This really wasn't a book about Present over Perfect, it was a book about Present over Busyness.

I'm an Enneagram 1 (personality type) - the entire basis of which is defined by a need for perfectionism. While this applies to me, I'm one of those perfectionists who are selective - there are some things I'm highly perfectionistic about, and plenty I'm not. I've seen this book on lists for 1's over and over again - what I now guess is because of the word "perfect" in the title - because of this and finally decided I'd read it and gather some insight into how to be less perfectionistic, hopefully learn how to be better at accepting grace for myself, not hold to mine or other's expectations of me too tightly, embrace failure, etc. But this book was really only about perfection as it related to ambition, doing all the things, and being seen as being able to do all the things. Even when Ms Niequist touched on other manners of perfection, she continued to bring it back to being less busy, hustling less, finding simplicity as if everything related to this and the root of it. Which it doesn't and it's not. I guess that's an aspect of perfection - being seen as being able to do all and be all - but that is a very small and incomplete view on perfection.

In our US-culture, climbing ladders, selling ourselves, proving our worth is very important and needed, and learning to say No is a real struggle for a lot of people. For those individuals who could use what she's writing about, she seems to gloss over and not be really vulnerable over how she got to that point or the why. She talks about the result of doing this and needing to change it and her mental struggle on why it's not healthy, but not the why, which would be helpful for others struggling with this. Until you know how you got to a point, you generally are going to continue to return to the behavior.

I realize this is a memoir (or should be) so it's about her experience but even the theme of busyness/slowing down itself was constantly reiterated so that it felt redundant as well. And I don't generally struggle with saying yes to everything, so this was a frustrating book for me, thinking I was reading about something else. Maybe it's because I'm an introvert and she's an extrovert, maybe it's because I've done a lot of hard work at setting boundaries, and Ms Niequist seems to have some deep rooted struggle with proving herself in what she does. It would probably have been great if that's what I was looking for and the book was advertised that way. But it wasn't, which is why I rated it lower, in addition to the lack of vulnerability. If the point was about perfection, it really fell very short for me.