"Vocation does not come from willfulness.  It comes from listening.

I must listen to my life and try to understand what it is truly about---quite apart from what I would like it to be about---or my life will never represent any-thing real in the world, no matter how earnest my intentions.

That insight is hidden in the word vocation itself, which is rooted in the Latin for "voice."  Vocation does not mean a goal that I pursue. It means a calling that I hear.  Before I can tell my life what I want to do with it, I must listen to my life telling me who I am.  I must listen for the truths and values at the heart of my own identity, not the standards by which I must live---but the standards by which I cannot help but live if I am living my own life.

Parker Palmer in
Let Your Life Speak