“I am so tired, how many days until my next break?” It was my sophomore year college, and I was trying it allllll out. I tried French Club, Flute Choir, Chapel Choir, Big Partner Little Partner, I joined the board for Campus Activities, I was going to study abroad, and oh yeah, academics. I found myself being worn down, but I was “making my life count” …right?
At this time in my life last year, I found myself wishing the days away. I was living to the next weekend or the next holiday break. I was a mile wide, and an inch deep—spreading myself to encompass every part of what comprises a “productive” and “successful” member of society, and I saw everyone around me doing it as well. It became a glorified status to talk about how busy I was. If I was busy, then what I was doing must be really important and valuable. I thought I was leading a worthy life. I defined myself by the number of activities I was in and how much stress I was under, rather than by the quality and fulfillment of my growth through those activities and how happy my heart and soul were.
After some of my own vocational reflection, I realized I wanted to be happy, purposeful, and passionate about what I was doing here at college and in the world. I wanted a change.
As I spent more time at college, I learned more about the importance of reflection. I learned to start reflecting on my involvement and happiness by asking questions, and I would like to ask all of you some of them as well:
When is a time when you feel most happy?
What is something in your life that when you are doing it, you lose track of time, in a good way?
It was through questions like these that I started to understand the importance of vocational reflection. Now, these two words, side-by-side, seem kind of lofty, right?
Vocational reflection.
So, I want to start by giving you my definition of vocation.
Simply put, vocation is how we go about living out who we are. Many people might define vocation as a religious calling, or as a career, but it can also be more than that.
Vocation is concerned with a few different things, but some of the main components are passions and purpose.
Passions: What makes you happy? What fulfills you? What is it that makes you come alive?
Purpose: The WHY behind everything. Why do you get out of bed in the morning? Why do you do certain actions? Why are you involved in this activity, or that activity? Why!?
Now many times, the answers to these questions about our vocation (our passions and purpose) are not singular, and that is perfectly wonderful! Many of us might find ourselves to have more than one vocation.
Now that we have talked a little more about what vocation means, we can see how reflection plays a key role in the process of vocational reflection. Reflection is needed to discover the answers.
But reflection is difficult. Many times, the answer to a question does not always come about immediately. Or other times, we cannot measure how beneficial reflection is, because I can’t say that reflection has reduced my stress level by 50% today.
To show an example of the importance of reflection, I will talk you through a reflection of my eating habits:
I go to the cafeteria at my school. I try some tator-tot hotdish. I don’t like it, I don’t eat much of it, so I feel unfulfilled. I leave and don’t think anything more of it.
A few weeks later, I try some tator-tot hot dish again. I don’t like it, I don’t eat much of it, so I feel unfulfilled. I leave and don’t think anything more of it. The pattern keeps going, until I reflect on what fulfills me and makes me happy.
So, a few weeks later, I try tacos instead of the tator-tot hot dish. I love it, eat a lot of it, and feel fulfilled! Upon reflection, I notice that if I am able to fill my body with that food that fulfills me, oh man, I am SO happy. And I feel good too, because the food is exactly what I wanted. It literally feeds my soul.
If we don’t ask ourselves why we like something, we won’t be able to find more things like it to keep that in our lives—to keep feeding our soul with things that energize us and make us happy.
If we don’t ask ourselves why we don’t like something, we will keep going back to get the same thing and we will leave feeling unfulfilled, unhappy, and complaining.
So, how am I doing with vocational reflection a few years later in life, as the end of my time at college is fast approaching? Well, I can tell you that I have cut down on the number of activities I am involved in. I realized that being involved in all of these things didn’t “make my life count.” What makes my life count is finding out the things about which I am passionate and purposeful. Once I started focusing in on the activities that fed my soul, I started living fully present in my every day. Although of course I still look forward to breaks and the weekends, I get through my everyday enjoying most of my meetings, homework, and activities, instead of continuously dreading them.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I want to see others all around me LOVING what they are doing. I want to see others finding passion and purpose in their lives. I want to see everyone around me come alive every day as their full selves, and I want that happiness and energy to be spread to me and others.
The moment we start to do what we really want to do, life changes—it is a different life. So, reflect on your happiness, your purpose, your passions–not only will you be changed, but in the process, the world will be changed.
By Kelli Remboldt
Photo credit: © 2014 rochelle hartman, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio