What is Japanese ikigai, and how can it help you find purpose in life?

Ikigai, pronounced as E-Key-Gaa-E, is a centuries-old Japanese philosophy. According to Héctor García and Francesc Miralles, the author of the book “Ikigai – The Japanese secret to a Long and Happy Life”, the concept of ikigai translates to “the happiness of always being busy”. It’s the reason for being.

Though ikigai means finding the real purpose in your life which helps your longevity, the modern corporate world adapts the concept to find their ideal career or profession. Knowing your ikigai can help you achieve a perfect work-life balance, pursue your dream job and enjoy the social network at work and personal life.

To dig a little deeper in finding your modern ikigai, we first need to answer these 4 questions.

• What you love?

• What you are good at?

• What the world needs?

• What you can get paid for?

According to Japanese people, everyone has ikigai. Some have found theirs, while others are still looking, but it always lives within us. When your ikigai is clearly defined, it brings your life purpose, satisfaction, happiness and meaning.

What’s your Ikigai?

4 components of ikigai?

What you love? 

To answer this question, you will need to dig deeper and understand what makes you feel good. Something that you happily do without questions or concerns. It’s something that gives you a good hit of dopamine. Think about things that you cannot stop talking about. What is something that you can do anytime, anywhere with anyone, and it would still make you happy? For me, that is riding my motorcycle through the windy roads or going for a long walk in the bush. For you, it could be your hobby, like dancing, singing, or cooking.

What you are good at? 

OK, so you don’t really need a particular skill to walk through the bush but to find your ikigai, you will need to understand what you are good at. It could also be something that you want to be good at. IT could be something that you can just do without putting any effort. Maybe you were just born with a natural talent to empathize with people. Talking with people and listing to them comes naturally to you. But what if you weren’t, and this is something you really want to improve on? Or do people usually come to you with questions regarding a particular thing? All these things will help you find what you are good at.

What the world needs? 

The word “world” here refers to your community, your workplace or literally the world in general. To find you ikigai, we will now have to work out what others want from you or if there is a real need for it in the world. In my case, riding my motorcycle is clearly only bringing me joy, so one could argue that it’s not my ikigai. However, if you look deeper, my passion for riding my motorcycle means that I have now supported someone who has manufactured the bike, the dealer who sold it to me, the mechanic who maintains it and the fuel station from which I buy my fuel. Therefore, I am supporting a whole economic cycle with my passion.

What you can get paid for? 

To live a happy, successful life, you need to get paid. We can’t survive if we don’t get paid and keep up with the expenses. It won’t matter if you’re good at something or something you love unless you get rewarded for it. Therefore, your ikigai should be something that you can monetize. It could be your work, your hobby that makes you money, or your side hustle. So, look for something that people are ready to buy from you. Something that you can make a career of. It could be something you start, but it will benefit you over time.

Finding your ikigai can be an enriching journey. One that can unleash your potential at work or in your personal life. However, it requires commitment, and most people will struggle with this. Remember, this is not something you can achieve overnight. For some, it will be self-evident, but for others, it will take a lot of time. The best place to start is to start answering these questions and let your mind run wild. When answering these questions, you must be honest with yourself. There will be things overlapping, and that’s absolutely fine. This process will also help you discover your passion, mission, vocation and profession. I will dig a little deeper into these elements in my next blog. But for now, download the workbook and start answering these questions.

Trust me. You’ve got this!