Finding Your " Calling"

A

akivory

Joined
Feb 5, 2001
Messages
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When did you find what your " calling" ? I mean finding something you are passionate about and can do well.
I think my grandson as found his. He started college last month and is studying to be a paramedic .He had me worried for a time. We adopted his mother as pregnant teenager. She was from a remote village and suffered abuse most of her life. She also has limitations due to her mother drinking before she was born. After my grandson was born they lived with us for ten years. My wife taught our daughter how to work and be a mother. She now works in a pharmacy.
After they moved out I would see my grandson almost everyday after school. He has been as close as a son. I taught him how to buy and sell by setting up at gun shows selling blow guns and Lazar pointers. We turned ink pins and I taught him how to carve.
As I watched him grow up I realized he was above average and could easily accomplish almost any thing he set out to do.
About three years ago when he turned 17 he started to become more independent and I did not see him much. In the final semester of his senior year of high school he got kicked out. He later found a girlfriend who I was not impressed with. Last spring he finished up his High School.
He now seems to growing up to be the man I knew he could be.
 
My "calling" is be a LEO, since I was 4 years old. But that has not come to fruition YET. Here where I currently live, it is impossible to get on a PD or SD, unless you know someone. Plus there is age limits here. I hope to change this when we move back to CA. I have checked into the Orange County & San Diego Sheriff's Depts. and they do not have age limits! I am hoping to make this dream come true!!
 
T.K.C. said:
My "calling" is be a LEO, since I was 4 years old. But that has not come to fruition YET. Here where I currently live, it is impossible to get on a PD or SD, unless you know someone. Plus there is age limits here. I hope to change this when we move back to CA. I have checked into the Orange County & San Diego Sheriff's Depts. and they do not have age limits! I am hoping to make this dream come true!!
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Come to Ventura Co. specifically Simi Valley. They have a great force. Unfortunately got to know most of them. Between our crazy ex spouses and a 17 yr. old daughter who liked to run away, we were visited about monthly. Simi is pretty sleepy. I think they bust bored teenagers getting high and drinking mainly. There is only a small amount of bad stuff here, that probably comes from San Fernando.

Good luck TKC, do not give up.

CJ
 
I found my calling at age 30... My old man passed when I was 18 and as the only son fresh out of high school it was up to me to keep the household running. I had an idea about what I wanted to do in life but keeping food on the table was priority. Sailed in the merchant navy a while, joined the coastguard and got married but for the longest time I kept thinking that there's got to be something better. I have always wanted to teach but it meant taking a huge paycut and going back to school. I finally did it 3 years ago; mom remarried, my sis is also happily married with twin boys and my own kids are older. I graduate this December but I think this is it, I'm finally and truly happy. Everyday seems is a new and exciting day in class. The kids respond well to me and I can see some positive changes even in the worst ones. I have a friend who is in his 40s; traded in a cushy job in a bank to teach and he feels the same way. I don't earn much and they really do overwork us and but yes, I'm happy to say that I've finally found something I'm passionate about. It's not always easy finding one's "calling". I'm sure there are many who go through life without ever finding theirs. FWIW I think you and your family did a great job raising him.
 
I had an uncle who owned an antique store, I always wanted to teach history. I got my teaching degree 10 years ago.
 
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I really enjoy art and veterinary medicine, two of my pathways in life that didn't come to full fruition (I wanted to be first a veterinarian, then a graphic designer). I am now a civil servant assisting the public, and I take great joy out of it. It can be a tough job, but I am glad to make a difference in someones life. Maybe this is my ultimate calling.
 
Due to a lot of confusion & family chaos growing up, I've not really thought about my 'calling' until the last year or two. (I'm 42 - really late coming into this.)

I'm really into geology, history, archeology, paleontology, and related subjects. I've never really pursued a career in any of those fields, mainly because I didn't think I could make a decent living at any of them.

I'm re-thinking all of that now. I'm feeling drawn toward geology, since I know more about it than anything else, and I'm planning on taking some basic classes this fall or winter, depending on how much my son's school needs me.

Congrats to you folks who have made it to what you really want to do, and good luck to you folks who are WIP (works in progress - like me.)

thx - cpr
 
All my growing up life, I wanted to be an infantryman and then a LEO. Unfortunately or fortunately, that (LEO part) did not happen. As a veteran with severe PTSD, I now see my calling is to walk with God, be a loving husband, and become a custom knifemaker.
 
Not too often I see a thread on here that I haven't seen in some version or another about a million times previously, nice one Akivory.

This is a fresh topic for me because I've got a mate who's 20 year old son is showing worryingly little sign of finding his calling.

For me it wasn't until I was 28 or so. I still engaged in productive work up until that time but it wasn't until I was almost 30 that I found somehting to do that made me leap out of bed very morning. Then it took another ten years to really make this a good money spinner.

I notice there is some research (which I can't find and reference here) that suggests that the increased complexity of information that children are exposed to may be delaying the maturation process. 25 is the new 21 so to speak. This gels with my impressions of the young folk that I know and I don't necessarily see it as a bad thing.

IMHO - give kids time to find their 'calling'.
 
I envy you folk that have found yours. Seems like a calling for me would be a luxury. For the time being I'm just paying bills, taking care of the kitties, and killing time till I get a clue!

But is everyone really meant to have a calling anyway? Isn't there a fairly large number of ordinary Joes that just sort of live a life of utility and boredom? Kind of like the notion of "living the dream"... it's more achievable the smaller your dreams are... and for some unlucky souls, the achievable isn't worth dreaming about. :(

(This post brought to you by Soma®. A gram is better than a damn!)
 
After being injured in the Army, I've settled for just trying to be a productive part of society, and still serve my great nation.
 
I didn't find my calling until I was in my 30's. Sort of stumbled into it (if that makes any sense). Now I work for a nonprofit helping to feed, clothe, provide clean drinking water, build schools, etc. for people who need it much more than I do. I can truly say that no matter how crappy of a day I have, when I remember the small part I've done to help someone else, it makes it all worthwhile.

- Mark
 
Mark J said:
I didn't find my calling until I was in my 30's. Sort of stumbled into it (if that makes any sense). Now I work for a nonprofit helping to feed, clothe, provide clean drinking water, build schools, etc. for people who need it much more than I do. I can truly say that no matter how crappy of a day I have, when I remember the small part I've done to help someone else, it makes it all worthwhile.

- Mark
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I think that'd be a great thing to do. I wish I could travel to foreign countries and building schools, hospitals, homes, etc. Not sure if there is a way to make that a career. As of right now, I have no calling and am not sure I ever will. Kind of lost in everything.
 
riz_aaroni said:
I think that'd be a great thing to do. I wish I could travel to foreign countries and building schools, hospitals, homes, etc. Not sure if there is a way to make that a career. As of right now, I have no calling and am not sure I ever will. Kind of lost in everything.
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Do not travel over mission fields to get to mission fields far away. They are there in your own community.

We should always attempt to help those less fortunate. If we percieve a place far away to help, we will never go there. Start in your own community. Actually start with yourself, and your wife and your kids. Make sure you love them and make them feel secure about themselves so they can also be helpful to others.

I believe my calling is to write a book/s. I guess I fear success, or possibly failure, if it flops, then my dream is dead. If I leave it within arms reach on the shelf, I still have my dream.:D I only want to keep my family close to the Lord. This is my most important task as a father and a husband.
 
There are some tremendously helpful books on the subject of finding your true calling in life.

There are also other useful tools such as the Myers-Briggs test.
 
I believe everyone has a "calling" of some sort. To be the best parent to raise a child and human being for later on for example is a common "calling."

The thing is what I've come to understand about one's "calling" is that it NEED NOT be something grand or awesome in scope or depth. To think of such things is unfortunately a by-product of human nature: we tend to attach importance or significance only to things which are "big" in terms of monetary, societal or symbolic values. Heaven though looks at all things equally, both great and small efforts. The God of the immense things is also the same God of the small things.

It is simply that deepest, truest part of your being that contributes to the greater good, allowing one to find his/her place in the grand scheme of things.
 
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My true calling is to be the evil ruler of the entire world with an army of orcs, evil revenants, ringwraiths and feral people at my command.

Alas, that takes more money and time than I can invest.

So I'm going with my second one: Psychology.

...and cannibalism.


Seriously though...

I've had a lot of jobs and a sledload of talents, skills, and specializations...but I'm head over heels in love with Psychology. I though I wanted to be a comic book artist in school (and I still love to draw, especially when I design a wicked looking knife with absolutely no other benefit than to poke and slice)...but I really got a wood for Psych when I picked up my first Psychology 101 book in college.
 
cj65 said:
Do not travel over mission fields to get to mission fields far away. They are there in your own community.

We should always attempt to help those less fortunate. If we percieve a place far away to help, we will never go there. Start in your own community. Actually start with yourself, and your wife and your kids. Make sure you love them and make them feel secure about themselves so they can also be helpful to others.

I believe my calling is to write a book/s. I guess I fear success, or possibly failure, if it flops, then my dream is dead. If I leave it within arms reach on the shelf, I still have my dream.:D I only want to keep my family close to the Lord. This is my most important task as a father and a husband.
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Very good advice. Have to start somewhere in any case and the local opportunities are a great way to start and continue with even.
 
I spent over 30 years writing software and loved it. Money good, jobs plentiful, always learning something new.

This summer I had a chance to purchase a couple of shops that groom and wash dogs. All my life I have also been a dog nut. My parents say even in infancy dogs and I had a thing. I can walk into a place where there are a lot of dogs, say a pet store, and they will literally start dragging their owners towards me to the point where it is a scene. When my partner and I were doing research she saw it happen so many times she still talks about it. I can go to an off leash park and have 20 or 30 dogs leave their owners and start walking with me and my mutts. Friends leave dogs with me when they go out of town and more often than not when they come back their dogs want to stay.

Made that purchase with my partner and started a np foundation to support adoption groups and individuals who rescue dogs. Never been happier in my life. It took me 33 years to find my calling. Keep looking and when you find it jump in with both feet. When you find something that stirs passion to the point that it permeates your entire being you will know it and that passion will carry you easily through the bumps in the road. If it is business all the better, your customers will see that passion and your business will grow from that more so than anything else you try.
 
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