Book Review: Imperfect Courage by Jessica Honegger

You all…this book…

It spoke to me in ways that I didn’t know I needed to be spoken to. It reached down into my soul and encouraged me immensely. Jessica Honegger is the founder of Noonday Collection, a company which partners with vulnerable communities around the world, creating jobs and providing beautiful fair-trade items available through ambassadors who care deeply about changing the dynamics of global poverty. In this book, she takes readers through her journey, and along the way discusses different fears that affected her and ways she overcame those fears. Her stories helped me and will help anyone who picks up this book.

As a part of the launch team, I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions are my own. This post may contain affiliate links, see disclosure for more detail.

About the Book:

Imperfect Courage is divided into three parts:

Part One: The First Step explores to to choose courage over fear, and how to stand up and step into your own story and own your worth.

Part Two: Better Together looks at vulnerability, creating compassionate spaces, discovering the sisterhood effect, and committing to collaboration.

Part Three: A World Changed gets into widening your circle, leveraging your power, quit trying, and build a flourishing world.

Throughout the narrative, Honegger gives personal stories and examples that help the reader to catch her enthusiasm and her vision for how we can all live more empowered lives without fear.

My Thoughts:

There are so many great things about this book. I laughed and even cried a few times during my reading of it, because so much of it is so intensely true. Part Two is probably the most compelling to me, because women have a tendency to always be in competition with each other, and to nearly always compare judgmentally. The author encourages readers to be compassionate, empathetic, and collaborative rather than competitive or compare perceived strengths and weaknesses. I struggle deeply with this and her words were like sitting with a trusted friend who tells you that there’s another way to do things that works better. Honegger is a working mom (she runs a company!) and relates a story that hit close to home about running into a woman from her kids’ school at Starbucks. Jessica mentally compared herself to this super mom who was incredibly involved in the school, thinking that this was the mom that she should be. After some more talking to herself in her head, Jessica introduced herself to this mom who–surprise, surprise–was feeling and thinking similar things about Jessica and her life. This leads to an adage that may be familiar, but we all need to take it to heart: Her success does not equal my failure. We can all be successful and celebrate each other, we can work together so that we all feel valued.

The author is flat out vulnerable when it comes to owning up to her shortcomings, but this real talking is what makes her relatable and made me listen to her. When someone claims to have it all figured out and never presents some ugly parts of themselves, it makes them less authentic, and therefore everything they say seems unachievable to me. When an author or speaker lays it all on the table, I feel more likely to come along side and think “OK, if she can do it, so can I!”

Bottom Line:

These are just a few examples of the wealth of information and encouragement that exists in this book. There is so much meat here, prodding to get outside of our small circles and open our eyes to the world around us in many different ways. If you’re looking for inspiration and maybe even a push to re-invigorate or re-discover some passions in life you’ve buried under a pile of busy-ness and fear, Imperfect Courage is a fantastic place to start.

Order a copy for yourself today, and if you purchase by August 13, you can go to her site HERE and claim some amazing freebies!