On Work and Vocation

No that was not a typo - I am discussing vocation... not my next vacation spot!

Choose your work carefully. No matter how much you might believe that your work is nothing more than what you do to make money, your work makes you who you are - most simply because it is where you put your time.

We are what we do - don't let anybody with spiritual mumbo-jumbo say otherwise. The more we put into our job, time, energy, focus the more we become it. By giving your job your time, energy and focus -you are giving it your consciousness. Eventually it will fill your life with the reality that it presents.

So look beyond the superficial attractions of a particular job, profession or business. Consider what it will require you to do on a day-to-day, hour-to-hour, minute-to-minute basis. Is that how you want to spend your life. If it is not your job will become your prison rather than the vehicle of your dreams. And a person without dreams is only half alive.

Think of work as vocation, which comes from the Latin word for calling, which comes from the word for voice. In those meanings it touches on what work really should be - something that calls to you, that gives voice to who you are and what you want to say in the world.

If you find a vocation, embrace it. And it is never too late to look or change. You will find a way to contribute to the world with love. Finding a vocation is not always easy. You can't really know what it is you want to do by thinking about it. You have to do it and see how it fits. You have to let the work take you over until it becomes you and you become it. Then you must decide whether to embrace it or abandon it because it is not the right fit.

There is no reason - including your age why a person can't abandon a job that does not fit and strike out into the unknown for something that lies closer to the heart. There is no reason why a person cannot have many careers in the course of their life. No amount of security is worth the suffering of a life lived chained to a routine that has killed your dreams.

Find what it is that burns in your heart and do it! Choose a vocation - not a job - and your life will have meaning and feel like a vacation everyday.