The Activist for Activists. Author of Make a Difference with Mental Health Activism and The Happy Activist: Journey the 5-Step Activism Path to Focus Your Passion and Change the World. Teacher, Psychologist, Environmental Activist, Animal Lover.
- Grandparents Can Develop Activist Grandchildren - September 29, 2025
- Top Six Reasons Credit Union Benefits Are a Smart Choice Over Banks - August 18, 2025
- The Meaning of Equanimity: Discover How to Survive Challenges with Composure - June 9, 2025
Last Updated on October 23, 2024
Rae appears at the doorway of the warming center, carrying a bag of books. She is delivering the books to unhouse people who have sought shelter on this bitterly cold day. Reading has been her calling since she learned from listening to her parents read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. This love led to working at a local bookstore, and eventually buying it when the owner retired.
She shares her passion by making sure unhoused people have access to books if they want them. In her store, she provides a particular bin they can select from. At lunchtime, she tours the neighborhood with her bag of books and pastries, and it makes her so happy when someone tells her they enjoyed a book and passed it along to others.
You may know a person like Rae, who has always known their purpose in life, from childhood. They are happy, fulfilled, and motivated in their work.
Indeed, I know people that have a calling. But what about those of us who never got the call? If a calling is a strong sense of the work you are meant to do in your life, I never felt even a tingle. But perhaps a search for a calling can lead to important clues about where to focus your passion.
Exploring Your Ideal Life
In the first step of the What’s On Your Sign? How to focus your passion and change the world, you focus on your passion. Later you match your passion to your strengths and the needs in your community to find the right activism opportunity for you.
To create a vision for your ideal life, you examine the roles you play, the experiences you want, your values, learnings from your past, and your calling.
To identify your passion, you create a vision for your life, imagine the world as you wish to see it, and choose the change you want to make to move closer to your ideal world. Identifying your calling is one way you can focus on your passion.
What Is a Calling?
The word calling comes from a religious background, with the idea that a divine being provides your life mission. But the concept has evolved to a secular definition more about your life’s work. For example, Merriam Webster defines calling this way:
- a strong inner impulse toward a particular course of action especially when accompanied by conviction of divine influence.
- the vocation or profession in which one customarily engages.
Other definitions I saw in my research include:
- work that a person perceives as their purpose in life
- consuming, meaningful passion people experience toward something
- work that is inseparable from one’s life and motivated by the fulfillment that doing the work brings
- a destiny to fill based on your gifts, talents or life opportunities
Author Tara Mohr has a chapter in her book Playing Big on your calling and how to recognize it. She defines calling as
…a longing to address a particular need or problem in the world.”
Parker Palmer calls this concept vocation:
“This is something I can’t not do, for reasons I’m unable to explain to anyone else and don’t fully understand myself but are nonetheless completing.”
Is there anything in your life that affects you this way? Something powerful that draws you even though you feel resistance to it? Pay close attention because it may be a calling.
Why Do I Need a Calling?
Apparently, it is a plus to have a calling. Having a calling is related to
- life satisfaction
- work satisfaction
- meaningfulness of work
- self-efficacy
- citizenship behaviors
- employment opportunities
- health
- sleep quality
- personal growth
That is a fantastic list. Having a calling is also related to less burnout and emotional exhaustion.
Research on callings shows similar results across cultures. Perhaps experiencing, and searching for, a calling is a universal human experience.
In my next post, I will show you how to find your calling.
Pingback: #SeniSal Roundup: Mar 23-27 ~ Esme Salon
Pingback: How to Find Your Calling in Life • Life At the Intersection
I read just recently that if it is truly your calling that it will energize you while you are doing it. Teaching has always been my calling and it definitely energizes me! Thanks for sharing with us at The Blogger’s Pit Stop!
Hi, I am so happy for you that you have a strong calling in your life! And it is a wonderful way to make a difference in the world. Thanks for stopping by.
Pingback: What Is the Source of Your Activism Calling? • Life At the Intersection
Pingback: At the Intersection of Teens and Gun Control. Calling for Peace.
Pingback: How To Create A Vision Of A Joyful Life
Pingback: How Do Activists Describe the Cause Closest to Their Heart?
Pingback: What Is Your Life Vision?