understand what’s causing you to feel or behave a certain way, you can address the way you react—which will eventually cause you to stop feeling like shit!
Honestly, this wasn’t the book I was looking for, because feeling like shit, to me, is currently more of a physical fitness problem. That’s what I get for picking a book based on the title, but ultimately it worked out. Also, this book is intended for women (Owen constantly addresses the reader as “sister” or uses generalizations such as “we as women”), but I do think that there are useful lessons in here for everyone. Men can be overachievers and perfectionists, too!
