What is a Vocation?

Philosophy 1: Look deep inside yourself

There are two competing philosophies trying to answer the question of what to do with your professional life. The dominant philosophy at the moment tells you to follow your passion . It's best to begin by reflecting on your strengths and weaknesses. Listen to your feelings and pick a professional path accordingly.

This modern philosophy is focused on us as individuals. It's about our passion and our feelings, about what we want from life. It begins with the self and ends with the self in fulfillment and happiness.

Philosophy 2: Listen to the world

There exists a historically older, more traditional philosophy¹. It assumes that you are thrown into life, at a certain time and a certain place. Call it randomness, fate, or God. Whatever the reason, you were born into a unique historical period and culture.

The question you should ask yourself is not what I want from life but what does life want from me? The focus shifts from the individual and our dreams to the world. What is the world calling me to do? What am I being summoned for?

Instead of looking within you start to raise your gaze and look outward. What problems are we facing now? What needs to be done?

In search for meaning

One of the most haunting examples of this philosophy is the life of Victor Frankl. Frankl was a Jewish psychotherapist in Vienna. After the annexation of Austria by Hitler in 1938 Frankl and his family were forced into concentration camps².

Over the following years, Frankl came to a deep realization. He did not choose this life, it was not his passion or dream, not the future he had envisioned for his family. But life nonetheless threw him into this moment of immeasurable suffering. By accepting these facts and his place in time he found meaning.

His moral task - given to him by fate - was to suffer well. To endure all of it and not lose his humanity. More than that, to chronicle and analyze this moment in history through his unique lens as a psychiatrist. By accepting the world around him Frankl found his calling - and answered it.

What is a vocation?

A vocation is not a job or a career. Its purpose is not to pay the bills. A vocation is something that calls you and demands your unyielding commitment. There is no separation between work and life. Your work is your life and your entire identity is engulfed within it.

A vocation or calling is not kind. It doesn't leave you a choice, you might not even want to accept it. You might have other dreams and goals. But a vocation is not about your plans and feelings. It's about what the world needs from you and how you can become a tool in its service.

“It makes me happier, more secure, to think that I do not have to plan and manage everything for myself, that I am only a sword made sharp to smite the unclean forces, an enchanted sword to cleave and disperse them. Grant, O Lord, that I may not break as I strike! Let me not fall from Thy hand!” - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

As you might have noticed a calling is not necessarily about the pursuit of happiness. But that is also not the point. The goal is meaning not happiness.

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Passions and vocations

These two philosophies - one serving, one searching - are not completely different. They have some things in common. Both agree that there are three pieces to this puzzle: You as a person, the world around you, and the interaction between the two.

A vocation calling you two serve might not be so different from a deep passion or obsession you follow. Both come to you, both are outside of your control. You don't decide what you become passionate about, just like you don't decide what time or place you are born into.

Do you need a vocation?

One problem I have with the idea of finding your passion or serving a calling is that it's a pretty high bar to clear. At least for most people. Not everyone has a deep passion for something in life. And not everyone lives in a time that calls you to serve. We don't want to desperately go out into the world searching for windmills to fight.

But I think there is still some practical wisdom to be found in both of these approaches to life. You should reflect on your own personality and strengths. And you should also raise your gaze and look at the world around you. The trick is to pay attention to the third puzzle piece, the interaction between the two.

You might not find an obsession or a calling but you will notice certain things resonating with you. That resonance speaks to something true and real. It reveals something about yourself. So you might not find a vocation. That's alright, what you want to be aiming for is meaning anyways.