Good Enough: Embrace Who You Are. Unleash Your Brilliance.
Written by: Anne Day and Amy Vodarek
Reviewed By: Shelby Brown
The Premise: Anne Day and Amy Vodarek present a series of real stories from motivated and successful women. Having connected with over 350 women, Day and Vodarek share their stories of courage, set-back and resilience, and show how powerful women can be and the importance of believing in yourself. The authors share heart-felt, real stories from real women and use them to inspire other women and lift them from their self-doubt.
Good Enough: Embrace Who You Are. Unleash Your Brilliance is designed to help women step out of their own way and realize the potential that they may be hiding. It’s a self-help book filled with numerous real stories that illustrate classic examples of women doubting their worth, success and potential. The stories all show common themes of how women are afraid of failure, and how women are constantly judging themselves – but why? The book is broken into themes, which include: “Trying to Please Everyone”, “Taming Your Inner Critic”, and “Life Happens – dealing with losses”. In these chapters are real testimonials of how women constantly try and prove themselves. Through these testimonials, Day and Vodarek illustrate that you are not alone if you’ve ever had that feeling of self-doubt or feeling of inadequacy.
Near the beginning of the book, Day and Vodarek discuss the “imposter syndrome” – when you’ve succeeded but still feel as though you are undeserving, you feel as though you are ‘faking it’. With that, they lead into how women are constantly pushing themselves to take on more and more in order to ‘prove’ their worth. One important point they pull out from a testimonial is when one individual realized that her physical capacity had a limit, and there were some choices that needed to be made – something all of us ambitious, hard-working and driven people can understand (but when do we stop?!). “I saw ‘busy’ as a badge of honour,” accounts one testimonial – a badge many of us constantly try and earn.
Rich in resources and references to other books, Good Enough gives you the opportunity and information to explore other avenues for personal development. Near the end of the book, Day and Vodarek lean into values. “Too often, we are quick to blame ourselves if a job or relationship isn’t working out, but perhaps it’s not us. Perhaps it is more that our values are not in alignment with the workplace or the person. When we step back and look from the outside in, it can be easier to see what needs to happen, and perhaps no one is to blame, it is just not a good fit.” They highlight how women may constantly be searching for an answer, or trying to figure out what they did wrong at work, at home, or in life, but the answer isn’t always what we did wrong; sometimes it’s not the individual, it is just not a good match. This thought leads into conclusion that it’s ok if everything is not the perfect fit, it’s ok to say no, and it’s important to know your balance.
The Bottom-line: The book covers a lot of stories that show how women constantly feel judged and constantly feel like they are not living up to expectations – like they are not good enough. This theme runs through every story throughout the entire book. Day and Vodarek make note of every story and illustrate why each woman didn’t feel ‘good enough’ and then turn around to show how they were good enough – and – how in turn, you can turn your self-doubt around as well. The bottom-line: you are good enough.
Recommendation: Although this book focuses on women and self-confidence, it is a book that anyone can pick up if you are in need of some reassurance; you are not alone. I recommend giving this a read and using the real life stories as tools to position yourself in the positive direction you’d like to go!
