Book Review: No Matter What! by Lisa Nichols

I usually stay very far away from any type of self help-like books; I’ve always believed that people who just so happened to become successful in their lives felt it was their right to write a self help book for the masses based on very little personal merit and rode on the coattails of the fact that the mass populace had heard of them before (ie: Dr. Phil.) I’ve also become very fed up with books targeted towards women that repeat the mantra of “You’re great and can do anything you set your mind to… As long as you have a man in your life.” So when I had heard of Lisa Nichols’ book, No Matter What!: 9 Steps to Living the Life You Love, I was weary. In fact, I was ready to pass on the book completely because to me, a self help book of any kind is pretty much interchangeable for the next supposed “big, self help phenomenon” on the market. But I didn’t pass on the book and luckily, Lisa Nichols didn’t present her readers with regurgitated bullet points and run of the mill anecdotes and advice to reaching your greater good.

To put it bluntly, Lisa Nichols is real. No Matter What! is full of Nichols’ true to life stories from relationship struggles, to thoughts of suicide, to becoming a single mother, to more relationship struggles, to knowing what she wanted to do with her life and her own struggle to get there. She shares with her readers the truth about her life and what she had to do to get to where she truly wanted and knew she had to be. She sugarcoats nothing, which is what appealed to me the most. I cannot tell you how many times I found myself rolling my eyes while reading a book that claimed it could help me and my life because the situations in the book were too small to really put my own life in the shoes of the author. Everyone has had relationship trouble and many people have weight issues and while these two life situations come up in most everyone’s life, an author will not get into the heads of the readers to really help me without touching on the fact that these situations can become increasingly difficult to deal with. These situations vary in severity from person to person, obviously, but an author must be prepared to handle the severity of the situation that may be present in a great deal of their readers lives. That is the reason why I enjoyed Lisa Nichol’s book so much. She shares uplifting stories from her life as well as the heartbreaking, angry, and even shameful stories of her life and throughout it all, she tells her readers that no, it wasn’t easy to get past those roadblocks, but she did it and she has the same hopes for the people that she reaches out to through her book and through her speaking appearances.

No Matter What! is not merely a book that is to be read once and then forgotten; it is a resource that can be used countless times throughout your life. In every chapter of the book there are a series of action steps to help hone your nine “bounce back muscles” that are imperative to have throughout life because with these muscles (The Understanding Muscle, The Faith in Myself Muscle, The Take Action Muscle, The I Know Like I Know Muscle, The Honesty Muscle, The Determination Muscle, The Forgiveness Muscle, and The Highest Choice Muscle) you can achieve what you want to achieve in your life… No matter what!

Admittedly, I enjoyed reading Lisa Nichols’ stories about herself rather than the sections where she gave advice on how to change your life. She is a great writer and can tell a great story that leaves you wanting more information about the situation and what she did afterward, which is understandable since she is also the co-author of Chicken Soup for the African American Women’s Soul. I am assuming I would have enjoyed the Lisa Nichols memoir even more.