I was in the car with my dad the other day, and he asked me a powerful question:
“Even if we won the lottery and made millions of dollars, you’d still do what you’re doing right now, right?”
I responded, “Yup! I would.”
Then I paused for a moment to imagine it, “Even if I had $100 million in my bank account, I’d still do what I’m doing right now.”
(Meaning, I’d still do the work I’m doing.)
My dad smiled and laughed. He knew the answer before he asked.
I continued, “That’s how you know it’s your purpose. Or your passion, your calling, your mission, etc.”
My dad laughed again, “Not me! My life would be radically different.”
Even if I had all the money in the world right now and didn’t have to work another day of my life, I’d still do the work I’m doing.
I’d also still have the same vision for my life’s work and the impact I intend to make.
An infinite amount of money would not change my inspiration or motivation to do my work. There’s much more in it for me, and that’s a powerful thing.
It’s another confirmation that I’ve found my calling in life.
The path to finding my calling wasn’t a straightforward one. It took years of trial and error, introspection, and courage for me to finally become aware of it and start acting on it.
I persevered for years until I discovered my calling, but it’s been so worth it.
Knowing who I really am, what I was born to do, and where I’m going in life has brought me both inner peace and confidence, along with the satisfaction that comes from doing it.
In this article, I’m going to help you discover your calling, without going through the years of trial and error I went through.
By the time you’re done reading, you will learn:
- What a calling is (with examples to help you better understand this important layer of purpose).
- The story of how I found my calling in life and started following it (and what you can learn from it to help you find yours).
- How to find your calling faster and easier than most people have in the past (and avoid wasting years searching for it).
- The five simple steps you can follow to find your true calling in life.
- And the next steps to take action on your newfound self-knowledge.
Let’s discover your calling in life:
Table of Contents
What Is a Calling? The Simplest Definition with Examples
A calling is a call from within to do something you were practically born to do in life.
When you finally hear the call and answer it, it’s like picking up the phone and hearing who you were always meant to be talking back to you.
It’s one of my favorite layers of purpose, and it’s something I recommend all people strive to discover in their lives.
A calling is usually a combination of three things:
- What you love to do.
- What you’re good at.
- What the world wants or needs.
What makes a calling unique is that it combines a spiritual component (what you love) with your gifts, talents, and abilities (what you’re good at) and it tends to include something greater than yourself (what the world wants or needs).
This combination is what gives a calling so much power to help you direct your life, give you a deep sense of fulfillment, and help you feel like you’re doing what you’re meant to do in life.
A calling doesn’t have to be unique to you. Multiple people can have the same calling.
But a calling is something that arises out of your unique makeup as a person – your personality, your wants and desires, your intentions, your gifts and talents, your attitude toward life, your heart, etc.
Put simply, who you are as a person can be made manifest as your calling in life.
Related: How to Listen to Your Heart, Learn Its Language, and Uncover Your Inner Truth
Calling Examples
Here are a few examples of different types of callings:
- Artists
- Teachers/educators/guides/mentors/coaches
- Healers
- Entertainers
- Athletes
- Reporters
- Entrepreneurs
- Scientists
And a quick description of each:
Artists: Artistic callings may come in the form of writing, painting, music, sculpting, graphic design, acting, dancing, or any other art form. New art forms are created all the time, creating new opportunities for artistic callings.
Teachers/educators/guides/mentors/coaches: A person’s calling may manifest as a teacher, an educator, a guide, a mentor, or a coach. A person may take on the role of imparting knowledge and wisdom and guiding others along their life paths or in a specific area of their lives.
Healers: Many people are called to be healers. This includes doctors and nurses, but it also includes spiritual healers, trauma workers, relationship healers, and more.
Entertainers: Some find their calling as comedians, actors, on-stage musicians, emcees, DJs, streamers, YouTubers, podcasters, and other types of entertainers.
Athletes: Many athletes are following their calling in life, including both professional and non-professional athletes.
Reporters: Some find their calling as reporters. This includes news reporters but also anyone telling stories of current or historical events or interviewing others (many podcasts fall under this category).
Entrepreneurs: A lot of people find their calling in business. These people tend to be leaders, innovators, and organizers of capital who create products and services to enhance human life or fill needs in the marketplace.
Scientists: Some find their calling in exploring the different sciences, coming up with new discoveries, and expanding our understanding of the natural world.
This list is in no way exhaustive, so if none of this resonates with you, don’t worry. It’s just to get the wheels turning.
A person’s calling may combine two or more types of callings, as well.
There are no rules here. These examples and the steps that follow are simply guidelines to help you discover your own calling in life.
How I Found My Calling in Life (and Started Following It)
My primary calling is to be a writer.
My expanded calling is to be a personal development writer, author, coach, and public speaker.
Let’s see how I discovered this:
When I was in high school, I had no clue what I wanted to do with my life.
During my senior year, I was captain of the cross-country team and one of the track and field team captains. I was one of the top 235 cross-country runners in California and one of the fastest mile and 800-meter runners in my division.
No subjects in school interested me enough to want to make a career out of them, so the only thing I could think of was becoming a professional runner and going to the Olympics.
But I didn’t really want to live the life of a professional runner.
So I figured it was a good idea to go to college, and I did.
I chose kinesiology as my major since it was the closest thing to sports. But, again, I had no idea if that’s really what I wanted to study or what I’d do after college with that degree.
I was making some of the biggest decisions I would ever make for my future, with little to no research or introspection (as most people did).
In college, I found a subject I was good at and enjoyed: economics.
So I switched my major during my sophomore year and ended up graduating with honors.
However, during my senior year, I took an economics internship and quickly learned this wasn’t what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.
After almost four years in college, I realized that the degree I was about to graduate with was not what I really wanted.
Again, I chose that degree because I liked the subject, but I didn’t do any research into the work itself.
After college, I decided to start an online business as a freelance writer, with the goal of traveling around the world.
I was writing, which was my calling, but I didn’t know it was my calling yet. I just knew I loved it and it was one of my biggest strengths, so I leaned into it.
Then, for the next five to eight years, I did 15 different things working on making my travel dreams come true while being my own boss and doing what I loved to do for a living.
I tried digital marketing services and affiliate marketing. I self-published my first book. I was a DoorDash, Uber, and Lyft driver. I tried forex trading, life coaching…the list goes on.
It wasn’t until I reached a point in early 2022 (right after forex trading didn’t work out) that I finally threw up my hands and said:
“If this isn’t what I’m supposed to be doing, what am I supposed to be doing? What is my actual purpose?!”
It’s one thing to know you’re good at something you love and enjoy. It’s another to know it’s your calling and start following it.
After throwing my hands up, exasperated after years of trial and error, I sat down and asked myself some simple questions about what I loved to do, what I was good at, and how I wanted to help others.
Immediately, I came right back to the thing that had been with me almost my whole life:
Writing.
I had made excuses not to do it for years. I had put it off, thinking I needed to do other things first. I had swept it under the rug time after time, but I couldn’t put it off any longer.
It was time to say “screw it!” and just do what I was born to do.
I knew that I wanted to write about personal development. I knew that I wanted to inspire others to live their best lives. I knew that I wanted to help people empower themselves, live purposeful lives, and achieve their dreams.
So after years of bouncing around from one thing to the next, I finally became fully aware of my calling and started following it.
Now that I know what my calling is, without a shadow of a doubt, I’m all in on it, and it feels amazing.
That’s the power of acquiring this self-knowledge.
The blog you’re reading right now is a big part of my calling in life. I’m becoming the writer and the person I was always meant to be, and I couldn’t be more grateful for that.
It doesn’t matter how long it took (8+ years) or how much I’ve been through (a heck of a lot). It’s been worth it.
It has all been worth it to be in the position I’m in now.
And I know it will be for you as well, when you discover the thing you are uniquely suited for and start doing it.
What It’s Like to Find Your Calling and Follow It
Finding my calling was a huge awakening for me, and taking action on it has been a healing experience.
I immediately felt my heart relax and harmonize itself, as if it had been waiting for me to finally have the courage to listen to it.
Finding your calling is finding something you feel you were meant to do in life.
Following your calling is being who you were always meant to be.
It’s not something you’re doing just for the money. It’s not something you feel like you’ve been pressured into by others.
It’s something you feel drawn to from within. It’s something that feels like it’s almost a part of you. An expression of who you really are.
Like you were born to do it. Like you were made for it in one way or another.
Just because you weren’t born knowing exactly what your calling is, this doesn’t mean you don’t have one or can’t discover it.
(I didn’t know what my calling was until eight years after graduating college, even though it was staring me in the face almost my whole life.)
It just means that your life (so far) may not have presented you the opportunity to discover it.
Or it could mean you just haven’t looked in the right places.
But I believe it’s there in each of us, especially if we are willing to look hard enough.
But before we get into the five steps to find your calling, let’s quickly talk about something equally important:
How NOT to go about finding your calling.
Related: When Is The Best Time to Quit Your Job to Follow Your Passion?
How NOT to Find Your Calling (and Avoid Wasting Years Searching For It)
Many people waste years trying to find their calling with little to no success. This is because they’re going about it ineffectively.
They believe their calling is something outside of them, and if they search outside themselves hard enough, they’ll find it.
They think that if they read enough books, watch enough videos, try enough jobs, or start enough businesses, they’ll find it.
Yet, they forget to look in the most logical place, the original source of the calling itself…
Themselves.
To find your calling, you need to study yourself as much as you would study or learn about a subject you love.
I missed this part for years. That’s why it took me years to become aware of my calling and start following it.
I didn’t look hard enough within myself. I always thought I had to do other things first before following my true calling.
But it doesn’t have to take years if you start your search in the right place.
The key to finding your calling is to start by looking within.
And these five steps will help you do just that:
How to Find Your Calling in 5 Simple Steps
Here are five simple steps to find your calling in life:
- Identify what you love to do.
- Identify what you’re good at.
- Identify what the world wants or needs.
- Identify the intersection of all three.
- Write it down and make a plan to follow it.
Let’s break them down:
Step 1: Identify what you love to do
A calling almost always involves something you love, so the first step to finding your calling in life is to identify what you love to do.
Here’s why:
It’s the love that inspires you forward.
It’s the love that gives you limitless motivation.
It’s the love that causes you to pour your heart and soul into it and to do what most people wouldn’t, simply because it’s what you love to do.
Why do I spend hours writing each day? Because I love it!
Why do I want to become a well-known writer, author, coach, and public speaker? Because I love it!
Why am I consistently inspired to work each day, even though no one forces me? Because I love it!
Identifying what you love to do is the first step because it’s the energetic foundation for your calling.
So how do you find what you love to do?
First, write down a list of everything you love doing in life.
You can do it by hand or digitally, but brainstorm a list of everything you’re passionate about, everything you enjoy doing, and everything that interests you in life.
Dedicate at least 30 minutes to this exercise. The first 5 to 10 minutes will be the easiest. After that, it will get harder to come up with things.
But the things you think of in the last 20 minutes are the ones resting deeper in your heart and soul. These are the things you aren’t always conscious of but come from the deeper aspects of you.
They could be some of your most profound and life-changing insights, so don’t skip this part.
Once you have your “love list,” it’s time to move on to Step 2.
Step 2: Identify what you’re good at
A calling also tends to be something you’re good at. This is how most people stumble upon their calling early in life.
They find something they’re naturally good at. Then they double down on it and it becomes their calling in life. This is how many athletes get their start.
I’ve been a good writer since middle school. It was always one of my strengths.
But because writing wasn’t considered a viable career at the time (it was mainly considered a skill that would help you in general), no one encouraged me to double down on it.
It wasn’t until I learned that I could make a career as a blogger and an author that I chose to double down on it myself.
But even then, I got distracted from my calling because I didn’t see a clear path to success. It took years for me to gain enough clarity to commit to it.
I don’t want that to happen to you, so here’s what to do:
Again, make another list. But this time, write down everything you’re good at. List out all of your skills, gifts, and talents.
List out everything people come to you for help with (or have come to you for help with in the past).
Include both hard skills (like writing) and soft skills (like communication).
Some people think they’re not good at anything, but I guarantee that’s false. You’re just not thinking outside the box enough.
Many have been conditioned to believe that the only valuable skills are the ones taught in school, but we live in an era now when more and more skills are finding viable avenues to be turned into incomes and callings.
So think outside the box.
Invest 30 minutes in this exercise. Again, the last 20 minutes will be the hardest, but it will probably produce the best insights for you.
Once you’ve got your list of gifts, talents, skills, and abilities, move on to Step 3.
Tip: If you do the exercise and still don’t know what you’re good at, make a list of things you want to get good at, instead. These are skills you could develop and incorporate into your calling.
Step 3: Identify what the world wants or needs
If you can give the world what it wants or needs, it will reward you forever. And the world wants or needs A LOT these days.
You’re probably already doing something the world wants or needs. Your job or business already does something for the world.
It just might not be what you want to do for the world. Or you might not be doing it in the exact way you want to do it.
When we find what we want to do for others or how we want to fill a need in the world, we often find our purpose, our calling, and our mission, all rolled up in one.
One of the biggest epiphanies I’ve had in my journey was when I switched my mentality to “service to others.”
I asked myself, “What could I create that could help others?”
That simple question and the answers that followed got me back on track. It helped me clarify my purpose and follow my calling at a time when I desperately needed it.
I switched my mindset from “How can I get what I want?” to “How can I help others get what they want?”
Many people find their greatest sense of fulfillment in what they do for others.
If we can find ways we love to help others, our purpose, calling, and mission are often revealed as a natural byproduct of that.
It starts with identifying what the world wants or needs and how you might like to help fill those needs.
Here’s how:
First, write down your answers to these questions:
- If you could help anyone in the world, who would you help and how would you help them?
- What are the biggest needs you see in the world right now? What are the biggest problems people are facing?
- What pain, challenges, and obstacles have you overcome in your life so far?
- What achievements and successes have you had so far in life?
Next, take a look at your answers. Does anything stand out to you?
There are probably a lot of people in the world who are experiencing challenges you have already overcome. You could turn back, lend them a hand, teach them what you learned, and help them overcome those same challenges.
There are also probably a lot of people who want to achieve what you have already achieved in life. Even if you may consider it small, other people might consider it to be really big. You could help them achieve what you’ve already achieved.
After you’ve got your list of ways you can help others and give the world what it wants or needs, move on to Step 4.
Step 4: Identify the intersection of all three
Now it’s time to combine your answers into a single calling.
To give you an example, here’s mine:
Step 1 – What I love to do: Writing and personal development.
Step 2 – What I’m good at: Writing, teaching, and creating resources that can empower others.
Step 3 – What the world wants or needs: Empowering content, books, courses, and coaching to help people change their lives.
Step 4 – The intersection of all three: Personal development writer, author, coach, and public speaker.
That’s it!
Take a look at your answers from steps 1, 2, and 3. Where do they intersect? How can you combine them together?
How can you combine what you love to do, what you are good at (or want to get good at), and what the world wants or needs (or how you want to help others)?
Once you’ve discovered this powerful combination, you will have found your calling.
Step 5: Write it down and make a plan to follow it
The last step is to write it down and make a plan to follow it.
Writing it down takes your calling out of your head and puts it into the physical world where you can see it clearly. This leaves no room for ambiguity.
To maximize your clarity, always write things down.
Next, it’s time to “plan the work and work the plan.”
It’s one thing to know what your calling is. It’s another to actually follow it.
Planning is a prerequisite for focused action. It gives you clarity on how to move forward.
Creating a plan will give you a clear path to success.
Follow the plan. If it doesn’t work, change it. Then follow your new plan. But always have a plan in mind.
It will give you the clarity you need to take continuous courageous action on your newfound calling in life.
Be An Action Taker
Here are some final words to finish this off:
Until now, you may have had no clue how to find the thing or things you are truly meant to do in life. The things you are uniquely suited for.
You may not have known how to find work you will love doing so much and could be so good at, that it doesn’t even feel like work.
Where your work becomes a privilege and you say “I get to work today” instead of “I have to work today.”
Instead of finding your calling, you may have bounced around for years, trying thing after thing, without any of it really feeling “right” (like I did).
But that changes now.
You now have a way to find your true calling in life – a clear process you can follow to find your calling.
I know it’s easy to read an article, see the instructions, and say, “This is awesome! But I’ll do it later…”
Unfortunately, sometimes later never comes. Sometimes you never get around to it.
And the cycle continues.
If there’s one thing I’m most grateful for, it’s that I took action on information in articles like this.
My advice to you is to be an action-taker, not just a consumer of information.
Your life is unlikely to change just by consuming information. It changes by taking action on that information.
It’s not just the knowledge I’ve gained over the last 12 years that’s changed my life. It’s the knowledge I’ve acted on.
Take even a small amount of action on the information in this article, and your life will start to change for the better.
Act on this knowledge, and you will be well on your way to becoming the person you were always meant to be.
Finally, if you want to take your self-knowledge and inner clarity to the next level, download my free self-discovery workbook below.
It will help you take everything you’ve learned and use it as a roadmap to your ideal future.
