Present Over Perfect

Loved this book, easy read and full of good information.

This book spoke VOLUMES into my current season! I couldn't put it down and have already gone thru it again, re-reading my underlines and notes! I read a lot of it out loud to my husband and he was SO grateful I fell onto this book. Haha. For those that said they could not relate to her "entitled" or idealistic lifestyle, I offer another opinion. I do not have a freelanced writing job, nor do I have a vacation home to run away to... BUT! I am a VERY BUSY (!!!), life/house-cluttered, performance-driven, highly stretched, sought-after, medical provider in one of the most difficult seasons of my life trying to balance work - motherhood to a toddler - newlywed - mentor - church volunteer... oh and friend, sister, daughter, granddaughter, etc. This book ranks as one of my all time top books... among the likes of Purpose Driven Life, Experiencing God, Keep Your Love On, and the Good Book itself. If I wanted to change anything in the book, it would simply be for her to add strategies for her simplification process - like how she initiated the decluttering of her closets and her kids rooms. Haha. For me, this sucker punched me in the gut, brought me to tears of revelation, challenged me to a fresh awakening, and catalyzed me into setting boundaries at work. I was tired of serving my husband and my daughter leftovers of my dried up, worn out, depleted self every night when I got home! I absolutely LOVED this book and feel she could have singlehandedly written it for me. It's like one of those moments when you're sitting in church and you feel like the only one in the congregation when the pastor is preaching... yeah. That was my experience with this book. Thank you Shauna!!!

I have never written an Amazon review before, but Shauna has mentioned in a past book that she reads her Amazon reviews and I wanted to have some way to communicate my thoughts to her. I found Shauna's book "Bittersweet" in a Barnes and Noble in the midst of dealing with a traumatic loss. Shauna's words pierced through my darkness and reminded me of the life in front of me. Her words helped me realize that it was my responsibility to keep making a beautiful life and to accept the gifts in front of me; that doing so didn't dishonor the pain or the loss, but would help me through it. I will be forever grateful for her vulnerability in writing this book. After that, I went back and read Shauna's first book "Cold Tangerines." It's well written (she's a beautiful writer) but what impressed me most was the growth that had happened in Shauna in between the two books. "Bittersweet" is written by someone who has been tested by loss and questions and doubt. "Cold Tangerines" was sweet and had some inspiring passages, but its innocence is less relatable if you feel like life has tossed you around a little. Both books are authentic, though, because they are chronologically written. That's why this book isn't totally a surprise to me. She writes in her first few books about the joy she finds in hospitality and hosting parties and feeding people and packing people and experiences into every corner of her life. I felt inspired, and tried to throw more parties and open up my home and infuse every moment of my life with joy, Shauna-style. Sure enough, it is fun--and yet it can easily result in exhaustion if your lifestyle has not been constructed with margin in mind. I appreciate Shauna's honesty and vulnerability to start a conversation about the reality of our human limitations, about identifying what drives us to push past them, and her willingness to share her realization that joy is actually not something that we have to "create" but something that we can find in our boring, quiet house, in the rhythms of our marriage, and in playing Legos with our kids--if we choose to look for it. While I agree with the reviewers who said this book got a little repetitive, I found myself copying multiple sections of her book into my journal to think and pray about. There is still plenty here. I want to thank Shauna for continuing to share her authentic life with us. Her evolution from book to book reminds me that I am also growing, that the challenges and joy and even the boring days of the last decade of my life HAVE actually resulted in depth and growth and richness, and that I can choose to re-evaluate the directions of that growth and adjust as needed. It is courageous to put words to your present life and to share who you are NOW with others; this book inspires me to have more honest conversations about who I am and where I'm at now instead of waiting to get it all figured out. In the end, the best thing I can say about this book is that reading it forced me to acknowledge that every choice I'm making right now IS making something, and that I'm a little ambiguous about where those choices are taking me. I'm inspired to have more conversations, to do more thinking, and to pray more honestly (<--her thoughts on prayer were easily the best parts of the book) to try to figure it out. Thank you, Shauna, for sharing your journey, and for being a part of mine.

Shauna Niequiest walked into my life on the afternoon of August 12th on a large screen, as I enjoyed the Global Leadership Summit of 2016 Live from Atlanta via satellite. I had just recently, at the beginning of of 2016, taken the plunge into he "hustle". I suppose I had dabbled there a time or two, but this year I was drowning in a dangerous dance of hustle-prove you're good enough-hustle,-you're not good enough-hustle harder- take on more - isolate yourself - hustle- keep trying and repeat. The things I was going, I had gotten involved for all of the right reasons. These were "good things" , things to help others, to serve God, but by August I was missing myself. I was spiraling out of control mentally and spiritually. I was doing so much that I was alone. I had thoroughly enjoyed the summit up to that point, I had pages and pages of life-changing revelations, but listening to Shauna I wrote, then tweeted out these words, "The love is never found in the hustle! It is received from God Himself, the One who created you for love" My heart leapt because I knew in my heart I was looking for love there. I knew I had to read this book. I read it fast some days, and slow others. I read many parts aloud to my husband, I re-read other parts as tears fell from my eyes. I could not help but realize the goodness of God for allowing me to find this message in the nick of time! Just when I believe I'll realize the dream of motherhood soon, just as the women's group God has given me was going to take off, just as I prepared to "really" write my first published work, just as the demands & busyness of my career were taking a harsh toll on me. Just when I was flailing so hard in the waters of hustle-Dom, that I was almost ready to just lie there and forget it! Just quit it ALL! This message came like a training ground. It assured me that God had indeed called me to do many things, but He did NOT call/require me to "lose my soul" doing them. I knew that verse before, but now I understand better what "Gaining the whole world" means."Thank you Shauna for stretching out your loving hand through your words that have brought hope and joy to me. This book has been used as a tool to bring God's peace into my heart, I am drinking in the Love and Grace of God in a way I never knew possible. I am free from the shame of not enough, and I am drinking in life, love and hope, and freely sharing my learning with others.

I really love Shauna's writing style because unlike a lot of Christian authors, she has a real love and feel for words. You can tell she reads constantly because her writing is so melodic, so rhythmic. I was very much anticipating this new book, and I was not disappointed. From the title you can tell exactly what it's about. It's written in short story format, so each essay could stand on it's own, yet somehow it all fits together beautifully because of the central heart of it. It is hard to pinpoint one main takeaway and judging by all the highlighting I did in my kindle edition, you can see what I mean. But if I had to pick one thing, it would be this: she talks about how as Christians we want to serve the kingdom of God, but yet we forget that we ourselves, our very personhood, are also in that kingdom that we serve. And if we are left wanting, and if we ourselves have to push our bodies to the limit, and sacrifice our souls in the process, than we aren't serving the kingdom at all. We're hurting it, because we're hurting ourselves. I'm not a mom, so sometimes I don't resonate with everything she says about motherhood, and marriage, but that piece stuck with me in a big way.

I appreciate how she tried to relate to others. She talks a lot about her personal life which is fine. She doesn't say how she helped herself other than therapy and talking. The things she does value is God and family which I agree with. I just feel this book was more to help herself and not show us how to help ourselves. She comes from privilege and she talks a lot about leaving her children with babysitters, etc. even after she felt better about her life. I would choose different. I find other books have helped me more TBH. I feel that we come from the same understanding but she didn't explain how to help or find help or help us improve.. just that she got help herself. Not the best self help book but relatable, that your not alone. That's all I got out of it, that she feels better but didn't guide much. I would keep looking but I made it through to give it a chance. Not one I would recommend but God bless her and happy she found peace for herself.

I can't tell you how many times this book came up as a recommendation. But I always bypassed it. But last night, I felt like I needed to read it. I truly believe that God will bring the right book at the right time. This book was that for me. I recently was asked "What is your identity tied to?" As I thought about it, I realized that, for most of my life, my identity has been tied to being seen as responsible and competent. This resulted in a lot of hiding, pretending, and people pleasing. I realized that somewhere along the way, I lost my true self. I wanted to be perfect. I pushed myself to the breaking point. But it was never enough. Things like self care wasn't even on my radar. I finally reached the point, where I said "I can't live like this anymore. Something has to change." I also realized that I hadn't thought about what I want out of life and for myself in a very long time. I articulated the problem, but finding a solution turned out to be difficult, and the way out elusive. Until I read this book. I devoured it in a single sitting. Shauna writes with such clarity. We share so many of the same struggles. She shares my passion for books and words. She wrote things that I've felt and thought for so long. This book cracked me wide open. Reading Shauna's journey gave me hope that I could have a different kind of life too. There is so much here to think and pray about. My process may be different than hers, but that's okay. But this book has given me a starting place. If you struggle with being overly responsible, overworked, and overcommitted, do yourself a favor and read this book. It will be like a balm for your soul. Another excellent book is Fiercehearted by Holley Gerth

...that's how I felt reading this book - that my best friend was speaking some major truth into my life. This is an excellent read for any woman at any stage of her life. This book gave me permission to take my life back - to narrow my commitments (even if it means disappointing people), stop looking for people's approval of me - of my achievements, my home, my body, my schedule. Shauna helped me to remember what I had long forgot - that my life is my own, and every second of it is my choice as to how it is spent. It made me reflect on why I am so busy, so over-committed, why I hang on to so many friends, why my home has to be perfect before people come over, why I have never dove head first into my real passion and instead spent time slaving over the gifts and talents of mine that everyone else worshiped. I mean, this book addressed some deep, heavy stuff. I loved it. This is one of those books that you buy ten copies of and hand out to friends, immediately upon finishing. I cannot recommend this book more highly (highly enough??). Whatever. Go buy it.