Many of us reach a certain point in our lives and
wonder if we\'re really doing what we\'re meant to be doing in our work
lives. We begin to wonder \"What\'s my mission in life?\"

Some are
fortunate to discover their mission early and never divert from it.
Others seem to wander constantly searching for it. For most of us, the
answer lies right in front of us, but we go through life missing the
obvious clues.

One reason we become unhappy in our careers is,
over time as our careers progress, we make choices that compromise our
values and move us away from our strengths, talents and core gifts
until our souls can\'t take the pain any more and they cry out in
sadness and longing for the work

we were truly meant to do.

We have different missions at
different stages of our lives but there is a central theme to our
global mission. This theme is the common thread that runs through our
lives and for many of us that theme has probably been there since we
were children.

Our first mission

Beginning the process of setting our work lives in order requires
us to acknowledge that, as Christians, we have multiple missions. The
first is to embrace and live the two great commandments. Nothing else
we do matters until we accept that first mission and we\'ll be

unable to have a faith-centered career - or life - until we embrace that mission first.

Our second mission

Our second mission as people of faith is related to the first. It\'s \"to serve.\"

Each
of us serves someone no matter where we are on the corporate hierarchy.
Even the owner of a company serves others -- by producing widgets he
serves the customer.

We fulfill this second mission by fully embracing our first mission and accepting our role as servant to others.

Our third mission

Our third mission is to embrace our core gift and joyfully use the
strengths and talents we\'ve been given. Our core gift is the
intersection of our strengths and talents. It\'s that point where both
of them are used for maximum impact while bringing ourselves the
greatest joy.

This point of intersection isn\'t so much a job
title as it is the action driving our lives. Each of us can sum that
theme up in a simple sentence: \"I _______.\" Whether it\'s \"I teach\" or
\"I wait on others\" or \"I build\" or something else. It\'s \"I\" plus the
verb or verb phrase that describes what you do best.

The difference between strengths and talents

Strengths are those things we do well. We learned them quickly; we
enjoy doing them and we often enjoy learning more about them.
Performing them may come easily to us but it still takes some work. For
example, I write pretty well. I like writing and can spend all day
doing it. I even enjoy spending all day studying how to write better.
But make no mistake about it writing is work for me.

Talents are
those things that come very easily to you. Your talent may have started
as a strength and blossomed or it may be something that you\'ve always
been able to do. Public speaking

is a talent for me. Even though I was nervous when I started out,
it\'s something that has always come naturally for me. I\'ve made
presentations to groups as large as 500 and lived to tell about it. It
comes easily to me; I can\'t explain why. You probably can\'t explain
your talent either. If there\'s something that people are always amazed
at when you do it or they constantly ask you how you do something, that\'s a talent.

You
may have more than one strength and more than one talent. Make a list
of all your strengths and identify your single greatest one. Then
identify the one great talent you have. In Now, Discover Your
Strengths, authors Buckingham and Clifton assert that only 20% of us
use our strengths at work. You may need a friend or relative who knows
you well who can help you

with this or you may want to consider taking a battery of assessments.

Your core gift

Your core gift is where your greatest strength and your greatest
talent intersect. It\'s where you get your greatest joy and what others
are drawn to you for. It\'s something you\'ve always done and, even if
you wanted to, couldn\'t stop yourself from doing. It\'s almost a
compulsion.

So where does your strength and talent intersect?

Once you\'ve taken some time to identify your core gift, try to express it as I + a verb. For example, my core gift is \"I teach.\"

I
often write all day but in my heart I\'m teaching the reader about
whatever subject I\'m writing about. I\'ve actually been teaching since I
was a teenager and it\'s truly a compulsion with me.

If you\'re
ready to embrace your three primary missions in life, begin with
considering how you can best fulfill the first two: Loving the Lord
your God with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your
soul; and how you can serve others. After you\'ve focused on them, then
you\'re ready to consider how you can embrace your core gift and fulfill
the many missions you have as a child of God in this world.