Dr. Angela Duckworth

And the science of this shows that when you have a calling, absolutely, you're happier and you are a better performer.

I think one of the things that is surprising about this research is that it's not like physicians have a calling and nurses have a career and the guy who has to roll the gurney down the hallway, well, he has a job.

No, if you actually look at people's

you know, relationships with their work, it has nothing to do with the job title.

It has more to do with how they feel about their work, how they see it and how they feel it.

So you don't have to switch your job necessarily to have a relationship with it, which is qualitatively different.

And the last thing I'll say is that this word calling, actually, you know, you read from the Bible, essentially, and it actually originally was not a term of modern psychology.

It originally did have a religious connotation of being called by God, of being called to do something by a higher power.

And I would say that what scientists who study calling today, you know, like the real contemporary science of it, is actually returning in a way to that because it's...

Something in addition, perhaps, to like, wow, this is interesting and whoa, this is very resonant with my values.

When you are truly called, you do feel like there is a task that has been laid at your door that you are interested in and you do find important, but that it needs to be you, like that you are needed.

And one of the things that I think is true for young people today, but really all of us, is that I think this deep need to be needed, to be truly useful, to be given a task, and to feel like, you know, I... Again, if we can do that without the word should, which I know that seems like counterintuitive, but to really feel that sense of...

kind of being part of something bigger than your own personal concerns.

I think that is, you know, what so many of us are looking for.

And I think we should be encouraged because the research also shows that if you say to yourself, ooh, I'm the first bricklayer, or even I'm the second bricklayer, it doesn't mean that you can't be the third bricklayer.

Absolutely, callings evolve.

Well, it's very clear that you have one.

I do.

I feel like it's a calling.

I feel, of course, very blessed to have it.