A review of The Middle Finger Project

I know I’ve been talking about this book a lot, and I honestly don’t think it’s going to stop. Not sorry.

If you haven’t been introduced to Ash Ambridge, let me enrich your life by introducing you to her now. She’s probably my favorite person on the internet. Here’s a link to her website if you need proof.

I preordered her book as soon as it came out. And when it arrived, I straight up squeed.

Now, sometimes books I’m that excited about don’t live up to the hype. Not so with this one. It had all the hype. And if you haven’t read it, you need to right now. I shoved it into a friend’s hands as soon as I was done because I truly think that everyone needs to read this book. Because everyone needs the loving, supportive kick in the ass that it gives.

Now, while this book had a lot of greatness in it, I found that some lessons stuck out more than others. Here are the four top things I took away from The Middle Finger Project.

There’s a difference between being successful and being happy. 

Ash did everything right in her early life. She got a good degree, a good job a good house. All the things we are supposed to want, supposed to strive for. 

But all of that is pretty meaningless if we’re not happy with the life we’ve built. And what makes you happy is going to look different than what makes me happy. And that’s okay! Good, even.

When you have to pick between the two, pick happy.

This one is harder than I thought it should be. Because let’s be fair, most of what we do every day is not to make us happy. It’s not to make anyone happy. It’s to survive. We go to work, we cook food, we clean the house. Maybe we have a hobby that we indulge in on the weekends. If we have enough money. If we feel like we can spare the time.

What is the point of surviving if we aren’t doing anything but continuing our survival? Isn’t there more to the world than that? Aren’t there things to create, to experience? Yeah, there are. And I for sure want to do all that, not just survive.

Being scared is okay.

Ash is clear in her book, and I’m going to be clear here too, that choosing to live happily and take risks is scary. You might find yourself, like her, living out of your car.

Or choosing to work as little as possible so you can focus more on your freelance work and art. Showing up day after day for yourself, doing the work you want to be doing before anyone’s willing to pay you for it. Going out and finding people who will pay for it. That’s all scary. And no matter how brave anyone appears to be online, everyone is scared when they’re recreating their own life. 

But being scared doesn’t disqualify you. 

Doing things differently isn’t just okay, it’s essential.

We don’t live in the same world as our parents. And some of us don’t want to be living in the world as it is right now. Most of us just don’t want to continue with our lives as they are right now.

Well, to get different results we’ve got to commit to different actions. So then why are we comparing our actions to people who don’t live how we want to live? 

I don’t want to own a house. I don’t want to have a career in an office. So why would I follow the life choices of someone who has those things? They can’t help me!

These are just four of the hundreds of awesome things I took away from The Middle Finger Project. If you haven’t read it yet, read it now. And when you do, share it with someone you love.

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