Do You Have A Calling or Career or Both?
A “calling” is not some kind of abstract agreement with the universe to stay in a job or career that you no longer love just because it pays well. When you don’t enjoy what you’re doing, it’s time to find what is calling you to break free. However, before you can discover how to harness the change and ride into your new life, you must first understand that a calling is not only a job or a career; but, it can materialize as both.
The starter Job
The first time you were paid for doing something, such as mowing your elderly neighbor’s yard or cooking French fries at McDonald’s, you were working. You had a job, but you probably didn’t want to work at it for the rest of your life. Later on, whether by happenstance or as part of a carefully crafted plan, you likely found yourself in a career, and hopefully one you loved.
A Career
Unlike a series of unrelated jobs, a career is a long-term job or series of jobs where you work within the same industry or organization. Generally, careers are skill specific, and involve the completion of specific training and education requirements to participate. Often, a career track includes a strategy to help you be promoted upward and take on more responsibility. Sometimes, however, the longevity becomes monotonous and causes boredom because the career no longer provides the challenges you need to stay interested.
Or you may just want to do something completely different because your interests or priorities have changed — you have found a new calling.
A Calling
Most people associate the word “calling” with finding a religious or spiritual purpose. It can be that, but a calling can also have a professional focus that connects to a spiritual feeling. So, when you talk about your calling, you’re really talking about finding your purpose in life. It’s good to have a career and great to have a calling, but it’s best to integrate your calling with a professional focus. You spend one-third of your life working, so you might as well be experiencing a fulfilling way to spend it.
Who knows what they want?
Some five-year-olds know “what they want to be when they grow up” and never look back. They are never without a calling. Others think they know what they want to be at that age but change their minds a few weeks later — and a few weeks after that — and so on. Many people don’t find their calling until they are well into adulthood. Then, some find their callings by accident.
When you can observe that you are exactly where you are supposed to be and doing exactly what you’re supposed to be doing, regardless of the money, prestige, or job title, it’s easy to say you’ve found your calling.
What if you are at a point where you need a change, but you aren’t quite sure how to do it or what it is that you want to do?
Finding Where You Stand
If you can draw a square, you can easily plot out where you are in both finding and following your calling. Along the left side of the square, write “I know what my calling is” and on the bottom of the square, write “I am following my calling.” Then, complete each of the three steps below.
Do you have a calling?
Do you know that you’re supposed to be a professional singer or teaching 8-year-old immigrants? That’s specific confidence. Place a mark near the top of the left side of the square. Maybe you’re a little less sure. Perhaps you know you’re supposed to be doing something at or near the ocean, or you’re pretty sure you want to work with elderly people. Then, your mark is more in the middle of the left-hand side. If you have no idea, your mark would be very low on the card.
What are you doing to follow that calling?
If you’re engaged in the career that helps fulfill that calling to its maximum, put a mark far to the right of the bottom of the square. If you’re pursuing your calling, but you’re not there yet, place the mark in the middle, and if you either don’t know your calling or aren’t doing anything about it, place your mark to the far left of the bottom of that square.
Draw a line.
Start from your first mark and draw a line to the right until you hit the other side of the square. Then, draw a line from your bottom mark upward until you hit the top. Now color in the new, likely rectangle shape you created. Is it only a little piece of the first square? Is it a massive majority? This shaded section should indicate to you just how close you are to living your calling.
Over the next several weeks, I’ll share stories about how people live their callings, and I hope you will join me.
If you are looking for guidance on how to tap into your calling and get the best results you can get, I’d like to help you. Send me an email, and we’ll talk.