Permission Granted: Be Who You Were Made to Be and Let Go of the Rest

4.4 | 132 ratings

Price: 17.32

Last update: 11-27-2024

About this item

From award-winning blogger Melissa Camara Wilkins, come and find a stunningly simple path to confidence and clarity. All you have to do is give yourself permission to show up as your gloriously imperfect self.

Trying to fix yourself is exhausting. But being yourself - that is both possible and life-giving. The key is a simple heart shift from chasing after perfection to learning to tell a truer story about ourselves, the world, and our place in it.

Melissa Camara Wilkins invites you into her journey of discovering the profound simplicity of dropping the pretenses and allowing ourselves to be fully human - flaws and all. This is a story about making life simpler by letting go of who you think you're supposed to be and becoming who you really are.

With wit and compassion, Melissa explores how to be present, show up as your real self, and get comfortable in your own skin by aligning the truth inside you with the life you live on the outside. Gain confidence with the freeing practices of dropping the mask, abandoning the experts, and understanding your real assignment. With refreshing honesty and insight, Melissa invites you to move from the either/or dichotomy into a spacious freedom of embracing the both/and - brave and scared, messy and real, gloriously imperfect and absolutely enough. This is your permission slip to be your whole, human self.

For everyone who feels the pressure to fit in, measure up, and get it together, Permission Granted is a life-giving invitation to soul-level simplicity.

Amazon Customer

It was good.

Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2024

I liked it.

Angela V.

Made my heart happy

Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2022

Heard about this author and the book from a podcast of Allie Casazza’s. So glad I bought the book - it did make my heart happy, it made me laugh, and it was a source of encouragement. We are all just trying to do the best we can, and this book was like a hug from a good friend.

Julie Henderson

Permission to surrender responsibility for the unfounded expectations of others

Reviewed in the United States on August 19, 2020

Melissa was a relatable and likeable narrator. I didn't realize how many of my decisions were influenced by the expectations--whether expressed or implied--others had for me until I read Permission Granted.

This passage was a godsend: “Those clear expectations sound so much like simplicity—but when you’re working toward meeting someone else’s expectations instead of your own, that is when things get complicated.

Other people’s expectations of you are like the universe: they’re continually expanding and hard to fully comprehend. You can get lost in there.”

Can I get an amen? Now, if I sense I'm being led astray by the misguided idea someone else has about who God created me to be, I know that I have work to do.

Diana L. Duke

Perfect for anyone who feels less than perfect

Reviewed in the United States on November 6, 2019

"How did other people hold it together all the time?... It's like there was some special thread to sew up your life that I did not have. I was the worst at finding the secret special thread store" (p.15).

If you've ever felt like everyone--except you--has it all together, this is your read. Melissa strikes the ideal balance between humor and honesty as she shares her journey from self-criticism to self-acceptance. Filled with stories from her real and sometimes messy life, the nuggets of wisdom just keep hitting home. This book provides a compassionate path to stripping away the bits that get in the way and learning to be who you really are, which is especially important as we model living with and loving each other to the next generation. Permission accepted!

Marci K

"We are all both/and: brave and scared, messy and real, gloriously imperfect and absolutely enough."

Reviewed in the United States on November 6, 2019

“Both/and” is my new favorite thing! In Permission Granted Melissa uses her stories to show us that the world needs us to do life exactly as we are right now. There’s no need to wait until everything is perfect, or we have everything figured out, or we know what to do next because of course, those things will never happen. She helps us see that we can give ourselves permission to be our whole, perfectly imperfect selves starting right now.

If you’re looking for help because you feel like you are less than, left out, overwhelmed, not enough, or too much, then Permission Granted is the book for you. Let Melissa show you how to write your own permission slip for whatever it is you need.

Dan Tricarico

Great Reminders on How to be Me!

Reviewed in the United States on May 7, 2020

I have been on Wilkins’ email newsletter list for years and have often benefited from this witty, thoughtful, mother of six’s practical and down-to-earth advice on how to live a simpler, well-adjusted, more centered life in the chaos that is our modern culture. So I was thrilled when I heard she was about to launch a book. It did not disappoint. First of all, it gives us all permission to be our true selves, something we can all benefit from. But the book is also full of homespun stories, great advice, support, encouragement, and humor. I know I will be returning to Permission Granted for reminders on how to be me.

LaLaLaurie

It's Okay to Be YOU

Reviewed in the United States on November 10, 2019

I'm not one to choose e-books over physical copies, but I didn't want to pass up a free e-book version of Melissa Camara Wilkins' new book Permission Granted for being part of the book's launch team.

The book's subtitle "Be who you were made to be and let go of the rest" totally spoke to me, as I'm sure it probably speaks to most women these days. If you're on social media, you see the glorious lives of your friends. If you're on Pinterest, you spend your time pinning recipes, crafts, outfits, and more that you will probably never make, and then you'll feel bad about yourself for not living a Pinterest perfect life. There are all sorts of expectations put on women, whether you're a working mom, a stay at home mom, single, childless, whatever. But in this book, you can let go of all that.

To be quite honest with you, I feel like reading a physical copy of the book might have had more of an impact on me. So keep that in mind when you're deciding which version you want. Each chapter was pretty short, so will be easy to fit into your busy life, but sometimes I felt like the anecdotes were stretching a bit, and I wondered if maybe this should have just been a big essay instead of a fleshed-out book. Again, maybe if I'd had a physical copy, I would feel differently. I think there's just something more powerful with a book in your hands, dog-earing pages that you want to revisit or even highlighting the sentences you like, if the book actually belongs to you.

But no matter which version of the book you pick, you'll still get a lot of nice takeaways. Each chapter gives you permission to be or do something. For instance, be human, stop, drop the ball, be here now, find your voice, etc. But it all comes back to one thing: accept yourself just as you are.

I, like the author, sometimes think my life is a total mess, while everyone else has their stuff together. I, like the author, like to keep busy, but at what expense? I, like the author, believe in God but have a problem with "the church".

If you find yourself comparing what you have to what others have, giving in to the wants and suggestions of others instead of listening to your own voice, and not extending grace to yourself, then you probably want to read this book.

Permission Granted is published by Zondervan and is on bookstore shelves now. I received a free ARC in exchange for a review.

Melissa H.

The Book My Heavy Heart Needed

Reviewed in the United States on November 13, 2019

Some books make you feel heavy when you’re done reading them. Or, they give you a laundry list of things you need to do, like a new life-prescription to be taken three times per day.

But Permission Granted does the exact opposite. After reading this book, I felt light; I felt like the only thing I needed to do was be me, which is to say, do nothing.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is struggling with how complicated life and living are. This book will calm your troubled mind and remind you there’s beauty in the mess - and that beauty is simply you being you.

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