Discovering Your Calling
“Mastery” by Robert Greene. Part 1: Finding Your Life’s Task
“Become who you are by learning who you are.”
― Robert Greene
“Sooner or later, something calls us onto a particular path. You may remember this as a signal calling in childhood when an urge out of nowhere, a fascination, a peculiar turn of events stuck like an annunciation. This is what I must do; this is what I’ve got to have. This is who I am.”
–James Hillman
We all come into this world uniquely. There is only one of you. There will only ever be one of you. An unimaginable amount of circumstances, genetics, environment, and seeming random luck produced your life. Robert Greene puts it thus: “We are a one-time phenomenon in the universe–our exact genetic makeup has never occurred before, nor will it ever be repeated.”
More important than the fact that we are all inherently unique is that we are all born with a special calling. Greene calls it: Your Life’s Task. This is a path, or we could even say destiny or faith, which we are meant to fulfill in this lifetime.
In James Hillman’s masterful work The Soul’s Code, he uses the powerful metaphor of the daimon. This is “a spiritual companion who acts as a carrier of our destiny and ensures we fulfill the fate our soul had chosen before birth.”
However, saying we have a destiny or faith doesn’t mean it is inevitable. Instead, it is more helpful to think of it as a “potential gift” we are given if we learn to listen to the whispers of our souls. Suppose we learn to trust the voice of our daimon. Develop a relationship with it, and courageously pursue this calling.
For all of us, this calling first expresses itself in our early childhood. We were drawn to specific experiences and repealed by others. When we are young and less corrupted by the world, these natural inclinations can express themselves more freely.
We weren’t as worried about what other people thought or if we could make a career or money from what interested us. We loved doing what we loved doing. It consumed us. We lost time. We lost ourselves.
Unfortunately, as we mature, we lose touch with this calling. This leads to many people not ever coming close to realizing their potential in this lifetime.
We compromise. We give up. We are told: “Be realistic.” “Be responsible.” “It’s time to give up on childish dreams.”
This leads to a distancing between us and our gift. From our daimon. The calling becomes quiet and faint. Our life loses meaning. Our soul loses connection.
Today's article will cover the first and most fundamental step to mastery. We are discovering our Life’s Tasks. Our calling. Meeting our “daimon,” who wants us to fulfill the unique destiny of our soul. Learning how to “answer the call.”
Discovering, or Remembering, Your Life’s Task
In Mastery, Greene argues that discovering our Life’s Tasks is our most significant responsibility. Not simply by passively reading about different vocations, taking career tests, or asking for it to be figured out for us.
But by doing deep introspective work to discover it for ourselves. And more importantly, by doing it, getting in the mix, trying new things, and meeting new people in the field, we admire—following our curiosity and improving our ability in a skill that speaks to our soul.
Again, the most significant clue to reconnection with our calling, with our diamond, is remembering what we loved doing as children. Maybe it was storytelling, drawing, music, making things, inventing, interacting with the natural world, playing certain games, etc. What did you engage in as a child which seemed to spark an unending and insatiable curiosity?
What’s important to remember when thinking about one’s Life’s Task is that it rarely comes fully formed at first. In other words, if you thought you wanted to be a rockstar as a child, it doesn't mean you have to be a rockstar to fulfill your calling literally. Maybe what your diamond had in mind for you was to be a music producer. A house music DJ. Or even an inspirational public speaker.
The point here is that our calling is often not precisely what our egoic minds want or imagine. It is more like something we discover by following a mysterious force within us.
Again, in ancient Greek philosophy, they thought of this force as the daemon, which is more like an impersonal force of nature. Like a thunderstorm or earthquake, the daemon doesn’t care about our wants or desires; it cares about us living out our soul's calling (we will go into further detail on the daimon in Friday’s article).
This is why Robert Greene says, “Become who you are by learning who you are.” Living out your Life’s Task is a journey, not a destination. The rewards are following the calling, discovering, and expressing your unique creative force in the universe. Not about arriving at some personal idea of who you want to be or what you want others to see you as.
This way, we can see that our Life’s Task isn’t necessarily about personal satisfaction. However, this is a very likely outcome of fulfilling a responsibility to live. Setting an example to our loved ones and the whole world that by following your Life’s Task, you can realize an energy that aligns with your soul.
Conclusion
I want to close with my favorite quote on how important it is to discover and express your calling in this lifetime. In Mastery, Greene writes about Martha Graham.
Graham’s calling was to dance. She is credited as possibly the most important and influential figure in the history of modern dance. She is completely revolutionizing the art form.
The passage below was Graham's letter to one of her most talented but least confined students. She was trying to encourage her not to give up on her calling. On her Life’s Task. To listen to her daemon.
What I love most about this passage is her emphasis on our responsibility to fulfill our calling. Instead of being a selfish or self-satisfying pursuit, we owe it to our souls. To the universe.
“There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique, and if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium, and be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, not how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open.”
—Martha Graham
Notes: