Many people feel strong callings in life, whether to become a teacher, actor or musician. But callings can have many dimensions. Some may only find satisfaction acting out their calling in a specific setting, while others are happy playing different roles. Kirsten Robertson, Brenda A Lautsch and David Hannah provide guidance for those in search of a meaningful career and managers of workers in jobs unrelated to their deep callings.
Have you always wanted to be a rock star, a dancer, or a firefighter? If so, you may have a calling: an activity that a person feels destined to engage in and that brings them a sense of joy and authenticity. Theatre actors, for example, sometimes describe being bitten by the “acting bug”, which drives them to spend as much time as possible onstage.
Because callings are associated with a variety of positive experiences and are glorified in the media, some people invest substantial time and energy in searching for them. An underlying assumption in this process is that once this special vocation is “found”, then meaningfulness will follow.
Coupled with a growing emphasis on doing meaningful work in general, it’s not surprising that callings are frequently centred in career-related advice. However, putting it into practice is not so simple, often requiring personal sacrifice and difficult decisions. Our research, based on interviews with individuals who are called to a variety of different activities, provides important guidance for individuals who are contemplating turning their calling into a career.
First, make sure you take the time to develop an accurate picture of what you are called to do, because callings—even ones to the same general domain, such as visual art or acting—can differ from one another along several dimensions. We refer to these dimensions as “calling conditions”, which are limitations on the actions, people or settings that determine when engaging in a calling domain will be most meaningful.
Consider being drawn to music. A person who is called in an unconditional way is likely to find deep meaningfulness regardless of whether they make music themselves or take on a supporting role by teaching or managing acts; whether they are alone or working with a band; and whether they are in a private or public setting. This contrasts with a musician who has many calling conditions and may, for instance, only experience deep meaningfulness when they are playing a particular instrument on stage in front of a large crowd. In short, with more conditions, you may experience more meaningfulness by being selective when engaging in your calling domain. The activity, along with the conditions, comprise what we call the “calling core”.
An awareness of this core is critical in order to turn a calling into a meaningful career. For example, the first musician described above, whose calling core has no conditions, will generally encounter many more opportunities to earn income and experience meaningfulness while doing so. The second musician with a conditional calling core may find it much more difficult to earn a decent living through their calling: there must either be sufficient market demand for the narrow set of activities associated with their core, or they will need to supplement their income through other means. They could choose a “balancing” approach by taking on “periphery calling jobs” (in the calling domain but not meeting their conditions). Alternatively, they can pursue their calling part-time and only in ways that meet all their conditions, while relying on non-calling work as their main source of income. We term this approach “preserving” because it allows them to exert a strong amount of control over exactly how they engage in their calling.
Thus, if you have a calling and are considering whether and how to turn it into a job, there are five important questions worth asking:
- How conditional is my calling core? The more conditions you have, the fewer your labour market options.
- What is the labour market demand for my calling core? While having more conditions will usually mean you have fewer options, sometimes there may be high demand for a very specific activity. In those situations, you will have a good chance of building a meaningful career while minimising the need for periphery or non-calling work to make ends meet.
- How important is financial stability? If you expect to face labour market challenges in your core, you should consider what you are willing to do and to endure for the sake of your calling. If financial stability is an important value, then you may want to consider whether engaging in your calling as a part-time job on top of non-related work will be less stressful for you.
- How much control do I want over exactly how I enact my calling? If you have a specific vision for how you want to engage in your calling, then having alternative sources of non-calling income can give you more power to say “no” to calling jobs that feel inauthentic.
- Are there non-calling jobs that I could do that would still be at least somewhat meaningful? Some of our participants had primary jobs that were very different from their calling, and still found meaningfulness in them. This can be a fulfilling approach especially if you prefer not to compromise on exactly how you engage in your calling.
Note, however, that your answers to these questions might change over time. For example, at some periods in your life financial stability may be less important than engaging in your calling as much as possible. For many of our participants, financial stability became more important as they got older, so they adopted a different combination of calling and non-calling jobs. Also, as you learn more about yourself or your calling, you may find that your conditions are different than you expected. Some of our participants discovered conditions as they worked in their calling and realised that the ability to decline jobs that didn’t meet those conditions was essential for meaningfulness. Others realised that their calling cores were less conditional, opening new labour market options for them.
Our participants’ experiences also hold lessons for those who manage individuals in their non-calling jobs. As young people are increasingly being encouraged to pursue their passions, there is a solid chance that more workers will be doing additional jobs in their calling. When they feel comfortable being open in the workplace about their calling activities and are supported through scheduling flexibility, they can be highly productive and loyal. We learned that the opposite approach – pushing them to give up their callings if they want to advance in their non-calling job – will simply cause them to look for opportunities elsewhere.
In summary, although having a calling can be, as one of our participants described, “a gift”, it does not need to take over a person’s whole life to be deeply meaningful. In fact, for those with conditional calling cores who value control over their enactment and financial stability, pursuing that calling in a small-scale manner can result in a balanced and fulfilled life. For those who prefer the traditional full-time calling path, they should be aware that if their calling core is conditional, they will probably sometimes need to take on periphery calling work. If they can remind themselves to prune away jobs that do not meet conditions as they are financially able, or to alternate between different meaningful calling jobs if their core is unconditional, they can keep their spark alive over the long term.
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- This blog post is based on Living life ‘to the core’: Enacting a calling through configurations of multiple jobs, in Human Relations.
- The post represents the views of the author(s), not the position of LSE Business Review or the London School of Economics and Political Science.
- Featured image provided by Shutterstock
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