This is my favorite part and one that most people I talk to find most challenging to define. What makes identifying your calling so fulfilling is that once you’ve identified it, the natural evolution is becoming all in seeking any and every opportunity you can to live it out. Better yet, as calling becomes a normal part of everyday life, you start to integrate calling into all aspects of your life. But before I get ahead of myself, let’s take a step backwards and ask 2 critical questions. #1. What is calling? #2. What is Your calling?
What is calling? Calling can have several meanings, but for the purposes of our discussion here I am going to break calling into a secular and a religious or faith based description. Simply put, calling is that thing that allows you to give back to others, to pay it forward, to bring meaning to life. From a secular standpoint calling might include things like coaching a sports team, or mentoring another, feeding into the lives of someone skills and talents you have that you pay forward to see others success.
From a religious - specifically Christian perspective - calling is the thing(s) you do that adds to the Kingdom of God. In church circles it is often referred to as Kingdom building. Now here is the thing, in a lot of cases calling from a secular perspective often intersects with calling viewed from a Christian perspective. Your intentional action of sharing your time and talent to others and the world around you is calling. Better than that, when calling is identified, it becomes the thing you long to do more than anything else. It consumes you and as you find, refine and develop that thing, that calling and make it who you are.
So let’s answer the next question. What is your calling? Calling in most cases is different from career. Let me give you an example. For my career I run a small education and electronics company that serves the computer repair industry as well as schools, colleges trade schools with the curriculum and text books that we’ve written. My calling is coaching. As you read this, you are in fact reading a facet of my calling.
Working with others and taking them from where they are in life and helping them get to where they want to be is my calling. My career is work, and yes it provides the resources to do my calling. Working with and speaking into the lives of others is my calling, it is what excites me. It is the thing that when you ask gives me the opportunity to mount the figurative soap box and speak freely and with passion.
So the question that was poised is this, what is your calling? One of the great things about working with a coach is seeking to identify that thing. You may have some ideas, you may be drawing a blank. But what is important is starting the process to not only identify and but then get engaged in calling. Calling brings meaning to life. It is the exclamation point on a life well lived. Calling is the thing that has people lining up at your funeral to speak to the impact and difference your life made on others.
So the challenge is simple this week. If you know what your calling is, great. If you don’t, start thinking about those areas in your life that gives you the opportunity to give back to others. Think of those skills and talents you have that can make the world around you a better place. Think of the impact you could have if you started living out your purpose and calling in life.
It may seem simple, and for some of you it is. But when you find that thing and put it into effect your life starts to impact and change the world around you for the better. Calling has that effect and I wouldn’t waste another day without getting started on that journey. It is that important. More critical than any other component of the tenets I teach is identifying calling and living it out. Calling is the aspect of life that will feed into all other areas and calling is the aspect of life that will truly bring your life into balance.
So go forth today and start seeking your calling. Please reach out in the comments or direct to me for help, guidance and suggestion. Trust me, it is that important.
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