By Klaus Döring
What is a calling? Your life’s calling is what makes you feel that life is meaningful. It helps you live a purposeful life. Callings look different for everybody. Some people, for example, want to help others as part of their calling.
Career is a rapid motion. A course of action. Sure! A professional conduct in life. Even a progress through life. Here we are! That means, a careerist is one, who rushes widely and makes his own personal advancement as well as his (or her) own aim in life!
What can we do, if “career doubts” won’t go away? First allow me to quote my bible, especially Jude (Watching out! Sounding an alarm!), who writes in the style of a teacher who is watching a freight train bear down on his student’s driver. Yes, bells ring out: “Be merciful to those who doubt.” (Jude 2:22).
What does my calling in life mean? Your calling can be thought of as the urge to share your gifts with the world. When you express your gifts for the sake of others, you often experience the joy of being fully alive.
A true calling is a career or walk of life that a person feels compelled or meant to do. Finding meaning in life is something people often spend a lot of time contemplating. Or some individuals may feel the passion so strong that they know quickly in their heart what they were born to do.
“The way that people pick up careers is incredibly primitive,” said Nicholas Lore, founder of the Rockport Institute, a career coaching firm, and author of “The Pathfinder”. Strong tobacco, indeed. That’s why so many people are indeed dissatisfied with their jobs.
Believe me, I always thought about a true calling for myself. Sure, people, whose careers aren’t the fight fit, often feel like impostors, as Professor Robert I. Sutton, an organizational psychologist at Stanford University in Palo Alto, said. Very, very well said, Sir.
Notice dreams and signs. Prioritize creative expression. Think about what you used to love. Notice what feels good. Turn down the distractions. Pay attention to what keeps coming back. Try new things regularly.
How about you, my dear reader of this column? Are you also placing too high a value on the external rewards of a job, like money, prestige and power? Of course, for many of us (most?). These things are indeed important. Hold on, please! The work you do and the skills your opportunity requires and the value of your work are really more vital to fulfillment. Paper work, or not… . You think, you find a better career fit? Go ahead – but don’t expect that this is your life’s career!
I waited for my “better calling” (what a terrible term!) experiencing many even better and wonderful moments in life. I also experienced that several professional things I did in the past had not been very much compatible with me. But I stored many valuable experiences.
Today, I am what I am. And, I am proud of it. Almost 71. A retiree with still so many opportunities in the Philippines.
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Questions, comments or suggestions? Email me: doringklaus@gmail.com or follow me on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter or visit one of my websites www.germanexpatinthephilippines.blogspot.com.or www.klausdoringsclassicalmusic.blogspot.com.
