Why Are You Here? Your Job Vs. Your Calling

How often do you think about your life's purpose and why you are here on this earth? As you get older and older, I believe that this kind of thinking becomes more and more important to us. It has to me. Before you stop and think, "Wait a minute? Is this about God or religion?" Nope. Trust that this article has nothing to do with either of those. I am talking here about your job and your mission in life; why you were put on this earth.

STAPLE SINGERS - I'LL TAKE YOU THERE

Why are you here? Are you here to do the job you have or are you here on this earth for some other, more important, duty? Is there a God? What is your life's purpose? How often do you think about this? I think about this often. 


I hope you think deeply about this sort of thing more than just once in a while.


I hope that you feel that what you are doing right now is your purpose, your mission in life. But I'll bet that more than 95% of you don't feel that way. In fact, I'll bet that more than 95% of dear readers feel like their lives have a better, deeper purpose than they do now. 


You know what? You are right. The problem is that most people don't know what their purpose is.

Can you make your job and your calling match?

Most people feel that they are working to make a living, but they'd much rather be doing something else. They think that what is going on now, the sacrifice of their dreams, is "reality." It is "the way it is." When you stop to think about it, that is a sad state of affairs.


Doing what you are doing in order to make a living is your job. Doing your life's mission is your calling. Do not confuse them.


Someday we are all going to die. When that day arrives, our "in-box" will still be full and there will be many things left over that we must attend to... Yet, we won't.


We all have an "in-box" of things to do and to take care of. Most of these items are, actually, trivial items related to work. 


Upon our death, that in-box will stop. Some of those items will be taken care of by others. Many of those items will remain undone. No matter what, upon your death or mine, our in-box items will not be taken care of by us.


But our life's purpose should be more important. If we handle our lives purpose properly, it may continue even after our deaths. Some examples that come to mind are people like Gandhi, Sister Teresa or Martin Luther King (just to name a few)...


There are other purposes in life, perhaps not on the grandiose public scale of a Gandhi or King, that are just as important and just as fulfilling. Those could be our children's happiness or the care of a loved one or relative. Each person must consider and decide their own calling. No one is better or worse than another. It is for the individual to decide.


We should all try to identify our purpose in life and then daily make an effort towards fulfilling that goal. 

Make no mistake about it, we need a road map first to know where we are going - and which is the best route to take - in order to get there. Consider carefully your life's goal and what makes you happy then make the effort everyday to fulfill that goal.


Like I said, your "in-box" will never be empty, but working on your life's goal is like creating a piece of art. Remember that masterpieces are not done in a day; they take years and years of practice and work and effort. Picasso didn't wake up in the mornings and think, "I'll make a masterpiece today!" He toiled and struggled for years. 


Many great works of art stand today yet were considered "unfinished" at the time they were "completed." 


Consider it carefully and get started on your goal in life while you can.


Thanks to Gary North who has been a great inspiration to me. Gary has found his calling and writes about it often in his LRC archives.