Many people still work in a job, but confuse it with a vocation or calling.
Some work, for example, from 9am-6pm, do this perhaps even carefully and responsibly, but from noon on they are actually just waiting to finally be able to go home at the end of the day. Only then does "real life" begin for them. Only on the weekends can they really live life. And so, unfortunately, they really only live from evening to evening, weekend to weekend, vacation to vacation - and that for many years or even decades. Some even their whole lives.
In the office, when asked "How's it going?" I always hear the phrase "How should it be going? It's Monday." From people who have only a few years left until retirement, for example, I hear, "When I retire, I'll finally do this and that." We all know these phrases. From colleagues and from family members. Probably from ourselves, too.
To understand the essential difference, you first have to take a closer look at both terms, job and vocation or calling. Certainly, you can find different definitions in the literature and on the web.
A business dictionary, for example, defines a profession/vocation as "a long-term activity, usually requiring training, which predominantly requires manpower and working time". This is also how it is often used in today's terminology. "So, what do you do?" is often asked. "I am an IT manager, banker, nurse, teacher, hairdresser," etc. then comes back.
But in this article, I want to focus on the "calling", the Latin "vocatio". In the Middle Ages, the word was even associated with the call of God. An actual intrinsic and extrinsic reason for being on earth that everyone has.
At the same time, however, modernity has given rise to new concepts such as that of "job". This, in contrast, is often defined as "a temporary, rather short-term activity without any particular qualification for the purpose of earning an income."
"Whereas in the case of a vocation, the content of the work and the qualification are of essential importance, in the case of a job, the focus is on the generation of income. Since the job is a short-term activity, frequent job changes are likely, so that - unlike in the case of a vocation - a lifelong stay in the same place is not to be expected." Thus a quote in a section of a major platform.
Paradoxically, only the fewest remain at one and the same workplace and employer, even if there is still talk of a profession or vocation. The length of time spent with an employer has changed radically over time. Among Generation Y and Z, hardly anyone can imagine staying with the same employer for the rest of their lives. Not even in Germany anymore. If another employer wants to recruit someone with a little more money, they don't hesitate. But where does this come from? One can now very quickly point the finger at many guilty parties. But I believe that it is about something completely different.
For me, it's about the calling of the individual. The problem is that most people don't know their calling or can't consciously live it out in the workplace. It's about the fact that each person is endowed with unique gifts and talents. So it is about his natural endowments with which he was born to be able to make his own special contribution on earth. This contribution is the why. It is not about the what, how and where. It must always be about the why. The what, how and where can and may always change. But the vocation, the why, is stable over the lifetime of the individual.
For example, if a hairdresser says, "I cut hair with diamond-studded scissors at Hair Salon Smith," he has only said something about the what, how and where. But if he were to say, "I beautify people" and is actually fully aware of this with every customer, he has said something about the why. Vocation is about the why. Only those who also bring the natural aptitudes for this profession and see the why behind it can then speak of vocation and find great fulfillment in it (almost) every day. For all others it remains only a job.
From people who live their vocation, one hears, for example, that they are often in a state of flow. So also a famous quote from Confucius says: "If you love what you do, you will never work again in your life."
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