Not living our calling is probably pretty normal for a lot of us, so it might be hard to compare this to what life looks like when we’ve found our calling. Let me highlight some of my experience of life before discovering and living my calling.
Unsatisfying
Life before I discovered my calling was unsatisfying. I would go to work, come home, pay the bills, and do it all over again from one month to the next. I would describe this a hamster wheel or rat race existence.
Some folks talk about finding ways to make more than enough money as a way to escape the rat race. Having more money will certainly open up more options. Yet stuff doesn’t satisfy us. We have a temporary gratification from the purchase of the new thingy we bought or the trip we took, but after a while it all goes back to normal and we are wanting to be gratified again. This cycle doesn’t end. More money doesn’t solve the situation.
When we finally discover our calling and begin living it, we have a strong sense of “this is it!” We start feeling satisfied, and we stop looking to the gratification cycle to fulfill us. We might continue enjoying a nice car, or a good vacation, but we aren’t looking for these things to do what they can’t do, which is to satisfy us.
Uninspiring
Ever hear an inspiring story of someone staying home, working, paying the bills, owning a nice car and a nice house? Me neither.
My life before discovering my calling was pretty uninspiring. It was pretty ordinary and it didn’t move anyone to try to live different.
We all have the potential to live an inspiring life. Most likely this inspiring life we live will relate to our calling in some way. When we discover our calling and live it, we will become an inspiration for others.
Living Dead
When I wasn’t living my calling, life was like being a zombie. I wasn’t dead, but I wasn’t really alive either. I went to work where it seemed like I was treated as a unit of production. I was an interchangeable, replaceable part in a big production machine.
No one seemed to care that I brought unique qualities to the work environment. Sometimes I was even asked to not use those unique qualities because it didn’t fit in with the job description.
Living this way for me was like a long slow death.
On the other hand, when we step into our calling and live the life we were meant to live, we come alive. We bring our uniqueness full on for others to benefit. We pursue our passions and the world will never be the same.
There is no one else like us. No one can a better us than we are. When we live a small, mediocre life, the world misses out and is diminished.
What about you? What is your experience of life right now?
