IKIGAI — Book review

Hi friends, I would like to review a book I read last month (Jan 2023).

We all know Japanese people are top in many fields — Innovation, Craftmanship, Way of life, etc.

As well as Japan faced a lot of crises (Neculier boom blast, Tsunami, earthquake) in past decades. But these setbacks could not make Japan to stagnant.

More Centurians are living in Japan than in other parts of the world. Japanese people have a long life expectancy. The average life expectancy in Japan is more than 80 years.

We all have something to learn from Japanese people. What makes them live such a life? What is behind all their success and resilience?

That is what this book reveals.

There are four questions we need to ask ourselves and find answers to each question.

• What do you love?
• What does the world need?
• What you can be paid for?
• What are you good at?

IKIGAI is the combination of the above four questions.

This book teaches about logotherapy. Logotherapy is the method, to find the purpose in our life.

Logotherapy:

In this method, we must ask a critical question about our life. Questions, like “Why do you not commit suicide?” and find answers to the question. The concentration camp survivor Viktor Frankl used this method to find purpose and meaning in life.

This book teaches us about antiaging. It teaches us what exercise we need to do, and what food needs to eat for living more.

Finding Flow in Everything you Do:

Flow is, the state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it.

It teaches us to find flow in our life and the various methods the Japanese follow in their work life.

I have underlined many quotes in this book. The below quotes are my favourites.

• Treat everyone like a brother, even if you have met them before.
• Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances to choose one’s own way.
• He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how.
• Concentrating on one thing at a time may be the single most important factor in achieving flow.
• The happiest people are not the ones who achieve the most. They are the ones who spend more time than others in a state of flow.
• The grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.
• If you smile and open your heart, your grandchildren and everyone else will want to see you.
• Resilience is our ability to deal with setbacks. The more resilient we are, the easier it will be to pick ourselves up and get back to what gives meaning to our lives.
• The stoics viewed those who were able to control their emotions are virtuous.
• This moment exists only now, and will not come again.
• Antifragility is beyond resilience or robustness. The resilient resists shocks and stays the same; the antifragile gets better.
• Life is not a problem to be solved. Just remember to have something that keeps you busy doing what you love while being surrounded by the people who love you.

Thank you for reading! Have a nice day!