2014 JANUARY #BookCLUB summary of "The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are" by Brene Brown @LoveLearningNOW

1. The Gifts of Imperfection:
Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be
and Embrace Who You Are
2014 JANUARY #BookCLUB
Love Learning Empowerment

2. “I learned about the inextricable connection between joy and
gratitude and how things I take for granted, like rest and play,
are vital to our health as nutrition and exercise.”

3. What’s on Your List?
DO
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Worthiness
Rest
Play
Trust
Faith
Intuition
Hope
Authenticity
Love
Joy
Gratitude
Creativity
DON’T
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Perfection
Numbing
Certainty
Exhaustion
Self-sufficiency
Being cool
Fitting in
Judgment
Shame
Entitlement
Scarcity

4. Healthy Striving:
•Self-focused
•How can I improve?
Perfectionism:
•Other focused
•What will they think?

5. Worthiness
• Worthiness is not entitlement.
“I deserve this just because I want it.”
• Worthiness is agency.
“I know I’m valuable just because I am.”

6. “How much we know and understand
ourselves is critically important, but
there is something that is even more
essential to living a wholehearted life:
loving ourselves.”

7. I AM
Brave
Enough
Imperfect
Vulnerable
Sometimes Afraid
Wholehearted living is
about engaging in our lives
from a place of worthiness.
It is a process.

8. To be brave is to sometimes say, “I don’t know.”

9. Gifts of Imperfection Tools:
• Courage
• Compassion
• Connection

10. Tools Summary: Courage & Compassion
• “The root of the word ‘courage’ is ‘cor’ – the Latin
word for heart.”
– Original meaning of courage
“To speak one’s mind by telling all one’s heart.”
• Compassion
– Are you kind but firm?
– Less angry and more accountable?
– Blame less and more respect for boundaries?

11. Tools Summary: Connection
“Fitting in gets in the way of belonging; belonging doesn’t require us
to change who we are; it requires us to be who we are.”

12. Thoughts to Ponder
• “We can only love others as much as we love
ourselves.”
• “Practicing self-love means learning how to trust
ourselves, to treat ourselves with respect and to
be kind and affectionate toward ourselves.”
• “True belonging only happens when we present
our authentic, imperfect selves to the world, our
sense of belonging can never be greater than our
level of self-acceptance.”

13. Authenticity
• “Authenticity is not something we have or don’t have. It’s a
practice – a conscious choice of how we want to live daily.”
• “The choice to show up and be real, the choice to be honest,
the choice to let our true selves be seen; rather than fitting in
and people pleasing.”
• “Choosing authenticity means cultivating the courage to be
imperfect, to set boundaries and to allow ourselves to be
vulnerable.”
• “Sometimes being real over being liked is all about playing it
unsafe.”

14. Are You Willing to Fight?

15. Shame
• “Shame, blame, disrespect, betrayal and the withholding
of affection damage the roots which love grows.”
• “Shame is the intensely painful feeling or experience of
believing that we are flawed and therefore unworthy of
love and belonging.”
• “When we experience shame, we feel disconnected and
desperate for worthiness.”
• Difference between shame and guilt:
o Guilt = I did something bad. (behaviors)
o Shame = I am bad. (who we are)

16. Priorities
Set new boundaries
o 10 Ways to Build and Preserve Boundaries
Let go of the need to:
o Please
o Perform
o Perfect

17. Exhausted or Overwhelmed?
• Create deliberate thoughts
• Make new and different choices
• Take action
DIG deeper
(get deliberate, get inspired, get going)

19. “An invitation to join a
wholehearted revolution.”
“Revolution might sound a
little dramatic, but in this
world, choosing
authenticity and
worthiness is an absolute
act of resistance.”
“Choosing to live and love
with our whole hearts is an
act of defiance.”
All are welcome to join!

20. The Gifts of Imperfection:
Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be
and Embrace Who You Are
Embrace yourself today!
Love Learning Empowerment

21. Want to join our 2014 #BookCLUB?
ENJOY!