BillHendricks.net: Is It a Calling Or a Whim?

BillHendricks.net: Is It a Calling Or a Whim?

Bill Hendricks of the Giftedness Center in Dallas lists and elaborates on five signs a path you're considering may be your calling:

"It fits your giftedness. ... You feel drawn to it again and again over time. ... It meets with encouragement and confirmation from those who know you well and who have your best interests at heart. ... You conclude you cannot do otherwise. ... You've made it a regular item in your prayers and you have received either (a) a strong indication from God that you should pursue it, and/or (b) no good indication that you should not pursue it. ... "

He also lists seven signs that it likely is more of a whim than a calling:

"Your envisioned future keeps changing. ... It's a recent idea and you have not given it much serious thought over time. ... You have not explored what it really entails, what it would really cost, and what you would really have to do to to make it happen. ... It involves grandiosity. ... It requires strengths and motivations you simply don't have. ... Those who know you well do not affirm it. ... It's a difficult path for which you are neither talented nor motivated. ..."

The Giftedness Center offers an online step-by-step guide to discovering your giftedness. I have some more links on giftedness and vocation on a blog entry from 2008.