I delete Instagram from my phone at least once a week.
It’s never permanent – usually for a few hours, or up to a day. And it’s when I find myself down a black hole of analyzing someone’s feed and Stories, wondering how their lives are so perfect.
Naturally, I start comparing my life to theirs. And I get really down on myself. I don’t focus on the good (my family, my home, the fact that I have Taco Bell sauce packets in every bag I own). Instead, I morph into my worst enemy and focus on the stuff that honestly doesn’t matter – my stagnant Instagram following, my sausage-link arms, and wondering why I was passed over for a trip.
If comparison is the thief of joy, then Instagram is the entire Ocean’s Thirteen team. It gets me down.
And so, I delete. And then I open my Kindle app to re-read one of my favorite books.
Ann Shoket’s The Big Life has been the book I keep coming back to.
It’s a pep talk, a kick-in-the-ass, and a bottle-of-wine-with-a-girlfriend all in one. And it’s the ultimate cure for my Instagram Self-Loathing.
This book is rare in that every woman has something to take from it. It doesn’t force you into a specific mold of woman the way so many previous books have before. For as much as I loved Drop The Ball, it benefits mothers (and working moms, at that) the most.
The Big Life is for every woman – young or old, corporette or freelance hustler, executive or activist. It cuts through the bull that is pushed on us through media (traditional and social) and that we push on ourselves.
And it does so in a motivating, encouraging, I-got-your-back kind of way.
The Big Life isn’t a career book, or a lifestyle book. It’s a guide to building the life you want to live – and not what your parents, your friends, or your partner wants for you. That’s what makes it different than every other book out there.
The Big Life is written in Ann’s voice, which is as your biggest cheerleader. How she writes is exactly how she sounds. And I would know – she and I were writing our books at the same time, in the same co-working space. Â She always had an encouraging word and a quick pep talk in the moments I needed them.
Now, I have them all the time thanks to her book. As do you.
Bonus – The Big Life is available for just $1 on Kindle and other digital formats. You’re welcome.
