The Art of Ikigai — Living a Long and Meaningful Life
Find your reasons for being.
Western tradition is to work and then retire.
You spend 30–40 years in a job and earn good money. If you’re lucky you’re happy with your life and go on vacation twice a year.
Then you retire and spend your time at home, in the garden, or move to a foreign country to spend your money.
But you stop doing meaningful things.
Although, most people do.
Not in Okinawa, Japan — a place known as one of the “Blue Zones”.
People live significantly longer here.
They have a purpose in their life and they don’t retire. The concept of “retirement” doesn’t exist here.
They found their Ikigai — their reason for being.
The 4 Fundamentals of Ikigai
In the concept of Ikigai, 4 major elements combined represent the recipe for a meaningful life:
- The things you love.
- The things you are good at.
- The things the world needs.
- The things you get paid for.
Sometimes these 4 things align, that’s when you’ve got everything in the right…
