Answering the Invitation to Vocation
got an interesting message from an old colleague this weekend. It said, “So, what’s up with all the posts on data ownership, #My31 and Hu-manity.co? I thought clinical research was your cause?”
I found it interesting that her perception is that clinical research is my “cause” and I found it even more interesting that she thinks I have replaced one cause (clinical research) with another (data ownership)
The definition of cause:
cause/kôz/noun1. a person or thing that gives rise to an action, phenomenon, or condition. 2.a principle, aim, or movement that, because of a deep commitment, one is prepared to defend or advocate.
By this definition, I have a lot of causes: the homeless, brain health, domestic violence, suicide prevention, refugees, poverty, discrimination, access to care, and yes, clinical research. Like many people I have personal connections to all of these causes: we grew up in poverty and could have been homeless many times, without community clinics we would not have had healthcare, without WIC we would not have had food sometimes. I have refugees in my family and my community, my children are mixed race and my family includes LGBTQ members, I was in a domestic violence marriage, I have lost family members to suicide and mental health struggles, and a clinical trial helped identify a gene in my family that allows us to treat the heart disorder that took my brothers life at only age 21. So yes, I have many causes, but make no mistake: I have only one vocation. The definition of vocation:
vocation/vōˈkāSH(ə)n/noun 1. a strong feeling of suitability for a particular career or occupation. synonyms: calling, life's work, mission, purpose, function 2. a person's employment or main occupation, especially regarded as particularly worthy and requiring great dedication.
Finding my vocation has been a winding journey - a following of bread crumbs from one job and one moment of insight in my career to another, collecting skills and context and experience along the way. I needed to find healthcare before I could drill down into clinical research, then I needed to add creativity and design thinking discipline before I could branch out into digital and data and technology. In this discovery process I have found many things but the most important is the connectedness of all things: how a pair of #pinksocks can be the gift of seeing the good in the world, how mental health underlies the homelessness struggle, how a research project by a physician in Rochester can save 100 lives in my family miles away in Maryland.
I believe that cause and vocation are also inextricably interwoven. You must find the unifying thread in your causes to find your true vocation. For me, it was discovering that for all of the things I care about, the commonality is that root cause issues are not being addressed. Thus, my vocation is to solve root-cause problems that underlie important social issues.
People who own their data can be empowered to use that data for things like clinical research, more clinical research means more treatments for brain disorders, more treatments for brain disorders means less homeless people on the streets, less homeless parents mean less children in the foster care system, and so on.
The #My31 movement isn't just about making money by owning your data as your property: it's a brave social experiment to create the only new human right in the 70 years since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the UN. It is a high-stakes gamble for the future of work and the global economy. It is an opportunity to reimagine what it means to be human in a world consumed by technology and AI.
So, no- I didn't change my cause, I'm just leaning more deeply into my vocation and you can too. Your career can be your vocation when you act with courage to lead from a deeper purpose. Choose to go deep, and choose to go big! Start a movement, join a movement. I believe in movements.
Movements allow us to answer the invitation to vocation. Movements help us see our connectedness. Movements give us strength in numbers to solve the big issues. The hard issues. The root cause issues. We need movements now more than ever, and this movement needs you. Join me.