SHED Your Stuff Book Review

SHED Your Stuff, Change Your Life: A Four-Step Guide to Getting Unstuck by Julie Morgenstern came up when I searched online at the library so I added it to my list of things that I wanted to read.   I picked it up at the library and was excited to start my journey!!

The first few chapters gave some examples of different people at different stages in life and followed them through the book so that you could see how the different steps applied to "real" people.  I found the steps to be interesting but missing a little bit more of the step on how the issues were resolved.  The one example of a person who was spending too much time going to useless meetings at work so to clear their schedule, they talked to their boss and got out of the meetings.  Has this ever worked for you??  It never worked for me when I had useless meetings because my boss told me that they were mandatory and I had to go.

I continued through the different steps:

Part 1:  Getting Unstuck
Part 2: Separate The Treasures
Part 3: Heave the Trash
Part 4:  Embrace Your Identity
Part 5:  Drive Yourself Forward

I read the entire book and kept waiting for the part that the book would catch me and it just didn't.  I think that it would have been a good book for me a few years ago when I was struggling with quitting my job and staying home with my son.  I might have done a few steps in the book without even realizing it back then.  I knew that I wanted to be with my little guy all day and not miss any of the fun things that he says or does but I couldn't imagine quitting my job since I had been working hard (sometimes at two or three jobs at the same time) for 20 years.  I decided that my priority in life was my son so I left the company and have enjoyed almost every minute of it!!  A day at home with my son (no matter how hard), is always better than a good day at the office.  I love my son and wouldn't do anything differently... except maybe quitting soon to save my sanity. 

I understand the book and the message that it is trying to get across but not once in the book does it mention a family with kids.  It tells me that I am supposed to put my needs first.  If I put my needs first and my husband puts his needs first, who is watching our son while we are out having fun??  I would love to start exercising again but I am not sure how to put that in the schedule without costing my family time.  I couldn't relate to the whole concept of the book but I am still glad that I read it because it does help you to identify things that you need to work on within yourself.

If you think that this is something you would like to learn about, check out this book at your local library or bookstore.  Let me know what you think about it!!