How can you know if your current career or job is where you are most likely to find the professional success you desire?
Answering this question is where the Authentic Vocation Model can be very useful. This model consists of eight core elements, each of which encompasses a different aspect of any given profession.
The first element – Life Purpose - is the topic of this post. Having a clear understanding of your life purpose is a key starting point in finding your Authentic Vocation. If the term “life purpose” seems a little too hard to get a hold of, you might think in terms of “core theme” or your “personal mission.”
Determining your life purpose is not mandatory for enjoying your work or being successful at your job. It will, however, give you a better sense of what you want to accomplish with your life, which in turn may help you determine what career path will be most rewarding in the long run.
Consider the following examples….
On your next vacation, you might decide to grab your wallet, your toothbrush, a change of clothes, and head-out on the open-highway… with no particular destination in mind. You could stop at various sites along the way, enjoy the people and the food, and have a good time overall. There would be nothing wrong with a vacation that had no specific destination at the outset, it would be more like what we might call an adventure.
As an alternative, you might decide that you want to spend time at Disney World in Orlando, Florida. You grab your map and determine your route, and which cities you’ll pass through along the way. Because you know your budget and your time-frame, you are able to plan which hotels you’ll stay in, how far you’ll travel each day, and what attractions you want to visit while you’re there.
While knowing your destination (as in the second example) isn’t required in order to have a fun vacation, it does give you a better sense of where you’re headed, and what you want to accomplish along the way.
Knowing your life purpose allows you to approach your career path with a similar type of thinking. By knowing what you want to accomplish with your life, you can start looking for what types of work will allow you to do so most effectively.
If your purpose in life is to help find a cure for cancer, pursuing a career in sports-marketing probably won’t give you a lasting sense of fulfillment. You might have a fun time meeting athletes and selling team-memorabilia, but it won’t do much to fulfill that internal desire to help the sick.
My favorite quote that helps describe exactly what it means to find your life purpose comes from the book, “How To Find Your Mission In Life,” by Richard Nelson Bolles:
“To exercise that talent which you particularly came to earth to use… in those places or settings which God has caused to appeal to you the most… and for those purposes which God most needs to have done in the world.”
Take some time and think about why you’re here and what you most want to accomplish in life. Then ask yourself if your current line of work work is helping you get closer to making that come true.
~ Dave
Posted by dpierpoint 
