Brene Brown comes highly recommended by a few girlfriends, so I picked this one up at the library to see what all the fuss is about. I suspect seeing or hearing her speak may be part of the magic, as reading this was fine but not life changing.
The book itself is a slim 160 pages, with the first half outlining the core ideas and the last half digging into 10 ‘Guideposts’ about things to move away from/closer too. The title of the book -The Gifts of Imperfection- is the main thesis: to be our authentic selves and enjoy ‘wholehearted’ living, we have to give up on the idea of perfection. To support achieve this mindset/ state of being (being our authentic selves) she argues that we need courage, compassion and belonging. I understood and agreed with her points as she walked through them, but it all felt a little light- I whizzed through these sections so quickly that their connection to the other chapters and the overall theme felt a little lost.
This main section also devotes significant discussion to shame, with Brown describing herself as a ‘shame researcher’. This part was most interesting to me, and I will dig into her catalogue to see if she devotes more writing (or speaking) to this (I suspect so given that that’s how she self-identifies). The ways that we react badly, or miss out on joy, belonging, etc. because of our shame was the most intriguing part of this for me.
The last half with the 10 Guideposts, which are structured as something to work towards/away from (ie: Cultivating Creativity/ Letting Go of Comparison’). As with the earlier sections, her ideas all seem reasonable and I don’t disagree with them, but it all feels a little breezy. I appreciate that it feels like Brown has done a lot of thinking to come up with the definitions she uses (which are very specific, and she tells us about all the work she went through to find what felt like the most accurate definition), but I’m not sure that it actually matters quite that much?
Overall: a little meh, although I remain curious about and will look out for her work dealing with anger, blame and shame.