Some of us feel extremely ill-equipped to be effective in whatever current roles we find ourselves in.
The TL/DR version of this post: You’re called to your current role(s), whatever it is. If you view your role as your current calling, then you’ll treat it as a precious stewardship and develop whatever skills and personality traits necessary to perform well in that role. Many roles are permanent (spouse, son, daughter, dad, mom), but many are temporary (job, team member, community volunteer role). If you want to move into a new role in the future, treat your current role as a calling and develop yourself to be effective in it.
Your Current Role Is Your Current Calling
Regardless of your job or family situation, where you currently are is where you’re currently called.
Believing this fact can be transformative to how you approach all your current roles. Mom, Dad, Spouse, Employee, Job Title (fill in the blank there), Friend, and so forth. You are called to be that particular thing right now.
What good does it do you to not view it as a calling – at least for the moment?
Some of those callings, in my humble but accurate opinion, should be seen as permanent. For instance, I’m a dad. I hope that this calling remains and that my kids enjoy the fact that I’m their father.
Other callings might be temporary. For instance, if you’re in a certain job right now that you might prefer to not be your career, then it’s you’re current calling, but it doesn’t have to be a permanent situation.
I remember when I first got into insurance sales back in 2002 after having been in the ministry for over 8 years. I despised it. I considered it proof of my failure in ministry. It wasn’t my ‘calling’.
Not until I got to the point that I realized that God had me in that new role to learn something about myself or to be an influence or to learn how to apply my faith in a new way, did I finally start making headway toward being good at it and actually enjoying it.
I treated it as a calling, and things took off in a positive way.
Learn the Necessary Skills
Being effective in a role is often about developing the personality and skills for that role.
If God has you in a certain role, it’s on you to learn the skills necessary to steward that role well– and to qualify you for any future role that you might prefer. I’m mainly speaking of work, community, and other roles here.
If you’re a parent or spouse, your role is your role and it’s even more important to develop the skills and grow the habits necessary for being effective at that role.
Your choices, beliefs, and unique combination of skills and personality have led you to where you are now.
But there’s nothing to say that you cannot learn new skills and develop your personality if you feel like any particular role right now isn’t a ‘fit’.
I suggest you read Carol Dweck’s Mindset or Benjamin Hardy’s Personality Isn’t Permanent for more in depth treatments about how you can develop and grow your skills and personality or even treat your personality as a skill.
Regardless, you are where you are. You might as well become better at being there, right?
Treat each role and relationship you’re currently stewarding as a calling.
Develop the skills and even the personality to be better.
When you’ve learned what you need to learn and developed in a way that prepares you for any future roles that you might be even more excited about (not including roles with your family), then you’ll be prepared.
