Ecology of life: Once upon a time in childhood, we all passed by cleaners. But we didn't look at them. We looked only at the sky, dreaming of becoming stars, astronauts, actors, presidents and musicians. Maybe now, doing something completely uninteresting for us, we are paying for childish naivety?

At some point in our childhood, we all passed by cleaners. But we didn't look at them. We looked only at the sky, dreaming of becoming stars, astronauts, actors, presidents and musicians. Maybe now, doing something completely uninteresting for us, we are paying for childish naivety?

First of all, I want to say that there are no bad and good professions - such a division lives only in our heads. If a profession exists, it means that someone needs it, and one cannot do without it.

The division of professions should be carried out only into the following two unequal groups, namely “mine” and “strangers”. If what you do brings you pleasure, then you have found "your" profession - your calling.

Keep doing this - let the profession "pump" your knowledge, own your thoughts on weekends and holidays (not to the detriment of yourself and your loved ones, of course) and every day more and more often turn your eyes to the sky as in that far, far away childhood.

According to my estimates, no more than 30% of modern people devote their lives to their calling. The work activity of the rest has different shades of gray: someone is lighter, and someone has impenetrable darkness.

Unfortunately, at the moment there is no universal remedy for this situation, because, as already mentioned, we ourselves divide labor activity into prestigious and “not very” ones. Respectively, we become victims of our own thoughts.

In society, everything is very difficult. I would like to be a janitor: sweep the streets, clean up garbage, work in the fresh air and at the same time help passers-by (suggest the way; translate old women at traffic lights; clean snow from cars parked in my yard; feed feral cats and dogs, so that they don’t who were not attacked; to amuse lonely pensioners who came out to sit on a bench, and also just to communicate with people - learn news from them and share their own).

But in the current conditions, I do not want to be a janitor, because, according to society, janitors are people of the lowest rank, and it forbids them to earn a lot. In addition, according to society, janitors should not be happy: indeed, wherever you look, most of them have their own family drama. In other words, society has perverted this profession, making it a kind of doormat, on which everyone wipes their feet. And what can you say about doctors, teachers, drivers, postmen, housing office workers, cooks and many, many others? Is their position markedly better than that of the janitors?

“Society… I also found the one to blame!” - you will exclaim and you will be right. Yes, it can be said differently - that each of us, without exception, is to blame, because we ourselves allow such inequality in our heads, such a hierarchy. And be around us at least ten times these notorious Freedom, Equality and Fraternity, while we see our world as a series of black and white - and never neutral - most janitors will go about their business out of inevitable necessity, and not by vocation.

How to be? Give up on the imperfection of society and continue to stubbornly seek yourself. We can force ourselves to do things we don’t like and even endlessly convince ourselves that we can’t find anything more suitable than the work we currently have, that it’s generally too late to change anything, especially since there are insurmountable circumstances, etc.

This will be of interest to you:

But the fact remains: until we find a calling, our life will not throw off the black-and-white prison uniform, and the janitors will not clean our cars of snow in the mornings for nothing and smile at us in the evenings when we return from work. Until we ourselves become happy, doing what we love, the whole world around us will seem gloomy, uninteresting, dirty and unpromising. And we will not work on its imperfections while our hearts are disgusting. Meanwhile, only we have to do it.

Our common vocation is to change the world for the better y, but not on papers or for money - i.e. pretend, but for real - i.e. now. published

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 person 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 ... sharply, 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 inimitable, 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 real 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 depend entirely 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 business 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 "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...

VOCATION

VOCATION

VOCATION, vocations, cf. (book).

2. An inclination, an inner attraction to some business, some profession (if you possess or are convinced that you have the necessary abilities for that). Feel the vocation for science. A call to music. Follow your calling. Artist by vocation.

|| Role, task, purpose. "You have nobly understood the vocation of an actress." Nekrasov . “Oh, who will now remind a man of his high calling?” Nekrasov. The historical vocation of the proletariat is to build a socialist society.

Explanatory Dictionary of Ushakov. D.N. Ushakov. 1935-1940.

See what "VOCATION" is in other dictionaries:

The number of Slavicisms that have experienced the semantic influence of Western European languages ​​is very large. The semantic history of the word vocation can serve as a vivid example of the organic unification of folk Russian, Old Slavonic and ... ... History of words

See duty... Synonym dictionary

VOCATION, I, cf. 1. Propensity for a particular business, profession. P. to science. Doctor by vocation. 2. Business of life, appointment. Raising children was her calling. Explanatory dictionary of Ozhegov. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedova. 1949 1992 ... Explanatory dictionary of Ozhegov

See Specialty (Source: "Aphorisms from around the world. Encyclopedia of Wisdom." www.foxdesign.ru) ... Consolidated encyclopedia of aphorisms

English vocation/ colling/ mission; German Berufung. A penchant for one thing or another; purpose. Antinazi. Encyclopedia of Sociology, 2009 ... Encyclopedia of Sociology

VOCATION- (English vocation) see Propensity. Big psychological dictionary. Moscow: Prime EUROZNAK. Ed. B.G. Meshcheryakova, acad. V.P. Zinchenko. 2003 ... Great Psychological Encyclopedia

Ex., s., use. comp. often Morphology: (no) what? vocations for what? calling, (see) what? calling what? vocation, about what? about calling; pl. What? vocation, (no) what? vocations for what? callings, (see) what? vocations than? vocations, oh ... ... Dictionary of Dmitriev

Vocation- (German - the call of God) - high professional abilities that ensure joyful and effective work of a person. Once upon a time, the word "calling" meant "the call of God to people." In Christianity, calling is interpreted as a manifestation of God's grace, ... ... Fundamentals of spiritual culture (encyclopedic dictionary of a teacher)

vocation- ▲ giftedness in (direction), some, field, vocation, propensity for this or that business, profession (he has #. his # music). find a calling in something. in it died [disappears] who l (# artist). try yourself in kl. areas. look for yourself... Ideographic Dictionary of the Russian Language

Vocation- 1) ♦ (ENG vocation) (lat. call; from vocare to call) Divine call to people to become Christians. In a narrower sense, the view, according to rum, God calls people to fulfill certain professional duties or follow the image ... ... Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms

Books

• Vocation, Anton Delvig. Anton Antonovich Delvig belonged to the circle of people closest to Pushkin, was revered as a genius of Russian literature for the originality of his poetic language. The collection contains all the poems ...

The search for a vocation is an extremely interesting topic, which we are lucky to discuss today. Let's not miss the opportunity and talk in detail about human self-determination. Let's discuss the meaning of the word "vocation", its synonyms, as well as ways to find yourself.

Meaning

The explanatory dictionary is cold and offers only two meanings for the word:

1. A penchant for something. For example, "Vasily will become a mathematician by vocation, do not fill his head with literature!".
2. Life's work, purpose. “Since then, helping people with addictions has become his calling.”

But what can a dictionary know about a genuine human calling? This, of course, is primarily a philosophical and psychological problem. A drama that unfolds separately in each individual life. Misses, hopes of disappointment, when a person chooses one, thinks: “Here it is!”. Then the mirages deceive him, he understands that he did not choose himself, instead of him the choice was made by someone else: relatives, parents, social situation. And he didn't want that at all.

Yes, the examples are chosen correctly, and the dictionary tells the truth, how can he be wrong? But history keeps the result, and we, among other things, will talk about how to find your place in life and not regret it, but first, synonyms.

Replacement words

Vocation is a rather difficult topic in general, therefore, in order to consolidate the result, we can also recall semantic analogues that will be useful to the reader, and we, in turn, do not have the habit of hiding them from him. Here they are:

• talent;
• purpose;
• capabilities;
• inclination;
• business (of a lifetime);
• craft (of all life);
• gift;

Familiar words. It is not so difficult to find a synonym for "vocation", it is just very easy. How to understand your personal, individual gift, talent, purpose? Next in line is the mechanism for revealing one's own fundamental propensity.

When is the first time a person thinks about choosing a path in life?

This happens at the age of 15-17. The lower limit is the 9th grade of high school, and the upper limit is the graduating classes. Man is a flexible being, therefore he adapts to the requirements of social and biological time. True, there are different points of view. For example, Erich Fromm, a well-known psychologist and philosopher, dropped a phrase in one of his books that the most favorable time for choosing a profession of a lifetime is the age of closer to 30. This position has its own reasons: a person is already mature enough to consciously choose something . The probability of a mistake is not so great, there are already fewer or no fears at all, because there is experience.

But most people don't have that luxury. The social and biological dimensions of human existence are inexorable. And then it will only get worse, the speed is increasing every day. For example, in Japan, children at the age of five are forced to take tests that will determine their entire future fate: which school they will go to, in which company they will work. But the kids still do not know anything about calling. The interpretation of this word is all the more inaccessible to them. Therefore, European and Russian children are still lucky.

For them, the moment of self-determination comes in early youth (at 15-17 years old), as has already been said. Along with the need to choose a path in life, perhaps for the first time, serious thoughts appear that hinder vigorous activity, sometimes harm it. For the first time, a person realizes responsibility for his life and his choice.

Trial and error method

So that fears, like waves, do not swallow a boy or a girl and do not destroy children during this period, they must approach the threshold of early youth with specific baggage: circles, interest clubs, various kinds of games. Then the process of professional self-determination will not be so painful and painful. Although here we are cunning, for calling means suffering. Some things in life don't come easy, no matter how much you prepare for them.

However, it is still invaluable in solving this problem. If a person is not allowed out of the house, not allowed to create and experiment, for him the process of self-determination, firstly, can drag on for life, and secondly, be extremely painful.

The child must try, seek, lose, suffer (within reason), but find himself. If you are persistent, then in the vastness of life you will find the work of a lifetime, and possibly several key specialties. The time is now such that in the matter of vocation (this is proved by practice) you need to be a “multi-instrumentalist”, that is, to understand several areas of knowledge at once.

Is it worth waiting for divine insight?

There is such a very harmful myth about destiny that, they say, those who know from the very beginning what they want from life, who they want to be. This is especially true of writers. Stephen King and Ray Bradbury have admitted to writing since they were 12. And the author of Dandelion Wine claimed to have delivered at least 1,000 words every day since that age. Another hyper-popular writer, George Martin, has been fantasizing about life on other planets since the age of 4 or 5. And they all say they always knew that writing was their calling.

So, to a certain extent, this is a coincidence of circumstances and such insignificant trifles, about which it is a shame to talk. For example, if modern idols had fallen to despotic or evil parents, they would not exist as phenomena. King's mother has always supported. Bradbury already had his own literary agent at the age of 22, even before he published his first story.

Of course, when it comes to vocation, interpretation of the word and reflection on it, different cases come to people's minds, and here one cannot discount the perseverance, will, character of certain heroes.

For example, if you read Dovlatov, you can find out: some journalists even starved, but did not give up their craft. And this was not because they were frail or arrogant, but simply a calling - a mysterious matter and does not lend itself to a mathematical formula.

God or nature creates a man or a woman with a certain plan, but does not reveal the latter to his children, so that it would be more interesting for them to live. Sometimes the destination becomes obvious only in adulthood. Remember that famous example by Bulgakov about a man who has been teaching Roman law for 20 years, and at the age of 21 realizes that he really likes to grow flowers, and Roman law, on the contrary, is not at all close to him? If the reader wants to get acquainted with the passage in its original form, then we will tell him: it is in the novel The White Guard.

And all because people lack the courage, and perhaps even the experience, to live according to their own understanding and desire from the very beginning. God has nothing to do with it, this is the struggle that a person must win himself.

Reading time: 3 min

The vocation of a person and his life mission are inseparable categories and represent a combination of those life meanings and value orientations that determine all human activity. Vocation is usually associated with work, and indeed this category reflects activity, but does not imply a rigid binding to the work area, rather, it is about realizing one's activity in a way that brings a sense of fulfillment and personal involvement in the life system.

The choice of a profession by vocation is considered the most favorable, since it will meet the realization of the inherent internal needs of the individual, her unique abilities to transform the world for the better. In a situation where life circumstances or rash actions do not allow to be realized in the most relevant direction, a person can find time for his vocation in his free time, being carried away by something.

If abilities and education help determine what a person can do, then vocation always reflects that side of being that a person cannot help fulfilling. Going against inner impulses, a person may eventually lose his uniqueness, inspiration and motivation. The lack of understanding of the internal benefit of the case leads to a deep existential crisis, which is why the problem of finding one's true destiny is so urgent.

What it is

Vocation is a rather vague category, and attempts to simplify it come down to choosing a professional path. Such a strategy can lead to complete disorientation, because the restructuring of society and the high speed of technological development creates new relevant specialties and forever sends those that existed before into history. The pursuit of such relevance and compliance with trends can deprive a person of his inner calling. For example, drawing on canvas is increasingly being replaced by computer graphics, and hand-made footwear is being replaced by factories, not to mention the specialization of the agricultural industry. And then people whose vocation is in mixing paint ingredients, leather dressing or gardening can abandon their unique talents or choose to realize it, moving to a unique production or leaving the vocation as a hobby.

It is possible to check whether a person is engaged in his vocation or simply in an activity that succeeds him successfully by several important criteria.

If the work performed brings spiritual satisfaction, a sense of self-fulfillment so much that the process becomes the main thing, and not profit, while the surrounding society benefits from what a person does or produces, then this is a calling.

Another point is the scale, reaching dimensions that exceed in their semantic richness, duration and importance a person's life in its everyday understanding. This is an ideology that remains alive even after the creator himself or the inner understanding of a person disappears, that he can sacrifice some aspects of his life for the sake of realizing his own idea that benefits others.

From a deep point of view, calling is also a great responsibility, and not just a gift of ability. A person will feel constant mental lack and torment when the tasks of vocation are not fulfilled, if this continues for a long time, then all the talents and abilities laid down for this will atrophy. This is how life motivation disappears, a feeling of not living one's own life appears, and the search and return to the starting point becomes difficult.

Naturally, vocation is not a static category, and it changes along with personality changes, however, there is never a cardinal change, only adjustments are possible associated with a change in the situation, needs, and an increase in the level of proficiency in the skills necessary for its implementation.

For those who are globally absorbed in their passion, it can represent the main existential category, and a person literally begins to go out and "die before our eyes", in the absence of this activity. Others easily endure the lack of realization of their intended path, having many other areas of activity, hobbies and a low degree of motivation as supports.

How to define your calling

It is important for a person to determine his vocation, but sometimes this turns out to be a difficult task. The reason for this may be the lack of contact with one's experiences, internal mental and emotional processes, and as a result, the inability to hear one's abilities, understand meanings and aspirations. Personal immaturity also makes it difficult to understand one's vocation, since it implies a high level of responsibility for the choice made, first of all to oneself, as well as to the whole society.

The infantilism of many people leaves them at a teenage level of development, where it is impossible to make decisions on their own, and vocation always requires full direct participation.

The diligent and artificial pursuit of a vocation usually fails precisely because a person directs most of his energy to various methods and study, instead of immersing himself in what he can do for hours and what he believes in. Naturally, only doing what you like cannot advance you to understanding your business, you may need creative actions, innovations, a combination of several approaches. This is especially true for those whose vocation has no analogues in the world or is rather uncommon.

To facilitate the search process, it is important to have a high level general training in all industries. It is hard to understand that you are called to make discoveries in the field of molecular biology if you do not know that such a thing exists.

Accordingly, the greater the arsenal a person owns, the greater his chances of finding exactly his own. The development of skills must also be regulated in those areas where there is the greatest interest in developing as much as possible - it is precisely beyond the line of knowing everything that has already been done in this area that personal discoveries and an individual path begin.

In order to go such a distance, motivation is important, and not by external factors, but by internal desires, because calling always comes from the heart and one's own realization.

A person with many desires is always more motivated than one who is limited to standard social needs. If you want more than your current level gives, then the subconscious mind automatically begins to look for ways to realize and achieve, this is how the process of creativity takes place, new ideas are born, and the inherent potential is revealed.

Dreams and plans also help to develop desires, without criticism of consciousness and logical stops about the impossibility of doing this. Take time every day to imagine what you want, dream about your new life, the reality that surrounds you, the social structure and other worlds. If fantasies become more detailed, the level of desire will be higher, and only then logic and creativity will be connected, helping to realize everything invented.

Analysis of the desired response to their activities is a standard motivation for choosing a main direction. But in order to find a calling, it is also important to understand what you can and want to give to others. The emphasis is better on what you want to give, because you can give your time and want to give paintings or you can give money and want to give security. Only if the process of bestowal is as pleasant for a person as creation, then he will be in his place.

Examples

To distinguish vocation from many other concepts, examples help well. So a vocation can find its realization in a hobby or relationship, but one thing remains common - it is always an active position of a person.

Thus, a vocation cannot be a factor that is outside the zone of influence and competence of a person. For example, parenting can be a calling, but children cannot. The difference is that throughout life and in many situations a person can be engaged in education, but one cannot put all the meaning into specific children - they are not an activity, they develop at their own pace, they may no longer need education, and so on.

Painting can be a vocation, but not a painting - it is a finite thing that has its end point of creation. From these examples, it is clear that the possibility of realizing a calling must remain with a person throughout his life, and physical factors and the will of other people are only temporary variables.

Objectively, there is no division of vocations by gender or age. Theses in many sources say that a woman's vocation is in motherhood, practice shows that fathers sometimes more successfully fulfill a similar role.

Travel is attributed to the younger generation and even encouraged to do so until a mature age has come, but those who have a vocation to travel continue to fulfill it and go further.

Surrounding this concept with a halo of high, inaccessible and something creative makes people forget about many possibilities. Shoemakers, who benefit many specific people with their practical help, may well realize their vocation. A crisis manager is not only a monetary profession, but also a moral attitude and a person's ability to resolve difficult problems. Not everyone is able to show the patience of priests or volunteers in rescue missions, but they can sculpt clay figures that delight children or invent new medicines.

Speaker of the Medical and Psychological Center "PsychoMed"