How to find your calling (new article from Oliver Emberton)

Read: 5 min.
The best reward in our lives is the opportunity to do something that is worth it.
Theodore Roosevelt

Life's work, calling, purpose - is it just a good job? Or something different? What do we look for when we look for a calling? In this article you will find tools for finding yourself, advice from a psychologist, 10+ questions that are important to answer in order to find yourself, and 3 high-quality free tests that will help you find your calling.

In finding a calling, it is important to start looking. Go!

Profession or calling

Profession and vocation are different concepts in the Russian coordinate system. For example, we can say: “Raising children is her calling,” “A doctor is not just a profession, it’s a calling,” “Leading people is his calling.” But it sounds strange: “He found his calling - he became an auditor.”

If we break down the concept of “vocation” into its component parts, we will understand that there are several meanings hidden in it. The business that we call “calling” must:
✎
Be useful and necessary for people
✎
Arouse respect
✎
Meet the character and interests of a person, correspond to his “I”

The vocation is not considered from a financial point of view. It doesn’t matter whether you can get rich doing your chosen business or not. This is what distinguishes a “calling” from a profession that generates income. One can even notice in the word “calling” some element of the supernatural, because in Russian culture God “calls” or the people “call” the tsar to reign. As they say, when you don’t choose a job, but it chooses you, then the job becomes a calling.

Traps on the way to your destiny

When you start looking for purpose, you may be pulled back. Something will start to stop, opposition will appear.

At this moment, you need to find one of the traps listed below and tell yourself: I will not give in and I will not stop.

So, the traps:

Endless doubts and objections

An inner voice can tell you why you won’t succeed: you don’t have enough knowledge, skills, experience, connections, so you don’t even have to start. Under no circumstances should you listen to your inner critic.

Feeling like your seat is already taken

It will seem to you that there are already professionals who bake cakes, treat animals, teach dancing, conduct weddings, etc.

It is not true that all the places are occupied. Every day new specialists appear in all fields. The greatest successes are achieved by those who came to the sphere at the call of their soul.

You need to go not in the direction of money, but in the direction of your destination - and there will be money there too.

In an unloved field, burnout occurs very quickly. Everything where there is no call of the soul, but where there is money - not for long.

Therefore, for those who love what they do, there is no competition. There is competition at the level of huge corporations.

Competition for private craftsmen, small salons, cafes is an imaginary barrier.

If you do your work efficiently and responsibly, there will be no price for you.

If you do your work with talent, you will have great success.

Dependence on people's opinions

“People will think that I am doing some nonsense. They will say that this is not a serious matter. How will I be assessed? How will they look at me?

Let everyone think what they want. You've made your decision. The main thing is that it will be right for you.

You need to live as you choose, and not as others have decided for you.

Shifting the focus not to benefit, but to profit

Money comes when a person begins to bring maximum benefit.

People come to highly qualified specialists with a request: take the money and do your job well! It's nice to pay for good work. In this case, the client does not feel deceived; he is happy to part with his money.

Discover your depth, create yourself not for the sake of recognition, approval or money - but only for the sake of discovering your true “I”.

The desire to prove something to someone

For example, you studied to be an engineer, but you don’t like this specialty. At the same time, you want to prove to everyone that you are a girl engineer. In reality, you want to play the piano, but you are afraid that they will not understand you.

Don't let anyone control your life. Allow yourself to make decisions for the purpose of implementation, and not out of a desire to prove something to someone.

Long preparation

When, instead of doing it, you prepare for years, and then the desire to change something in your life disappears.

It’s a pity to throw away years of learning something you don’t like from your life.

You studied for some specialty, and now you realized that you want to work in a completely different field. What to do? So many years devoted to another specialty...

If you realize that you've wasted a lot of time on something you don't enjoy, the best thing to do is take your losses and move on.

You don't need to lose another 20 years of your life for it to make sense that you've already lost 10. You don't need to condemn yourself to an unhappy life. Then you will greatly regret that you lived the wrong life all those years while you tried to justify the diploma that turned out to be unnecessary.

Seeing only one way

For example, figure skaters go ice skating, but you can’t due to health reasons, so you are looking for another activity.

Sometimes you just need to expand your vision.

You don’t have to ride yourself, but teach other people to do it or record training videos.

All new directions appeared when someone started doing something differently from everyone else. At the same time, many stop when they realize that they cannot do as others do.

Dependence on other people's opinions, fear of criticism

Sometimes our family and friends worry about us and begin to scare us, criticize us, and express their opinions. You don't always need to listen to other people's opinions.

If these opinions lower your energy and you feel bad after the conversation, you need to ask them to stop talking about this topic.

Fear that it's too late to start

Every year you will think: why didn’t you start earlier?

Start today!

You will never have as much energy and time as you have now.

Every day you are younger than you will ever be.

There are people who start late, but the rest of the time they will be happy. There are people who will say that it is too late and will never be happy.

Today is the day to start!

How to find a calling. Methods

If you are looking for a life’s work, it is important to answer the global question “Who am I?”, or more precisely, “Who am I here?”
It starts with understanding yourself. 5 ways of self-analysis:

1. Ask yourself questions.

The list of questions to find your calling is unlimited.
Here are some of them: Why do I need to work? What am I interested in doing every day? What am I good at? What would I do if I didn't have to work? What do I want to achieve in 10 years? What values ​​were instilled in me as a child? Do I agree with them now? Questions can be more specific: What books do I like to read most? Will I be able to find my way in an unfamiliar city? Do I like solving puzzles? Do I love animals? Is it easy to convince me? 2.

Ask your loved ones
the same .
They have been watching you for many years and can tell you unobvious things about your character and even superpowers. 3. Look for new activities and don’t be afraid of new groups.
An X-ray machine for your interests and abilities is a new team, in interaction with people your individuality is more clearly revealed.
You involuntarily compare yourself to others. For example, what do you do better, how easily do you get along with people, are you interested in the same things as new acquaintances? 4. Look into your childhood.
What did you like to do when you didn't have to think about making money?
And when did you not have to worry about school grades? Sculpt animals from plasticine, build a treehouse, or tease the neighbor's dog. This is where the origins of the calling lie in childhood. 5. Take online career tests.
A good test is an objective tool that helps you understand your abilities, interests and personality traits.

Work inspires you and helps you overcome obstacles

Have you ever noticed how some people transform while working? A spark appears in his eyes, his face comes to life, it’s as if he finds himself in another world. His work inspires him and helps him overcome any obstacles along the way. There are no barriers to what you love, and if someone complains that circumstances prevented them from achieving what they wanted, don’t believe it! Send the whiner to the Paralympic athletes of whom the country is proud, or to a professional photographer from Indonesia who successfully works in her own studio, despite a physical disability: she has no arms. If there is a desire, there will be a way to get the job done.

Online test for calling in life

We have several tests you can rely on to answer the question "Who am I?"
These tests can be the first step in finding yourself: ✔ Free “Personality and Professions” test.

Designed for high school students and applicants, but will also be of interest to adults.
After completing it, you will find out which professions from completely different areas suit your personality traits
. For example, the profession of an event manager requires communication skills; to become a doctor, you need to be patient and attentive; and to become an entrepreneur, it is important not to be afraid to take risks. As a result of testing, you will receive a list of professions that match your personality type. Number of questions: 50.

✔ Free test "Profperspective".

The test will help
assess interests and preferences in professional activities
. Find out which professional profile is closer to you: economics, natural science, artistic and creative, or some other. Number of questions: 32.

✔ Methods "Career Guidance Online"

(for grades 8-11) and
“Online Career Consultant”
(for adults) is
a comprehensive professional diagnosis and conversation with a psychologist, career guidance specialist
. As a result of the test and consultation, you will receive a list of the most suitable professions based on your abilities, interests and character traits. A consulting psychologist will tell you in detail about the chosen professions, their characteristics and the possibilities of obtaining the necessary education. Number of questions: 118. Duration of each service: 1 hour of testing + 1 hour of consultation via Skype. Complete “Online Career Guidance” >> Complete “Online Career Consultant” >>

The first day. Look into the future and imagine

Our fantasies are not only a storehouse of information about ourselves and our goals, but also a powerful source of motivation for their implementation. To make it easier to fantasize, let's play a game. Imagine that you are a lucky hundred-year-old dreamer. Not only did you survive in your mind and health until such a serious name day, but you were also incredibly lucky in life, and you achieved fantastic success in everything you undertook. Healthy, prosperous, living in abundance, in a word, prospering. Your family and friends have gathered to congratulate you and celebrate this significant event with you. Or maybe not only friends, but also reporters, the press, celebrities...

Introduced? Now remember your entire happy life, full of interesting and exciting events. What were you doing? What they were doing? Where, in what setting? Who was next to you? How did you feel? Describe your lifestyle, everything that was important to you, all areas of your life. Preferably on paper or in a text editor.

Then read your text, preferably out loud, paying attention to your feelings and the sound of your voice. Do you really want these fantasies to become reality? Are you ready to try?

To be where you want to be in 100 years, you need to start in your chosen direction right now.

How to find your calling, your favorite job or your business

When choosing a profession, the question helps: “How will I be useful to people?” It seems that this altruistic approach has nothing to do with the real world, where people go to work to earn money. But studies show that representatives of those professions that benefit society

. To find your business, it is important to understand the world of professions. You may not even know that the profession that is perfect for you exists. See information about professions here >> Ratings and latest labor market research can be found in this section of the site >>

Second day. Give yourself permission and dream

Very often our calling is hidden somewhere between the area of ​​our interests, the area of ​​our innermost desires and a few deeply hidden and forgotten childhood dreams. We are so afraid of this Pandora's box that we hide it away in the closet of our memory, so that later we can hastily push into it everything that we wanted, but did not come true, was planned, but did not come true. And then forget.

To lift the curtain and take another step towards your calling, you will need to take out this box, blow off the dust and carefully shake out everything that you have shoved into it. Think about all your dreams, desires, interests and everything you've ever wanted to try and write it down. To complete the picture, add to them a list of improbabilities. Don’t limit your imagination: the more points you write, even the most ridiculous ones, the better. Let there be 100 or more, but not less than 20.

By the way, this exercise has an interesting side effect. Save the list and check it after some time. Some of your wishes will come true by themselves, without your participation. In order for everything to come true, you will need to take some actions, but that is a completely different story.

When we were little, each of us knew our purpose. If you have forgotten what you dreamed of as a child, ask your family.

How to find your calling if you're 15

Adolescence is a period of self-identification when the question “Who am I here?” becomes central to a person. The search for oneself and the desire for self-realization pushes one to choose a profession. Why then is it so difficult for a high school student to find a calling?

At the age of 13-16, a person has very little information about professions; he is used to studying and, as a rule, has never worked. He has little idea what a logistician or SEO specialist does, and how a design engineer differs from a test engineer.

My experience

My emotional reaction began at point 116, after 40 minutes. But I suppressed it. It was in vain to write in a cafe - it’s not convenient to shed tears in public. I didn’t believe myself, I continued writing options for another hour until point 257.

№116. My purpose: to help others achieve their goals.

I came home happy, but confused - I started double-checking. Analyze life, compare past goals and desires.

A diary of goals and desires written down over recent years helped. The idea often pops up in them: helping others. 5 years ago I wrote down a global goal: to help others determine and fulfill their purpose.

“Everything fits, but it’s too simple”

– I thought. I searched and searched, and then I found it.

I repeated the exercise 3 days later, at home. At point 57 – it’s here again! Tears started, I didn’t expect it to work again.

Eureka! Is the search over? - No, they just started.

I decided for myself that since I hadn’t found it for a long time, it meant that I had to learn to live happily .

And now the time has come to fulfill the second part - work for the benefit of others. This site is the result of following my purpose. Even though I don't see the end goal.

How to find your calling if you are over 40

Feelings of being lost can be encountered at any age. And in the same way, you can find your calling at 5 years old and at 85. As an adult, finding your favorite thing can be even more difficult than as a teenager. There are professions, such as a doctor, a professional athlete or a musician, that are difficult to “get into” as an adult. They require early career guidance and long-term training. And for those who chose these professions as adults, it is more difficult to make up for lost time and achieve success. That’s why finding yourself in adolescence is so important.

If you now doubt whether you are in the right business, or whether you have chosen the right profession, then take our free online test for adults who are already working, “Is it time to change your profession.”
TAKE THE FREE TEST “IS IT TIME TO CHANGE YOUR PROFESSION” >>

Carrying out your responsibilities makes you feel like you belong

Choose a field of activity in which you will feel like a fish in water. Then you won't have to make an effort to demonstrate your professionalism. In particular, natural extroverts find energy in social situations, but not everyone does. If Bill Clinton comes alive on stage, drawing energy from the audience, an introvert feels terrible under the spotlight. Public attention sucks all the energy out of him. Such people need a lot of effort to overcome themselves and perform on stage, or give a speech at a gala reception. They prefer privacy, one-on-one conversation. Each of us manifests himself most fully in different conditions and circumstances. Some people need full houses and applause, others can concentrate only when left alone. A career develops new skills, but does not change character. Perhaps you will learn to speak publicly, and public activity will become familiar to you. But the craving for solitude will still remain.