Ikigai

Finding your reason for being.

Published in

Shortbound

3 min readOct 24, 2018

Hey, hope you had a great weekend! I had one. But I’m not here to talk about our weekends, am I? By the way, how is Monday treating you? Yeah. Monday. The day that no one wants to hear.

But Monday doesn’t have to be that bad. And looks like we found a solution to fix just that, and it’s called “purpose.” You might ask, “Why do I need to have a purpose?” The short answer is, it helps you lead a more happier and healthier life — as research shows — because when you have a sense of purpose then you feel like you are in control of your actions, you are more motivated and resilient. It’s the thing that will motivate you to jump out of bed every morning. And there’s a better term for “sense of purpose.” It’s called ikigai. So today we are taking a detour from technology, entrepreneurship and design (TED), and discuss ikigai as briefly as possible.

What is ikigai?

Ikigai — pronounced ee-kee-guy — is a Japanese term and it roughly translates to “a reason for being.” Chances are you haven’t heard of this word before and that’s perfectly fine. A more better translation of the word would be “the thing that you live for” but it also has the nuance of “the reason for which you wake up in the morning” similar to a daily purpose. Each individual’s ikigai is personal to them and specific to their lives, values and beliefs.

Ikigai is not a formula, rather it’s a slow and deliberate process. It’s discovering the intersection of what you are good at and what you love doing. It’s the convergence of your passion, mission, vocation, and profession.

Why is ikigai important?

Many resign themselves to careers that bring them money and status but aren’t fulfilling. In both cases, over time, their sense of purpose can begin to fade. And according to recent studies, lacking a sense of purpose can be detrimental to your long-term health.

Discovering your own ikigai is said to bring fulfilment, happiness and make you live longer. It helps you follow your curiosity rather than what society thinks you should follow. It helps you discover yourself — the inner you, not the one that you wear to please others or get a job.

Discovering your ikigai

Discovering your ikigai simply is answering these four questions:

What do you love? (Passion)
What does the world need? (Mission)
What are you good at? (Vocation)
What can you get paid for? (Profession)

You don’t have to force yourself to come up with answers in one sitting. In fact, it’s more productive to take your time.

Over the course of a few days or weeks, take notes as ideas and insights come to you. Most importantly, be radically honest with yourself. Don’t be afraid to jot down whatever comes to mind, no matter how crazy or irrational it might seem right now.

Looking for inspiration

To discover you ikigai, you must first find what you’re most passionate about. Then, you find the medium through which you can express that passion.

Steve Jobs is a fantastic example of this idea. It’s easy to think of Jobs as a titan of technology, but that would be inaccurate. Jobs was a lover of fine craftsmanship, first and foremost.

Whether it was a matter of collecting handmade Japanese teacups or obsessing over design details of various products, he wrapped himself in his passion for finely made items.

Apple and Pixar were merely his chosen mediums of expression.