How to Find Your Calling in The Substance Abuse Field
The substance abuse field can be a broad one if you don’t know what you want to do. Get some tips on how to find your calling in this career path.
How to Find Your Calling in The Substance Abuse Field
One of the first things that you should think about is how you look at work. Believe it or not, many of us view work differently. In fact, an Associate Professor at Yale University’s School of Management, Dr. Amy Wrzesniewski, has some great research and finding on work orientation. There are three orientations toward work:
- Job Orientation: Work is simply a means to an end. It is a way to support life, benefits, family and hobbies. Work should not interfere with a person’s personal life and an employee is not likely to have a strong connection to their workplace or job duties.
- Career Orientation: Work is about success and prestige. A person with this orientation may be interested in salary, promotions, recognition and social standing but not feel emotionally invested in the actual work.
- Calling Orientation: Work becomes integral to a person’s life and identity. These people view their careers as a form of self-expression and personal fulfillment. These people are more likely to find their work meaningful and will develop relationships to this effect. They are also found to be more satisfied in general with their work and their lives.
Job orientation doesn’t have as much to do with a particular job or position as it does the individual’s attitude towards that job. You can have 
three different people in the exact same position that have different job orientations because they view their jobs and integrate them into their lives differently.
Now, if you are in search of your “Calling”, you may be looking to use your unique gifts and skills to make a difference. This is a noble goal and quite achievable. A job is performing a set of tasks that you are hired to do in an organization. A vocation is much different and what we should be aiming for. The word “Vocation” comes from the Latin word “to call” or “calling”. A vocation taps into the innate gifts, passions and strengths of the individual. So how do we get here? Break it down! What are your values? Write these down. They may be things like: adventure, generosity, opportunity. What are your strengths? You may have had teachers, friends or other bosses point these out to you in the past. Things such as: organized, compassionate, leadership, good teacher. Write all of these down as well.
Once you have all of this valuable information, start speaking with other people in the industry and see if you can come up with some ideas. Who knows? You may also be able to find a mentor as you go through this process and that would help tremendously as you work on finding your calling. The substance abuse field isn’t a narrow one at all and there is a lot of room for most people to find and follow their calling within it. Good luck.
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