Finding your calling usually isn’t a defining moment of clarity. It’s a hard, long process to discover what you were meant to do with your life that usually involves failure.

Failure is inevitable. It's also a gift. When you fail, it's a chance to learn how to move forward, overcome, and take that lesson to the next thing you do. Failure forces you to grow. And those opportunities help you find what you are called to do.

Each step of a calling is difficult in its own way. To find your calling you must walk through seven different stages: awareness, apprenticeship, practice, discovery, profession, mastery, and legacy.

In this week’s episode of The Portfolio Life, join my co-host, Andy Traub, and me as we walk through the seven stages of pursuing your calling I outlined in my book, The Art of Work.

Listen to the podcast

To listen to the show, click the player below. (If you’re reading this via email, click here).

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You can also listen on iTunes or Stitcher.

Highlights from the show

• Your life is speaking; you just need to be able to recognize the signs.
• Every story of success is really a story of community. We don’t get to where we’re going alone.
• Practicing is how you learn what you’re supposed to be spending your time doing.
• Pick one thing and do it for the rest of your life so that you can become a master at it.
• Our calling is not complete until we begin to share it with others.
• Pursuing your calling is a process of awareness, accidental apprenticeship, painful practice, discovery, profession, mastery, and legacy.
• Download the full interview transcript here

Resources

This podcast is only an overview of the process of finding your calling. In The Art of Work, I go into more details on each of these steps and help you look at what they look like in your own life. You can pick up your own copy of the book at ArtofWorkBook.com

[specialbox]Pick up a copy of The Art of Work and submit your receipt at the book site to get $250 in free bonuses. Visit ArtofWorkBook.com now to get started.[/specialbox]

Where are you in your journey of finding your calling? Share in the comments.