GirlGI | Girl Gone International Issue 6 | Page 76

What self-help book has
pushed you the furthest?
I did a month of ‘rejection therapy’ where
you have to get rejected once a day in order to overcome your fear of rejection. The
theory is that we all live in fear of rejection
and don’t do half the things we’d like to because of this fear. On my first day of rejection therapy I approached a guy in a coffee
shop who I thought was hot. It took me
FOUR HOURS to get up the courage to do
it. The result? He bought me coffee, wine
and we ended up dating for a while. A total
triumph! It made me realise that I always
think men won’t be interested in me but
that a lot of it is just in my head. I’ve been
rejecting myself.

What is the most surprising
thing you’ve learned from a
self-help book?
‘Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway’ by Susan
Jeffers tells you to do something scary
every day. I did karaoke, stand–up, nude
modelling and jumped out of a plane…
Jeffers says that if we wait for the day we
feel brave enough / strong enough / pretty
enough to do the things we want to do,
we’ll never do anything – which is true. The
only way to feel really alive is to jump in
and start doing things now. I did and it was
exhausting but fantastic. Jeffers offers a
reaffirming message which I repeat in my
head everyday, ‘It’s all happening perfectly.’ Even if everything seems like a disaster,
Jeffers argues that something good will
come from it. I find that comforting.

Which self-help book do you
think would help a GGI
survive and thrive in her life
gone international?
There’s a fantastic book called the ‘4 Hour
Work Week’ by Tim Ferriss that gave me
the travel bug. It’s all about giving up on
the idea that you have to be chained to a
desk five days a week in order to be successful. The book suggests taking ‘mini
retirements’ every year – so work for six
months, travel six months or work nine
months, travel three months – whatever
you can do.