Words of the Day: Calling and Vocation–and links to great blog posts on finding yours

The theme of the day is “calling” because that happened to be the theme of today’s posts from two bloggers I follow. I figured I might as well make a third blog post about it–mainly to summarize the experts.

Webster’s Dictionary describes “calling” as the action of a person who calls, a person’s occupation, or the inner urging toward a profession or an activity.

A calling is what most people are looking for–that sweet spot where we’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing or that thing that we love doing, are good at, and which helps others. I love how Michael Hyatt, in his podcast How to Discern Your Calling, describes finding your calling in the point where passion, proficiency, and profitability intersect. If all three things aren’t present, you’ll have a hobby (no profitability) or a job that bores you (no passion) or a failure (no competency). As Michael Hyatt points out, calling and vocation are both from the Latin word vocare, which means “to call” and implies an invitation. Pretty cool, huh? It’s specific to you, a personal invitation to use your gifts.

In his post Your Calling Doesn’t Always Look Like You Think It Should, Jeff Goins tells how he was a successful musician who realized music wasn’t his calling. His calling crept up on him (Writing crept up on me too, Jeff). He says  “It’s disingenuous to tell you to go find your calling. What seems more honest is to say that a calling finds you when you’re open and conscious, willing to listen to what life, and maybe God, is trying to tell you.”

So, in other words, look inside, look at your past, look at what you daydream about, and figure out what you love, what you’re good, and what you can make a living doing.

 

I highly recommend listening to Michael Hyatt’s podcast (or at least reading the show notes) and reading Jeff Goins’s blog post.

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