April 20

It is unrealistic to expect your job to contain the sum total of your creative engagement. It’s unlikely to happen. Sometimes your job meshes nicely with your personal tastes and passions, and sometimes you simply need to do your job. That’s what it means to be a pro.

Your occupation provides you with resources to live. Your vocation is something much, much more. The word vocation comes from the Latin word vocare, which means “to call.” Your vocation is what’s being called out of you in response to the world around you. And it’s likely going to be a portfolio of passions that will sometimes overlap with your occupation and sometimes not, but that’s perfectly fine and normal. Don’t think that something is wrong if you don’t always feel fulfilled by your occupation. Ideally, you will navigate to a place where your occupation fulfills you more and more over time, but in the interim, know that you can satisfy your vocation outside your work as well by finding projects to pour yourself into.

Your occupation is how you make a living, but your vocation is what’s being called out of you as you engage in life and work.

How would you define your vocation or what’s being called out of you? How can you structure your life to pursue it more?