Blog 17 — Purpose & The Ikigai

My Life Purpose Before the Search of My Ikigai…

When I was still working in the corporate world, I did not think or reflect on life’s purpose at all. What I focused on doing was work, work, and work. Back then, I had the mindset of making sure I worked hard to earn my pay for making a living. It was all about monetary gain, nothing else.

I wanted to prove to my father so much that, without the master’s degree certificate, I could make sufficient money to live comfortably. I wanted to show my father so much that, good income does not necessarily need a higher academic certificate. This was my only purpose of working hard when I first moved back to Malaysia for good and looked for my first job in Malaysia.

How did my daily work in the company contribute directly to the people around me? I did not know, and I am still not sure. I guess, there was indirect contribution, but it is not significant at all to the society and people around me to notice.

What is our purpose in life? Are we living our life purposefully? It is a huge subject for reflection and self discovery.

The Ikigai…

Ikigai — A Japanese term. Everyone is believed to have Ikigai, the life purpose that keeps a person wake up in the morning and live life happily and healthily. It is just that some people might not have awakened to start searching for it, or some people might be still in the midst of searching for their Ikigai, or some might have already found it and happily living their life.

I did not know about Ikigai, until last year heard about it from a friend. And I thought I could be as simple as asking myself the four questions without the need to have deeper reflection or thinking. Now in the conjunction of going through coaching certification class and reading Coach Mel’s “Engage”, for the very first time, I did the Ikigai self-assessment. While I was going through the exercise, I felt that as we grow older and get wiser, subjective to the surrounding and environmental changes, our Ikigai could be evolved. Not sure how true it is, but it is a thought popped up my mind.

The Search of My Ikigai…

What can I get paid for?
During my corporate days, I got paid for solving problems strategically, specifically on sales operations matters and sales process improvement. I got paid well for pulling people together to complete a task or a project within the deadline given by management. I am also good in optimizing a process by taking away unnecessary steps which are not mandated by the rules and regulations.

Short Sentence: Gathering ideas and capable people to resolve problems efficiently.
One- or Two-Words Summary: Gathering Resources

What am I good at?
I am good in giving ideas to people to solve their problems when interacting with others. I am also good in searching the root cause of a problem by investigating the events chronology, then, from there to lead people to come out with the options what they could do to achieve their goals by resolving the obstacles they are facing.

Short Sentence: Understanding the problem’s root cause and leading people with options to resolve the issue.
One- or Two-Words Summary: Understanding

What do I love?
I love to interact with like-minded people. Exchanging thoughts, sharing opinions which could be beneficial to each other as inspiration, that would be the most ideal outcome and great way to maintain the good friendship with such like-minded person. I love the satisfaction feeling when knowing that my sharing of thought could be helpful to the person I interact with and that helps the person in knowing what to do next for life improvement.

Short-Sentence: Feeling satisfied when knowing my thoughts and opinions are inspiring and helpful to people.
One- or Two-Words Summary: Inspiring for improvement

What does the world need from Me?
The world needs me to be a great listener for people who needs guidance. In this world, there are many people cannot find a way out from the struggles they are facing because they do not have people who they are trusting, who is not judgemental, who is not biased, around them for them to share their challenges. Hence, there are many people cannot get over the struggles they are facing and eventually get into depression. The worst is giving up their life to end the suffering and struggles.

Short-Sentence: Spreading love and encouragement without judgement and bias to people who needs listener and guidance.
One- or Two-Words Summary: Spreading loving-kindness

By putting these words together, my Ikigai is “Spreading loving-kindness with inspiration by leading others to analyze and gather resources to resolve life challenges for improvement.”

This is my Ikigai for now. Will it be still the same years later or will it be changed at one point sooner? I am not sure, but I think this would be a great reflection to do on a regular (eg, yearly or bi-yearly) basis.

Be Respectful, Be Humble and Be Bold!