About

How to find your Ikigai? 

What is Ikigai?

Philosophers have been deliberating over constructs that explain the pursuit of happiness and the meaning of life for centuries. Ikigai is one thought to combine the Japanese words ikiru, meaning “to live”, and kai, meaning “the sensation of what hopes for”. Together these definitions create “a reason to live” or having a life purpose.

We all strive for satisfaction and purpose in our lives. Your ikigai is your reason for jumping out of bed in the morning, what motivates you to revel in and appreciate life every day.

Ikigai is a beneficial practice in career growth because like your own passions and needs, and what the world needs — the meditation of ikigai grows and changes with you. There’s not necessarily an end to your ikigai practice, it’s an ongoing journey.

How to find your Ikigai?

According to Japanese culture, everyone has ikigai. Detecting our strengths is not always easy. There are four questions that can help us find our path. If you write them down somewhere where you come across them regularly, you can use them as a compass bringing you closer to your purpose.

To find your Ikigai, you must ask yourself:

1. What do I love? (passion)
2. What am I good at? (vocation)
3. What can I be paid for? (profession)
4. What does the world need? (mission)

Ikigai is the union point of four fundamental components of life: passion, vocation, profession and mission. In other words, where; what you love meets what you are good at, meets what you can be valued and paid for meets that which the world needs. Ikigai is only complete if the goal implies service to the community. We feel more satisfied giving gifts than receiving.The next step, once you’ve identified these components, would be to start following your compass. Start working on your questions, and see how your answers fit in the Ikigai fundamental components.

According to the diagram, the intersection of what you are good at and what you can be paid for is your profession. The intersection of what the world needs and what you love is your mission.

Sometimes three of the criteria overlap, like the case where your passion (what you are good and what you love) and your mission (what you love and what the world needs) overlap. In that case, you have “delight and fullness, but no wealth.” Ikigai is when all four criteria are satisfied.

The 5 pillars that enhance your Ikigai.

In addition to answering those four questions about ourselves, there is another layer to the Ikigai concept: It is much easier to feel Ikigai when we create social connections. This explanation is perhaps due to the ingrained social connections that Japanese society promotes and is conditioned to seek.

Ken Mogi, a neuroscientist and author of Awakening Your Ikigai, advises us to focus on what he labels the five pillars, which are:

1. Starting small
2. Accepting yourself
3. Connecting with the world around you
4. Seeking out small joys
5. Being in the here and now

To make the most of the five pillar method, Mogi suggests incorporating this mindset in the first couple of hours after you wake up to start your day on the right foot and get your brain accustomed to this way of thinking.

Time to find your Ikigai.

Keeping the five pillars in mind, take 10 minutes to ask yourself those four core questions. Be honest in your answers and see what you come up with.

Over the next several weeks, set aside time to ponder these questions. You might even consider journaling your answer and thinking about how your answers change over time. Revisit them a month from now. Six months. A year.

We cannot expect to find our Ikigai overnight. Ikigai is an understanding of our own unique life mission, and for most, that takes many years — and it often changes. However, the more determined you are to find your Ikigai, the more quickly you will do so.