How to FINDING YOUR IKIGAI

I’m going to talk about FINDING YOUR IKIGAI which is a Japanese concept referring to having a direction or purpose in life, providing a sense of fulfillment and towards which the person may take action, giving them satisfaction and a sense of meaning.

Often, we pass through life unclear of the meaning, motivation, or values behind what we do and how we live.

Ikigai is a Japanese concept about finding your individual purpose, or in other words:

“what is worth living for”, or “your reason for getting up every morning”. It covers 4 aspects that will help you find a job to love.

The combination of words mean:

“iki” (life/living) + “kai” (value/result)

And yet, it does not have to be this way. The Japanese practice of ikigai helps you find your reason for living, shaping how you live now and in the future. Unique to each of us, it represents our attention to the present and the point at which our mission, vocation, and professional lives meet.

As seen in the Venn diagram above, your ikigai lies at the intersection between four interdependent elements:

· What you love (your passion)

· What the world needs (your mission)

· What you are good at (your vocation)

· What you can get paid for (your profession)

Let’s break these down a little further.

1. Passion

What inspires you?

Forget the worries that plague your day-to-day and cloud your vision of the world. Picture this: money is no object, the opinions of others are irrelevant, and you can spend your time and energy on whatever excites you most. Explore the depth and scope of this passion. Distributing this across your commitments could enable you to enjoy an equally profound feeling of enthusiasm at work and in your downtime.

2. Mission

What makes you feel useful?

There is a special kind of satisfaction that comes from being able to make a difference in the world. Making a valuable contribution to something is admirable from a social, moral, and humanitarian standpoint. You don’t have to believe that you were “put on this Earth” to accomplish something in particular. But we all have it within us to share and give to the world around us.

3. Vocation

What are you drawn to?

The very word ‘vocation is derived from the Latin vocatio, meaning ‘call’ (i.e. your ‘calling’). It refers to what you feel especially suited to, given your abilities, qualifications, experience, and personality.

4. Profession

What activities do you find most productive and fruitful?

This is the aspect that is specifically what you are paid for, and what is commonly understood as your primary (if not sole) source of income. But from a more meaningful perspective, your chosen profession should be the outcome of all of the aforementioned aspects.

“Curiosity is its own reason. Aren’t you in awe when you contemplate the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure behind reality? And this is the miracle of the human mind — to use its constructions, concepts, and formulas as tools to explain what man sees feel, and touches.”
— Albert Einstein

Ultimately, the best approach to take with all of these 4 categories is a holistic one. Making the most of your purpose, or ikigai, requires a sense of motivation, self-awareness, and enthusiasm across your passion, mission, vocation, and profession.

Using Ikigai to Revitalise Your Career

To find true harmony across your life, consider connecting all 4 categories to transform your career.

Applying your ikigai to your professional life could mean the end of your work woes — for good!

Modern office work tends to connote extremely repetitive and mundane activities. It’s no wonder that words such as ‘daily grind’, ‘9-to-5’, and ‘pencil pusher’ are so common when we talk about our jobs.

The average full-time worker spends half of their waking hours at work on any given workday. This number then equates to 35% of their total waking hours over a 50-year working period.

Thus, a huge part of our lives will ultimately feel like a chore without enjoyment and fulfillment at work. This can have a detrimental effect on your engagement at work and your overall mental and emotional well-being.

Some even believe that ikigai can be the secret to a longer life!

So, if you also feel like you spend your workweek stuck in an inescapable cubicle rut, then chances are you’re missing not only motivation but meaning.

Drawing upon all four influences, ask yourself:

1. Why doesn’t your job evoke feelings of joy?

2. Why doesn’t your job inspire you?

3. How could you better showcase your unique skills and strengths at work?

4. What could you see yourself doing professionally daily?

This conception of ikigai sounds close to a Zen Buddhist mentality, emphasizing being active, being in the moment, taking joy in the small occurrences in life, and finding a state of flow in one’s life (Hatwalne, 2020).

Whether the ikigai diagram above is traditional or not, filling it in is arguably a useful task. And whether or not the center of such a diagram would represent your personal “sweet spot” as a lifestyle, it should still be useful to determine what “sweet spot” you might find that combines the basic dimensions of “I am passionate about this; it makes me happy” and “This would allow me to do good for others, as well.”