Finding your life’s purpose can be rewarding and at the same time elusive for many individuals. Ikigai is a Japanese word which means a reason for living or being. There is a short story in Japan that describes the concept quite beautifully.
In a small village outside Osaka, a woman in a coma was dying. She suddenly had a feeling that she was taken up to heaven and stood before the Voice of her ancestors.
“Who are you?” the Voice said to her.
“I am the wife of the mayor,” she replied.
“I did not ask whose wife you are but who are you.”
“I am a mother of four children.”
“I did not ask whose mother you are, but who you are.”
“I am a school teacher.”
“I did not ask what your profession is but who you are.”
And so it went. No matter what she replied, she did not seem to give a satisfactory answer to the question, “Who are you?”
“I am a Shinto.”
“I did not ask what your religion is but who you are.”
“I am the one who wakes up each day to care for my family, and nurture the young minds of children at my school.”
She passed the examination, and was sent back to Earth. The next morning she woke at sunrise, feeling a deep sense of meaning and purpose. She tended to her children’s lunches, and planned fun lessons for her students that day. The woman had discovered her Ikiagi.
The simplicity and depth of this story is astounding
At the end of the day when you strip off all the labels, who are you and what is your purpose? This question is not easy, there is beauty in the challenge this question brings into your experience when you ask it of yourself.
In today’s society we are driven by stimulation and entertain from all sorts of avenues, this blog post included. These stimuli can function as way to distract from finding our Ikiagi, our reason for being. This distraction can come by us not allowing or creating the space for in-depth self-reflection.
If you think about where you are right now in your life, have you allowed yourself the time to search for yourself? I know that I haven’t allowed myself the space to find myself at least not consistently. There is a diagram that was developed to help you assess or find your Ikiagi.
The diagram shows four key components
- What you LOVE
- What you are GOOD AT
- What the world NEEDS
- What you can be PAID FOR
Ask yourself, what the answer is for each of these questions. Be honest with yourself. This may be uncomfortable, but growth never happens from a place of comfort. It can bring a whole new insight into how you view yourself and are constructing the life you are choosing to lead. Looking further at the diagram we see that Ikigai is at the center of the intersection of these questions.
We can think of these questions as the pillars for creating a life for ourselves that is worth living for. If you notice the intersection of “What you LOVE” and “What you are GOOD AT” has an intersection called Passion. By using this intersection and overlapping it with “What you can be PAID FOR” it creates “Satisfaction, but feeling of uselessness.”
All four pillars are necessary, there is lacking that is generated by the absence of one of these pillars. It is like trying to sit in a chair that is designed with 4 legs, yet it only has 3 that are structurally sound. Yes, it may be possible to use the chair in this way, but is it sustainable?
Dan Buettner in on of my favorite TED talks, “How to Live to Be 100,” describes the confusion surrounding the factors that impact the longevity of life. He talks about some myths and discusses some shocking statistics about life in the United States compared to other parts of the world. I highly recommend to watch this talk.
Ikiagi and Okinawa
My favorite part is when Dan talks about Okinawa and in particular about Ikiagi. The Okinawan people instantly were able to tell others their Ikiagi, if they were asked. To me that is amazing. As I write this my own Ikiagi isn’t fully clarified. I am working toward this.
Maybe, the Okinawan people are onto something? I currently don’t have all legs of my chair standing strong, I recognize that and I am willing to put in the work to change that. Do you have an Ikiagi? What is your reason for being? If you’ve enjoyed this post, please do me a favor, share it and sign up to be notified of future posts.