At Simply Great Lives, we are ultimately concerned about the results of a calling rather than the specifics of doing the work.
When we talk about a calling, we aren’t just talking about some activities. Activities like volunteering, donating, giving, serving, leading, and helping can all be really nice activities. These activities can make the person doing them feel good, they can boost a company’s public image and they might provide the added bonus of end-of-the-year tax deductions. They can have really great intentions behind them and sometimes they even benefit the recipient.
In our experience, people focus the majority of their efforts on planning and doing activities. With the focus on doing stuff, the long-term benefit to people may or may not come as a result.
Jesus said you can tell a tree by its fruit. Let’s talk about fruit. We define a calling as:
The unique way we combine our strengths and passions to impact peoples’ lives in a way that is
- positive
- focused
- recognizable
- long-lasting.
This definition acknowledges the individual nature of a calling. A calling involves our personal strengths and passions. That’s one of the reasons living a calling is so gratifying—it is the perfect fit for the individual.
Next our definition addresses the goal of a calling, which is to impact other peoples’ lives. A calling is always for the benefit of other peopl.
Finally, it gets real specific about the way peoples’ lives are effected by the calling.
Positive
Obviously, a calling isn’t supposed to effect people negatively. It’s effect shouldn’t be just neutral, either. The effect that a calling has on other people’s lives is distinctly positive.
Focused
One could say that the efforts are focused, too. Those focused efforts result in a focused impact rather than random or scattered results.
Recognizable
Other people’s lives are clearly different as a result of the calling. The change is either observable by other people or would be reported by the people whose lives were changed.
Long-Lasting
It is important to create long-lasting results. When we truly are concerned about someone, we will be concerned about their well-being for the long run, not just the present or near future.
There is an enormous amount of satisfaction in living a calling. Just calling to mind how much better off people are because of us is priceless
