Book Review: Chasing the Bright Side by Jess Ekstrom

As an avid reader and a self-proclaimed ‘shopping gene’ problem, I’ve got piles of books that have yet to be read. Sometimes it’s hard to decide on what to read next. This month I decided to start tackling the piles and started doing a ‘Battle of the Books’ over on my Instagram profile. I pick two books I’m considering and I ask my readers to help me choose what to read next. The latest book that was put up to battle had 18 votes and 17 of them voted for this one!!

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Review & Thoughts

Chasing the Bright Side by Jess Ekstrom

In Chasing the Bright Side, Jess talks about how she enjoys the narrative, the real stories about perseverance and grit. I love the concept that optimism isn’t just a picture of perfection and pretending everything is hunky dory all the time. Optimism is about choosing to see the good along with the bad and choosing to take action to make things better.

Jess talks about the fact that when big events happen in the world we tend to store them away in our minds because we think they’re so far removed from ever affecting us personally. But she reminds us that it’s important to have perspective and realize that you don’t need something to affect you personally to want to do something to help make the world a better place.

Fun Fact: While reading this book I felt the major urge to go treat myself to a few of her headbands and I love that every item sold through Headbands of Hope provides an item to someone in need. Just think, your purchase could be the catalyst to brighten someone’s day, a small token that lets them know someone out there cares about them.

In a Nutshell: Chasing the Bright Side is encouraging and enthusiastic but completely real and messy. I appreciated the author’s honesty, enjoyed her stories, and truly loved reading about how she found her purpose and optimism through failures and successes.

My new favorite word: Karmadillo… want to know what it means? Go pick up a copy of this book!!

One of my favorite quotes:

‘Do not wait until you think you are tall enough for the roller coaster because you will always come up short. Sometimes the main difference between the people who make it and the ones who don’t is just the courage to begin where you are.’

Scroll to the bottom of this post for Pinterest-worthy quotes!

My Rating: 5.0 Stars

Details From the Book Jacket

Published: November 5, 2019 | Thomas Nelson

Book Blurb: One flicker of hope. That’s all it takes to catapult yourself into the life you’ve always imagined.

Success is not born out of skill, school, where we’re from, who we know, or what we scored on the SAT. None of us were born ready. None of us started life knowing how to fly a plane or launch a company or knit a sweater for our dog.

But we are born with something more important than skills. We’re born with optimism—the initial seed for success. Optimism fuels the belief that you can be the one to create the good the world needs. But you’ve got to hone it. And practice it. And determine to live from it.

In Chasing the Bright Side, Jess Ekstrom shares her own inspirational story of how optimism helped her overcome multiple challenges, and the dynamic ways her mind-set propelled her as a young entrepreneur, international speaker, and philanthropist.

Do you have dreams for yourself and the world that are tucked away in your box of somedays? What would happen if today was the day you opened the box? And what if that box was the key to a better tomorrow?

Jess’s journey will inspire you embrace the power of optimism in your own life, and help you reimagine your purpose so you create good in the world while fulfilling your own dreams—right where you are.

Book Links: Amazon | Goodreads

Books by Jess Ekstrom