A sharply packaged self-help book with an emphasis on facing your fears.
Simon advocates taking daily risks in this debut motivational work.
The author, an entrepreneur, is a fear-chaser; he believes that the secret to happiness is not to be found through self-care or comfort but rather by challenging one’s own fears. “It is the intentional choice we make to walk into the fire of fear with the hope of growing from its discomfort…that fosters a flourishing life,” Simon writes in his introduction (he’s describing his decision, at age 35, to confront a lifelong fear of singing in public by signing up for a busy brunch open mic). The book—which shares its name with the “movement” Simon created—is intended to challenge readers to confront their own deep-seated fears. The idea is inspired by a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt that the author calls the “eight words that changed [his] life”: “Do one thing every day that scares you.” He has expanded the notion into a full-fledged life philosophy, distilling the concept into seven principles to help would-be fear-chasers break out of their normal routines. Simon describes himself as a “happiness entrepreneur,” and his prose is cheerfully imperative. He offers bullet points advising the reader on how to have an adventurous day without even leaving home: “Begin the day by waking up early. Drink in the quietness”; “Vary as many of your most basic routines as you can (brush your teeth with your non-dominant hand, take a completely different route to work)”; “Put on an outfit or a hat that shows your true personality, even if you think it’s completely crazy.” The book follows a familiar self-help recipe—one part personal memoir, one part inspiring anecdotes, and one part exercises for readers to try out on their own. While little here is entirely original, the author’s fear-forward take on mindfulness should appeal to those meditation-allergic readers looking to become more exciting versions of themselves.
A sharply packaged self-help book with an emphasis on facing your fears.Pub Date: Dec. 6, 2022
ISBN: 978-1538722916
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Balance Integration Group
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2023
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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