Reimagining the Good Life with Amy Julia Becker How Do You Know Your Calling? with Karen Swallow Prior
Oct 7, 2025
Karen Swallow Prior, an author and scholar on vocation and literature, shares insights on finding meaning in everyday work. She discusses how true calling differs from passion and emphasizes that vocation centers on service and relationships. Karen highlights the importance of pursuing truth, goodness, and beauty in our lives, and how multiple callings can unfold throughout our journey. She also reflects on the role of suffering in shaping our vocations and suggests spiritual practices to discern our purpose in a noisy world.
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Freedom Creates Anxiety About Calling
- Modern freedom of choice created anxiety about calling because people feel responsible to pick the "right" life path.
- Cultural myths like "follow your passion" fuel disappointment when work or pay don't match expectations.
Reframe Vocation As Service
- Treat vocation as an external calling to serve others, not merely personal fulfillment.
- Recognize multiple callings across life: family, neighbor, citizen, and paid work can all be vocations.
Calling Through The True, Good, Beautiful
- Pursue truth, goodness, and beauty as the practical core of calling.
- If your work advances these transcendentals, you're already fulfilling your vocation.
