Make Your Job Your Calling
The purpose of this exercise is to allow you to reflect on approaching work as a “calling” and how you can derive meaning and purpose from your upcoming career and/or your current job.
Learning Outcomes
Through engaging in this exercise, you will be able to:
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Define “calling” and “vocation.”
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Identify the benefits and drawbacks to approaching work as a calling.
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Critically reflect on your values, goals, strengths, and/or preferences as avenues toward approaching work as a calling.
Time: 1-3 hours
4D Dimensions: Intellectual Growth, Well-being, Character, Careers and Lives of Purpose
Audience: Students, Faculty, Staff
Resource Type: Self-guided Exercise, Class Exercise
Curricular: Curricular, Co-curricular
Example Courses for Exercise Implementation: Introduction to Well-being, Occupational Well-being, Work-Life Thriving
Activity Information
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Instructions
- Job Calling Lecturette Slides (Appendix A)
- Familiarize yourself with the definitions of “calling” and “vocation,” as well as the benefits and drawbacks related to approaching work as a calling.
- Make Your Job Your Calling Reflective Exercises (Appendix B)
- These exercises are taken directly from makeyourjobacalling.com, which is based on Dik and Duffy’s (2012) book, Make Your Job a Calling: How the Psychology of Vocation Can Change Your Life at Work.
- Choose at least two of the four exercises in Appendix B. The way that you engage with the exercises is up to you. For example, you may choose to take a self-study approach, where you follow the reflection instructions in a journal. You may prefer an arts-based approach where you choose to visually represent your responses to the prompts. You can also choose a movement-based approach where you think through and “work out” the responses as you walk, run, or bike, for example. You can also choose to do the exercises with a group or partner, taking time to reflect individually and then coming back together to discuss your answers.
- Post-Exercise Individual Reflection or Group Discussion
- After you have finished the Make Your Job Your Calling Reflective Exercises, consider the following:
- What was challenging and/or rewarding about completing these reflections and why?
- As you move toward your career or forward in your current job, what makes putting the insights you gained into practice difficult and/or exciting?
- What is a main takeaway from completing these exercises? In other words, what do you want to carry with you?
Author(s)
Erin K. Willer, Ph.D.
Director of Faculty Innovation, 4D Experience
Professor, Communication Studies
University of Denver
