Book Review: Good Enough is the New Perfect

Good Enough is the New Perfect:  Finding Happiness and Success in Modern Motherhood
Written by:  Becky Beaupre Gillespie & Hollee Schwartz Temple
Published by: Harlequin, 2011
320 pages

from goodreads.com:
We're the generation destined to have it all—a great job, the perfect family and the time to enjoy both. But between the conference calls and soccer practices, do you feel like you've lost track of what really makes you happy? And are you finding out the hard way that you can't do everything?

The truth is that you can have it all.

The secret is creating an "all" that you love.

Join a growing new wave of mothers who are learning to let go of the little things and focus on what they really want out of their career, their family and their life. Through their groundbreaking research, Becky Beaupre Gillespie and Hollee Schwartz Temple have discovered a paradigm shift in motherhood today: more and more mothers are losing their "never enough" attitude and embracing a Good Enough mindset to be happier, more confident and more successful. Filled with inspiring firsthand accounts from working mothers and drawn from the latest research, Good Enough Is the New Perfect is a true roadmap for the incredible balancing act we call motherhood.

* I read this book after I decided to quit my job.  Based on this book, I've been a Never Enough, "a high-achiever with a strong need to be the best at everything." I've always been hard on myself to be perfect, regardless of how impossible it is.  As I've slowly adjusted to life as a stay-at-home mom I've had to recreate my definition of what success means to me.  It definitely wasn't a high paycheck in a job that I hated, where the family was always tired and stressed out.  I've had to be okay with knowing that I have earned a degree from an Ivy League University and have a Masters degree and am not using either.  I am enjoying this time that I have with my children and hope to eventually find a job that will offer me the flexibility to continue to be home part-time with my kids.   

For working moms, this book is inspiring.  Many women have shared their experiences on how they have found happiness and success working and being a mother.  The authors talk about a "New Perfect" which is an attitude that "includes a thought-out approach to work, marriage, parenting - and even ideas about how we use technology, how we define success, and what it takes to make us truly happy."     

The authors specifically targeted a certain population when surveying working mothers - "those who had the privilege of an education and a certain amount of choice regarding work....Almost all of the survey respondents were college-educated and relatively secure financially."  Unfortunately, there is a  huge population of working women out there that don't have the freedom that so many of us other mothers have.  For them, it's a lot harder to "have it all."

Rating: 1 thumb up.