Let Your Life Speak : Review

Reflection: Let Your Life Speak

Throughout my reading of this book, I often felt like Palmer was talking to me specifically. What I mean by that is the topics he covered in this book, especially those concerning the meaning of vocation as well as the idea of reclaiming the gift you were originally given when you were brought into this world, really hit home for me.

I really liked learning about the meaning of the word vocation. The Latin root of vocation is voice, which Palmer directs us to believe that the “voice” in vocation is the voice of our calling. So instead of thinking of your vocation as just your job, you should also think of it as your calling. But first you have to figure out what your calling actually is.

Palmer talks about the idea that each of was born with a gift and that gift is what leads us to be successful in our calling. But we have since lost our gift shortly after birth. So he believes we are trying to relocate this gift the entire second half of our life.
I would like to believe that I am a little bit ahead of the curve on this topic because I am always trying to figure out what my strengths and weaknesses are. I do this so I can hopefully realize what I am really good at and enjoy doing so I can make a career out of it. My dad always taught me to first, figure out what I love doing and second, figure out a way to get paid doing it. It’s definitely easier said than done, but I can look at his example of how stressful he was at work when I was growing up and see why he believes that finding something you enjoy doing everyday is important.

Another topic that Palmer discussed was the topic of rewards. I really like what he said about how we shouldn’t live our life for the rewards others might give us (earthly rewards), but to live for our own personal rewards by being satisfied in our own work. Those rewards end up being so many times more meaningful than any reward or acknowledgement that someone could give us. Sure those earthly rewards are nice to have, but you shouldn’t measure your success on what others believe you have accomplished. Rather, you should measure yourself by how fulfilled you fell when you have personally accomplished something.

As a senior that is graduating in about six or seven weeks, I am constantly asking myself questions like “What are you going to do with yourself?” as well as “What is my purpose in life?” I do this for the fact that once I graduate I am officially on my own and at that moment acquire a massive amount of responsibly and debt. As I discussed earlier, I would like to find my “vocation”, but I also have to pay bills. So until I can find my calling and make it profitable, I guess I’ll be doing the same routine that every other human does just to keep their head above water. But I believe that I’ll figure it out. I just have to keep on believing that there is a brighter future ahead of me, and all I have to do is find it.
I can’t say that I have found the answers to the questions I constantly ask my self after reading this book, but I feel like I now have the right mindset to find the answers to these questions among many of the other great questions of life.