The essay is included in the book “Dictionary. Psychology and characterology of concepts»

What is a calling?

The usual beautification manuals in this life answer, in my experience, always the same question: "How do you pretend to be something you're not in order to get something you don't deserve?" How to defend a dissertation (pretend to be a PhD), how to please a man (pretend to be the woman he needs), etc., etc. These manuals, of course, will not help those who think about their vocation. He will ask - is it really so important for me to understand how something in nature works, or is it enough that the appropriate candidate or doctor understands this? Do I love this man myself or do I just find that marrying him would be great according to general criteria? Etc. The question of calling is the question of your authenticity. This is a question about what you really are, regardless of how and who will like it and what they will give you for it. For only your fidelity to this can make true happiness; happiness - after all, this is not even the state when everything that is generally recognized good "came true", but when it "came true" itself. For what called up.

• What is a calling?
• Does everyone have it?
• If everyone has it, then why not hear it?
• Can a calling betray?

(And in the appendices there are answers to some more questions that I did not pose to myself, and an article about calling the Dictionary.)

What is a calling?

The human race survives at the expense of labor, and therefore the practical application of forces and abilities, work, is almost the same for a person as life: “life activity”. It is quite possible to say that vocation is a favorite thing. A matter in which a man lives his own life.

It is clear that the direction in which our forces are applied is not indifferent to us - even if someone does not feel this keenly enough. The severity of this feeling is the measure of our responsibility to ourselves. It must be admitted that most people do not have this responsibility. But the wide popularity of alcoholic beverages suggests that they still have a vocation, and, abandoned and neglected, it worries and avenges itself, does not give rest.

A vocation is your personal meaning of life, transformed into a practical goal.

Calling is your uniqueness in this world, as your duty. This is a heightened sense of responsibility for what you are in this world.

Everything looks as if Someone created us for some task, the avoidance of which is our fault before Him. Maybe it is so, or maybe it is simpler: after all, the uniqueness of each is an undeniable, biological fact; to ignore it is to ignore oneself in this life.

Does everyone have a calling?

Of course, not everyone has it expressed equally; someone dies in separation from him, someone is constantly looking for him, and someone seems to have not thought about him and feels quite well. And yet, it must be assumed that everyone has it. But there are "buts" here.

The first, obviously, is that calling may not coincide with the possibilities of its manifestation available in the objective world. What should a plowman (serf) do with the inclinations of a poet or a physicist? Iron necessity, equal to stupid chance, can not cross out the most brilliant vocation? This unfortunate plowman will be, according to the general opinion, only a lazy person, an unlucky person ...

It can be objected that even an illiterate plowman can succeed as a poet if he allows himself not to strive to become too successful a plowman: after all, it is important not whether you are recognized as such, and not whether you have printed works, but whether how do you perceive the world; and the main tool of the poet, the word, is inalienable property for everyone. And something similar, in general, can be said about the plowman-naturalist: you can comprehend the wonderful regularity of nature at different levels.

And if we accept the hypothesis of vocation as the task assigned to us by the Creator, with which he launches us into this world, then there is nowhere to take on such a problem: Pushkin will be born no earlier than book printing appears on earth, and Einstein no earlier than universities appear and nuclear accelerators.

As for those people who are not looking for their vocation and feel comfortable, then the following clue is also possible: they have already found it. Well, it's not so important to be an estimator or a draftsman, if the vocation is a family, and at work it is important only to earn money for this family.

So it always makes sense to persistently seek your vocation in those cash circumstances over which you really have no control. (The “really” clause is necessary because sometimes a calling is feasible, but at the cost of certain losses, and this does not mean “not in power.”) It is possible that a calling is feasible under really unfavorable conditions, but at the cost of your success by social standards - that is, if not to measure, so to speak, calling by recognition. And perhaps, even in the most unfavorable circumstances, vocation will find some new and unexpected ways that it would never have found in standard circumstances - one can cooperate with almost any circumstances, so to speak ... A vocation is like any moral task: after all, one arises and is decided not in specially created convenient conditions, but “where you stand”.

... And here's another "but": everyone has a calling, but not everyone hears it.

Why can't you hear your calling?

There are many reasons, of course. The main one is probably infantilism. After all, vocation, as I have already said, is a heightened sense of responsibility to oneself. And infantilism is the habit of others being responsible for you. Therefore, others will decide what you should be, so that you feel good ... acutely, they do not know only what suits them.

Among other reasons (to put it pompously, but accurately): the voice of vocation is drowned out by invocative cries - pleasures; vanity, prestige and avarice; as well as luck.

So, pleasure, or joy. – But work according to one’s vocation – shouldn’t it be a joy, and doesn’t every joy require some kind of work?

It would be easy to get rid of the question by pointing out that vocation is a vocation for creativity, creation, while pleasure is consumption. But what if someone's vocation is consumption?

My answer to this is unexpected for myself: if you keep in mind, How And What"consumed", then calling Maybe be "consumption". And even, to some extent, it must to be everyone's calling. Indeed: to come into this world and not be able to appreciate this great miracle, having rested on some private task, turning oneself into a means to some private goal - after all, this also means betraying oneself (the world will survive your sacrifice without noticing). As for the vocations of an artist (writer, poet, philosopher, musician...), they are, first of all, the vocation of a contemplator, a disinterested “consumer”, and only secondarily, in the literal sense, the vocation of a creator. For - what is the value of the creativity of a person who has not managed, first of all and mainly, to love something in the world? .. To live only by creativity, not representing anything - to spread emptiness.

There are, of course, pleasures of a lesser kind. Some of these latter are so-called entertainment; The “entertainment industry” also makes its standard consumer suitable for industrial processing, that is, it leads away from the question of vocation, as well as from a meaningful existence in general. - And another category of pleasures is, in essence, rest. This thing is both legal and necessary, but rest cannot be a vocation. Human life is provided, as already noted, by labor; one cannot live without rest, because one cannot live without labor; To paraphrase a famous saying, "one must rest in order to live, but one must not live in order to rest." (True, if we have to do unloved, slavish work, we live when we rest ...)

Further: fame, power, money. - A very delicate and complex question, and the answers to it, as they say, are "ambiguous." But they exist. - Every deed is a benefit, good for someone; vocation, which is a vocation to work, is, accordingly, a sense of your unique mission in the society of people; fame, influence and money - besides the fact that for most of us these are independent incentives for activity - they are signs of recognition by society of the success of your mission, ideally, an indicator of the need and importance of your contribution. Therefore, many really talented and apparently "called" people have a feeling vocations almost inseparable from the passion to mean something among people, with a craving for recognition(promising the same fame, influence and - which is just as important for many - material well-being, which, after all, also means influence). This inseparability of “feats and glory” is expressed by many in a discouraging way directly and naively (remember Yesenin’s “I will be rich and famous, and loved by everyone” or Chaliapin’s “only birds sing for free”, etc. etc.). Perhaps, in love of glory and all that, someone can express the very feeling of their mission, maybe not realized and not found - although an unpleasant assumption, but acceptable ...

To this we can add that, say, money is the material with which a businessman works (and he must love them even, in the words of Ostap Bender, “disinterestedly”); influence, power - the material with which a politician, public figure works (and he cannot but strive for them); fame - well, more precisely, the effect produced in other souls - is the material of the artist. How to tear off the vocation here from the anticipated and longed-for self-interest?

And yet, of course, they are not identical. Mission - it's yours a mission that is unique and unrepeatable, while fame, and even more so prestige and influence, and especially money, reflect only your demand on the market and, accordingly, unify, standardize, and destroy you in you; they are, more often than not, the price of a betrayed or abused calling. They cannot be guidelines in any way - although they are incentives. - In general, if it is difficult to completely part with these incentives for creativity, one should learn to give oneself an honest and full account of their danger to the main thing in creativity - to calling.

And the third thing I wanted to say here is what can prevent us from hearing our calling. This is success, luck in something. Luck is intoxicating; what succeeds gives us a sense of strength - the growth of being! It is possible, and even certain, that at the first stages of our development, success in some matters also forms our vocation for them. In the future, what is successful no longer becomes a vocation, but it is easy to mistake it for such, especially if the true vocation is not found; successful can lead very far from the vocation. And the test here is this: failure. Calling work transforms failures into lessons, into experience; when you do something just because it is easy to do, the first failure in the business causes a reaction of rejection from it.

Does the calling match the abilities?

A vocation is more of a "hobby" than a "job" one "goes" to. If we take into account that a person most likely does his work at the proper professional level (otherwise he would have been fired), and in a hobby he most often does not appear very talented, just like an amateur, then we have to admit that abilities and vocation do not always coincide. When they stopped printing Akhmatova, she also stopped writing - graphomaniacs show much more commitment to poetic creativity ...

So, as if there could be a calling without abilities and abilities without a calling...

But what is this and that? Ability is the easiest thing to come by. A vocation is an interest. These things are formally different. They are different in essence.

If a person’s interest in a business is sincere (that is, if he does not take for interest the idea of ​​fashion or prestige of the occupation), then the discrepancy between interest and special abilities in this matter rather indicates that we are dealing with a real vocation! To do what comes easily means to be inspired by success, not by interest, that is, to leave the vocation. In addition, easy or difficult first steps in any business do not mean that all subsequent ones will remain the same. That's what talent is for, to measure the whole difficulty of the task, and not to slip through the top, reaping easy successes and cheap laurels; everything present is difficult; so difficult that the ease or difficulty of the first steps is small in comparison. From a famous biochemist you hear how bursting flasks in the first year of the university drove him to despair; from a Nobel laureate in physics - that he lacked mathematical abilities. And Pushkin, at first, was surpassed in poetry by his lyceum friend Illichevsky. Etc.

Reality is, of course, multifaceted, and the categories in which we want to cover it are vague. There are many other aspects in the question of the correlation of abilities with vocation, besides the one indicated. For example, the fact that a lack of ability can be fatal in some areas of creativity (you can’t sing too well without a good ear, be a significant artist without a natural “ability to draw”, etc.). Or, on the other hand, the pronounced presence of abilities in some areas of activity also speaks of a person’s special sensitivity to these areas, and therefore of a natural predisposition, a calling to them! And this vocation, too, may not be heard due to, perhaps, only ideas about the lack of prestige, the “uninteresting” occupation. A person with artistic inclinations can persevere in easel painting, with the most depressing results, while he is miraculously given, say, macrame, and this is most likely his true vocation for art. I believe that macrame is more intrinsic to him than painting. Moliere strove to write tragedies, but he is great as a comedian; I suppose, writing comedies, he still felt quite himself ...

Can a calling be bad?

Inclinations can be bad. And work is, by definition, good, that is, a vocation is a vocation for something good. Good is different. In practice, this means that we can always find that variant of using ourselves, with all our characteristics, that will be socially useful.

Can a calling betray?

That is, can a person be called to something for which he really does not have sufficient data; Does vocational work always promise real success?

In theory, calling to work is the main and decisive ability for it, and only work according to calling can lead to real success.

In this matter, however, the ideal design is sometimes very far from reality.

So, some "professions" (in quotation marks, because these professions should only be vocations) - in general, some occupations have a special attraction: to put it bluntly, they arouse vain instincts. This is their "siren charm". It is almost impossible to distinguish the excited love of glory, the hope for the immortality of something in oneself, from one's true vocation. After all, they (vocation and popularity), as I noted above, partly overlap. (There is so much evidence for this that it is even difficult to get rid of suspicion - is it not that vocation is just an inflamed vanity that has become manic and forced its victim to concentrate all its forces on one thing? .. But let's digress from this suspicion and we will still consider that love of popularity in really called people is only a stimulus, but not a guideline ...)

A close analogy here is love. The lover has no doubt that he has met in the beloved something infinitely peculiar to him, his divine destiny, "calling"; that the other is almost the better half of his own soul, without which there is no life of his own! And yet, as you know, disappointments are terrifying. That attraction awakened by love, which the miracle of the opposite sex generally possesses for earthly creatures, is to blame for this. And on the other hand, how many marriages - I won’t say by calculation, but by the calm prevailing sympathy - turn out to be happy!

If there were no death, one could not think about the meaning of life. Glory, this life in other people's souls, is a kind of ersatz of immortality - and as a goal, it can give a person, therefore, almost the meaning of his life! And what is, in this respect, art? “To create is to kill death,” as Romain Rolland said. A simple fly stuck in amber acquires a kind of immortality and with it a special value. Art is the embodiment of something in a word, colors, in a word in a harmonious form - this is such amber that makes the private and transient universally significant, eternal, immortal. True, the fly in amber must be genuine, and the amber must be of the appropriate quality, standing the test of time, while the manifestations of people not called to art are usually imitative, expressing nothing individual and, moreover, inept, so that they rather cause annoyance; but for those who are already "stuck", this closeness to immortality is a drug...

Yes, "drug" is the exact definition of excited popularity. We asked here the question: can a vocation deceive. So does vanity, this drug, deceive? The “injected” drug does not deceive, he already has everything he hopes for. But hard is sobering up. (However, if sobering comes - if there is self-criticism - then perhaps this is not just a drug, but a real vocation, and the author's despair in his achievements are the very "creative torments" that constitute the key to real progress and advancement to unknown frontiers ... Again, difficulties and opposite facets, there is no escape from this in such matters!)

Returning to the analogy of the dope of popularity with the dope that constitutes the opposite sex for a lover, one can recall the sensible and quite obvious recommendation of Joseph Joubert: marry the one with whom, if she were a man, you would make friends. Do what you would be doing if it did not promise anything to vanity (reversing L. Tolstoy - write if you can and not publish!). The ideal is that the business of life should be your hobby.

Is every work capable of making up someone's vocation?

The question is essential - because someone should be engaged in each work. Each work has its own noble vocation: at least cleanliness (such as the work of cleaners, to whose respect posters rightly call).

And the main thing that needs to be said here is that in general labor is a human vocation. (Although this does not mean that labor should replace everything else in life for a person - this has already been said.) The human race does not live by fangs, not by skin and not by fast legs, but by constant labor; the fruits of his labor are 99% of his "natural" habitat. Labor is the contribution to the general survival of the human race, and this is the good done, the morality being done; it is a life for all, imprinting, albeit most often namelessly, our personal finite existence in the common existence of the prolonging human race.

Therefore, the nobility of "simple" labor is felt directly by everyone who is engaged in it, no matter how little prestige it may be considered. Undoubtedly, "simple" (non-prestigious) work can be a real vocation and happiness for many of those people who would withstand the toughest competition in the areas of "prestigious" work. Rather, these last spheres are objects of special, private, which does not yet mean "high" vocations.

APPENDIX 1: answers to questions

Is it possible to "learn" a vocation?

In principle, as if, it is impossible: one does not make a vocation for oneself, one must discover it in oneself. And yet a categorical answer is not good here.

In general, what is a vocation? This is your personal meaning of life, the task with which you were born into the world.

And everyone is born with at least two tasks already defined. One is to understand as much as possible what you yourself are (why live if you don’t comprehend anything in yourself); you learn it all the time. The other is to serve the survival of the human race, that is, to do some good deed. There is always a place in life, if not a feat, then a good deed, and this vocation can be fully learned.

But you still need to make it your business. Calling is where your sincere interest is, this is what is important to you in itself, and not from any calculation. This is true. But, approaching any, albeit unloved, business consciously, trying to understand and feel why it is important in general, you make this business important for yourself, that is, to some extent interesting - you partly turn a necessity into a vocation! Everything is like in a well-known parable: two people did the same thing, but one “dragged bricks”, the other “built a temple”.

It can and should be learned.

Profession and vocation - do they always coincide?

Well, of course not. Otherwise, where would "hobbies" come from?

One can pose a more radical question: is it necessary to strive for them to coincide?

I myself am arranged in such a way that I would passionately desire their coincidence (and I did not succeed). There are people of a different warehouse. And some are convinced that such a coincidence is generally impossible. Their logic is that professional activity cannot entirely depend on your will, while vocation is a purely personal matter, downright intimate; work, in their opinion, is what you need to “give away”, pay off, in order to acquire the right to live, in the remaining time, according to your calling. If we take into account that genuine (not custom-made) creativity often does not feed, then there is no physical opportunity to create without devoting part of the time and effort to some paid profession.

Of course, it is difficult to "serve two masters" - but it is necessary. It is also good that most professions do not need your personal service, but only in your hands.

How do we find our calling?

It seems that Bernard Shaw told about himself that in his youth he wanted to become an architect, an actor, someone else, and only a writer did not occur to him for a long time become- because he was them. This is usually: we try and try to make ourselves, until suddenly we start to reveal ourselves.

More prosaic reasons make it difficult to find a vocation: it is difficult not to confuse interest and pleasure, benefit, prestige. Before adolescence, there are so many obviously “interesting” professions to choose from that it is easy to forget that interest is an individual thing.

Theoretically, it is possible that the world has not yet born a business completely according to your vocation (what would a person do with the vocation of Einstein in the Stone Age?). This is a special problem, but one can immediately say that what is really feasible has its own charm: in this way, a beloved woman is not like her pre-established ideal, but is preferable to him.

Even ... abilities can interfere with finding a calling. It is not necessary to become a singer if you have a beautiful voice and ear. Although, of course, it is no coincidence that abilities and vocation basically coincide: both are heightened sensitivity to certain aspects of being. For a person with special hearing, sounds speak more than others, they are more important to him, and therefore sounds are his vocation. Etc.

But how do we find it anyway? It is good for those to whom life has given an example that has launched this special instinct - calling. It is like a kindled light, like a breach in a dam. But it also happens the way Shaw did - through trial and error.

Can calling change over the course of a lifetime?

Basically, no. But it can be quite objectively corrected - beyond recognition. You can also change, perhaps, physics for chemistry, painting for graphics, etc., but the vocation for science or art remains. Another option is that a person can leave an activity that he did well, and which, from the outside, could therefore be mistaken for his vocation, for the sake of his true vocation.

In addition, a person can move from a purely business vocation to a meaningful one - to give up all visible activity.

But for one vocation to be replaced by another, it would be as much a miracle as a split personality.

What vocations and professions may appear in the near future?

If the nature of man changes, it is over too long a time. In any case, since antiquity, it has not changed in the European. Accordingly, his vocation. But very quickly, in a matter of years, new opportunities for vocations can arise: before my eyes, many people have shown special abilities and interest in working with a computer, and also (this is the last in our country) in business. I don't even know what these people did before! But they were doing something...

As for the near future ... Probably, the main thing is not new, but old professions: people will have to realize that the computer and any other, no matter how magnificent technology, are only helpers, and in the most difficult task, the original, as before, is their own head and hands.

APPENDIX 2: article "Vocation" from the "Dictionary"

VOCATION

- an activity in which you can completely remain yourself; activity that justifies your existence - conceived as a duty. "A duty to reveal the total value of your personal uniqueness." Same as purpose

a form of existence adequate to the soul. A person's felt duty is to live his life.
Rationally, the components of callings are your abilities plus your duty to serve humanity in the best possible way:

- the need to do the best you can,

that's just the interest is not always where the ability, and vocation - rather, interest.
So the vocation, or rather -

is the best application of the inherent.

It could be said that vocation is a coincidence of abilities and interest. But, apart from the vocation of an opera singer or some other of that kind, real abilities do not exist without interest, just as it cannot be that genuine interest does not find the means to be realized - it would not give abilities.
Your calling is not for you; unrequited love for a cause that does not want to become yours - it seems, it happens ... And yet you need to figure it out - what exactly is so dear to you in business. Let's say, "to love art" - it means to love something in the world, and art is just the most suitable language for this love of yours. Where do imitators come from? Of those who love not the world, but art itself...

. “To your liking” is also “by vocation”.
Calling is your unraveled nature.

Happiness is everything you need to not think about it. Including the happiness of the found calling.

The vocation does not have to be in the field of activity; a person has another purpose. And someone is probably born for the type of activity that has already died or has not yet been born. But the most common thing is when the vocation is itself (any, even the most senseless) activity.

Activity is the same protective and adaptive mechanism of the “animal man” as a turtle has a shell, and mammals closer to it have wool and strength. Just as clothing has long been a part of his body (so, rather, nudity is a special costume - C. S. Lewis), so activity is part of his being; idleness is not for everyone!
... But at present it is difficult to say what could beautify the world more: for everyone to do at least something, based on the need for activity in general, or only those who have a special vocation would act ... And even, it seems, a special harm comes from active people; in competition with called people, they usually win. In addition, the world is full of the fruits of labor, and it is easier for the active to find a use for himself in not building, but breaking ... How do you like this expression: “destructive thirst for activity”? ..

Calling - a duty to oneself - is also a duty of conscience. So let conscience tell us when we need to do something, when to cede this right to another, when to please that nothing is done ...

. “A vocation is a feeling of being real” (V. Krotov). I always remember this definition when I go out into my forest...

A few months ago, I decided to launch my own online job search and career consulting project. After a while, I noticed that among the standard questions of my clients “how to compose”, “how to behave in an interview”, I very often hear a completely different, deeper request: “how to understand what I like to do?” and “how to start doing what you love and connect it with work?”.

It turned out that my clients aged 25 to 35 are not satisfied with the mere presence of a prestigious job with a good salary, but have completely different requirements for work and the employer. It is important for them that they enjoy the activity (more and more people want a free schedule and remote work), and they also prefer to understand some deep meaning of their activity and know what benefits it will bring.

Naturally, with such high expectations, these people are doomed to constant dissatisfaction with their work. Not having a clear idea of ​​​​their interests or not finding an opportunity to combine them with work, “shifting papers” from 9 to 18 in the office instead of saving the world, they get less and less pleasure from work. Yearning, they cherish the dream of dropping everything and leaving for the warmth, in order to indulge in the search for themselves and their vocation, hoping to find a magical recipe for a harmonious cocktail of pleasure, meaning and work.

In my opinion, such a trip will be just a change of scenery. Will there be an answer? Maybe. But I don't think it's necessary to travel far for that. I am convinced that each of us deep down knows his calling. It’s just that someone reveals it at the age of four, and someone remembers at 80. But no matter how old you are, the search for a vocation is always an exciting journey and not at all to a tropical country! And it is also painstaking, jewelry work that requires courage, creativity and perseverance. Indeed, to prepare your exclusive culinary masterpiece, it is not enough to find a good recipe. You will have to first learn how to cook it, and then experiment many times to find the ideal proportions and your own unique ingredients.

For my clients, I decided to study in detail the scope of the search for a vocation, collect the maximum and choose the best. In the last three months of deep diving alone, I have accumulated more than 100 exercises, and yet I just opened the door to this interesting world. Some exercises are hints and help to identify a calling, others allow you to transform it into a new job or bring it into harmony with an existing one. I am happy to share my findings with you!

For those who are ready to go on an independent journey, I have compiled a universal route in seven days. Naturally, the timing for each will be individual. Perhaps someone will find the answer on the first day, and someone will need to take a break after each task for thoughtful reflection. But the timing is not the most important thing, especially if the trip is exciting. Well, are you ready? Go!

The first day. Look into the future and dream

Our fantasies are not only a storehouse of information about ourselves and our goals, but also a powerful source of motivation for their realization. To make it easier to fantasize, let's play a game. Imagine that you are a kind of hundred-year-old dreamer-lucky. Not only did you live in your mind and health to such a serious name day, you were also incredibly lucky in life, and you achieved fantastic success in everything you undertook. Healthy, prosperous, live in abundance, in a word, prosper. Your relatives and friends have gathered to congratulate you and celebrate this significant event with you. Or maybe not only friends, but also reporters, the press, celebrities ...

Represented? And now remember your whole happy life, full of interesting and exciting events. What were you doing? What they were doing? Where, in what environment? Who was next to you? What did you feel? Describe your lifestyle, everything that was important to you, all areas of life. Preferably on paper or in a text editor.

Then read your text, preferably out loud, paying attention to how you feel and how your voice sounds. Do you really want these fantasies to become reality? Are you ready to try?

In order to be where you want to be in 100 years, you need to start the path in the chosen direction right now.

Second day. Allow yourself everything and dream

Very often, our calling is hidden somewhere between the area of ​​​​our interests, the sphere of innermost desires and a few deeply hidden and forgotten childhood dreams. We are so afraid of this Pandora's box that we hide it far away in the closet of our memory, so that later we can hastily push into it everything that we wanted, but did not come true, was planned, but did not come true. And then forget.

In order to open the veil and take another step towards your calling, you will need to get this box, blow off the dust and carefully shake out everything that you stuffed into it. Think of all your dreams, desires, interests, and everything you've ever wanted to try, and write it down. To complete the picture, add a list of improbabilities to them. Do not limit your imagination: the more points you write, even the most ridiculous ones, the better. Let them be 100 or more, but not less than 20.

By the way, this exercise has an interesting side effect. Save the list and check it after a while. Some of your wishes will come true by themselves, without your participation. For everything to come true, some actions will need to be taken, but that's a completely different story.

When we were little, each of us knew our purpose. If you have forgotten what you dreamed about as a child, ask your relatives.

Day three. Design your ideal contract

Imagine you are a star! You are so professional, in demand and popular that "headhunters" are chasing you, ready to do anything to get you. You are offered to sign a contract with an ideal salary, in which you are allowed to independently choose what you will do, in what field and under what conditions. Yes, you are the lucky one!

You, of course, guess that each of us actually has such an opportunity? If not, I'm sharing a secret with you. The modern world offers a wide variety of professions and fields of activity, any options for work schedules and other conditions. Unfortunately, very often many do not know what they want, or do not want to make an effort to achieve what they want. Or for some reason they do not find the opportunity to sit down and think seriously about this issue.

So let yourself be puzzled by it right now and choose the perfect job. Let's think broader, because we ourselves are the authors of all our limits and limitations. Have 100 items on your list, or at least 20. By the way, this exercise is useful to do from time to time, as your preferences may change and it is important to adjust your ideal contract so that the work continues to inspire you.

It is worth not only to draw up your ideal contract, but also to review it from time to time. Our preferences can change and it is important to make adjustments in time so that our work continues to inspire us.

Day four. What would you like to give to others?

All of us . We live in a society and cannot exist independently, on our own. Therefore, it always alarms me when I hear that someone wants to do something exclusively for themselves. Wants to have fun in the process, achieve self-realization through favorite activities and get satisfaction from achieving results. All these desires are beautiful, but the questions “Why?”, “Why are you?”, “What is your meaning?” remain unanswered.

It seems to me that such an egocentric position is initially inferior and flawed in relation to the one in which the motive to “give” is present. Activity can bring complete satisfaction only if you share something with others, serve them. And transforming your favorite pastime into a job is possible only if you find a way to benefit others through your activities.

A combination of answers to the questions "Why?" and “What do I want to give to others?” will give the very meaning without which complete satisfaction from work is impossible.

Day five. What do you like and really enjoy?

Up to this day, we have focused on your dreams, interests, desires, and what you would like to do. You were not limited by anything except your fantasies and self-created limitations. Your dreams, interests and desires are the guides to your work, but they contain a certain amount of risk. If most of them have remained in the fantasy world and you have not tried to realize them, you cannot be sure that this is exactly what you like and enjoy. Nevertheless, these lists are very important for discovering a calling. Let's leave them for a while.

Now we will return from the realm of fantasy to the real world. Your personal experience is another important source of information on the path to your calling. By carefully going through all your attempts to do something and the degree of your pleasure in the process, you can also find clues that will lead you to a calling.

Remember what you really like to do and what you definitely enjoy - in past jobs, while studying, during any other activity that you did. As a reminder, the key difference from the list you made on Day 2 is that you've tried it, and you know you're enjoying it. As usual, aim for 100 pips and keep them at least 20.

To be sure that you really like it and bring pleasure, you can only try what you dreamed about. Look for your calling in your experience and experiment more with your fantasies and interests.

Day six. Your talents, abilities, skills and their reflection in others

Each of us has many talents, whether we develop them or not. Think about what you are doing well, what have you achieved heights and achievements in? You probably have something that you know how to do better than others. Don't know about it? Remember what requests you usually receive. Don't remember? Then take a chance and ask! Call your relatives and friends and ask them what they would lose if they did not know you. Be prepared for the most unexpected answers. You will definitely learn a lot of interesting things! :)

Your talents and abilities will point you in the right direction to your calling. Do not know what you are strong in - ask others!

Day seven. Role, skill, vocation

The seventh day is a day of analysis and answering questions. Read each list and analyze it. Pay attention to the points that:

• repeated several times;
• seem to you the most valuable and important right now;
• cause you a special response and awe.

Choose about 10 items from each list (the number of items is not a strict parameter). Divide the items into four groups:

• Field of activity (medicine, art, sports, and so on).
• The essence of the activity (what exactly to do, what to do).
• Conditions (where, how, with whom, what time).
• Qualities and skills (how and what I can do).

Write down all the points on a blank A4 sheet or in a new word processor document. Add a description of your ideal lifestyle from day one and answers to the question “What do I want to give to others” from day four.

Analyze the resulting description and answer the questions: “What am I really do in peace when I do this?”, “What am I really I give the world when I do this?”, “What is my real role when I do this?”, “What is my exceptional gift what is mine skill And vocation when do I do it? Take your time, these questions require serious thought. The answers to them will allow you to find yourself.

Want to connect with work? Abstract and look at the result as if from the outside, as if it was not written by you, but by another person. Write job options that would fit such a request. Show to others and ask them to name options for a job that suits you. If you have the courage, publish it on the networks. The more people with different professional erudition you show, the more diverse job options you will get. It is desirable to get a list of 20-30 different options for professions. Choose one or two or three of them that you like the most.

Assess reality. To what extent what you are doing now is close and consonant with your request. Consider a strategy. Cardinal change? Smooth transition? Work at the same job, but the vocation to make a hobby and develop in an interesting direction in parallel? Write a plan. Take the first step. Check experimentally.

This will take several months or years. Scary? Be afraid, but do it. These few months or years will still pass sooner or later, and you either try or not. Hurry, because no one knows when his centennial anniversary will come. Remember, happiness is not the final destination, it is the journey itself. Even a few seconds closer to your ideal life is already a result.

What is a calling? Mathematically speaking, it is the sum of ability and passion. In artistic terms, an ephemeral substance that denotes what you are in this world, only transformed into a practical purpose. The vocation makes us start our morning in a good mood. A vocation is a job that we enjoy. By and large, calling is what we exist for. So let's stop envying people who talk about their work with burning eyes, and do everything to add to the list of lucky ones.

To find your calling, you need to understand what you like to do. It can be anything - cross-stitching, programming, helping a neighbor's child with English, or drawing squiggles during a telephone conversation. The main thing is that it should bring pleasure. Think about it, maybe a brilliant hacker or comics artist, who had previously been hiding under the guise of a family hearth keeper, was just waiting for an opportunity to prove himself!

It is very important to understand and accept your interests. No one has the right to judge you for your passion for grasshopper breeding, attending all contemporary art exhibitions or collecting candles. Therefore, we are not afraid to get to the bottom of the truth and try, remember, experiment!

As a child, did you sew clothes for dolls or a pet? Feel free to grab a pencil and try yourself as a designer. Does it bother you when someone ahead of you in line orders an espresso? Be a text editor for a week. Have you always dreamed of hosting a handmade jewelry fair? Gather all your crafts, design them, take a photo, create a "catalog" and invite buyers - make the dream come true now.

Don't look for excuses like "I don't know how to start," "it's too late to change anything," or "I can't compete with professionals in this field." If you find your calling, all this will become unimportant - or rather, fade before your glowing eyes with joy.

However, often we fail to understand what our purpose is by asking the wrong questions. You ask: "What role should I play, given my inclinations and capabilities?" or “What kind of activity will help me realize myself as a person?”. And maybe you don't find the answer...

The fulfillment of a social role should not be a priority, it - a role - needs to be "adjusted" to life goals. Therefore, it would be more correct to ask such questions: “What do I want from life? What needs to be done for this? How will I achieve this?"

It is possible that it can be difficult to identify your strengths on your own. To do this, you can enlist the help of, for example, a husband or cousin. And even better, a half-forgotten girlfriend of youth will do it to ensure 120 percent impartiality. Ask assistants to describe your skills, abilities and character traits. Perhaps the result will surprise you and give you new ideas.

Achieving what you want (when searching for a calling as well) can be realized through a profession, so do not confuse the goal of life with a tool to achieve it. At the same time, your profession may have nothing to do with your life's work at all.

For example, once my designer friend admitted that she would like to be a massage therapist. She would help people relax, in conversations with them she would improve her knowledge in psychology ... She was not afraid to quit her hated office job and go to massage courses. Six months later, having settled in a beauty salon, I felt like the happiest person on earth, doing what I always had a penchant for. Having lost in salary, she found peace of mind and deep satisfaction from life, which, you see, is more important.

It usually goes something like this - "it's like I live in the wrong time", "I was born/destined for something more", "I have a destiny, but I don't know how to realize it", "I want to understand why I was born/born", "I want to know my mission", "I don't know who I should go to work", "I don't like what I do, and there is a feeling that I need to do something else, but I don't know what", "Am I doing", "I don't understand why I live" and others.

The question of one's own realization, the manifestation of one's talents and abilities, the application of one's strength and energy in the right direction, the question of rejection of one's work, one's business, the question of the manifestation in life of an occupation that would be very important for the Soul. And in this regard, people often rush into searches, "search" for themselves, want to find "that" sphere, "that" activity, perhaps without attaching importance to what already exists. Many people want to find the "work of life", something that captivates and occupies all thoughts.

So how do you know the purpose and calling? In order to understand what we are talking about in general, I will dwell on the concepts themselves, what is vocation and what is purpose. It is worth distinguishing between these concepts. First you need to answer these questions for yourself. What's happened purpose for you? And what is for you vocation? How do you understand this for yourself? What does this mean for you? This will help you understand what exactly you need to understand now, to find out about yourself.

It is also important to ask yourself a couple of simple questions - why do you need to know your purpose / calling? And what will change in your life after you find out? What do you think your life will be like after this? Perhaps the request will be reformulated in another and will sound differently, Already more specific.

Let me return to the concepts themselves - in Reincarnation these concepts are defined as follows - there are the purpose of the Soul and eat man's vocation. After adding two words, the definition becomes clearer.

The Soul has a purpose, what is assigned to it, certain tasks that it needs to fulfill. purpose- this is a kind of global goal, the task is to do something, like "bring light", "give love." And maybe not global, everything is individual. Purpose is the purpose of the Soul.

It happens that the Soul often realizes its destiny in the space between lives, where there is a strict hierarchy and each Soul has its own occupation — specialization. And the Soul can carry this activity with it into incarnation and engage in something similar in the physical world.

calling of man- this is what the Soul will use to realize its destiny, what the Soul is called to this world for. With the help of what activity, what occupation will it fulfill its purpose. As a rule, this is what a person likes to do, what a person likes to do in life. The search for one's vocation, "one's" occupation is like the call of the Soul to fulfill one's destiny. If the Soul follows its calling, then it will fulfill its destiny.

Memories of your addictions in children's games will help you understand what kind of calling you may have. From the games of the child, you can notice a lot of what he likes, what he liked to play - build everyone, manage, or teach everyone, or heal, or play mother-daughters, or something else. If you remember what you were fond of as a child, what gave you pleasure, you can already understand a lot.

I see how people who know who they are and what they have, what talents, abilities, what they like in life, and do just that - I see how happy they are, and how they burn with their activities, I see how easier live with this knowledge. How great it is to know who you are in this world, and not just to know, but to put it into practice - to have a “dream job”, to understand the nature of your Soul, then life is easier and happier, and desires and dreams come true easier, and money for the right always appears!

When you know the purpose of your Soul and your calling in this life, household chores, the need to go to the store, buy food and cook are unlikely to disappear, interaction with other people will not disappear, electricity and utility bills will not disappear, and garbage is still needed. will take out. But! It will become much easier, you will understand what to do and how to live, what you need and do not need, in which direction to move and how to get what you need.

There will be an opportunity to stand on own way! And on its way, there is a fair wind and fewer holes. Some of the questions may disappear altogether, perhaps the circle of contacts will change or you will have to change your job, field of activity, and, possibly, your place of residence. Taking action in the right direction path will be drawn under your feet, literally opening up under the feet of the walker.

You will gain a connection with your Soul, begin to listen to your desires, and life will become different, it will develop differently. The right people will come across, the right events will happen, opportunities will turn up. Life always favors those who go their own way. Such marchers are important to the world, he will give them everything! But even those who are going need to give themselves to the world and what they know how to do, what they are capable of and what they were born for.

Why else do you need to know your purpose and calling:

• To find and feel "their place" in life,
• to enjoy your occupation, activity, joy from life,
• if we talk about the Soul, then in order to fulfill the tasks for this incarnation and allow your Soul to develop, evolve.

Today is a wonderful day in Kolomna, the day of the city is celebrated, the Divine Liturgy was performed, and I got a wonderful opportunity to get in touch with your life, with the life of the Moscow region, by taking part in this holiday. Perhaps the brightest moment is this meeting in the wonderful palace of beautiful children, where it is so easy and simple for many thousands of people to meet each other, and how good it is that this meeting of ours has such an important topic as the spiritual education of a person in its center. .

And I would like to say a few words about something that is vital for every person. I would like to talk about calling. What is a calling? A vocation is an internal concentration of a person on a certain area of ​​activity, it is an internal concentration of attention and strength in relation to the chosen direction of life and activity. Human happiness largely depends on vocation. If you work not according to your calling, then the work becomes boring and hard, a wise person said about this: “In order to determine whether you are working according to your calling, or if you work not according to your calling, try to assess your condition after the vacation. If you go to work with joy - by vocation, and if with memories of a vacation, with a heavy feeling of returning to some uninteresting routine, then there is no vocation.

If a person works according to his vocation, he is happy, even if his work is not always adequately paid, the inner uplift of joy from the work done compensates for material shortcomings. In order to be a happy person, you need to try to build your life in such a way that you work, work according to your vocation. A vocation is formed in childhood, in adolescence, which is why childhood and youth are, perhaps, the most important stage of human life. Adults always look down on children a little, because children need support, guardianship, education, and an adult, of course, is wiser, more educated than a child, but you need to remember that it is in childhood and adolescence that what is then formed is formed. and will determine a person's happiness. In these years, a vocation is also formed, therefore, with all the apparent ease, carelessness of childhood and youth, in fact, this is a very important stage in life.

A vocation is formed under the influence of parents, sometimes even a propensity for a particular business is transmitted genetically, hereditarily, but education has a very great influence on the formation of a vocation, because at school students can come into contact with different areas of human knowledge. A good school not only introduces the child to a theoretical acquaintance with certain areas of knowledge, but also helps to get in touch with them practically. Today you heard about wonderful camps where children work. Of course, not everyone will become a bricklayer, a builder, but participation in labor during summer holidays helps a person, a small one, maybe still a person, a young person, to understand what work is.

The formation of a vocation does not happen automatically, there is a wonderful ancient wisdom that says: "Teaching without reflection is an empty occupation, but also reflection without study is a dangerous occupation." Indeed, in order to form a vocation, you need not just memorize the material that you are taught in schools, you need to think, you need to accompany your education and perception of information with constant work of the mind. Creative initiative should be present, including when you are just learning a lesson. And you need to try to understand, to understand the material being taught, to somehow pass through yourself everything that is given to you. And at the moment when the heart is given, when you understand: this is mine, then the study of this discipline ceases to be boring.

I would also like to recall the wonderful saying of Abba Dorotheus – he was such a marvelous elder, the father of the Church, he wrote a lot, he was a very educated person, he lived at the turn of the 6th-7th centuries. Abba Dorotheos could not study, studies were not given to him, and not only because the material was so difficult to assimilate, but also because he did not want to study. Recalling the years of study, he said that for him the touch of the book was like the touch of an evil beast. He fled from studies and did not want to study, but at some point he began to induce himself, force himself, educate his will. And then, in the same reminiscences of his studies, he says that the teaching, the book became everything for him. He forgot about food, drink, sleep, it was so interesting to dive into this world of science.

It is interesting to dive into the world of science when you feel a calling, and not only into the world of theoretical science. Because in general, all human activity is Science with a capital letter. If you feel a joyful command of the heart, coming into contact with one or another sphere of human activity, stop carefully at this activity, think about it again and again, let it pass through yourself in order to find this calling. And, of course, a teacher has a huge role. After all, the teacher not only knows more than the students - he tells the lesson, transmits information. In the end, after all, all the same things can simply be read, but reading books or using the Internet cannot replace the real experience of communicating with a teacher, because a teacher, lecturer, professor in a higher school is not only a person who transfers some knowledge. This is a guide to science, a guide.

In one of his wonderful works, Father Pavel Florensky, our outstanding scientist, encyclopedist, priest, wrote about what it means to be a teacher, a professor. He connected professorial, teaching work really with the work of a guide who leads a group of visitors, for example, through a botanical garden. He talks about plants, talks about nature, but he talks about one blade of grass longer, and speaks in such a way that suddenly the knowledge that he conveys becomes so attractive that people stop at the same blade of grass and look at it for a long, long time.

The great art of a teacher is to be such a guide to science and life, to be able to correctly place accents, to interest children, to form image. And what image? It may seem strange, but each teacher conveys his image to students, and here, perhaps, it should be said about the most important thing, that there is now a certain crisis, a crisis in relations between generations. It often happens that young people do not understand their elders well, including their teachers. There is a certain dividing line between the student and the teacher, the teacher fails to reach the heart, not only the mind - the heart of the students. And this happens not only because, perhaps, the student is not attentive and diligent enough (which, of course, happens), but very often it depends on the inability to overcome this division of the teacher himself. The image will be acquired when this image is beautiful, which is why everything should be perfect for the teacher, including appearance, clothes, manner of speaking, but, most importantly, a person should have a beautiful inner life. In this sense, every teacher should be an ascetic, because the success of his work depends on his inner spiritual and spiritual state.

I would like to formulate a certain rule now. A bad person cannot be a good teacher. Just like a priest.

There are such human occupations - pedagogy, education, the same spiritual enlightenment ... A priest must also be an ascetic. His inner world is a certain way to convey, including information. Will they listen to a bad priest who does not live according to what he preaches? And in the same way, they will not listen to a teacher, a bad person, an evil person who has everything wrong in his personal life: a bad family, bad children ... The work of a teacher is wonderful, but it requires internal asceticism, it requires some kind of internal feat. And without this feat it is impossible to convey your inner world to those who carefully follow every word of the teacher.

But, on the other hand, much will not be understood and accepted if the student himself, like Abba Dorotheus, does not begin to force himself to overcome laziness, slovenliness, lack of concentration, if he spends precious time on empty, unnecessary things. There are many temptations in our world. I remember how, finishing school, preparing for the exam. It was in the spring, the weather was fine, the windows were open, through the windows the music of one very popular and sweet song, which was sung when I was young, reached my ears. I looked out the window, saw young people, girls walking to the sound of this music, I was so drawn to the street, I so wanted to be there: it’s fun there, it’s beautiful there!

But, having opened the textbook, I thought: maybe now something most important in my life is being decided, I will close the window, sit down at the desk and not go out into the street. And on such an act, the whole future life can depend. I stood at the window, kept silent, thought, closed the window, even curtained the curtains, although it was during the day, and began to prepare for the exam. I remember this incident from my life because I know that you go through the same temptations. But today there are even more of them, television is constantly present in our lives, computers, which can also transmit information and distract from information ... And a kind of asceticism is also required, through which you educate your will, the ability to control your thoughts and your actions. The ability to convince oneself is a remarkable human ability. And it is here, in this sphere of your personal existence, that you are passing the most important test for your maturity. Your whole future life will depend on it. And no most remarkable teacher will be able to convey to you knowledge, experience, his image - this beautiful image - if you do not have the strength, the ability to limit yourself in pleasure, entertainment - in order to concentrate on learning.

It seems to me that in general the education system is an amazing system that works on the principle of two-way traffic: from teacher to student, from student to teacher. The teacher teaches the student, and the students help the teacher grow. God grant that as a result of your stay in schools, your vocation is formed. So that what you will do in the future be a joyful occupation for you, so that when you leave your vacation, you return to your work with a light feeling and great interest. This is not necessarily about prestigious work - any work can and should give a person a sense of satisfaction. This is what happens if a person works according to his vocation.

And the last thing I would like to tell you... Calling implies that someone calls. Not that you yourself are called, but someone calls.< …>Sometimes you see how others work in the area in which you would like to work, most often after that the choice of profession occurs. But we have one more vocation, each of us, regardless of what professional business we choose.

Today I started talking about this in the church, because it is connected with the Gospel that we read at the Liturgy. Many of those who are older will recognize this text. We are talking about a parable, a parable that tells about a rich man, about a gentleman who invited friends to his son's wedding day, sent his servants to spread the invitations. And those to whom this invitation was sent refused to come to the wedding, everyone was busy with their own business and did not really want to go to this fun. Yes, more than that: they took one of them and beat them, even deprived them of their lives, accusing them of tearing them away from their own business. Then the master got angry and opened the doors of this wedding chamber, the wedding feast for all who want to come (see Matt. 22:1-14).

The meaning of this parable is that by this master the Lord meant God. The Lord calls us all; in this sense, we each have a calling to be with Him. Some feel this calling so strongly and vividly that they can no longer do anything else but directly serve God: they go to seminaries, become priests, go to monasteries, through serving God they form various images of their service to their neighbors. For others, this vocation does not determine the life path so much, but, nevertheless, it is of great importance for the intellectual and moral formation of the personality. But there are people who, like those who received an invitation from the Lord, refuse to accept it, do not want, and not only do not want - sometimes they can say a rude word to those who came to invite to God's feast of faith, and there were cases when messengers were killed.

The world will be completely different, our life will be completely different, there will be a lot of goodness, light and truth around if we respond to God's calling. If we combine our professional calling with one common calling for us - to be with God. And then in the rays of God's truth and in the rays of God's grace, as in the rays of the sun a precious stone shimmers, our life will sparkle with all its facets. Because God is light, and without light, no precious stone is visible, no facet plays, it does not show any beauty.<…>God is the light that illuminates us with His grace, and in the light of this grace, human talents, human vocations, so diverse, so different, forming a single beauty of the world created by God, wonderfully shine.

God grant that through these lessons that you are receiving today in the schools of the Moscow region, the beauty of God's world will be revealed to you. God bless you.