Difference between profession, vocation, mission and passion

Discover the relationship between what you love, what the world needs, what you are paid to do and what you are good at.

Hello friends!

Yesterday I published a text answering the question if you can get rich by studying psychology at university. Every time I bring up the subject of remuneration (in psychology and in other areas), we end up bumping into a delicate topic. Psychologically speaking, we touch everyone’s money complex.

As we know, every person has a complex related to money. Complex, according to Jung, means a word (or a semantic field) that is linked to a strong affect. For example, the word Palm trees may be indifferent to you. But for a Palmeirense, or for a São Paulo native, this simple word will activate a complex, linked to soccer disputes.

In his experimental research, Jung observed that there is the possibility of having the most diverse complexes. But two are especially strong – this was published before he met Freud:

– love-sexual complex: desire, falling in love, longing, frustrations…

– power complex: superiority or inferiority, money, possessions…

So, yesterday’s text touches on this aspect of power in people, because those who are doing psychology or have already graduated will necessarily consider their expectations and reality. Behind each answer, we also noticed the cultural background and the direct relationship with what is possible and what is impossible to accomplish.

In a way, today’s text continues the question. But it expands to other areas. What is the difference between having a profession, having a vocation, having a mission and having a professional passion?

Difference between profession, vocation, mission and passion

This text is not exactly based on a psychology concept, okay? I found the image below on social networks and I imagine that it is very synthetic about such differences. And it helps us clarify our professional expectations, with the reality of the market and money. It is useful to think about what we get and what we want to get, with the advantage of going beyond the question:

– Earn money or do what you love

– Having a job and having a hobby

You are very good and you get paid – Profession

Let’s start with the professional side of life. When choosing a profession we have to take into account 2 basic aspects:

– You will want to wake up early on weekdays and work in that area;

– You have the talent or aptitude or competence to work in this area. Also, you feel good at work. Work makes you.

When we are about to choose a college or career, we can have many doubts about professions. After all, there are many options. We can also be very indecisive about whether we are good at an area or not.

A very simple technique that helps us to think and project the future is this – Technique for deciding

With it, we managed to bring “the future” into the present and evaluate each of the options we are considering and check whether we would like to have a work routine in that type of activity or not.

You get paid and the world needs it – Vocation

In a way, the difference between profession and vocation is tenuous. This is because the world needs all professions. For those who don’t know, not long ago the area of ​​psychology that helped young people in choosing a career was entitled “Vocational Guidance”. Until today we find many references cataloged in this way.

As far as I know, “Vocational Guidance” was replaced by “Professional Guidance” (the only change was practically the word) because vocation has a strong religious connotation. Example, priests who say they felt a call (a voice) to the priesthood. Having a voice, they had a definite vocation.

In my opinion, we need not at all exclude this prospect of having a call to labor activity. When we feel that we have a vocation for this or that, we are getting closer to understanding more about ourselves. These and these personality traits are positive and go against what the world needs.

You love and the world needs – Mission

The idea of ​​a vocation is very close to the idea of ​​a mission. But as an important difference: the mission in this perspective would exclude the focus on the fact of being paid. We can work for free or earn very little. But it does not matter. We are not doing it for the money.

Although it’s a little controversial because many people would think that in vocation we wouldn’t have a focus on money either. However, we do have to consider those very special people we meet who we feel were born for that area. He is the reference professional, who we feel is there to realize his full potential, the potential for which he was called.

And why not get paid for it? A wonderful and dedicated nurse who is doing what she has to do with her life – being a nurse – doesn’t that also have your needs? Therefore, vocation does not exclude financial needs.

As for the mission, we have another connotation. I remembered a Hindu tradition, in which after a certain age (35 – 45 years old), when the children are grown (they had very young children, from 15 onwards), the father and mother leave the family and go Find your life mission. It could be a spiritual mission, a religious mission, a charitable or humanitarian project.

In all these cases, there is no pursuit of money. It’s like the Lions motto: “give yourself before you think about yourself.”

You love and you are very good – Passion

Finally, we have passion, which does not have this aspect of mission altruism. In the case of passion we find our hobby. We don’t need to make money and the world doesn’t need it. We can learn carpentry and be a terrible carpenter, so we won’t receive money nor are we thinking about contributing to the world.

It’s fun, a pleasure, a professional passion. When we talk about hobbies, it’s easy to think of arts: painting, sculpting, playing an instrument. But it doesn’t have to be just arts. If you like math or word searches, playing volleyball or helping animals… well, think about what you love, enjoy doing a lot and, on top of that, you’re good or want to be good one day.

Conclusion

Sometimes, the fact that we simplify a lot is harmful, because perhaps the doubt arises: but is that all? The same happens with synthesizing, that is, when we ask how we are going to combine our passion, our vocation, our hobby into a single profession.

On the other hand, it is not always necessary to share so much. Perhaps the dichotomy between a profession (which is also a vocation) and a hobby (which is also a mission) is enough for some.

I would like to end by saying that, if you have doubts about which college to choose or if you are thinking of changing careers, you can do Professional Guidance with a psychology professional in your city or, if you prefer, Online Career Coaching, with me.

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