What’s your IKIGAI in life?
Ikigai is a Japanese concept that combines the terms iki meaning “alive” or “life” and gai meaning “benefit” or “worth.”
Ikigai refers to defining your personal meaning of life in relation to your talents, passions, and profession, as well as what you can give to the wider world.These terms mean that which gives your life worth, meaning, or purpose. Ikigai is similar to the French term “raison d’etre” or “reason for being.”
Embracing the joy of little things, being in the here and now, reflecting on past happy memories, and having a frame of mind that one can build a happy and active life.”
The five pillars of IKIGAI are:
- Starting small
- Releasing Yourself
- Harmony and sustainability
- The joy of little things
- Being in here and now
Four Components of Ikigai
In your pursuit to find your ikigai, there are four things that you need to tick off of your list. Figuring out what these four things are will give you a better direction as you continue your search. Your ikigai should be:
1. What you love
Your ikigai should be something that you enjoy doing. It can be anything that makes you feel good; something that you would willingly do anytime. It’s something that will get your dopamine levels up and anytime you have the chance to talk about it and share it with others, you would gladly do so in a heartbeat. It can be as simple as a hobby that you really enjoy doing, such as writing, creating videos, taking photos, painting, dancing, baking cakes, or even collecting stamps.
Think about what brings you joy, the activities that make you forget everything else, and what makes you feel in flow. Sometimes it’s a hobby and you may be already doing it. Or it could be a routine task that you particularly enjoy doing.
But stuck in the busyness of life, it might be difficult to remember what you truly love doing! So think about what makes you curious, what made you passionate before. You could also think back to your childhood and teenage years and remember what activities you loved doing, or the jobs that you wanted to do.
2. What you are good at
Another thing that can help you get closer to finding your ikigai is figuring out what you are, or would like to be, good at. Is there something that you naturally excel at? Something that you can effortlessly accomplish or are considered an expert in? Or maybe there is something that you are willing to learn doing, something you have strived to learn doing or have worked hard to attain?
There are two things to consider here:
YOUR STRENGTHS
These are activities that you enjoy doing and that energize you. There might be some repetitions from the ‘do what you love’ section and that’s fine. It’ll reinforce that it’s something truly important to you. You can explore your strengths by looking at this list of 60 strengths by Strengths Profile. Pick the ones that you wish you could do all day if you had the choice.
YOUR SKILLS
These are the competencies that you’ve learned over time, through education and professional experience. Skills can be split into two categories.
Hard skills are about knowledge and abilities: specific tasks and processes you can complete, tools or software you can use, languages you can speak, etc. Think about all the jobs you have done previously, including weekend and summer jobs, or internships, and all the courses you have taken. If you’re stuck, you can have a look at this list.
Soft skills focus on personal attributes and traits. They can come from your personality and will feel natural to you. For this reason, it’s sometimes hard to figure them out. Here’s another list to get you started. If you want to know more about your personality, you can start by taking the free 16personalities test. It’ll give a pretty detailed overview of your profile.
This is about the impact you want to have, whether it is on your local community, on a specific group of people, or in the world. Yes, you can think big, there’s nothing presumptuous about that. Think about who or what inspires you, but also what makes you angry or frustrated. If you want to dive deeper into that section, you could also spend time identifying your values.
It can be a skill that you’ve spent years perfecting, such as videography, public speaking, fashion design, marketing, counseling, or computer programming. So if you are doing something that you love and you are actually good at, then you have now ticked two items off your list to find your ikigai.
3. What you can get paid or rewarded for
To find your ikigai, you should also know what you can get financially rewarded for. Keep in mind that, for us to survive, we need to earn money to support our daily needs and expenses. Thus your ikigai should ideally be something that can get you paid. It’s not enough that you just love what you do or that you are good at it. It also matters that you are properly compensated for it and that it helps put food on the table and clothes on your back.
Money is not really part of the original Ikigai concept, but it’s a reflection of the reality of our world; we need to earn an income to support the lifestyle we have chosen. So if you can include a money-making activity in your Ikigai, it’s just better! It could be by doing a job, by selling a product and/or a service.
This is where you can think about what you could teach others, what skills and strengths you can transfer, and what you can create (whether it is a physical product or adding value to someone).
4. What the world needs
The fourth component for finding your ikigai is something that the world, or a community, needs. Knowing that what we do helps make the world we live in a better place helps us feel good. It makes us feel that we are playing an important role in our community. Nowadays, one reason why a lot of people are not happy with what they do is that they don’t always see the value of what they do. Knowing that your work can change the lives of others, can help you get closer to finding your ikigai.
How to Find Your Ikigai
Now that you know what it takes to find your ikigai, you can now start analyzing what these four components are in your life. By knowing what you love, what you are good at, what you can get paid for, and what the world needs, it can be a lot easier for you to understand what your ikigai is.
