Navigating your Personal Odyssey

Calling, meaning and choosing what to do with your life

Odysseus and Polyphemus, Arnold Böcklin (1896)

It’s Story Time

I sat down for lunch. My friends rushed over to the table I’d picked, jostling for a good position and clinking their cutlery in anticipation. As I looked around at my audience, I saw a couple of the teachers glance over at us with a wry smile from the staff table. My lunchtime storytelling sessions had become a daily ritual at this point and I was starting to make a bit of a name for myself.

Today’s instalment was based on one of my all time favourites — the story of Odysseus escaping from the Cyclops in The Odyssey — and I was looking forward to making the story my own. Move over Homer, this was my time to shine. I could hear plenty of chattering from the other corners of the lunch hall but a quiet hush had descended over my table. I clapped my hands together sharply and smiled.

This was my favourite part of the day. Story time had finally come.

The Power of Story

To this day, more than two decades on from those lunchtime sessions when I was six years old, the power of story still fascinates me more than almost anything else. How is it possible that a sequence of words, woven together to form a coherent whole, can move people’s minds in the way stories do? And how can something so complex be understood not just by wise elders but by young children as well?

Along with language, the vehicle that transports them, stories are the most magical technology we have ever created or will ever create. Stories can conjure emotions in us that we haven’t felt in years. They can make us laugh or cry and feel joy or despair. They can scare us into hiding or inspire us into action. They can connect us to people we have seemingly nothing in common with and transport us to new worlds. They can capture our imagination and set our minds on fire.

The stories that captured my imagination most growing up all those years ago were the Greek Myths. From Perseus and Medusa, to Icarus and Daedalus, and the Twelve Labours of Heracles to Theseus and the Minotaur, I simply could not get enough. My mother and father used to read the myths to my sister and I as bedtime stories and we’d often have cassette tapes of them running in the car during the school run.

One time, I remember arriving home and not wanting to get out of the car because we were mid story and I knew something important was about to happen. My mum pleaded with me to come inside so she could lock the car and I could get started on homework but this prospect was about as appealing to me as confronting the nine-headed Hydra. Getting me away from the myths was already a Herculean task.

The Great Task We All Face

There is no greater challenge in life than making sense of it. Throughout history, most societies had a series of myths that helped people find meaning in life. That role was fulfilled for centuries by organised religion but the rise of the dominant scientific world view and disillusionment with religion, especially in the West, has slowly eroded the myths that helped people make sense of their lives and the world around them. 

Unfortunately, the vacuum left by religion in modern life has never been properly filled and it shows. We are wealthier than we have ever been in a material sense, but at the same time seem we are more confused about what a good life actually looks like. As the social norms of generations past continue to disintegrate and technology, globalisation and postmodernist ideology continue to break down old barriers, we are increasingly living in a world of seemingly infinite options and unlimited freedom. 

As a result the idea of calling, vocation or purpose seems to be consuming more of our time and energy than ever, but we don’t seem to be coming up with answers that fulfill us. Of course, this is a Sisyphean task and it is no wonder that we are struggling with it, especially when we are surrounded by so many false prophets and fake solutions. What we really need to answer the question “What should I do with my life?” is a sense of who we are as individuals and what we are uniquely called to do.

One of the best ways to do this is to go back to the timeless stories that were designed for that very purpose. 

The Odyssey is Calling You

There is no story that is more timeless and universal than The Odyssey.

Homer’s epic poem tells of battle-weary Odysseus, the King of Ithaca who has helped the Greeks win the Trojan War after a gruelling ten years of fighting and now wants nothing more than to return home to his Queen Penelope and son Telemachus. But while he has been away, a dark cloud has descended over Ithaca in the form of a host of greedy suitors who are competing with each other to win the hand of Penelope and usurp Odysseus to become the next king.

So our protagonist is called to return home to Ithaca and reclaim his kingdom — but the journey does not go to plan. He is faced with countless obstacles, plagued by misfortune and loses companion after companion along the way. What keeps him going, even when all hope seems to be lost, is the irrepressible desire to go home. Of course, in the literal sense this is represented by the exterior world, the island of Ithaca and everything that goes along with it.

But in a metaphorical sense, from the perspective of the interior, psychological world, Odysseus is trying to come home to himself. He is called to return to his unique essence, to his true nature. By becoming the unique individual that he is meant to be he can live in harmony with the universal order. This is so meaningful to him that he rejects the beautiful Calypso’s offer of immortality and eternal youth in favour of achieving it.

The reason this story has survived and continues to be told more than 2,500 years after it was written is because it communicates something eternally true about what it means to be human. This can be understood by someone who is six or ninety-six, by someone who lives in Azerbaijan or Argentina, by a priest or a prisoner.

This eternal truth is why the story captured my imagination as a six year old, even if I didn’t understand it. It was why I was called to share it with my friends at school and it’s why I’m being called back to it now.

What is a Calling?

Calling is the sense that life wants something from you.

This is related to the idea that all humans, including you, have a soul, which makes you unique and means that you have a purpose to fulfill on earth that only you can. The Romans believed that every human had an inner genius, while the Greeks described this same concept as the Daimon, which was paired with the soul at birth to help every person realise their unique gifts. 

Of course, these are metaphorical ideas used to point towards something ineffable but they don’t have to be true exclusively in a religious or mystical sense. On a practical level, following a calling can be as simple as paying attention to the inner dialogue that is constantly going on in your head and following the feedback you get from the world around you.

There are also some clues to the nature of this idea in the modern words we use to describe our work and the languages of the past. For instance, the word ‘vocation’ which can be used interchangeably with career and increasingly refers to work based on a specific skillset is originally derived from the Latin vocatio meaning “a call.” In times gone by, the word vocation was truer to the original sense, describing an inclination to undertake a certain kind of work, often in response to a summons.

What this tells us is that a calling or vocation is something that happens to you, not something that you choose. You can’t consciously make a calling happen, just as you cannot force yourself to be curious about something that doesn’t interest you, or love someone you aren’t drawn to. Calling isn’t “I want, therefore I do” it is “I listen, therefore I do”. 

The word profession which can also be used interchangeably with the word career is derived from the Latin professio meaning an “avowal” or “public declaration”. The element of calling that is being hinted at here is that it manifests when the person that receives it makes a public declaration that this is who they are and what they are here to do. This doesn’t need to be as dramatic as declaring your new found insight into the meaning of life in the middle of the street or on social media. But what it does suggest is that you have to tell other people and do something about it.

It’s important to remember that the idea of calling should not be thought of narrowly as pertaining exclusively to work as it often is in modern discussions. It is a broad, holistic idea that extends to every area of life because the Ancients knew something that we seem to have forgotten – all things are related. This aspect of the idea is captured particularly well by the mythologies and religions of the East.

Calling from the East

The idea of a calling or path that is unique to the individual is not exclusive to the West. It appears in almost every culture since time began and it is particularly prominent in the cultures of the East. The word ‘Dharma’ originating from the original Sanskrit is a key concept in multiple Indian religions, appearing in Hinduism, Sikhism and Jainism. It refers simultaneously to a cosmic order on the level of the universe and a "right way of living" or a "path of rightness" on the level of the individual.

Similarly the “Dao” or “Tao” in Chinese and East Asian religion refers to the underlying natural order of the Universe as well as a road, channel or path for the individual. These concepts also support the idea that your calling, your way or your path are all given to you. You do not determine them consciously. Of course, all of these ideas are all thrown around with some regularity now and they can be incredibly seductive and enticing. After all, who doesn’t want to believe that they are special and unique?

This is the trouble with opening up to big transcendent ideas like calling, soul and genius. It’s easy to get lost in the ether, without knowing how to realise them in everyday life, and when that happens you often come back down to earth with a bump. 

How The Call Can Lead to a Fall

Calling can be a very dangerous word.

As we’ve explored already, it is a word that represents an idea which is deep, complex and elusive. This makes it easily misunderstood and when it comes to living your life in relation to an idea, the consequences can be high. When the concept of calling is taken too naively, we often see two types of characters and associated behaviours.

First, the perpetual seeker. The ethereal, divine nature of a calling can make it difficult to put up with anything that doesn’t seem perfect. After all, when you can conceive of an ideal, it is hard to put up with anything less but this attitude can turn people into chameleon like shapeshifters, moving from one place to another, one relationship to another and one job to another.

They are constantly on a quest in search of their true ‘calling’ without manifesting anything in the real world because they are disappointed by how imperfect their efforts are. Like Peter Pan, they refuse to ‘grow up’ preferring to remain in Neverland forever. They are unwilling to commit to a life constrained by the painful limitations of their character and the restrictions of society and the wider world. So they pass up the opportunities that are right in front of them and ultimately, these people remain full of potential, but fail to realise any of it in a meaningful way.

The next personal manifestation of a naive interpretation of calling is the deluded incompetent, someone who continues to insist on a ‘calling’ that is not really theirs. The extreme example of this is that familiar person on a talent show who believes they are the next global superstar but would make an average shower singer sound like Pavarotti or Whitney Houston in their prime. Even when the judges tell the poor fool that he or she needs to think about pursuing another career, they become outraged and double down even harder. Still, they keep plugging away, failing to accept the harsh reality that they are just not cut out for what they’re pursuing. 

They fail to take the feedback from reality, which is telling them to quit and try something else that they would be better suited for. If this continues for a long period, they become increasingly demoralised and bitter as they waste time, energy and money trying to become someone they are not.

The Problem with Ignoring the Call

Looking back over the last few years, I can see elements of the seeker and the incompetent in myself. I have dotted around on the surface in some areas and persisted with things I just wasn’t cut out for in others, failing to take the feedback the world was giving me.

At this point I hope that the lessons from these mistakes have been burned into my skull with all the force of the sharpened stake Odysseus and his men used to blind the Cyclops Polyphemus. But I still believe the consequences of dismissing or ignoring the idea of calling are equally if not more terrifying than being possessed by it naively. Once again, we can split the typical cases here into two characters with associated behaviours.

First, the skeptical cynic. If ‘following your passion’ or ‘doing what you love’ is just a load of nonsense and you end up enjoying what you’re good at no matter what it is, then it doesn’t really matter what you do with your life. You may as well take the first thing that comes to you and work hard at it, until you get good enough to enjoy it. That way you can fit neatly into society, earn a living, start a family and fulfil your limited purpose on this planet.

This might work for some people but it can also lead to a life of quiet desperation devoid of meaning. A life where you feel like a square peg in a round hole. A life where you ultimately feel expendable and replaceable, even if you do become rich and successful.

Then we have the pretending procrastinator. This is the person who acknowledges that what they’re doing is soul destroying but keeps delaying the decision they have to make. The procrastination can extend from weeks to months to years, until they longer believe the words coming out of their own mouths. The problem is often that they don’t know what comes next, even if they accept that what they’re doing now isn’t working. So they pretend that they’ll do something to change their situation in the future, without taking any concrete steps towards doing so.

What’s required here is a leap of faith but no amount of encouragement from the people around them will be sufficient if they are not ready to confront the unknown. The procrastinator can end up suffering even more than the cynic because they know they need to do something different, but postpone change to an imaginary future. Once again, you probably know people who fit into these categories. You may have even played some of these roles yourself. I certainly have — cynically dismissing the idea of meaningful work and delaying changes that need to be made now.

Calling is a powerful idea and like all powerful ideas, that makes it very dangerous. Interpreting it naively will not lead to fulfilment but nor will cynically dismissing it. Our perilous task is to sail between the Scylla of cynicism and the Charybdis of naivety to find our way back to Ithaca.

Sailing Between Scylla and Charybdis

One of Odysseus’ greatest obstacles in getting home to Ithaca was sailing between Scylla and Charybdis, two mythical sea monsters located on opposite sides of the Strait of Messina. Scylla was a terrifying six-headed sea monster and Charybdis was a powerful whirlpool that swallowed up anything that passed within its reach.

In many ways answering the call to meaning in life is something akin to sailing between Scylla and Charybdis.  We need to acknowledge our own limitations and those of the world around us without becoming bitter and cynical. At the same time we need to stay true to who we really are, without being stubborn and unwilling to compromise. 

The most important truths come from transcending these types of paradoxes. They take years to figure out as we swing from one extreme to the other, hopefully coming a little closer to our own centre of gravity every time. When we know what direction to head in and hear the call to meaning, we set sail for our Ithaca. Eventually after years of ups and downs, we start to form a decent idea of what a good life looks like for us. Maybe we even live it for days, weeks or months at a time. 

Through the struggles we’ve faced along the way, we begin to develop the skills and character needed to actually manifest this in reality and claim a life that is truly our own. The problem of course is that something always happens in life that makes us lose sight of our Ithaca. We are thrown off course. Sometimes we will wake up and find ourselves washed up on an island again or in the lair of the Cyclops once more. It will all feel meaningless.

But it is precisely those moments we most need to strain our ears to hear the call once more. To remember who we are and what we’re here to do. Those are also the moments we need to seek help, just as Odysseus did. He is not the lone hero he appears to be on the surface because without the help of his men, the Gods and the pull of his family and kingdom, he would never have reached Ithaca. Regardless of circumstances life is long and hard. We are all navigating our own precarious route in need all the help we can get. As the years have gone by I have come to realise this more and more.

Ultimately answering the question “What should I do with my life?” is not solely about what you do — it is just as much about how you do it and who you do it with. When all of these are working together in harmony, we all have a chance of finding our place in the Cosmos, just as Odysseus did. We all have a chance to become the individuals we were meant to be. To live a life of wonder and mystery. To follow the call to meaning and live out our own personal Odyssey.