On page 176, she describes three ways in which women handle praise and recognition and how we need to change this! We need to start owning our accomplishments – with swagger and badassery. We always reply with “oh, it was nothing” when really it wasn’t just nothing – something was a giant pile of hard work! Or we try to pass the praise off onto others, sometimes warranted, but not always. Most women just don’t naturally have swagger. Something that women, including myself, are often not very good at is accepting compliments or any kind of praise. Wonder Woman is all swagger and badassery.” (p.195) Like you own the place.’ She even references a TED Talk that discusses how posing like this to start your day really does give you more confidence by noon! Power posing is basically posing like Wonder Woman – ‘legs in a wide stance, chin up, hands on your hips.

64) Shonda tells us how her online network reminds her to ‘power pose’. Call me a badass.” (p.181).Įarly in the book (p. You know what I am? I am smart, I am talented, I take advantage of the opportunities that come my way and I work really, really hard. Lucky implies that I was handed something I did not earn, that I did not work hard for…I am not lucky. In this book, Shonda describes how and why she hates it too, when she says: “ Lucky implies that I didn’t do anything. I hate when people say “you’re so lucky”. Here are some of the personal thoughts that she shares that I found to be both pertinent and inspirational! I’m Not Lucky – I’m a Badass – And I Need To Own It Yet, although this story is deeply personal about herself, you feel as if you’re in her head, and sometimes you see yourself in her shoes because you’ve been there before. You feel like you get to know her intimately, the way you know Olivia Pope or Meredith Grey. This book is written entirely in first person and Shonda gets pretty personal. That is only part of how this book goes (I’m trying to share and make it enticing, but I also don’t want to spoil it for you!). I wondered if it would be like that Jim Carey movie “Yes Man” where he has to say ‘yes’ to everything and then you see how it changes his life. ‘Year of Yes’ is of course about saying ‘yes’ to things, but it isn’t quite what I thought. Maybe timing is everything for when we read certain books…it certainly was for me! Through reading this book, timing was certainly everything for Shona Rhimes when she decided to do her ‘year of yes’ as well. It came out a few years ago and has been sitting on my shelf ever since, just waiting to be read.

I originally heard about this book on The Daily Show (of all places).

Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes