The Blurb On The Back:

I have enough.

I do enough.

I am enough.

In a world where people are always busy, always rushing, and never feel like they are a good enough friend, partner or employee, Sheridan Stewart’s I Am Enough helps harness and prioritise being calm, slowing down and focusing on self-care.

Drawing on the author’s own experiences, I Am Enough is the story of her 90-day challenge to have enough, do enough and be enough, hoping that her enriching experience will encourage and teach others.  Alongside Sheridan’s personal story, this book is also an inspiration and road map for readers to take up the I Am Enough quest themselves and change their lives by following in her footsteps on a journey towards contentment.  

I AM ENOUGH was released in the United Kingdom on 19th January 2023.  Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.

You can order I AM ENOUGH by Sheridan Stewart from Amazon UK, Waterstone’s or Bookshop.org UK.  I earn commission on any purchases made through these links.

The Review (Cut For Spoilers):

Sheridan Stewart is a writer, speaker and broadcaster for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.  Her debut book is a strange mix of memoir and self-help tips in a 90 day programme intended to assist the reader in pausing and reflecting on what it means to be, do and have enough.  There are some valid points in the book that made me think about what is going on in my life, but the mix of actions and affirmations is quite thin and generic. 

I picked this up because I’ve been through a number of significant changes over the last 18 months, including moving house and facing some health issues.  All of that has made me re-evaluate certain aspects of my life and I’ve been reading more self-help books as I process through things.  As a result, I’m pretty familiar with the genre and how self-help authors structure their books – typically the focus is on action points, reflection points and affirmations with a brief introduction section tying in the author’s own experience.  

Stewart’s book is unusual in that the big focus of the book is on her experiences in considering and putting into effect these techniques over the 90 days.  As a result, she shares a lot here about her thoughts about her weight, her relationship with her mother and some friends who were dealing with cancer and other illnesses, and her spending habits (among other things).  I appreciated the honesty she displays here and, as you might expect from an Aussie writer, she has a great straight forward, tell-it-like-it-is style, which I think worked very well and gives the book an intimate, almost chatty, feel.

However, I thought that the honesty of Stewart’s experiences comes at the expense of the actual advice, which is very thin.  Essentially each chapter starts with a “Contemplation”, which are basically questions that the reader should consider and which the chapter considers, Stewart’s experiences relative to those contemplations and then an Action and an Affirmation.  Some of the Actions are quite common sense and useful, but there aren’t a lot of them.  The Affirmations are something that I have to say have never worked for me, and there’s a certain irony in Stewart including them as she herself says that they haven’t always worked for her either, but there’s no harm in them and if you are someone who likes an affirmation.

If all this sounds like I am down on the book, then I would stress that I did take some things away from it.  The way Stewart describes looking at her spending resonated with me and although I didn’t do her challenge (which included cutting spending on restaurants, cafes and coffee), I did take a look at my own spending habits and identified where I could make savings.  However, I do think it’s a shame that Stewart talks about losing weight in this book – so many self help books are about weight loss and although Stewart does discuss how she is happier with her body by the end of the book, I would have liked to have seen some more from her on how she came to be happy with it given that it is a major preoccupation of hers.

Ultimately, this is an unusual self help book and one that I don’t think is going to work for everyone.  However, there is a genuineness to it and it is not just there to flog the author’s services and as such, if you’re looking for something different in the genre then this may well be worth a few hours of your time.