Your calling has already found you.

I was meeting with my spiritual director recently and I said, “I feel like my calling chose me – like: it has me; I don’t have it.” I was describing the experience of feeling carried by something larger than myself, for a greater purpose (which is a huge blessing, by the way), and not having ultimate control in that process.

I’ve been thinking about that ever since, how I’ve come far enough now in life to understand that our vocations and callings are not something we have to struggle to figure out. I think we’re born into a purpose and that just by living our lives authentically, we can walk our way right into it, discover that we’re part of something larger, have been placed here for a specific and worthwhile reason for being.

A lot of the time we resist, insistent on trying to accomplish the way of our own choosing. I’m sure that sometimes the two are in alignment – what we want for our life’s mission and what life wants of us – but other times, and especially if our path is not meant to be a traditional one, not the way of the crowd, we try and go another way. The way our culture, parents, peer group, or schooling dictates for us. From the time we’re born, voices are constantly shouting “This is who you are.” Part of our life journey is to discover who we really are, what we have been created for, and what life wants to create for and through us. Then to have the courage to say to the world at some point, “This is who I am.”

What we’re meant to do and be might sometimes be humble but immensely impactful work, different from the flashy roles our society tells us to aspire to in order to be seen as successful. Or, for example, it might be that we prefer to be introverted and tucked away, in behind-the-scenes roles, but life ends up calling us to be out in front in order to fulfill the beautiful instructions placed on our soul.

Uncover Your Calling by Listening to Your Life

Did you know that your life speaks? Parker Palmer talks about this in his book Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation. He says,

“Before I can tell my life what I want to do with it, I must listen to my life telling me who I am.”

He speaks of vocation and calling “not as a goal to be achieved but as a gift to be received.” Can you imagine, that right now your life is speaking a clear word about who you are and what you’ve been placed here to offer the world, and that it has been speaking those words since you were a tiny little one? Maybe you’re a dream life has dreamed into the world, for this very time, never to be dreamed the same way again. There will ever only be one you.

Ways to Identify Your Calling

Here are some ways your life might be speaking to you about what you’ve been uniquely designed to do and be:

There’s a gift, skill, or personal quality you possess but you’re not even aware of it being a “gift” as such, because you do it so easily. You give it away freely and often, because it’s who you are at your core. You can’t help but to be/do it.

You have gifts that others might extract from you without either one of you realizing it. You do this gift or skill so easily that it just flows out of you, and it helps others too – it’s of great value to them – so people, especially those who really know you well, will come to you for it. Some people will even try and use or manipulate you for it. That’s how valuable it ultimately is to them; that’s how much of a difference it makes in people’s lives.

The kind of books you tend to read, the topics that continually interest you, the kind of people you admire, your deepest interests that have persisted over time. These are the trends of what you’re drawn to, and they all point to this design written on your soul of who you are and what will bring you joy and bless others in the process, should you choose to accept and fully embody the assignment.

There are seers all around us – people with the inner knowing, or “sight,” to see who people really are and to point out their unique giftings. You’ve likely crossed paths with at least a few of them and they’ve seen in you what is already speaking. They’ve pointed out your unique gifts and the way in which you make the world better just by being you. Do any of those encounters come to mind right now? It might have even been a family member, like your grandmother, who noticed the unique spark of light in you.

You’ve probably also felt it in your body. A feeling of deep fulfillment, a sense of rightness, and even peace, that comes when you’re using certain skills and qualities, doing certain things, offering specific gifts, helping people in certain ways. You’ve felt the energy it gives you, the heart-pulling desire to do more of it, the joy it gives you in simply being alive.

Your calling is something you would do whether or not you ever get paid for it. And you might not get paid for it; that’s not what calling is about. It’s not always the same as how you earn a living or what your profession is.

Your Calling Cannot Miss You

Your calling is you. It’s who you are. You never have to worry about missing it or that you’re not on the right path, because your calling and vocation is already in you, it’s already written on your life, can be read like a book. The only thing left to be accomplished is the flourishing and unfolding of it, as you continue to say “yes” to moving further and further into the fulfillment of it.

All of your experiences in life only add to how you’ll show up when you go from being your calling to doing your calling. Use every experience to cultivate you – your character, your person, your mind and heart – because who you are when you’re doing the thing you do is what will speak most loudly. Not what you do, but who you are.

Your calling is already in you. What you need is not to discover it, or to find the one grand solution to the question, “What am I supposed to be doing with my life?” but rather the courage to simply and fully be who you already are.

With gratitude for your journey,
Tiffany