BookReviewtoday

I’m a bit of a perfectionist. Okay, I’m a huge perfectionist.  For me, everything has it’s place and needs to be in said place all the time.  I can’t go to bed unless the house is clean.  My husband is a complete slob and this is really one of the only topics we butt heads on. So when I saw Be Happy without being Perfect at our local bookstore, I picked it up.

This was a great book that was easy and enjoyable to read.  Sometimes  I find that self help books are a little too shiny happy and unrealistic in their goals to cure you of whatever neurosis you happen to have.  This was not the case with this book. The authors are quite clear that once a perfectionist, always a perfectionist.  But they clearly lay out  little things you can do to help keep the perfectionism under control on a day to day basis and also some tips for when you have a “flare-up”.  And the tips aren’t anything huge: a lot of breathing techniques, journaling and correcting thoughts. Each chapter deals with an aspect of our lives that can be affected by perfectionism and adapts each coping technique. 

Sprinkled with real stories from real women, I quite often felt like I was reading about me and even that fact made me feel better.

Since I have read this book, I have adopted several of the techniques and I find them very helpful.  Even people around me have commented on the fact that I can handle things  being out of whack a bit easier.  And to me, that’s the biggest testament that the book was worth buying.

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