Vocation

Dictionary.com: Vocation n. A regular occupation, especially one for which a person is particularly suited or qualified. An inclination, as if in response to a summons, to undertake a certain kind of work, especially a religious career; a calling. [Middle English vocacioun , divine call to a religious life , from Old French vocation , … Continue reading “Vocation”

Dictionary.com:

Vocation
n.

  1. A regular occupation, especially one for which a person is particularly suited or qualified.
  2. An inclination, as if in response to a summons, to undertake a certain kind of work, especially a religious career; a calling.

[Middle English vocacioun , divine call to a religious life , from Old French vocation , from Latin voc?ti? , voc?ti?n- , a calling , from voc?tus , past participle of voc?re , to call ; see wek w – in Indo-European roots.]

Thesaurus.com:

Main Entry: vocation
Part of Speech: noun
Definition: life’s work
Synonyms: art, business, calling, career, craft, do*, dodge*, duty, employment, field, game, handicraft, job, lifework, line of business, line*, mission, métier, nine-to-five, occupation, office, post, profession, pursuit, racket, role, thing*, trade, undertaking
Antonyms: entertainment, fun, pastime

I was reading The Top Idea in your Mind by Paul Graham and it was that which started to spur me on to my earlier blog post (Food for Thought).

I think everyone should search for their vocation; a type of work which moves them to more than just financial remuneration but also provides a deep level of satisfaction. Code4Pizza works because, like with The Top Idea in your Mind, it is not bogged down in money thinking.

I listed the dictionary and thesaurus entries above because I find some of them curious. The thesaurus equates a vocation with a “nine-to-five” and considers it the opposite of “entertainment, fun”.

And this is wrong.

Your vocation is your fun. It’s your reason to get up in the morning. I am reminded of a few lines from Stop All The Clocks by W H Auden:

…my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;

This is your vocation, your calling, an irresistible summons. It’s the one idea that you can’t get out of your head in the shower. It’s the thing you think about as you drive into work, what you muse about as you push the trolley around the supermarket, what you doodle when you’ve a paper and pen and you let your mind wander.

JFDI

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  4. A light went on somewhere…

0 thoughts on “Vocation”

  1. You want to ‘Follow your Bliss’

    If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. Wherever you are—if you are following your bliss, you are enjoying that refreshment, that life within you, all the time.

    from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Campbell

    When I have taught students, I often explain that you can make a living doing anything. So it is up to them to do the one thing that they are passionate about. Bit digging ditches, or flying, or what ever. If they are passionate, they can make a living at it. Anything else is just a boring job.

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