In many conversations I’ve had recently, the topics seem to turn to the past year of disruption and how many people, myself included, are rethinking how they will live differently moving forward. They’re discerning what’s most important, and deciding where to focus their attention. This year has sparked a greater awareness of what is truly essential and where systems are broken. Some are feeling called to entirely new areas of focus. All of these things have been true for me.
But first, let’s talk about callings.
I believe that each of us brings something unique to the world and that we’re all called to contribute according to what’s needed during the time we’re here. So does Tara Sophia Mohr, creator of the Playing Big Program in Leadership Development for Women. 10 years ago I took this course in its very first offering and it helped equip me with the confidence and tools to put myself out there and contribute in my own way. Tara has since published a book about Playing Big and is considered a leader in the empowerment of women. Her course is still going strong today and I’ve been revisiting it over the past few months. The most recent week has been about callings.
Callings are different from longings, which are desires that come from something deep inside that we need for ourselves. For example, I have a longing for solitude. It’s important that I make sure I have times of solitude in my life, for my own well-being. Solitude helps me to fulfill my callings. On the other hand, a calling comes from a need in the world that we resonate deeply with and have the capacity to fulfill in some way. It feels like a force or a pull to do something, even if at first we resist. Our callings are varied and unique to us.
Callings may or may not be related to our work and they come and go over the course of our lives, depending on circumstances. For example, you may be in a health care profession with a calling to help people heal. Or, your calling might not be related to your work. It might come from something you experienced, like an illness from which you recovered. You feel called to share your experience and work to raise money for a cure. Maybe you have a gift for humour and your calling is to bring a smile to the face of everyone you meet. Your call in retirement might be to being a grandparent and helping out your grown children. Callings often arise as wisps of inspiration that come into consciousness, sometimes involuntarily. You can recognize them by these clues (via Tara Mohr).
- You feel an unusually vivid pain or frustration around the status quo.
- You see a powerful vision about what could be.
- You have a sense that this work is mine to do.
- You are strengthened when you begin to do this work.
- You feel huge resistance.
- You don’t have everything you need yet to complete the work.
- You aren’t yet the person you need to be to complete it.
Those last three are usually what stops us. I know they did for me. Yet, they are signs that it is indeed your calling. When I initially took the Playing Big course, my callings were to write a blog about inspiration and to create an online course around visual design for photography. I didn’t feel as though I was qualified or ready to do either one. But, the main thing I learned from Playing Big was to begin stepping into those callings right away, before you feel ready.
I started a blog even though I didn’t yet have an audience. I read and commented on other blogs that we’re doing similar things and gradually got to know people online. I began to outline the course I envisioned and figured out how to offer it. At this point is where you can get stuck in the weeds, never feeling that you’re ready to step out there. In my case, the Playing Big program was perfect timing because it, along with the support of others in the course, convinced me to just start. I asked 5 friends to try it for free and offer feedback. I think I had 5 readers of my blog sign up to try it out. I learned a lot from that first course, mostly from the 10 people who participated. From there, my business and readership grew, albeit at a snail’s pace.
Fast forward 10 years, and when I look back I can see how my business grew organically from those first seeds. My interests evolved and I developed new courses, built on the ones before. In 2016, I wrote and self-published a book based on one of the courses. Many opportunities came to me as a result of this work. For example, a fellow blogger suggested I look into doing a workshop in New Hampshire and we co-facilitated. Someone who came to that workshop suggested I do a workshop in Rhode Island related to her environmental work. A fellow participant in the Playing Big program became a friend. We ended up co-facilitating two workshops in Ireland together.
One of the best books about callings I’ve ever read is The Great Work of Your Life by Stephen Cope. I wrote about that book here.
During the initial quarantine in 2020, I wrote a post about contemplative questions to consider. My own reflections on those questions prompted me to learn more about media literacy and out of that came the Seeing Clearly project. In reflecting on how I want to move forward, I identified my own longings and callings, and how I’m stepping into them now.
All this to say that so much depends on knowing your longings and callings and stepping into them.
Moving Forward – Longings and Callings
Longings
- To listen well. Daily meditative practice of listening and writing about what I hear.
- To stay healthy and be present. I’m walking 5 km each day and have set a goal to walk the 900 km Bruce Trail. I’ve been waylaid somewhat by the pandemic but hope to complete the Niagara section this spring.
- To make time for solitude. I do have time alone to work but I could do more in this area.
- To keep meaningful connections with my family and close friends through regular check-ins.
Callings
- To support my neighbours and community, where they’re struggling during the pandemic. I’m buying local, investing in community.
- To write about Seeing Clearly in 2021 and Place and Perception in 2022. I’m writing a weekly post now for Seeing Clearly and taking courses around writing about the environment and planning posts for writing about place in 2022.
- To minimize harm and imagine a world where all voices are heard and given equal importance. I’m reading and learning from predominantly black and indigenous voices and investing in those voices being heard.
What I found interesting about this exercise was how interrelated these longings and callings are, how they’re all rooted in relationships with fellow humans and the more than human world. They bring together my love of the environment, writing, and photography and a desire to connect. The overall theme is consistent with the past in that “the meaning of life is to see (and listen).”
I’d love to know if you’ve been feeling called to something in particular recently.
More on Callings
This is a story about a longing that manifested as a calling – How an Ansel Adams book Changed my Life