“How do you do it all?”
That’s the question that wife, mom, actress, and best-selling author Candace Cameron Bure is often asked. And it’s a question that women everywhere are asking themselves as we seek to balance all of our roles, responsibilities, and opportunities.
So, how do we do it? Working since the age of 5, Candace has been in a balancing act for nearly her entire life. She is the first to tell you that there is no miracle formula for perfect execution in every area of your life, but there definitely are some lessons to be learned, lessons that come to life in Candace’s story.
Come along and dig into Candace’s story from her start in commercials, the balance-necessitating years on Full House, to adding on the roles of wife and mom while also returning to Hollywood. Insightful, funny, and poignant, Candace’s story will help you balance it all.
Customer Reviews
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24 of 28 people found the following review helpful.
We all need a little balance in our lives
By Heather E. Hejduk
Most people my age remember Candace Cameron Bure as DJ Tanner on Full House. Those a bit younger may remember her as Summer van Horne on ABC Family’s Make It or Break It. I was born almost exactly two years after her and got married almost exactly two years after she did. My oldest and her second child were born within days of each other. I grew up “with” her, watching her every week on TGIF. Now, I follow her on Twitter and Facebook and read her blog. I read her first book, Reshaping It All and found it to be very useful so I looked forward to the release of her new book, Balancing It All: My Story of Juggling Priorities and Purpose.Balancing It All is part memoir, part self-help/motivation, and part Bible study. Most chapters are laid out starting with a Bible verse (she uses the Holman Christian Standard Bible) that relates to the topic for that chapter. Topics include marriage, parenting, friends, service, education, and more. Most chapters give a story from her life that relates to the topic. Then she ties it all together with ideas that have worked in her life for maintaining balance when you are being pulled in a hundred different directions and feel like it’s all going to crash down on you.There is nothing new, no earth shattering ideas in Balancing It All. What there is is a lot of support and motivation and a few reminders to do things we know we should (like pray!) but often forget. Candace Cameron Bure is extremely honest in this book. She is not perfect, her family is not perfect (it sounds like her daughter is a little harder to handle like my daughter and just knowing that is comforting to me). Sure, she’s had life experiences that are unlike most people, but she still has a lot of the same struggles as everyone else. In short, she’s human and she doesn’t try to portray herself as anything but human. She is very clear that what works for her won’t necessarily work for someone else. We are all at different points in our lives, but I suspect that every woman can take at least one thing away from Balancing It All, apply it in her life, and end up happier and more balanced for it.
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful.
Talk about an on time message.
By Melody Simpson
The topic of Bure’s latest book is what I’ve been craving now more than ever. Talk about an on time message.As someone who has for the most part always embraced responsibility, priorities have always been very important to me. Getting it right has been an obsession of mine. I’m not married and I don’t have kids but I still have priorities and struggles with balancing it all. Mainly, making God the ultimate priority and the center of all that I am and do. I’d like to think that I have it all together spiritually but truth be told, I have my phases where for months at a time I drown myself in the word of God and months at a time, I’ll open up that bible only a handful of times. This has to change. I need to put my foot down and be consistent in all things rather than solely the things I think I want for a time. Balancing It All was the push I needed to sit down and really think about my priorities in a way that I truly never have before.I’m a list keeper. Always have been. I make To Do lists all the time. Sometimes my daily to do lists are organized by the hour. Short term lists. Long term lists. I make them all. The thing is, I can write to do lists all day and the word, “Prioritize” comes to my mind multiple times a day for a couple of days out of every month but do I sit down and look at that list? My lists are organized by both the timely manner in which I can get it done and how high of a priority I believe it to be. But to really sit down and analyze these priorities…it hasn’t been done in awhile. What do I mean?”Balance isn’t necessarily about cutting things out of our lives, but rather being led to invest in the right things.”That. I can’t stress the above line enough. Talk about an “aha moment.” Balancing It All will encourage readers to be honest with themselves and accept accountability on a level that they’ve never reached before. I always knew I was fairly good with my balancing act but I always knew something was missing and that was it.There’s also a part of me that knew a fraction of what needed to be changed and Bure touches on all of that as well. She writes, …my life is out of balance and my priorities need to change because I need to change. Nobody really wants to hear that they are part of the problem but it’s so true! So much of the time we are in our own way. I know I am in my own way and I am tired. So tired of half surrendering. Not anymore. Enough is enough.I love when Bure wrote, “God hasn’t abandoned me. I’ve abandoned Him.” So so true. I know I can relate with my bible phases and praying everyday but not really getting down to the nitty gritty. Praying for God to help me be more kind and rolling my eyes at every test. I am in my own way. Writing down all of the things that I think I want and need to do but never asking God what He wants me to do or truly trusting Him to get it done. God will open doors when we trust in Him and seek His wisdom and guidance.Bure stresses the importance of faith, hard work, commitment and discipline, selflessness, boundaries, accepting help (I’ll admit, that’s something I’ve always had to work on), humility, and so much more. She tackles the tasks of growing intellectually, physically, spiritually, and socially and maintaining a balance between the four with examples from her own life, back from her Full House days up to the present.I was amazed to see in Balancing It All how God was working in Bure’s life even when she didn’t realize it, even while she was a Christian but wasn’t practicing her faith like she does today. The favor of God was on her life and it’s on yours too but it’s up to you to accept it. It’s up to you to prioritize your life and this book is just the inspiration and boost you need to get you on your way.I especially love the prayer at the end of the book. I’ve been saying for years that I would start a prayer journal and even attempted to start one twice but something about the words Bure has written has encouraged me to be consistent with a prayer journal. I also can’t even begin to express how proud I am of Candace Cameron, a household name talking about the power of prayer.I always get so happy when I see Bure using her platform for God’s will (whether in book form, on the small screen, on Twitter, etc…) and I am so thankful that her words can, will, and have touched so many people no matter what their background and circumstance. It never ceases to bring a huge smile to my face whenever I see Bure as an instrument of His and she will never stop inspiring others to make it a point to be the same – in their own way. What an encouragement. What a phenomenal book to read to start off the new year on the right foot.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
Wanted so much more
By M. Bruner
It’s always interesting to read about how superstars do it all. Reading about how God is the center of everything is heart-warming. Knowing that it hasn’t always been wonderful is realistic. This books has all that but doesn’t really give any break out ideas on how to “really balance it all”. To whom much is given, much is expected and in this sense this book was a let down…
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