Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes
Shonda Rhimes is a power house. Watch her TED Talk and she’ll tell you. What she does is breathtaking, her achievements endless and she was unhappy. After her sister pointed out she didn’t do anything anymore she promised herself to say yes to everything that scared her for a year. Year of Yes is the story of that promise. It’s incredibly personal and open. She’s a woman not afraid to look at herself and name her failings. And then fix her failings and be kind with herself.
As a woman who has walked into a meeting with her skirt in her knickers, who has managed to accidentally throw a plate of food at a client, who fell in the street with my boss on the way to a meeting and insisted on keeping going while bleeding and covered in mud, I understand her fears and her drive. You can justify turning everything down because you are busy, tired or overwhelmed. If you do that long enough it becomes a pattern and then you don’t realise you are stuck.
Her story of getting unstuck is funny, inspiring and badass. I can’t recommend it highly enough. You can buy it here.