When I saw that there was an average book for average adults being released, I was really excited. I never heard of Samantha Matt before seeing her book pop up all over Twitter but now I feel really connected to her and I love her journey.
"Average is the New Awesome" is a manifesto for all the people who feel normal... who feel average and have average dreams. This isn't a book about starting your own company or making millions of dollars or becoming the CEO at age 25. This is a very realistic book for everyone... it's one of the most relatable books I've ever read and it's a quick read.
Publisher's Summary
A celebration of ordinary awesomeness, for all of us who were told "You can do anything!" and then found out we actually can't
Crappy homes, lame love lives, getting passed over for a great job (again)--not what we expected for our adulthoods. Americans tell their children you can become anything! But let's face it--most of us can't.
Sure, some of our peers go on to become astronauts or billionaires. But most of us don't. In Average Is the New Awesome, Samantha Matt offers encouragement to us regular humans. Full of hilarious stories and insightful advice, this is a manifesto for ordinary awesomeness--for the beauty that can be found when we acknowledge that good enough really is good enough, and that greatness is ours to define.
My Thoughts
I devoured this book in just a few days and it's one of those self-help guides that I'll reference for years to come. It is not as 'timely' as others I've read wherein a year it'll be out of date and while it's filled with common advice you have probably across at some point in your life, it's still useful.
"Average is the New Awesome" is incredibly comforting. It didn't make me feel like I needed to be doing more, it didn't inspire me*, it didn't motivate me... not in the way other 'career/self-help' books have. It calmed me, it eased my nerves, it opened my eyes to something I hadn't realized before.
*It did inspire me to get my butt up and get to writing though
It's perfectly ok to not have wild dreams. It's perfectly ok to be 27 years old and not have it all planned out because life is not something that is able to be planned. It's fine to be average and most people are average. Social media has contributed greatly to our need to be busy, to create, to be something more but this book, Samantha Matt, made it perfectly acceptable to not want those things... to simply exist and be active in your life is enough.
I loved this book so much. When I turned the last page I felt relieved, relieved that someone understood me, and relieved that average was enough.
If you need something to ease your mind if you are looking for an answer to your quarter-life crisis, this book is it. Everyone under the age of 35 needs to read this book... it'll be a comfort like you have never known.
xoxo
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