It has been a few weeks since my last post. Pardon the hiatus. I have some exciting news coming for you soon! But the part I of this blog can be FOUND HERE – We talked about the difference between callings and jobs. A trip to a CU Boulder’s undergraduate pre-Health professions group brought this conversation on. I went to give them advice on pre-professional careers and it afforded me a chance to look introspectively into my life and how some of these decisions could be made with more intentionality.
At this group, a brave young woman in the audience at CU raised her hand and asked a question which still resonated with me almost a decade after grappling with those same thoughts. She said she was pre-med, but thought about switching to pre-dent, and wondered if it was the right decision for her. I asked her “why dentistry?,” the inevitable question she would need to answer at every interview. She replied with something which left her in tears and left me stunned. This question often prompts an emotional response, as it should. This is the reason you are dedicating your life to a profession. It should matter. It should mean something. (If you struggle with this problem of tearing up when you give interviews, know that you are not alone and read my advice here)
She talked about growing up in a foreign country and how undervalued dentistry was there. She spoke of immigrating to the US and finally getting oral care and the struggle to achieve oral wellness as an adult. She spoke of a community of immigrants here, her community, who continued to undervalue dentistry and therefore perpetually sacrifice their health. And she spoke of dreams to change that, to provide education and better access to care. I commended her on this vision. This vision is so integral to happiness and fulfillment... to having a calling instead of just a job.
How can you carve your life so that you have a calling?
KEY #1 to HAVING A CALLING – Having a life’s missionI told all the undergrads there that they should all go home and write down their life mission- the one thing they want to devote their life and career to, the one thing that will be better as a result of their life’s work. If this changes on a daily basis, fine. Good! It should change and morph as you grow. But every single human being should have this life goal written somewhere.
We should all aspire to living mission oriented lives. We have one spin at life. We can use that with intention to make this world a better place. But without intention, without aiming your life towards a purpose, it is simply too easy to blink and lose this chance. That is how short life can be sometimes.
What is the mission you hope to accomplish with your life’s work?
KEY #2 to HAVING A CALLING – Using that life’s mission in your daily life.After commending this student on her vision, I asked her how she planned on using the degree she was aiming for to accomplish it. The vast majority of dental school graduates go into private practice in some capacity. That means they work for themselves or someone else doing clinical dentistry in some private practice setting. I felt it was important for her to know that this is the “road well-traveled” in dentistry. She could totally use this path to accomplish her mission. But when I asked her if she wanted to do clinical dentistry to accomplish this, she said “no,” quickly, instinctually and almost before she knew she had said it. She sat in the silence that followed, acutely aware that this seemed like a “wrong answer” to her. It wasn’t. It was a truth that she needed to follow to find her fulfillment.
If she went to dental school, and did not plan on doing clinical dentistry after graduating because that was not her passion, then she needed to know that to tally up her future challenges and to make an educated choice. She could absolutely traverse the path of the other 10% and use the DDS to impact change outside of a traditional clinical setting. There is power in that choice but only if she recognized the challenges she would face. This is the “road less traveled;” the path is unpaved. She would be a minority and may face challenges in finding mentors who had gone before her. She would have to spend money and time to learn a skill that she did not plan on using.
On the other hand, she could explore alternative methods to achieve the same result. She could zoom out and think outside of the traditional box. An MPH or a career in policy change could also help her accomplish that same life’s mission. This too would come with challenges. Having a “terminal degree” (I hate the term, it makes me feel like I am a corpse), or a degree which is the highest you can achieve in a field, unlocks doors and comes with opportunity. Choosing not to get the DDS sacrifices an inside perspective of the profession and the problem. But it also gives you other skills and it also is an offset on resources.
There is no right answer. But there is a choice made in an educated, informed and intentional manner. That choice is the difference in the struggle. So my follow-up homework to the group was not just to write their life’s mission, but to describe a day in their ideal job.
What do you want to be doing on a daily basis? What skills are your superpower and should you be using in your daily activities? How can those skills, perfomed on a daily basis, result in a life which accomplishes your big picture goal?
Then the key is combining those two answers.
That may look like a dentist who has their own private practice and treats patients and uses their position in society and their ability to go teach oral health classes in refugee centers. Or it may look like a politician who runs for office and writes policy to allow better access to care for immigrant populations. It may be a lawyer who lobbies for a non-profit to solve public health issues. Or it may look like something else. Those are very different lives but they are all mission driven.
Find yours, the greatest life you were meant to live. Settle for nothing less.
At this group, a brave young woman in the audience at CU raised her hand and asked a question which still resonated with me almost a decade after grappling with those same thoughts. She said she was pre-med, but thought about switching to pre-dent, and wondered if it was the right decision for her. I asked her “why dentistry?,” the inevitable question she would need to answer at every interview. She replied with something which left her in tears and left me stunned. This question often prompts an emotional response, as it should. This is the reason you are dedicating your life to a profession. It should matter. It should mean something. (If you struggle with this problem of tearing up when you give interviews, know that you are not alone and read my advice here)
She talked about growing up in a foreign country and how undervalued dentistry was there. She spoke of immigrating to the US and finally getting oral care and the struggle to achieve oral wellness as an adult. She spoke of a community of immigrants here, her community, who continued to undervalue dentistry and therefore perpetually sacrifice their health. And she spoke of dreams to change that, to provide education and better access to care. I commended her on this vision. This vision is so integral to happiness and fulfillment... to having a calling instead of just a job.
How can you carve your life so that you have a calling?
KEY #1 to HAVING A CALLING – Having a life’s missionI told all the undergrads there that they should all go home and write down their life mission- the one thing they want to devote their life and career to, the one thing that will be better as a result of their life’s work. If this changes on a daily basis, fine. Good! It should change and morph as you grow. But every single human being should have this life goal written somewhere.
We should all aspire to living mission oriented lives. We have one spin at life. We can use that with intention to make this world a better place. But without intention, without aiming your life towards a purpose, it is simply too easy to blink and lose this chance. That is how short life can be sometimes.
What is the mission you hope to accomplish with your life’s work?
KEY #2 to HAVING A CALLING – Using that life’s mission in your daily life.After commending this student on her vision, I asked her how she planned on using the degree she was aiming for to accomplish it. The vast majority of dental school graduates go into private practice in some capacity. That means they work for themselves or someone else doing clinical dentistry in some private practice setting. I felt it was important for her to know that this is the “road well-traveled” in dentistry. She could totally use this path to accomplish her mission. But when I asked her if she wanted to do clinical dentistry to accomplish this, she said “no,” quickly, instinctually and almost before she knew she had said it. She sat in the silence that followed, acutely aware that this seemed like a “wrong answer” to her. It wasn’t. It was a truth that she needed to follow to find her fulfillment.
If she went to dental school, and did not plan on doing clinical dentistry after graduating because that was not her passion, then she needed to know that to tally up her future challenges and to make an educated choice. She could absolutely traverse the path of the other 10% and use the DDS to impact change outside of a traditional clinical setting. There is power in that choice but only if she recognized the challenges she would face. This is the “road less traveled;” the path is unpaved. She would be a minority and may face challenges in finding mentors who had gone before her. She would have to spend money and time to learn a skill that she did not plan on using.
On the other hand, she could explore alternative methods to achieve the same result. She could zoom out and think outside of the traditional box. An MPH or a career in policy change could also help her accomplish that same life’s mission. This too would come with challenges. Having a “terminal degree” (I hate the term, it makes me feel like I am a corpse), or a degree which is the highest you can achieve in a field, unlocks doors and comes with opportunity. Choosing not to get the DDS sacrifices an inside perspective of the profession and the problem. But it also gives you other skills and it also is an offset on resources.
There is no right answer. But there is a choice made in an educated, informed and intentional manner. That choice is the difference in the struggle. So my follow-up homework to the group was not just to write their life’s mission, but to describe a day in their ideal job.
What do you want to be doing on a daily basis? What skills are your superpower and should you be using in your daily activities? How can those skills, perfomed on a daily basis, result in a life which accomplishes your big picture goal?
Then the key is combining those two answers.
That may look like a dentist who has their own private practice and treats patients and uses their position in society and their ability to go teach oral health classes in refugee centers. Or it may look like a politician who runs for office and writes policy to allow better access to care for immigrant populations. It may be a lawyer who lobbies for a non-profit to solve public health issues. Or it may look like something else. Those are very different lives but they are all mission driven.
Find yours, the greatest life you were meant to live. Settle for nothing less.