Apr 11, 2021
Finding Ikigai/Self-discovery questions
Career Ikigai: How to find and do what you love, and grow in your Career
Ikigai, your purpose of life. Love what you need to do and eventually Do what you love to do. Inspired from the concepts in book -Life’s amazing secrets and Ikigai. A framework to find your purpose.
If you do what you love, you’ll never have to work a day in life.
To start living with purpose, you don’t need to give up everything and make drastic life changes. Many of us don’t really love what we do, our job, but we spend most of our time working to pay bills, maintain our lifestyle, take care of our families. Some of us take a leap and do what we love to do, while some of us still figuring out what we really love to do.
Finding and reaching purpose in life is a Journey, not an event. Discovering purpose is like unboxing a gift. One needs to extract many layers to finally see the beautiful gift.
Ikigai
Ikigai is a Japanese concept in the Heian period (794–1185) in Japan, which means a reason to live or having a purpose in life. According to Akihiro Hasegawa, a clinical psychologist and Associate Professor at Toyo Eiwa University and one of Japan’s leading researchers on Ikigai, the word Iki means life, and the word gai is originated from kai, which means Shell. In the Heian period (794–1185), the shells were considered extremely valuable.
How to find purpose in life / How to find your Ikigai
Ask yourself these 4 questions -
- What do you love?
- What are you good at?
- What does the world need?
- What can you get paid for?
Passion — finding what you are good at and love to do.
Profession — finding what are you good at and what can you be paid for
Vocation — finding what are you paid for and what the world needs
Mission — finding what the world needs and what you love to do
For those who found their purpose or Ikigai and would want to live it, there are two things you can start doing:
Start loving what you need to do
Ask yourself — Which part of the job I love? And focus on those parts.
Make time in life for what you love to do
Most of us tend to waste our time doing window shopping, binge watch, do stuff unconsciously, which doesn’t serve our purpose. You need to set time aside to research and start taking small steps towards your purpose. Any long journey begins with a single step.
Start adding small tasks every day that you love and that drive you towards your purpose. Take calculated risks to start doing what you love to do. One day what you love to do and what pays the bills can be the same if we really work on ourselves.
Summary
- Understand yourself to know what is meaningful to you. It takes dedication, patience, and commitment.
- Find what do you want to devote your time to?
- Reaching a purpose in life is a journey and not an event.
