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Present Over Perfect MP3 CD – Unabridged, August 9, 2016
In a culture that values speed, efficiency, image, and busyness, some of us are aching for another way to live: more intentional, more connected. Simpler, slower, richer. Many of us have believed the myth that achievement and success bring us contentment, only to find it’s actually things like connection and meaning, not success and achievement, that provide true peace and genuine happiness.
Present Over Perfect is bestselling author Shauna Niequist’s motto for how to live a rich, engaged, and loving life in the midst of what often feels terribly messy and imperfect. Similar in format to Shauna’s previous books, Present Over Perfect is a collection of essays that focuses on the journey from frantic and tired to connected and free. Many of us find ourselves busier than we want to be, missing the sweetest moments along the way. We end up resentful and distracted, full of regret and feeling disconnected. Present Over Perfect is a hand reaching out to a new way of living—full of grace, space, and connection.
As a wife, mother, friend, and writer, Shauna shares with vulnerability and transparency about the reality of living wholly present in our relationships with our families and the others we love and inspires readers to discover their own path to this more fulfilling way to do life.
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherZondervan on Brilliance Audio
- Publication dateAugust 9, 2016
- Dimensions6.5 x 0.63 x 5.5 inches
- ISBN-101531832059
- ISBN-13978-1531832056
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About the Author
Shauna Niequist is the New York Times best-selling author of Cold Tangerines, Bittersweet, Bread & Wine, Savor, and Present Over Perfect.
Product details
- Publisher : Zondervan on Brilliance Audio; Unabridged edition (August 9, 2016)
- Language : English
- ISBN-10 : 1531832059
- ISBN-13 : 978-1531832056
- Item Weight : 3.5 ounces
- Dimensions : 6.5 x 0.63 x 5.5 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #2,649,735 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #15,335 in Books on CD
- #23,280 in Christian Inspirational
- #42,271 in Christian Spiritual Growth (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
![Shauna Niequist](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/S/amzn-author-media-prod/kioif19r995ptc67fejn02motu._SY600_.jpg)
Shauna Niequist is the NYT bestselling author of I Guess I Haven't Learned That Yet, Present Over Perfect, Bread & Wine, Bittersweet, Cold Tangerines, and Savor.
She lives in New York City with her husband Aaron and their sons Henry & William.
Shauna is a bookworm and a passionate gatherer of people, especially around the table.
Customer reviews
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Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
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For those that said they could not relate to her "entitled" or idealistic lifestyle, I offer another opinion. I do not have a freelanced writing job, nor do I have a vacation home to run away to... BUT! I am a VERY BUSY (!!!), life/house-cluttered, performance-driven, highly stretched, sought-after, medical provider in one of the most difficult seasons of my life trying to balance work - motherhood to a toddler - newlywed - mentor - church volunteer... oh and friend, sister, daughter, granddaughter, etc.
This book ranks as one of my all time top books... among the likes of Purpose Driven Life, Experiencing God, Keep Your Love On, and the Good Book itself.
If I wanted to change anything in the book, it would simply be for her to add strategies for her simplification process - like how she initiated the decluttering of her closets and her kids rooms. Haha.
For me, this sucker punched me in the gut, brought me to tears of revelation, challenged me to a fresh awakening, and catalyzed me into setting boundaries at work. I was tired of serving my husband and my daughter leftovers of my dried up, worn out, depleted self every night when I got home!
I absolutely LOVED this book and feel she could have singlehandedly written it for me. It's like one of those moments when you're sitting in church and you feel like the only one in the congregation when the pastor is preaching... yeah. That was my experience with this book.
Thank you Shauna!!!
Top reviews from other countries
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Pushing for perfection is what so many entrepreneurs, especially women do, but you can end up with stale relationships, kids trying to connect with you but being honest you aren’t fully present, even your weekends end up with little quality time and you gain rapid weight gain due to stress and not making time for exercise. You feel you are trapped on this hamster wheel eventually feeling unfulfilled at work and unfulfilled at home.
Shauna describes it perfectly ‘it’s like I was pulling a little red wagon, and as I pulled it along, I filled it so full that I could barely keep pulling. That red wagon was my life, and the weight of pulling it was destroying me. I was aware that I was missing the very things I so badly longed for: connection, meaning, peace. But there was something that kept driving me forward – a set of beliefs and instincts that kept me pushing, pushing, pushing event as I was longing to rest’….. My health was suffering……. My ability to taste and connect and feel deeply had been badly compromised…. This book is an account of my winding, messy journey from exhaustion to peace, from isolation to connection, from hustling and multitasking to sacred presence…
A key phrase from her book …’You don’t have to damage your body and your soul and the people you love most in order to get done what you think you have to get done. You don’t have to live like this’…..
‘Loving one’s work is a gift. And loving one’s work makes it really easy to neglect other parts of life’.
When you’ve tried all the tactics of time management, developing a team, to-do lists and scheduling and this doesn’t work, you’ve got to change tactics. This is where this book comes in.
The book focused on how Shauna left a life of busyness and frantic living, a constant pressure to perform faster, push harder and produce more, all while maintaining an exhausting image of perfection. Her life was transformed through stopping, resting, creating, connecting and cultivating silence and in that silence, she discovered the voice of love that she had been aching to hear, this led her to a new life based on grace, rest, silence, simplicity, prayer and connection with the people that mattered most to her and rediscovered who she was meant to be.
She adopted new ways of embracing silence – walking away from past beliefs and what someone told me you should be, in favour of walking toward what you truly love. It has certainly given me food for thought and from November, I personally am reducing my work down to four days per week taking Fridays off and treating these as ‘Fulfilment Fridays’ – using Fridays as a special time for me to get grounded, have fun, meditate, journal and as a day of self-care.
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