I’ve recently finished the trilogy of self-help books by Sarah Knight:  The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a Fuck; Get Your Shit Together; and You Do You.  It was reading (and finishing in about an hour) You Do You that prompted me to check out her other books and I have to say, these are much more my type of self-help books (and not just because she swears as much as I do).

These books focus on all the things I need to be working on:  letting go of things I can’t control, gaining control of aspects of my life that I can, of being myself authentically and proudly no matter what.  I gave a great deal of fucks this year, more than I really needed to, with some things I won’t name, that took up a great deal of my time and limited energy.  And that’s not something I want to continue in the coming year.

Her first book is all about figuring out what things you really care about and what things you really don’t care about or need to care about, and getting rid of them.  “Get rid of the annoy, focus on what brings joy.”  Making lists of things you currently give a fuck about, then dividing them into things you do and don’t need to give a fuck about really helped me cut out some negativity I didn’t need hanging around.

Her second book really is helpful in getting your shit together.  Similar to her first book, the first focus is on figuring out what you need to do and what you don’t.  Then, once you have that figured out, decide which is truly important and what isn’t.  It’s amazing the amount of things I was able to scratch off my long to-do list with this method of focusing on the must dos first, then worrying about the rest later.

Finally, You Do You is about focusing on you, on being selfish with your time, your energy, and your fucks to get the most out of life for you.  Understanding that it’s OK to be self-ISH and put yourself first was an amazing inspiration for me and helped me put myself forward on things I wanted, and pulled back on things I didn’t want.

I actually bought all three of her books because I know I’m going to keep referring to them a lot with this coming year.  These are the type of self-help books I need, ones that are encouraging without being twee, ones that are motivating without being overwhelming, and ones that are just plain fun to read and work with.