Very few people exude more confidence than Luvvie Ajayi Jones. Creatively prolific and gloriously vibrant, Luvvie lays out a kaleidoscopic array of insights and powerful tools to help you understand and celebrate yourself. And that's exactly the gift she brings in her book, The Fear-Fighter Manual.
Building on her own fierce commitment to owning herself and speaking the truth, Luvvie guides us through awareness-building and exercises that help us do the same. For example, she invites us to write our own Oriki, which she describes as, "a greeting that praises you through praising your kinship and speaking life to your destiny. It is your personal hype mantra and can be spoken or sung." Orikis as she uses them often make liberal use of alliteration or consonance, making them incredibly fun to play with and create. Are you, for example, a fierce facilitator of family fun? An extraordinary expatriate excavating excitement? A bold builder of blisteringly boisterous book stacks? This exercise not only helps you notice and own who you are, it roots you in your own history, and helps you take pride in what you value. She also encourages us in our own audacity. What if the limits we set on ourselves are just ideas that are dissolvable? What if we could set them aside, and move beyond them? What would we do then? If you were without limits, what would your audacity invite you to do? She also takes on the topic of impostor syndrome, which for so many of us can feel like exactly one of those limits. As she puts it, "Impostor syndrome tells us that we need to be perfect, otherwise we are failing. We need to realize that perfection is the enemy of progress, and that it does not exist." It doesn't even exist. (Which we all know is true, even when it's hard to admit!) This book is a treasure chest of reflections and actionable ideas on how to embrace ourselves fully, become more of who we are, and do the work in the world that we are here to do. Check it out, and let me know what you think of it when you do! I'd love to hear from you. In the meantime, if perfectionism is something that trips you up (as if does with so many of us), I'd love to see you at this month's workshop, which teaches you practical, accessible tools for moving past perfectionism to do the creative work you're dying to do. Learn more and sign up here!