See your life’s work as a pyramid.

The lowest level is a job, the middle level is career, and the upper level is a calling.

The bulk of people are at the base of that pyramid.

They have jobs.

Fewer have careers, and very few have a calling.

Having a calling feels like you were born to do what you do.

You were made to do it.

The early Christian martyrs were people with extraordinary callings. Today's (September 23) saints—St. Linus and St. Thecla—each had a calling to convert souls.

St. Linus was the second pope after St. Peter. Major responsibility to say the least. He was martyred in Rome and buried beside that same apostle.

Another first century martyr, St. Thecla, was converted to the faith by the apostle St. Paul. During the reign of the emperor Nero, Thecla was sentenced to be eaten by wild beasts—after earlier surviving being burned at the stake.

St. Thecla's calling was to spread Christianity and to encourage women to live lives of chastity. She lived a long and fulfilled life and ended it in peace.

In modern times, we may be familiar with Saint Teresa of Calcutta, once popularly known as Mother Teresa. She had a calling.

She didn’t have a job or a career. She served the poorest of the poor.

You may have experiences in life where you say things to yourself like, “Oh, I love doing this stuff. I was meant to work with kids with learning disabilities.”

Or perhaps you’ll think, “I was meant to work with dying people.”

You’ll probably have some experiences like this if you haven't already.

The point is: Don’t settle for a job.

There’s nothing wrong with having a career, but the whole thing is to go for a calling.

Try to find out what were you really put on earth to do.

Do it better than you could ever do anything else.

Hit the top of that pyramid.

As always,

Brian

P.S. – In one of my recent group calls, I said something to the effect of, "We can't kick ourselves for not knowing then, what we do know now." I'd have a really sore backside if that was the case.

However, we can act today on things we know today. Swift action. Massive action.

One of the things I discovered—after years of having decent but not particularly meaningful jobs and hunting aimlessly for a "career" of some sort—was that I never thought about a calling.

A calling is much more important than a middling career or a piddling job. I now see mine as transforming lives.

One of the ways we do this is with coaching—in a small group or at the individual level. It's worked for a lot of people.

We don't have all the answers, but we get you headed in the right direction.

And since I brought up several saints already, I'll leave you with the words of St. Augustine, one of the fathers of western philosophy, a defender of the faith against several heretical forces, and a most important Church Father.