A thoughtful guide that will aid high achievers in finding balance and will serve as a reminder that sometimes enough is...
A self-help book that promises fulfillment and an end to burnout.
In a society fueled by the ever-present need for more, says author and entrepreneur Balak, it’s nearly impossible to know what’s enough. She calls this concept—this “belief that more will solve everything”—“chasing enough.” But according to the author, chasing enough is a perilous cycle that traps even the most successful people; the harder one works toward “enough,” the further one actually gets from it. In fact, “high achievers are running on fumes, mistaking exhaustion for excellence,” resulting in not only burnout, but self-abandonment. Balak compares one’s capacity to a container; everyone has finite space to hold the physical, emotional, mental, relational, and financial demands of a busy life. The book is built around 11 lessons that explore the toxic patterns that keep “high achievers stuck in the cycle of proving, performing, and perpetually moving the goal post.” Each chapter ends with a “Well-Resourced Checkpoint,” consisting of “reflection questions, exercises, and practices” to keep readers on track toward a life of fulfillment and joy. Mantras, prompts, challenges, and other ideas to stay balanced fill these pages, alongside real-life anecdotes from the life of a high-powered high achiever. Readers will learn about and practice strategies to surround themselves with a system of support, establish boundaries, say no, and make space for their true selves, among countless other tips and tricks to achieve balance and find joy in the enough. Balak writes with thoughtful and intentional purpose; each sentence is carefully crafted and integral to the process of achieving sustainable success. Her personal stories are powerful—and sometimes even shocking—yet still applicable to any high-achieving reader. The book is visually straightforward and easy to follow despite the vast quantity of information being presented. One particular area of Balak’s plan to “Get Real, Get Clear, Get Resourced, and Get Moving” may leave readers wanting more: The checkpoints at the end of each chapter, while helpful, are limited. Still, Balak offers an experienced and comprehensive map toward a life free from overwork.
A thoughtful guide that will aid high achievers in finding balance and will serve as a reminder that sometimes enough is enough.Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2026
ISBN: 9781774588239
Page Count: 280
Publisher: Page Two
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.
A noted actor turns to verse: “Poems are a Saturday in the middle of the week.”
McConaughey, author of the gracefully written memoir Greenlights, has been writing poems since his teens, closing with one “written in an Australian bathtub” that reads just as a poem by an 18-year-old (Rimbaud excepted) should read: “Ignorant minds of the fortunate man / Blind of the fate shaping every land.” McConaughey is fearless in his commitment to the rhyme, no matter how slight the result (“Oops, took a quick peek at the sky before I got my glasses, / now I can’t see shit, sure hope this passes”). And, sad to say, the slight is what is most on display throughout, punctuated by some odd koanlike aperçus: “Eating all we can / at the all-we-can-eat buffet, / gives us a 3.8 education / and a 4.2 GPA.” “Never give up your right to do the next right thing. This is how we find our way home.” “Memory never forgets. Even though we do.” The prayer portion of the program is deeply felt, but it’s just as sentimental; only when he writes of life-changing events—a court appearance to file a restraining order against a stalker, his decision to quit smoking weed—do we catch a glimpse of the effortlessly fluent, effortlessly charming McConaughey as exemplified by the David Wooderson (“alright, alright, alright”) of Dazed and Confused. The rest is mostly a soufflé in verse. McConaughey’s heart is very clearly in the right place, but on the whole the book suggests an old saw: Don’t give up your day job.
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781984862105
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
A conversational, pleasurable look into McConaughey’s life and thought.
All right, all right, all right: The affable, laconic actor delivers a combination of memoir and self-help book.
“This is an approach book,” writes McConaughey, adding that it contains “philosophies that can be objectively understood, and if you choose, subjectively adopted, by either changing your reality, or changing how you see it. This is a playbook, based on adventures in my life.” Some of those philosophies come in the form of apothegms: “When you can design your own weather, blow in the breeze”; “Simplify, focus, conserve to liberate.” Others come in the form of sometimes rambling stories that never take the shortest route from point A to point B, as when he recounts a dream-spurred, challenging visit to the Malian musician Ali Farka Touré, who offered a significant lesson in how disagreement can be expressed politely and without rancor. Fans of McConaughey will enjoy his memories—which line up squarely with other accounts in Melissa Maerz’s recent oral history, Alright, Alright, Alright—of his debut in Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused, to which he contributed not just that signature phrase, but also a kind of too-cool-for-school hipness that dissolves a bit upon realizing that he’s an older guy on the prowl for teenage girls. McConaughey’s prep to settle into the role of Wooderson involved inhabiting the mind of a dude who digs cars, rock ’n’ roll, and “chicks,” and he ran with it, reminding readers that the film originally had only three scripted scenes for his character. The lesson: “Do one thing well, then another. Once, then once more.” It’s clear that the author is a thoughtful man, even an intellectual of sorts, though without the earnestness of Ethan Hawke or James Franco. Though some of the sentiments are greeting card–ish, this book is entertaining and full of good lessons.
A conversational, pleasurable look into McConaughey’s life and thought.Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-13913-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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