I am a designer and business owner. I feel lucky to really love what I do. I can lose myself for hours while working on a design challenge. And I do think about work and how to solve a problem or serve a client, when I’m falling asleep. I also can get completely bugged by poorly designed things from typography to design to products. So it definitely is a drive in me way beyond just a job.

However, the word “vocation” seems rather lofty to me. I tend to put it together with something that gives back to society and community a bit more. But maybe that’s not true.

Comment by Emily Brackett
on 11/04/14 at 09:52 PM
 

I became a recruiter out of college because I needed a job and I was talkative, sales-y and friendly. I have come to find that over the course of 26 years, several long periods of lay offs due to several economic recessions, I truly love what I do and I am good at it. I couldn’t see myself doing anything else. I help people find a new job, career, path in life, financial advancement. Many times I have changes people’s lives- mostly for the better. Not everyday is as rewarding as the next but, that is what life is about. Definition of vocation-“a strong feeling of suitability for a particular career or occupation.”•a person’s employment or main occupation, especially regarded as particularly worthy and requiring great dedication.”
So I have found my vocation or it in fact found me.

Comment by Dana Fink
on 11/20/14 at 11:44 AM
 

Most folks in my profession consider it to be a vocation.  But to identify that closely with one’s work can be overwhelming.  I have found that it’s healthier to say “this is what I am; that is what I do”, even as there is enormous external pressure to equate the two.

Comment by John Madvig
on 11/20/14 at 12:29 PM
 

“Vocation” seems to imply that you get just one of them, perhaps. In agreement with Emily, it seems overly lofty. As a business owner, I love what I do — with clients, with my company, and with myself.  I suspect learning and growing might be part of my ‘vocation’ DNA. But does that preclude me from a second or third act/vocation in 10 or 15 years? I am actively planning, thinking, and evaluating what my life might be like in the future, different from my company today. I don’t think that future work is any more or less a vocation.

Comment by Nick
on 11/20/14 at 01:27 PM
 

I have been able to take a love of investments -  and all things economic - and have that as the framework of the work I have accomplished.  Within this framework, I have been able to take steps into different aspects of the industy, from mutual fund accounting to financial engineering and now to Risk Management.  I continue to seek out and find new ways to look at the industry. I have built a career path that no one else has taken by doing so.  Since the current path I am on is a new industry (operational risk is a new discipline), I continue to look forward to seeing where this may take me. 

I truly enjoy what I am doing, especially since I am able to continue to stretch myself and learn something new each day.

Comment by Karen Zeff Rosen
on 11/21/14 at 11:38 AM
 

I second Emily Brackett’s comment. I would add on top of that, that I really enjoy supporting the publishing industry. My ultimate goal i in life is to help others. By helping people get their work syndicated and seen, I feel like that is fulfilling my life goal. Maybe I shouldn’t call it a “goal” because goals have an ending. It’s more like a life purpose. Or a life attitude.

(excuse my late response, I’ve been so busy at work that I haven’t checked my feedly in weeks. Somewhat ironic given the topic at hand)

Comment by spudart
on 12/01/14 at 11:11 AM