Working Words

by Gopal Ramasammy-Cook (Career-Creative Coach, ZestWare)

There are a number of words that we apply to our situation of work. Some of these are JOB, CAREER, and CALLING. I gained some insightful clarity about these terms when I read the book Happier, written by Tal Ben-Shahar, a positive psychology lecturer at Harvard, and reflected on his ideas.

JOB: A unit of work, or situation of employment. It is usually done for money - to pay the bills, put food on the table, and a roof over your head.

CAREER: Work that may span several jobs, and is mainly extrinsically motivated. Possible motivations may be: prestige, status, power, or material gain.

CALLING: Work that is largely intrinsically motivated. Possible motivations may be: the challenge and enjoyment of the work itself, an opportunity for personal growth, a sense of significance, freedom of choice, balance, happiness, serving humanity, making a difference in the world, or serving some other higher purpose.

While explaining this to a client who was experiencing some frustration with her work life, she did something quite interesting. She spontaneously doodled a pie chart and labelled the three pie slices JOB, CAREER, and CALLING, to reflect what percentage each of these contributed to her total work situation. This was an AHA moment for me. While I had previously seen these as being three seperate and mutually-exclusive categories, I like the notion that any work situation is composed of all three.

Perhaps you would like to do the exercise for yourself. If so please post a comment below, and let me know how the percentages play out for you. What percentage of your work is simply a JOB to pay the bills? What percentage is CAREER? And what percentage is CALLING?


.