How to find your vocation 1/2

Human beings are driven through life by two basic impulses.

The first is the instinct to survive, which we share with all terrestrial animals.

The second driving force is the inner need to remember why we were born, to discover the purpose, the role, the unique human potential that each of us comes to fulfill.

Maybe it’s an illusion, maybe there is no hidden purpose to human life, maybe it’s really just about surviving, reproducing and dying.

But it is not a question that this second impulse is just as fundamental to us – it is present in our lives. Human life and history cannot be explained without it.

The desire to find meaning in life and a mission is a fundamental part of the human constitution.

We don’t automatically get either from others – not in the 21st century. Our parents can no longer dictate to us what we will do in life. Tradition, social status, culture, religion, or the expectations of those around us can no longer give our lives meaning.

Compared to the simpler lives of our grandparents, most of us today live more than one life. But no one from the outside tells us who we are and what our role is anymore.

21st century communication ensures that everyone can find plenty of inspiration. Patterns and ideas for one’s future profession flow to a person from all over the world – everything on the entire Earth is a click away. The individual has become his or her own parent, teacher, leader and guide.

We have to find the goals of our life, its meaning and our mission and decide for ourselves.

Am I doing what I’m really supposed to be doing?

At any time we can ask ourselves: “Am I doing what I am meant to do in this life?”, “Is what I am doing the truest expression of my true nature and potential?”

One career choice for life is sometimes not enough.

Who a person was and what attracted them at age 17 may not be the same 5 years later. What one concludes about oneself and one’s calling at age 20 may not be the same at age 30, 40, 50, or 60. “Who I am” and “what is my mission in life” are one and the same. It is our identity. Each of us has to discover it for ourselves – and give it direction ourselves.

The choice of a vocation is a threshold that everyone must cross alone

We are becoming more and more individual – it’s becoming the norm. The authority that used to come to people externally through parents, priests or leaders now rests in our own intuition, our own inner authority.

That’s why for most of us, choosing a professional direction (for the first time in our lives, or even later on) is a threshold we have to cross all by ourselves. It is a personal decision.

So what should guide us in deciding the direction of our future, our career, our vocation? This decision determines our fulfillment in life, our financial situation, our relationships, our contribution to the society in which we live – the manifestation of our deep potential. Every vocational choice will affect a future world, about which no one can tell us anything definite. Thus, the future cannot determine our direction.

The first part of the article: How to find your vocation 2/2

Text: Yehuda K. Tagar
Modifications: Martin Uhlíř

Find out more to this topic at the video of Yehuda Tagar here.