Girl Code has been on my to-read list ever since I heard about Cara Alwill Leyba (also known as The Champagne Diet). Cara as a person has so much energy and passion about her work, and I find everything she writes about extremely inspiring and positive. The only problem I had was finding time to read it! So after hearing on Cara’s snapchat (GlitterGutsGlam) that there was an audio version available I decided to download it and see if that made it any easier for me to read.

I downloaded an Audible free trial (try it here) and purchased Girl Code with my free credit. I listened to this book on my walk to work, and found it such a positive way to start my working day. This book really filled me with confidence and made me feel like anything is possible. I can definitely see why this book has been number one spot on the women in business bestseller list on Amazon (which you can find here).

The great thing about Girl Code is that it’s written as if Cara is talking to you as a genuine friend so it was very easy to listen to (and I’m sure this would make it easy to read too). This book is a lovely mix of advice, inspiring quotes and interviews with successful female entrepreneurs. The advice is broad and I think it would be easy to apply to any business or life situation.

Here are some of my favourite take-home messages from “Girl Code”, and believe me it was difficult to choose as there as so many amazing pieces of advice:

1. Empower others – unfortunately all too often people just cannot be happy for others when they are successful. In my experience, you realise who you’re true best friends are not so much when you’re sad, but when something wonderful happens to you. I’ll never forget getting accepted onto my PhD and three of my “closest” friends at the time didn’t mention it at all, let alone congratulate me. It hurt a lot at the time, I just couldn’t understand why my friends wouldn’t be happy for me. Fight the urge to make  a bitchy comment, because genuinely it says more about you than the person you are trying to make feel small. Be positive and be happy for someone who has done well, not only will they feel better you will too.
2. Ditch the negativity – this applies to us personally and to others in our life. Firstly, stop putting yourself down! Schedule to spend some alone time, give yourself the space to do and dream. Secondly, ditch anyone toxic! Delete or unfollow negative people online and distance yourself from negative people in real life. Surround yourself with positive people and positive things will happen. Feel bad about doing this? Cara reminds us to think about whether that person felt bad about making that negative or horrible comment.
3. Remember there is no limit to success! Someone else being successful does not mean you won’t be. Cara suggests getting into the “limitless lux” mindset, and one way to do this is to meditate on this idea that you can have anything you put your mind to. Want that Chanel bag or those Louboutins? Believe that they can be yours, work hard and watch your life unfold. One suggestion if you don’t really fancy meditating, can be to create a vision board as suggested in the Secret. It doesn’t have to be a physical one that you hang up (although they look cool!) try creating a Pinterest vision board as an alternative.
4. Leave jealousy at the door – There are two types of envy, one that leads to a burning bitterness that will do you no favours or the other that leads to you actually taking some action to better yourself. See a woman that makes you envious? Reach out! Send a kind message or in the best case scenario, ask to meet up for a coffee and learn from them. 
5. Stop comparing ourselves to others – spending ages stalking that girl or guy that you think has it all on social media is a genuine waste of time. First of all, people typically only post about the good things that happen to them. Let’s face it, someone that constantly moaned on social media would be insufferable. So take everything you see or hear with a pinch of salt, we rarely know the full story. The best thing  you can do is focus on making your story as amazing and as positive as you can.

These are just a few of my highlights from Girl Code, and I seriously can’t recommend it enough as an uplifting and inspiring book to read. Have you read this book? What did you think? Leave me a comment to let me know, and if you have a blog, please leave a link I’d love to take a peek.

Love,

Chrissy x

p.s. Do you live in London? Check out Propel Her org (more info here), the book club for ambitious women. Some of the books they’ve covered are absolute classics such as Stephen R Covey’s “The 7 habits of highly effective people”. Don’t live in London? You can also join in online. I will be away for next month’s book club, but I can’t wait to get involved in October 🙂

For more information:

http://caraalwill.com/

https://twitter.com/ChampagneDiet

https://www.instagram.com/thechampagnediet/?hl=en