The Calling We Never Lost

By Vincent Cordova · 3/23/2026

When we are young, we know exactly who we are. Not because anyone taught us—but because nothing had yet taught us otherwise. We move through the world curious, loving, full of life. We carry visions we can’t yet name, but they feel like home. Then something happens. A system—designed long before we arrived—begins to reshape us. And all too often, we see our own representatives actively defending the very system that destroys who we are. It calls itself education, work, structure, responsibility. But its deeper purpose is often compliance. It trades our natural freedom for a kind of stability that benefits something other than our souls. Slowly, the visions get pushed aside. The free feeling becomes a memory we’re told to “grow out of.” For what? To be colonized into social stratifications that barely support you. And we are told, over and over, that this is necessary. That some have to go through hell to become who we are meant to be. But what if that’s a lie? It’s a lie. I am more defined today, yet I still have the same core as I did when I was younger—purpose. What if the person we were before the system got its hands on us was already whole? What if our higher power—or life itself—doesn’t make mistakes, and we were never supposed to be broken down in order to be rebuilt? Some of us, by grace or stubbornness, manage to find our way back. We feel that old freedom again, as if no time has passed. We realize the loving, kind person we were is still there—untouched at the core, waiting for permission to build again. This time you give yourself the permission—by understanding the whys and rejecting any old obstacles and frameworks set by slaveowners and the representatives who defend them. That’s how you help yourself and the next person. And when we start building from that place—from the original vision, not from the wound—something shifts. The work becomes purpose‑driven. Not because we decided to add purpose as a feature, but because the work is the purpose. It’s the same calling we had as children, now expressed through grown‑up skills, global scale, and the unbroken thread of who we always were. That’s the personal part. But here’s the part that matters more: If one person can find their way back, then the question becomes: how do we clear the path for everyone else? Because the obstacles aren’t just personal. They are built into the systems we swim in. And if we want a world where people can answer their callings—not despite the system, but freely—then we have to name what needs to be removed. What We Must Remove, Globally, So People Can Answer Their Callings 1. The Lie That Suffering Is a Prerequisite Remove the belief that you have to be broken before you can be valuable. Remove the narratives that glorify burnout, trauma, and “paying your dues” as necessary for legitimacy. Calling does not require hell. It requires freedom. 2. Compliance‑Based Structures Remove systems—in education, work, and governance—that treat human beings as resources to be managed rather than souls to be nurtured. Remove the assumption that obedience is more important than curiosity. Redesign institutions to ask, “What wants to come alive in you?” instead of “How do we make you fit?” 3. The Fear of Not Being “Enough” Remove the internalized voice that tells people their calling is impractical, selfish, or too late. That voice was installed by a world that benefits when we doubt ourselves. Replace it with collective permission to begin—even messy, even small, even now. 4. Isolation Remove the idea that calling is a solo journey. Create spaces where people can name their obstacles without shame, hear others name theirs, and realize they are not alone. What blocks one person often blocks many. When we unblock together, the path widens for everyone. 5. The Pressure to Monetize Calling Remove the demand that a calling must become a business to be valid. Some callings are about presence, care, art, or service that doesn’t fit a revenue model. Protect the right to follow a calling without having to turn it into a product. 6. Systems That Punish Deviation Remove the rigid structures that penalize people for stepping off the prescribed track—the career ladder, the linear timeline, the “safe” path. Calling rarely follows a straight line. We need to build more flexible containers that hold the nonlinear, unpredictable unfolding of a human life. Better yet, we need to remove all containers and trust our creation by giving it value that will output the same. We already learned what can create a narcissist, and how our system is at fault when it keeps a foot on your neck and uses an underclass to torture. Those outputs generate hate. 7. The Belief That It’s Too Late Remove the cultural clock that tells people they’ve missed their window. Whether you’re 18 or 80, the calling that was there at the beginning is still there. It doesn’t expire. It waits. 8. The Silence Around Harm Remove the politeness that prevents us from naming how institutions, relationships, and systems have harmed our capacity to listen to ourselves. Healing requires honesty. We can’t remove obstacles we refuse to see. What We Can Build Instead When we remove these things, we don’t just create emptiness. We create room. Room for: Work that is purpose‑driven because it’s an extension of who people really are. Create purpose‑driven companies that cannot be touched by slaveholders, shareholders, or exploitative people and systems—with the knowing that they will use low rates to destroy you, and that you can match that energy because you are purpose‑driven, which will keep them honest. Communities that ask, “What’s blocking your calling?” and then help remove it. A culture that celebrates returning to oneself as much as it celebrates achievement. Systems designed for freedom, not compliance. This isn’t about one person’s story. It’s about the pattern: we all started whole. We were shaped into something smaller. And now, we have the chance to stop shaping others the same way. You don’t have to go through hell to become who you are. You already were who you are. The work is simply to remove what was placed in the way—for yourself, and then, for the next person. How many children today are being destroyed globally, in ways big and small, by the very systems meant to raise them? Not just physically, but spiritually—their curiosity traded for compliance, their visions dismissed as impractical, their natural trust replaced with fear. We don't have an exact number, but we don't need one to know it's too many. Millions. Perhaps most. Every child born with a calling—and they all are—faces a world that begins, often before they can speak, to shape them into what is convenient, not what is true. The systems we described in the blog aren't abstract. They're classrooms that punish wonder. Workplaces that demand obedience over creativity. Economies that value output over souls. Structures that treat human beings as resources to be managed. And the children absorb it. They learn to silence themselves before anyone else does. But here's what shifts when we really see it: We stop asking "what happened to me?" and start asking "what is happening to them right now, and what can we do about it?" What would you remove, if you could, to help someone answer their calling? Let’s start naming it. And then, let’s start removing it—together.