Attend to the call of your work and answer it. — Rainer Maria Rilke
—What lingers after this line?
Hearing the Inner Summons
Rilke’s line, “Attend to the call of your work and answer it,” suggests that meaningful work is not merely chosen; it often feels as though it chooses us. Rather than treating work as a random occupation, he frames it as a “call” that must be listened for. This echoes his letters in *Letters to a Young Poet* (1903–1908), where he urges the young writer to ask whether he would die if he were forbidden to write. In both cases, Rilke places the emphasis on receptivity: you must first hear what your deepest inclination is saying before you can respond.
From Noise to Attention
To attend to a call, one must distinguish it from the background noise of expectations, fears, and distractions. Rilke’s choice of the word “attend” implies patient, focused listening rather than impulsive action. Similarly, Simone Weil wrote that “attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity,” hinting that giving attention to your work is an act of generosity toward your own potential. By shifting from scattered busyness to deliberate awareness, you create the inner quiet in which your true work can finally be heard.
Answering as an Act of Commitment
Yet Rilke does not stop at listening; he insists that you must also “answer” the call. This move from reception to response marks the difference between vague longing and lived vocation. In practical terms, answering means taking on discipline, risk, and sustained effort, much like a musician committing to daily practice or a scientist persevering through failed experiments. Søren Kierkegaard described this moment as a “leap,” when understanding must be joined by decisive action. For Rilke, the call of your work becomes real only when it is met with such a leap.
The Personal Nature of True Work
Importantly, the call Rilke invokes is profoundly individual. He often warned against comparing oneself with others, arguing instead for a solitary, inward path. In *The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge* (1910), his protagonist struggles to find a voice that is authentically his own, not borrowed from fashion or tradition. In the same way, to attend to the call of your work is to disentangle it from parental dreams, social status, or market trends. The work that calls you may be modest, unconventional, or invisible to others—and yet uniquely yours to do.
Work as a Path of Self-Formation
Following this call does more than produce external results; it shapes who you become. Rilke believed that serious artistic work transforms the worker, gradually aligning inner life and outer practice. This idea parallels Aristotle’s claim in the *Nicomachean Ethics* (4th century BC) that character is built through habitual action: we become what we repeatedly do. Thus, by steadily answering the call of your work, you are also answering the call of your own becoming, allowing each day’s effort to carve you into a more coherent self.
Living with Ongoing Questions
Finally, Rilke’s admonition does not promise clarity once and for all; rather, it invites a lifelong conversation. In *Letters to a Young Poet*, he famously advises, “Live the questions now.” The call of your work may change tone, grow quieter or louder, or ask new things of you over time. Attending and answering, then, is not a single decision but a recurring practice: listening again, recommitting, and adapting. In this way, life becomes less about chasing external benchmarks and more about staying faithful to the evolving voice of your true work.
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