Professional vocation: myth or reality?

Coming from the religious domain, the professional vocation has entered the world of work, it is an increasingly significant concept among young people.

“A vocation is to have a passion for your profession”, a quote from Stendhal!

What is it in reality?

Depending on each person’s background or career circumstances, work can be experienced for some as a powerful vehicle for self-fulfillment and for others as a burden that we bear while waiting to see retirement come!

Let’s not forget that unlike a vocation, work does not stop at the notions of talent and passion! Work is a set of components, which go beyond what we do, such as relations with our colleagues, the conditions, the environment, the balance of life, the salary…

Without making his passion his job, some avenues can be explored to achieve fulfillment in his work. We could simply say that vocation is an alignment between who we are and what we do.

For this, it may be useful to work on yourself in order to find your Ikigai. In Japanese, Ikigai means joy of life/reason for being.

It is a personal development tool to make the link between aspirations, talents and market needs.

Ikigai is based on 4 concepts:

• What we like
• What the world needs
• What companies pay us or could pay us for
• What we are good at

“Where your talents meet the needs of the world, there is your vocation” said Aristotle.

And you, what is your Ikigai?