How to Discover Your Calling as a Young Professional
To have a calling means that you need to have a caller. Without anyone calling you to something how can you have a calling?
For Christians, it is God who is calling us to something. But what exactly is he calling us to do and how do we figure that out earlier in life? In this article, we will figure out exactly how to discover your calling as a young professional.
What is a Calling?
We often hear the term “calling” in reference to different ministries. Like, “I was called to full-time ministry.” Or “They were called to go overseas to be missionaries.” These things are most definitely callings, however, that is not where callings end.
A calling is the purpose we are given by God to serve those around us.
Our calling will answer these three questions:
Who? Who are we supposed to serve?
How? How are we supposed to serve them?
What? What are we supposed to do to serve them?
Two Types of Callings
There are two types of calling. One is our Primary Calling and the other is our Individual Calling.
Primary Calling
The first of the two types of callings is a primary calling. This is the calling for all Christians to love God and to love our neighbors. It is most easily recognized in the great commandment Jesus gave to, “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, love your neighbor as yourself,” (Luke 10:27).
Our primary calling can also be discovered in the great commission found it Matthew 28 to go and make disciples, teaching them to obey God’s commandments.
Our primary calling is very clear and does not differ between Christians. There should be no question as to what your primary calling is in life because the Bible makes it very clear that we are to love God and share that love with those around us.
This primary calling to love God and to love our neighbors also defines every action we take, every thought we think, and every word we speak. This includes how we handle our money, how we work, and how we relate to other people.
Individual Calling
The individual calling will explain precisely how each of us is to carry out our primary calling. It will explain more deeply who we are to love and how we are to love them.
Every Christian is called by God to their own specific and unique path. Everyone’s calling will look different as it pertains to them alone. However, it all begins from the same starting point of loving God first.
How to Discover Your Calling as a Young Professional
Our primary calling is laid out for us in the Bible very clearly. However, each of our individual callings may not be as easily discovered especially when we are young. This does not mean it is impossible though!
To help discover your individual calling as a young professional, it is a matter of looking at your life and figuring out how you are to steward it. You can do so by starting with some of these questions.
Questions to Ask Yourself
- What are my gifts and talents?
- What experiences do I have?
- What resources do I have?
- What is my current life position?
- Who do I know?
- What pains of the world affect me the most?
- What “needs” resonate with me most?
- When do I feel like I bring God the most glory?
By asking yourself these questions you should begin to see a trend. Our calling from God typically lines up well with the gifts, talents, and passions that we have.
Tips for Figuring Out Your Calling
It is pretty simple to begin to figure out what you are gifted in. Here are some tips to figuring out what God has gifted you in or what kind of talents he has blessed you with. These will surely help you to discover your individual calling.
1. Ask friends and family members what they feel you are best at.
Typically those you are closest with will be able to see your talents clearly. They have known you for a long time and have seen you in action. Try asking around to see what others believe your skills are.
2. Test out different things.
A mistake I see many 20-year-olds making is not doing anything until they discover their calling. However, sometimes the best way to discover your calling as a young professional is to start testing out different things! Take a new job that seems totally out there. Or pick up a new hobby. Sometimes you may discover you are very good at something you never thought about before!
3. Pray for God to reveal your gifts
God can reveal your calling through prayer. Talk with God about your gifts. Ask him to reveal your talents to you. He may speak to you in different ways about this. Possibly through other people, a new hobby, or possibly speak to you directly through the Holy Spirit. Be alert for these signs.
4. Be open to opportunities to love your neighbor
Finding your individual calling is mainly about figuring out how you can best love others well. This can be done by being open to new opportunities presented by God to love your neighbor.
5. Write down things you are passionate about
What are you passionate about? What gets you fired out? What are you willing to march for, or to spend your money on? God sparks different passions inside of each of us, and sometimes all we need to do is add a little fuel to the flame, and we discover our calling. Make a list of all the things that get you excited and try ranking them from most passionate to least passionate.
“In many cases a clear sense of calling comes only through a time of searching, including trial and error. And what may be clear to us in our twenties may be far more mysterious in our fifties because God’s complete designs for us are never fully understood, let alone fulfilled, in this life.”
— Os Guinness, The Call
Your Calling May be Specific Or Broad
Your individual calling may be something very specific or something pretty broad. It could even lie somewhere in the middle of the spectrum as well.
Related: How to Become Excellent At Your One Thing
Specific Callings
Some people have been called by God to do something extremely niche to them. This would be a specific calling rather than a broad calling.
Maybe you were called to teach piano to children. Or maybe God has called you to be the CFO of a large university. Or possibly your calling is to own and operate an athletic shoe store.
The point is, your one thing could be something very broad that can be carried out in different ways or it could be something very specific.
Related: Being Called To Provide Housing for Former Prison Inmates
Broad Callings
Don’t be discouraged if you do not feel you have been called to something very specific. God sometimes gives people a broad calling. To give you an idea of what a broad calling looks like, here are a few examples.
Examples of Broad Callings
- Teaching
- Preaching
- Creating
- Entrepreneurship
- Investing
Let’s talk about why these things are broad. Each one of these callings can be carried out in a variety of different ways.
Let’s take the example of teaching – there are a lot of different ways to teach. That can be in a classroom, through an online course, one on one, or maybe by writing a book. These aren’t even the only ways one can teach! Someone may have a calling to teach something specific, but it can be done in a lot of different ways.
Related: 7 Unique Bible Verses About Entrepreneurship
What Does It Look Like to Follow God’s Calling?
I feel like Paul does a great job summing up what it looks like to follow God’s calling on our lives in Ephesians.
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.
(Ephesians 4:1-7)
Our calling is a holy honor placed upon our lives by God. We should live a life worthy of that calling we have received! Paul continues by explaining what that looks like – humility, gentleness, patience, love, and being in unity with the Spirit.
The calling to which God has bestowed upon us impacts every aspect of life. It affects how we respond to others, it affects how we approach our work, how we treat our friends and family as well as strangers. Our calling touches every facet of life.
Related: What is Business as Missions?
Don’t Let Your Finances Keep You From Pursuing Your Calling
I talk with a lot of young professionals who feel like they have been called to something specific, but they choose not to pursue that calling because their personal finances are not in order. This is a sad excuse for not pursuing a calling that the God of the Universe has given to you! Do NOT let money keep you from going after your purpose in life.
If you feel like your personal finances are keeping you from saying YES to God’s call on your life, then let’s chat. As a money coach, I help equip young professionals with excellent money management skills that are rooted in the Gospel so that once they discover their calling, they can pursue it without any hesitation.
I want to help you go after your calling without your money keeping you from saying yes. Book a free coaching call today, and let’s figure out how to get your finances straightened out so you can pursue your calling.
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Excellent post! Thanks for sharing great insight and practical helps. This will help a lot of people grab hold of all that God has for them!
Thank you so much Cathy! I pray that it does just that for others. Thank you for your kind words.
This is such a great explanation. You walk us through the process wonderfully. So many have questions, when it comes to God’s calling on their life,this is so important.
Hi April! I am delighted that you feel this way. My hope is that this helps people answer those questions. Thank you for your comment!