Purpose & Desire: Why You Need Both to Understand Your Calling

10 snips

Sep 12, 2025

In this conversation with Tracey Gee, an author and consultant known for helping individuals clarify their purpose and desires, they explore the delicate balance between purpose and desire in understanding one’s calling. Tracey shares her own journey through career transitions fueled by disappointment, emphasizing how embracing desires can lead to personal growth. They also tackle gender perspectives on desire, discuss practical steps to uncover one’s ambitions, and highlight the importance of self-reflection and community impact in aligning work with one's calling.

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ANECDOTE

Career Failure That Became A Pivot

Tracey Gee recounts a major career disappointment after being passed over for a promotion and feeling devastated.
That setback triggered deep wrestling with faith, identity, and a mid-career vocational pivot into coaching and consulting.

INSIGHT

Calling Is An Intersection

Calling sits at the intersection of what delights you and what the world needs, but people often easily see needs and not their own gladness.
Discovering that unique intersection requires attention to how God made you and your particular gifts.

INSIGHT

Desire As Honest Signal

Desire often triggers alarm in faith contexts but functions as an honest signal you cannot fake.
Engaging desires invites authentic listening to yourself and to God rather than judgment or dismissal.

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SUMMARY

In this episode of the Faith and Work podcast, host Joanna Meyer engages with Tracey Gee, author and consultant, to explore the intricate relationship between purpose, desire, and calling. They discuss the challenges of discerning one's calling, especially in the context of faith, and how desire plays a crucial role in this process. Tracey shares her personal journey of navigating career transitions and the importance of recognizing and embracing one's desires. The conversation also touches on gender perspectives regarding desire, the consequences of ignoring it, and practical steps to identify and pursue one's desires. Ultimately, they emphasize the significance of engaging with disappointment and the treasure hidden within our lives as we seek to align our work with our calling.

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HIGHLIGHTS

Excerpt from The Magic of Knowing What You Want "Our desires have something important to say. They shake things up in profoundly generative ways to help us create what the world needs. The more I work with people coming alive to who they are, the stronger my hunch is that our desires have a central role to play in us, and the world is waiting to welcome the beautiful work our desires are capable of." On Question Overload "And I noticed that when you ask yourself, what do I want? Usually what happens is that you start asking then 60 other questions. Like, okay, what do I want? Yeah, but is that really possible? Or if I could do that, could I pull that off? Like, I don't know if I, if anyone would actually hire me, does that exist? I don't know if I can afford that. don't know. Am I allowed to ask this? Am I allowed to want this? Then not only are we trying to ask, again, this question that I think is really sacred and really central, but then we get sort of hijacked by millions of other questions that quickly pile on top of it. those are questions often, not always, but often rooted in some fear, some anxiety, some uncertainty, right, all of the above. And then we're overwhelmed and we don't know what to do with that."

RESOURCES

Download the episode transcript here
Book Recommendation: Parker Palmer, Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation
“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” ― Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking: A Seeker's ABC
Attend Women, Work, & Calling Annual Event to hear more from Tracey Gee
Purchase The Magic of Knowing What You Want
Download our Getting Clear about Calling Group Discussion Guide
Listen to Part 1 and Part 2 of our Faith & Work episodes: What Does It Mean To Be Called?