'F--king great book helped me calm the f--k down - well needed' SHAUN RYDER

'We bottle everything up, then we catastrophise and medicalise it all. But being human is about feeling a little pain, that's where the growth lies. Let's accept we'll all feel bad from time to time and let's air that. If you're looking inject a little healthy perspective into your life, this is a good place to start' IRVINE WELSH

'One great big deep breath of a book. A funny, honest, human antidote to "high performance" piffle' DANNY WALLACE

'Sam Delaney is a funny, wise and insightful writer, and this book will help lots of people' JOHANN HARI

Sam Delaney overdid it for many years. Work, ambition, competitiveness, booze and drugs defined his life until he started to realise that he was burnt out and exhausted by daft fantasies of being a 'better man.' He had always put himself under pressure to be everything at once: fun but intelligent, tough but sensitive, a dedicated father but an ambitious careerist. But what if there was another way? What if trying to be the perfect version of himself was doing him more harm than good?

In Stop Sh*tting Yourself, Sam dissects our obsession around hyper-productivity and high-performance living and - with his trademark straight-talking charm - offers a much-needed alternative perspective. Drawing on funny stories from his own life, he argues for the importance of sitting around in your pants doing nothing, taking working life with a pinch of salt, putting those impossible standards for yourself in the bin and focussing on the day-to-day things that make you content.

Learn why consistency isn't what it's built up to be; how process is a recipe for boredom; that male friendships in particular should be rooted in fun, not competitiveness; and why self-acceptance always trumps self-improvement.

After all, there's no point sh*tting yourself over nothing.