I will be the first to admit that I hate reading.  Seriously, I sometimes feel like a fraud cause encourage my kids to read all the time.I always hated reading unless there is a purpose for what I am reading.  I just can’t sit down and read a Romance novel (bravo to those who can escape reality with a good book.)   I am more of a reality show junkie and may find myself escaping reality with a good episode of The Real Housewives – and guess what?   Both are alright! I try to tell my kids, that’s why God made us all different. If we all looked the same or all liked the same thing, life would be boring.  I have read a few self help books over the past couple years, Gretchen Rubin was a mastermind and probably changed my perspective during one of the hardest times of my life when I was a stay at home mom. Her book, The Happiness Project, really opened my eyes to the old saying “The Days are long, but the years are short!” I was stuck in the “SAHM” status and wasn’t living in the moment, I was just going through the motions. I did go on to read a few more books from Gretchen Rubin, but it took me about 4 years.

For weeks, a friend kept telling me how inspired she was after reading Girl, Wash Your Face, but I found every excuse to give for why I don’t have time to read. While on vacation a few weeks ago, I took the time to read the book, which was hard to even put down. Here are 5 Lessons Learned from Girl, Wash Your Face. These life lessons have me pumped up to make more for myself!

1. Girl, Take care of yourself! This was a hard cup to swallow because like many of you – I wear many hats (and you know what, that’s ok) I really had to take a good look at myself and ask, why am I last on the list? Seriously, if you made a list of responsibilities, where would you place yourself? Last year I tackled the Keto Diet, which has turned into the Keto Lifestyle, which is basically giving up sugar (and part of your sanity, no I am kidding.) In return, I lost about 30lbs and have kept it off for a year now. But, I still don’t feel great because I don’t have time to exercise. One of the biggest takeaways from this chapter was that I need to MAKE time. And guess what? My family will still survive if I go for a 30 minute walk or an hour Zumba class.
2. Tomorrow is a new day! Ok, so I yelled at my kids all day and feel like a terrible mom. It happens, but guess what – we can’t hold on to it and feel guilty about it. We have to own it and move on.  Tomorrow is a new day for everything. If you are following a diet and eat the entire cake at the end of a birthday party or eat 3 slices of pizza, it’s ok and it doesn’t mean that tomorrow you have permission to eat 4 slices.  Just get back on track and approach each day with a clean slate. Recently, we were on vacation and I screamed at my 9 year old daughter about a dress that she refused to wear. I was fighting with her to wear a dress that she didn’t feel comfortable in just because it would coordinate with the rest of our outfits. I screamed at my pre-puberty daughter who felt self conscious about the way she looked in the dress. We were running late, so I just let her where whatever she wanted.  Who flippin’ cared! Just me. That night, I beat myself over the argument and apologized, I owned it and you know what, it sparked a great conversation.  I could had let it ruin my vacation and continue to fight with her, but I just let things go. The next day, I didn’t even mention the fight or talk – and we moved past it.
3. It’s not too late! If you have a dream, go for it! It’s never too late to chase a dream. If there is something that you desperately want to do- get a plan together to make it happen. Stop putting things off until tomorrow. I have done this many times. Some might say that I just jump into things, but that’s how I get things done. There are so many things that I want to get out of life and rather than waiting for them to happen to me, I am going for them and hope that you do the same!
4. Give yourself a star!  This is a hard one because self reflection is something that we just don’t do enough. Rachel encouraged readers to make a list of your accomplishments and to be thankful for each one of them. These can be small task that you have accomplished or something big. My goodness, I gave birth to my last son naturally, that deserves a medal of some sort. Seriously, when I made this list- I was in awe. I wanted to scream to the world- look at all I have accomplished. It’s a great list to revisit when feeling down on yourself. Something that I always tell my kids- Don’t Can’t Let The Highs Get too High and The Lows Get Too Low! This is something I need to own. There are days that I am just not feeling down, so it’s a good idea to reflect back on this list and give myself a pat on the back.
5. Empathy and Judgment! This was probably the most inspiring lessons I learned from Rachel Hollis that I know preach to my children, “Someone else’s opinion of you is none of your business.”  How powerful are those words? Seriously, if we focus on judgment, it’s just a road block to achieving our goals. Our youth really needs to hear this with the impact on social media and the amount of worth put into “likes” on an image. Another lesson that goes hand in hand with this was to stop judging others. I am so guilty of this and probably hate that the most about myself. Having more empathy for others- I tell my kids all the time that they have no idea what is going on at home, but I am not following my own advice. Recently when we were away, there was a mother screaming at her teenage daughter during the fire drill on the ship. She ripped into her daughter for fooling around and my jaw just dropped. How could she scream like a crazy woman with all these people around? But you know what? I had no idea what her home life was like. Was she having issues with her daughter at home? Was she fighting with her husband? Was she dealing with depression? All, none of my business.  Teach my kids to grow up with an open mind

Rachel Hollis also has a documentary Made for More on Amazon.

And today, her new book was released,  Girl, Stop Apologizing: A Shame-Free Plan for Embracing and Achieving Your Goals. I can’t wait to grab a copy of this book and start learning more! Let me know your thoughts on her books? I would love to know what lessons you learned!