Mini-episode: Your Calling is NOT Your Purpose

Join me, your host Karen Vergara, as I pick up the mic to share my thoughts on a subject I'm very passionate about, purpose.

There are big misconceptions around your purpose and your calling. In this episode, I explain the difference between those two concepts. Your calling is tied to your position, your title or your job, but if we don't understand the difference between the two, there is a possibility that you find yourself living a life misaligned with your DIVINE purpose. 

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Transcript

Hello Statement Makers! I'm your host Karen Vergara and welcome to another short episode. If you haven't heard the first episode of this season, let me just quickly tell you that for Season 2 of the podcast, I decided that before every  guest interview, I will set up my mic and talk about purpose. If you haven't listened to our Episode on Accepting Your Purpose, I invite you to pause  and go back and listen TO it . It's just 8 minutes long. 

If you are returning! Welcome back. I've gotten a lot of great feedback from our listeners because purpose is one of those subjects that is not very well understood. I still feel like I'm learning about it, but what I do know is that I have a passion for others to discover, define and live out their life purpose, which is why I'm here today…to give you more insight into this topic and hopefully guide you so you can discover, define and live out yours. 

 In the last short episode of this series, I talked about Accepting Your Purpose. This idea that we are all born with a divine purpose and how we are dealt with both good and bad cards. At the end of the day, what's important to know is that the first step in discovering our ultimate purpose is accept we have one. 

 Today, I'll be talking about our calling. Our calling, which most of the time means our job, our title, or our position within society. 

 You see, it wasn't long ago when I realized that our calling is not the same as our purpose. I actually had to learn that the hard way after years of preparing for what I thought was my dream job and position. The kind of position that others wanted to have, where I made lots of money with a prestigious company with lots of benefits and perks, I came to the realization, once I was there that it really wasn't what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I was actually completely miserable and to be quite honest, completely lost. 

 Here I was after years of preparation in a job I absolutely hated and what's worse, I didn't know how I could get out of it. Maybe you've been there before or maybe that's where you are right now. If that's the case, pay close attention to what I'm about to say. 

 Your job (or lack of job, because there's a possibility that you are currently unemployed, a stay-at-home parent ore retired), does not not define your purpose. 

 This is where we need to define the differences between purpose and calling, which was something I learned a few years ago, but recently reading a great book recommended by a friend, I confirmed. 

Speaker and author, Marshawn Evans Daniels, wrote a book called Believe Bigger , where she defines Calling as Your Assignment. Basically calling it the mission, area or objective that you have to complete. 

 If you remember in episode 8, I said that purpose is simply the reason why you are alive. So that's where the distinction lies. Your job, title, position or lack thereof is not your purpose, but rather your calling. 

 So what happens when we confuse calling with purpose? Well, usually 1 of two things: 

 You can enjoy your job, title or position so much, become a workaholic and make your life revolve around that. Basically you live to work.

Some signs that you are on THAT path are- missing out on family or friend events, becoming disconnected to those around you, always thinking about work, not resting, not taking vacations. 

OR

You can hate your job and in the process, hate your life because you are doing something day in and day out that poses a sort of restlessness and makes you wonder why you are even alive. That's where I found myself years ago

 I'd like to point out that this doesn't necessarily have to relate just with your job. This can also relate to our position within our family or in our society. You can be a mother and become so engulfed in that role that when the kids are out of the nest, you forget why you are even alive. Or you can have the kind of title or position in your community that if for any reason gets taken away, you feel you are no longer useful and wonder what's the point of living from now on. 

This is why it's critical that we  understand that our calling is simply a mission or an objective. As a matter of fact, you can have multiple callings. You can be a mom, a wife, an accountant, and board member of a local non-profit. All of those are callings, but they're not your purpose. 

 Callings help us live out our purpose. 

 Also, callings can be temporary. In reality, most of the time they are. That's because our callings  use our gifts and talents. At a certain point of our life and as  gifts and talents evolve, we may find ourselves not liking something we used to enjoy doing . We feel a need to move on and do something different. 

 When we realize that our job, title or position is not our purpose, we are free to pursue and connect with the different aspects of our life that are not tied to those things. We start seeing our life as a multifaceted platform where we are free to enjoy, explore and connect in different ways to those around us. More importantly, we can be more in tune with ourselves and our creator to discern between the aspects of our lives that we don’t enjoy and the ones that we do. All in the pursuit of defining and living out our DIVINE purpose. 

 So today's invitation is to ask yourself, have you confused your purpose with your calling? Consider what would happen if you all of a sudden lose your job/title/position? Would you be happy or would you be lost?

If  that's you, don't stress out or worry! As I shared with you, I've been there before and I can tell you with confident assurance that it is possible to align your calling to your purpose. 

 If you have a calling, meaning a job or title, which you find is fulfilling and you also have a sense of balance with your other callings, awesome! I also know what that's like. Even thought it's taken me quite a bit to figure it out. Perhaps you can be an inspiration and example to those around you that are not there yet.

Just like last time, I invited you to accept you have a divine purpose. Today I invite you think about your callings. We're still in the process of discovering. No actions need to be taken yet. 

In future episodes, I'll be touching on the role of our gifts and talents and also, making decisions regarding our purpose, I look forward to you joining me then. 

 In the meantime, if you want to connect with me, you can add me on Instagram where I share behind the scenes of the podcast and also keep you updated with what's to come. Our handle is @statementmakerspodcast. You can also email me at karen@statementmakerspodcast.com 

Join me on our next episode, and remember, you already have everything you need to become a Statement Maker.