A Goodreads user
asked
Elizabeth Gilbert:
Dear Elizabeth, I have read 3 of your books(Eat,pray,love, Commited and lately I read The signature of all things). Your style of writing is so amazing, so versatile and your books are a pure delight. It is as if you are writing for everbody and nobody in particular in the same time. My q is:What would you recommend to a young woman who is unsuccessfully searching for a job since she finished uni 2 yrs ago? Thank you!
Elizabeth Gilbert
Hello Jelena! That must be so deeply frustrating, and I hope you find a job soon. My advice, though, would be this: Don't let the fact that you don't have a job stop you from having a VOCATION. A job is a career, something that pays the bills, and we all need one — and other people are often in charge of whether we get a job or not. But a vocation is a sacred calling. A job puts money in the bank, but a vocation makes your soul come alive. Being an author is my job, but writing is my vocation. I wrote for years before anyone paid me for it, and I will write forever, regardless of how my career is going. You need to find something in your life that you love so much that it gives you a reason to wake up in the morning — and nobody can find that for you. Nobody can give you that and nobody can take it from you. You have to take fierce self-accountability for identifying your own sacred vocation. You have to go find it, make it, bring it to life. Good luck!
More Answered Questions
Erica
asked
Elizabeth Gilbert:
"The Signature of All Things" moved me, I felt so many magical nerves shift as I finished! One curious habit of a couple characters really had me wondering, that of Reverend Welles forgetting that others actually eat and Mr. Pike's proclamation that he could have lived off the sun alone. Were their habits related? Have you known someone that's done this? Is it the human-plants-earth connection the made you include it?
Ellen
asked
Elizabeth Gilbert:
Hi. Our book club read “Signature Of All Things” and it was a great discussion. We noticed that we were speaking about the book in sections; Alma’s early life, Tahiti, retirement in Amsterdam. It felt like each could have been a novel on its own. Did you approach these phases of Alma’s life differently as you were writing?
Elizabeth Gilbert
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