Book Review: Year of Yes

I am not lucky. 

You know what I am?

I am smart

I am talented

I take advantage of opportunities that come my way

And I work really, really, hard

Don’t call me lucky

Call me a Badass!
-Shonda Rhimes

If your TV is on ABC on Thursday nights then you know Shonda Rhimes. If not Shonda is the creator and writer of Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal and How to Get Away With Murder. You would think a woman so, smart, so imaginative, so successful would be the most outgoing woman in the room but turns out she was just the opposite. "Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand in the Sun and Be Your Own Person" is about the journey of the year Shonda decided to stop saying no and start saying yes. Yes to party invitations, Yes to appearing on television shows, interviews, and speaking engagements and most importantly saying yes to things that required her to inspire, admire, and love herself. Shonda shared her struggles, her insecurities and how she overcame them all by simply saying YES.

I truly enjoyed reading this book. Not only was it great to get to know the woman behind my favorite TV shows but to also find out that just because you have it all doesn’t mean you’re truly happy with yourself. As woman we all have insecurities, there are things that make us question ourselves. There is always that voice in the back of our heads questioning “Am I good enough?” “Do I look good enough?” “Am I doing this right?” It’s not easy to say yes to those questions no matter how much other people tell us how great and beautiful we are or how we are doing things right. At the end of the day, other people approval doesn’t matter the only approval that matters is yours. Self-love is the best love.

Year of Yes was truly inspiring and showed me that it’s never too late to make changes in your life or that it’s not too late to start loving yourself, doing for you and saying YES to things you would normally say no too.

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