Community Employment Resource Centre
Taken from “The Money is the Gravy”, by John Clark
Most people find they have been cultivated to find their “career”. From the time of high school, many of us are asked what career we are going to choose. We are asked what interests us, what kind of lifestyle we want, might take an aptitude test, but rarely is the question asked “What is your passion, and how can you turn that into employment?” We are not told that work should be fun, and that it should not be drugery to get up in the morning. Many have been raised to ‘not expect work to be fun’, which has somehow turned into ‘expect work not to be fun’. The resulting problem: boredom, depression and a lack of meaning to be found in how time is spent each day.
There are a few steps
necessary to find your calling:
1) Adopt
the attitude of an explorer. There are a couple of ways to do this.
Firstly, think back to how you spent your time as a child and what interested
you most. What do you look forward to doing in your week now? Are there any
tasks that make time just fly by? As John Clark writes, “To get from here
(angst-ridden, alientated from yourself, blind to your potential) to there
(blissfully following your calling) you need insight into what your skills are,
what you truly enjoy, and what has special meaning for you.” There must be
meaning in the work.
Or, the second approach is to wait. Wait for insight to come to you out of a flash of blinding light, or for your fairy godmother to arrange for it to be presented to you in a gift-wrapped box. This way is highly popular: Too bad it never works.
2) The
next step is to understand that this process is a journey. For a long
time your exploration may seem to take you nowhere except towards what is not
the right direction. Don’t be discouraged: This is a sign that you are making
progress. Clark writes to “remember that whatever the right direction is for
you, it won’t be something that was a passing fad. It will be something that
has stood the test of time, and was probably evident in your childhood.” Also
remember that you are an explorer, not a tourist. Therefore, you are not
looking for a particular destination, but a domain of general interest. If you
focus on just one destination within the domain you will fail to see countless
others. For example, within the domain of ‘food’ are chef, restauranteur,
delicatessen manager, cookbook writer, etc.
3) Finally,
the third step is ripeness, or readiness. Here’s a joke for you: “How
many psychiatrists does it take to
change a lightbulb? Only one, but the lightbulb has to really want to change.”
The point of this joke is that you may be under a delusion that you want to
change, when maybe you are not yet ready. Wouldn’t it be great if readiness was
something that you could achieve in one shot, in a straight line?
Unfortunately, it doesn’t work this way. It is more like a jagged-lined
journey. You will have all kinds of hurdles that will move you towards
readiness. These are mostly mental hurdles; conquering self-talk about whether
or not you can do this, being open to change, battling your fears about taking
a new direction in life, etc. Generally people conquer a small hurdle, digest
the changes they have made, then plateau until the next mental hurdle is faced.
It is important not to give up at this phase for the next growth is right
around the corner.
There
are, of course, lots of reasons not to find your calling. Barriers like fear,
impatience (“if I can only save just a little more money”) and disapproval can
easily convince someone that they don’t need to enjoy their work that
much. However, consider the following story taken from John Clark’s book:
Picture
Claude Monet lying in bed at six o’clock on a cold Monday morning, November
1908. A bell rings. He groans, buries his head under the pillow, reaches out
one arm, and hurls the alarm clock against the wall. Ten minutes later, he
drags his reluctant body out of bed. “Another bloody day at the easel,” he
grumbles to his wife. “Water lilies, water liles, more bloody water lilies. I
never want to see another water lily in my life.” “Quit your moaning”, replies
Mme. Monet. “In another two months we’ll have paid off the new living-room
suite, and then we can start saving for that two-week vacation in Dijon.”
Doesn’t seem quite right, does it? That’s because Monet was following his calling, not his career. You can too, when you are ready to adopt the attitude of an explorer, face your fear, and take a journey of self-exploration.