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American First Lady Bess Truman with Girl Scouts and their volunteer leaders

An avocation is an activity that someone engages in as a hobby outside their main occupation. There are many examples of people whose professions were the ways that they made their livings, but for whom their activities outside their workplaces were their true passions in life.^[1][2] Occasionally, as with Lord Baden-Powell and others, people who pursue an avocation are more remembered by history for their avocation than for their professional career.

Many times a person's regular vocation may lead to an avocation. Many forms of humanitarian campaigning, such as work for organizations like Amnesty International and Greenpeace, may be done by people involved in the law or human rights issues as part of their work.^[3]

Many people involved with youth work pursue this as an avocation.^[4]

Avocation in literature

But yield who will to their separation,
My object in living is to unite
My avocation and my vocation
As my two eyes make one in sight.
Only where love and need are one,
And the work is play for mortal stakes,
Is the deed ever really done
For heaven and the future's sakes.

— Robert Frost, Two Tramps in Mud Time, st. 9

People whose avocations were not their vocations

A

August Wilhelm Ambros

B

Baden-Powell, Robert

C

Copernicus

D

Olivia d'Abo

E

Johannes Scotus Eriugena

F

Veronica Franco

G

J. Paul Getty

H

Hilda Hewlett

I

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres

J

Brian Jacques

K

Ada Lovelace

L

Hedy Lamarr

M

Gaston Means

N

Emperor Norton

O

Ottendorfer, Anna

P

Michael Alfred Peszke

Q

Quirinus

R

Jeri Ryan

S

Shelley, Mary

T

U

Tracey Ullman

W

Wells, Ida B.

X

Xenakis, Iannis

Y

Yada, Lena

Z

Zappa, Frank

Fictional people whose avocations were not their vocations

Bruce Wayne as his alter ego Batman

See also

• Alter ego


• Otium


• Secret identity


• Vocation


• Volunteering

References

External links

• 
  Alex Preston (12 June 2016). "If you want to be a better person, find something to do outside work". Quartz. Atlantic Media. Retrieved 10 September 2016.