What is a “Calling” Anyway?

What is a “calling” anyway? Is that just a way for us to justify the sacrifices we have to make while chasing success? 

Tell me what your great grandfather did for a living. Do you know? Most people don’t. Maybe you have some vague idea about what he did. But has it meaningfully inspired you to do what you’re doing? Probably not. 

This isn’t a knock on your great grandfather. I’m just making a point that we put too much stock in finding the perfect vocation for ourselves, and not enough stock in treating the people in our communities well. Do you know what likely had a much more profound impact on you today? The way your great grandfather treated his children, because that probably influenced how they treated their children, which influenced how your parents treat you. Which influenced how you see the world. 

If work in the industrial age was fleeting, work in the digital age is exponentially more so. I spent so much time in college fussing over whether or not I was “on the right track.” Now, I make digital ads with a shelf life of a few months. Maybe a year, if they’re really good. The amount of content we consume now makes each project less and less meaningful, from the vantage point of cultural impact.

But do you know what is still meaningful? The way I run those productions. How I treat my crew. Whether my work environments are healthy. That directly affects the lives of the people in my community. And happy people have a positive ripple effect for generations to come. 

Do what you love. And do it well. Your great grandchildren won’t remember what you did. But they’ll know how you treated people. In a strange way, they’ll know.