10 Ways to Find Your Calling(s)

Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash

Do callings exist? If so, how can you find them? This blog post is the second in a five-part series exploring callings. I’ll consider what they are, how to find and cultivate them, and more. Today I give you ten science-backed ways in which you can start exploring your calling without quitting your job. Read the first post here.

In 2017, I left my job and spent three years looking for a fulfilling career. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was on a quest to find my calling.

Up until that point I had been an economics consultant for a prestigious development bank with a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard University. I began to wonder, Should I stay in this line of work or should I leave and find new career? At the time, every inch in my body told me to try something new, but I didn’t know where to begin.

Research tells us that people who want to leave their jobs know exactly what they don’t like about their jobs but can’t put a finger on what it is that they do want. I spent almost three years searching for my calling, which was a privilege, but now I know I didn’t have to leave my job to find my calling.

Do we have just one calling?

Researchers like Amy Wrzesniewski who have study the psychology of callings says that what makes callings different from jobs or careers is meaning. Work that is meaningful is what makes it profoundly satisfying. Under this definition, any work can be a calling but there are some vocations that are simply easier for us to enjoy.

Taking the Leap

Professor Herminia Ibarra studies people who change careers and states that the only way to find out if we’ll love the job is through lived experience; she says “doing comes first, and knowing comes later.” Ibarra advises to take a “test and learn” approach to finding your calling . You try out different jobs to see how they feel and take your experience as clues that can lead to your calling.

This is how I found my calling as a Life Coach.

As you move forward with this approach, I suggest that you trust your intuition. In other words, what truly feels right to you. Start experimenting with what excites you, even if it’s unrelated to your previous line of work or education. Additionally, pay attention to your feelings. This “test and learn” approach prioritizes how you feel. They are the main takeaway for moving forward and finding a new career. Lastly, rinse and repeat — after experimenting, evaluate and analyze what feels like a calling and what doesn’t and tweak your findings.

Can we simply imagine change?

Some of the experimentation Ibarra suggests includes volunteering, which is actually performing work, to imagining ourselves in a different job by interviewing people about the work that interests us. But is imagining enough?

Psychologists Paula Nurius and Hazel Markus came up with the concept of “Possible Selves” the “ideas of what we might become, what we would like to become, and what we are afraid of becoming”. In their seminal paper Nurius and Markus argue that the act of visualizing our possible selves can motivate or dissuades into creating real change.

Nurius applied the concept of Possible Selves (along with Aaron Brower) to career choice. They also expanded the concept to something called “schemas”: the image of the lifestyle accompanying a job — what goes on in the personal lives of say, a fashion designer or a traveling salesperson, after working hours? And would we aspire to that as well as the job?

We all have schemas of what different lifestyles each career holds. And this can also be part of the exploration as we interview people about their jobs: how their work impacts how they live. As we think about different career choices of interests, we can visualize our “possible selves” performing the work, and living the life that accompanies the work to see if it fits us.

Ten Ways You Can Find Your Calling(s)

Below I’ve compiled a list based on Professor Herminia Ibarra’s research, and the idea of Possible Selves, to help you begin your search for your calling, and the best part is that you don’t have to quit your job to do any of them.

At your workplace:

1. Ask for a temporary assignment at your current workplace that differs from your current assignments.
2. Ask to team up with people from other departments for specific projects.
3. Interview people who work in different departments that interest you.

Outside of your workplace:

1. Take a course in a subject that seems intriguing or exciting.
2. Sign up for a certification.
3. Volunteer for an organization whose mission you feel passionate about.
4. Intern for a company that interests you.
5. Interview people who have a job that intrigues you.

Making meaning from the experiences in your life:

1. Reflect on difficult experiences that you’ve gone through in your life. How has this shaped you in a unique way? What kind of work would be a good match for these unique traits?
2. What unique combination of skills and talents do you have that could be applied outside of your current job?

Visualization Exercise

As a Coach focusing on careers, I use visualization and mindfulness techniques to help clients explore their potential callings. As the work of Nurius and Markus suggests visualizing possible selves can motivate us to make changes. More importantly, it gives us information about whether we want to pursue a specific line of work.

To begin, take three deep grounding breaths and close your eyes.

Imagine you are standing in front of three closed doors:

1. The first door leads to trying out something new by volunteering somewhere, or taking a course to see if you would like to learn more.
2. The second door leads to talking with experts that can help you understand if you can see yourself doing what they do.
3. The third door leads you to exploring your past. Reflecting on your biggest challenges that you have overcome.

Which of these three doors do you feel drawn to opening?

Listen to this podcast episode to learn more about each path.

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I’m a certified Coaching with the International Coaching Federation and Gallup CliftonStrengths® Coach. If you’d like coaching on how to incorporate these steps into your life, I offer a free Chemistry Call to see if we’re a good fit.

Additional References:

● Berg, J.M., Dutton, J.E., & Wrzesniewski, A. (2007). What is Job Crafting and Why Does It Matter?. Retrieved from https://positiveorgs.bus.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/What-is-Job-Crafting-and-Why-Does-it-Matter1.pdf

● Berg, J. M., Wrzesniewski, A., & Dutton, J. E. (2010). Perceiving and responding to challenges in job crafting at different ranks: When proactivity requires adaptivity. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 31, 158–186.

● Brower, A. M., & Nurius, P. (1993). Social cognition and individual change: Current theory and counseling guidelines. Sage Publications.

● Harzer, Claudia, and Willibald Ruch. “The relationships of character strengths with coping, work-related stress, and job satisfaction.” Frontiers in psychology 6 (2015): 165. Crossref

● Ibarra, Herminia. Working identity: Unconventional strategies for reinventing your career. Harvard Business Press, 2004.

● Ibarra, Herminia. “How to stay stuck in the wrong career.” Harvard Business Review 80.12 (2002): 40–48. https://hbr.org/2002/12/how-to-stay-stuck-in-the-wrong-career

● Wrzesniewski, A., Berg, J. M., & Dutton, J. E. (June 2010). Turn the job you have into the job you want. Harvard Business Review, 114–117 Available here.