Finding One’s Vocation
Fulfillment and freedom in life come from what the voice inside is saying
Mind Candy is a newsletter on practical philosophy and human flourishment—aka how to live the “the good life.” Each month we tackle a new theme. This month we’re exploring fulfillment.
This Week at a Glance:
This week, we close out our May theme of fulfillment with a dive into vocations. Vocations are not regular jobs, they speak to our souls in ways that connect us deeply to the world. But finding a vocation is not always easy.
By the time you finish this meditation, you’ll learn:
🍭 What a vocation is and how it differs from a regular job;
🍬 How we can start to look for vocations within our own lives;
🍫 How we attain fulfillment and pleasure through the vocation we choose.
Your calling. What you were born to do. A purpose-driven life. These are all terms we use today to describe what it means to have a vocation.
A vocation is not a normal job. In fact, the majority of people who have a vocation wouldn’t even consider it a job. A vocation focuses on deeper principles that govern our existence.
The word vocation originates from the latin word “vocare” which meant “to call.” The word historically held a religious connotation as it was used for individuals who were going off into the ministry.
In today’s terms, however, while the religious notion still remains, it is more broadly associated with a calling or determination to perform work that impacts the broader society. It is common to hear people describing it as providing a higher purpose to their lives.
Marcus Aurelius once reminded himself that “In a sense, people are our proper occupation.” Individuals with a vocation often are holding positions that are to assist others, to make the world a better, more manageable place: a doctor, an activist, a labor organizer, a first responder, or even an artist.
Individuals who hold a vocation often find themselves deeply fulfilled in their pursuits as the work they are doing inherently answers a deep need within them and fills them with satisfaction.
“A person does not choose a vocation. A vocation is a calling,” writes David Brooks in The Road to Character. “People generally feel they have no choice in the matter. Their life would be unrecognizable unless they pursued this line of activity.”
There are many paths to one’s purpose in life. Robert Greene, the author of Mastery, however, often advises people who are looking for their purpose to look back into their childhood and see what interested them back then. It is from this starting point that we can better begin to understand ourselves and build a path to fulfillment.
“You are born with a particular makeup and tendencies that mark you as a piece of fate. It is who you are to the core. Some people never become who they are; they stop trusting in themselves; they conform to the tastes of others, and they end up wearing a mask that hides their true nature. If you allow yourself to learn who you really are by paying attention to that voice and force within you, then you can become what you were fated to become—an individual, a Master.”
As we get older, we begin to box ourselves in, we give ourselves reasons why we shouldn’t pursue this path or that. But for those who feel this deep calling, who don’t feel like anything they’ve done fulfills that need within them, they eventually cannot hide their discontent anymore and must turn away from the path walked and instead look for the freedom they had as a child. The freedom as a child was a guide to what made us happy, to what brought us excitement and joy.
By understanding ourselves, by listening to the voice we’ve quieted, we’ve rationalized into silence, we can begin to unravel the mystery that is ourselves and start seeing paths we may not have immediately noticed before.
The author Parker Palmer writes that a “Vocation does not come from willfulness. It comes from listening. I must listen to my life and try to understand what it is truly about—quite apart from what I would like it to be about."
And likewise, the psychologist Carl Jung wrote, “Anyone with a vocation hears the voice of the inner man: He is called."
There is a deep connection between one’s vocation and the inner self, something that speaks to the core of who we are, of our being.
But just because one feels called to a vocation doesn’t mean it is all sunshine and rainbows. Like any other task in life, vocations take time to find, to get used to, to learn and grow within. While the outcome of a vocation may in fact be fulfillment, a vocation does not necessarily have to start that way. In fact, as David Brooks suggests, many still have the dark night of the soul moments—periods where “the costs outweigh the benefits—which a person must go through to reach another level of intensity.”
It is in these moments of struggle, in questioning, that one learns more about themselves and what they are truly attempting to accomplish. When one has languished or become displeased with their job for long enough, they may just leave.
But a vocation speaks to a deeper need, a meaning that resides within the individual that holds them to it, and it is within dark times of questioning that the individual begins to uncover layers of themselves they didn’t know existed. They come to discover the work itself is gratifying. Yes, they got into the vocation as a way of helping others perhaps but they soon come to learn it is the work itself that drives them to wake up every morning with enthusiasm to take on a new day with the tasks at hand.
As Brooks documented in The Second Mountain, “A person with a deep vocation is not dependent on constant positive reinforcement. The job doesn't have to pay off every month, or every year. The person thus called is performing a task because it is intrinsically good, not for what it produces.”
It is the work, when we’re allowed to get into it and put ourselves into it, that makes it all worthwhile, that fulfills us. A vocation is of being of service, yes, but it is also through the work, through the continuous work to better the world the vocationist inhabits, that makes it truly matter. That truly bring fulfillment to the individual.
3-Bullet Summary:
A vocation is a calling to work that helps the broader society and simultaneously fulfills a need that resides deep within us;
Some of the greatest thinkers of all time have suggested a vocation comes from within, from a voice that speaks to our needs;
One may have a vocation, but it doesn’t mean it will be easy. In fact, there could be years where it isn’t. But the work itself provides fulfillment deep within us.
Until next week,
D.A. DiGerolamo
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