Finding vocation

The key to building a meaningful career is to align your work with your dreams. The terms career and vocation are often confused. Vocation is derived from "vocare" meaning "to call". Vocation may be described as your calling or voice in this world. A career is the road or path followed in the pursuit of your life's work. A meaningful career consists of finding your voice and pursuing the path that allows you to be fully heard during your journey.

Many career counselors suggest discovering viable career paths based upon your talents, interests and successes. Richard Bolles (author of "What color is your parachute?") provides an excellent resource for organizing your vocational and career interests. Begin the process by taking inventory of your current knowledge, skills, and abilities. This information establishes your current reality or where you are now.

What do you know about and what area are you interested in learning more?
What can you do well now?
What do you enjoy?
What brings you a sense of satisfaction, meaning and purpose?

Next, you explore where you want to be in the future. This information may be used to set your goals and define your desired outcomes. Outline what you hope to accomplish through your work.

What do you aspire to do with your life?
What do you feel calling you into this world?
What is your dream or vision?
If you are successful, what will your life look like in the future?

The gap between your current reality and your preferred future is where you create your model of a meaningful career. Each opportunity and challenge can be assessed against your personal model. As you move along your career path, you can ask if each step is bringing you closer to your dream or taking you further away . . . then make your choices and adjustments accordingly.
Since you change as you move through life, you may want to establish periodic checkpoints along the way. A powerful question is, "If you had your dream, would you take it?" Increasing your awareness of the relationships between your actions in the present and your dream for the future supplies you with more informed choices, more consistent progress, and a more meaningful career.