How to find your Ikigai
What is Ikigai?
Ikigai (ee-key-guy) is a Japanese concept that combines the terms iki, meaning “alive” or “life,” and gai, meaning “benefit” or “worth.” This helps us to identify a lifestyle that strives to balance the spiritual with the practical.
Ikigai is similar to the French term “raison d’etre” or “reason for being.”
Discover your Ikigai
According to this concept, each and every one has an Ikigai. And it is different from person to person. Detecting our strengths is not always that much easy. Going through the following steps will help you to find your Ikigai.
- What you love
- What you are good at
- What the world needs
- What you can get paid for
As you can see in this diagram, Ikigai holds the central position and involves four major spheres of interest and how they might overlap in one’s life. When you trying to find your own Ikigai, you can use this diagram and fill the above mentioned spheres with contents based on your experiences, knowledge and how you understand the world.
What you love
As it says, this sphere contains things that brings us happy in the life. This can be anything. Traveling, cooking, reading, writing, singing, rock climbing, etc.
What is important is that we allow ourselves to think deeply about what we love, without any concern for whether we are good at it, whether the world needs it, or if we can get paid for doing it.
What you are good at
This sphere contains anything you are good at, such as your skills, your talents from your childhood, what you have learned, your hobbies, and etc. What you are good at might be, for example, playing the piano, being empathic, public speaking, sports, brain surgery, or painting portraits.
This encompasses talents and capabilities, regardless of you are passionate about them, whether the world needs them, or if you can get paid for them.
What the world needs
The “world” here might be humanity as a whole, a small community you are in touch with, or anything in between. What the world needs might be based on your impressions or needs expressed by others. The world’s needs might include skilled nursing, clean water, home heating, election day volunteers, or improved police training.
This domain of ikigai connects most explicitly with other people and doing good for them, beyond one’s own needs.
You Are Paid for It
This dimension of the diagram also refers to the world or society at large, in that it involves what someone else is willing to pay you for or “what the market will bear.” You might be passionate about writing poetry or very good at rock climbing, but this does not necessarily mean you can get paid for it.
Whether you can get paid for your passions or talents depends on factors such as the state of the economy, whether your passions/talents are in demand, etc.
You can try this your by yourself and find your own personal Ikigai. If you can find your Ikigai, you will be able to get paid by doing what you love, what your are good at and what the world needs.
I hope this article will help you to find your Ikigai.
