screenshot48 From the book jacket:

Finding and fortifying our voices is so powerful. It awakens what once was sleeping. It strengthens what once was weak. And it inspires all of us into action.”

Tyler Williams has known success. He has performed in Atlanta’s famed Fox Theatre, raced down Victory Lane as a NASCAR driver, worked on hit film and TV shows, and sang for thousands in packed arenas. But Tyler has also known failure, devastating setbacks, and the pain of lost love. He knows how it feels to be lost, disconnected from himself and his passion.

Tyler tells his story of losing his “voice,” navigating life for many years without it, then finding it again–and finding himself in the process. “I Have a Voice” is full of life lessons that people both young and old will recognize. This is a book of hope, challenges and breakthrough moments. Tyler recounts his personal journey and uses his experience to help guide readers back to their own voices without dictating the steps to get there. Those who have lost their purpose, passion and “voice” will find renewal in his words.

I read I Have A Voice during my recent travels.  The thing that all of these books about living your dream miss is telling you the specific steps to do it.  But that is kind of the point.  The path is different for everyone. The point of these types of books is to inspire.

Tyler Williams does that pretty well.  Tyler’s point is to listen to yourself. To find you voice. Although not necessarily literally. He doesn’t mean he was silenced.  But he did lose focus of what mattered to him, and like many of us, floated through life for a while. He let himself be defined by other people and not things that are authentic to him.

It was an odd place to be after his early life in entertainment, then his decision to to become a NASCAR driver. Tyler had to figure out his place in this new world. He had to train and race against drivers who had been in the circuit far longer than he had. But he did it anyway.  When circumstances followed that showed Tyler he was not to be the next NASCAR phenom, he moved on.

The point I took from I Have A Voice is that it is easy to sit on the sidelines of life.  We can get up and go to work and come home and watch Netflix and that is great if it is our dream. Or, we can get up and go to work and come home and watch Netflix and pretend it’s great but also feel like we are missing something.  If we aren’t content with watching Netflix every night, then that’s where we need to find our voice- and do something to claim it. That’s the crux of I Have a Voice. 

Williams is quick to point out that finding one’s voice does not have to mean fame and notoriety.  In fact, for most of us, it won’t. But what Williams hopes to help people realize is that we have a choice in feeling as though we are living an authentic life, or just being a bit player in someone else’s script.

Fans of Martha Beck will likely enjoy I Have A Voice. If you’re bored with your own life, this may be just the book you need to jumpstart you into figuring out how to use your own voice.

 

I received a copy of  I Have A Voice from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review.