Practical steps to embracing Ikigai in your journey
I love using this tool in my coaching practice. I lived and worked in Japan a few moons ago and witnessed this in practice in so may areas of Japanese daily life and culture.
A loose translation of Ikigai is 'reason for being'. If you are new to this concept you can break the Japanese word down into 'iki' which refers to life and 'kai' which can be translated into 'a realization of what one expects and hopes for'.
Doesn't this sound like what we all desire in a fulfilled life? Especially as we reach our late 30s and into our 40s and beyond as we seek deeper connections to our self awareness.
All area's of our life cannot be stuffed into convenient silo's - we cannot simply say 'let's work on career' or 'let's focus on our love life one step at a time. Each aspect of our lives cross over into each region organically so when we have traction in one area yet still remain feeling empty or lost that is because we are not in balance.
At the basic level Ikigai is broken into
four spheres or elements:
What you love - your passion & mission
What the world needs - your mission & vocation
What you are good at - your passion & profession
What you get paid for - your profession & vocation
Look at the diagram - can you see the four spheres and how they overlap? A perfect Venn diagram showing where all of our ‘reasons for being’ overlap and where we may begin to feel empty if we are not in balance. For example if our passion and our profession feel satisfactory we still may be left feeling that perhaps we are not making any positive impact on the world and so we feel empty or feel like we are searching or missing something. The same with our love, passion and mission being razor sharp but we are broke.
Imagine if you were able to live a life where all of these four cornerstones were in balance! We are often caught in a trap of what we feel we need to do to support our families, deliver on our obligations or even make a living. By identifying our Ikigai we can use a solutions based approach to merge the four cornerstones of our lives into something more harmonious.
Try these steps to start crafting your Ikigai and move forward in your life:
On a piece of paper draw the circles overlapping like in the diagram above
Label them What we love, What the world needs, What we can be paid for, What we are good at
Next jot down key words, phrases and ideas that come up for you in each circle and look for areas of natural overlap
Here are a few questions you can ask yourself to get going:
What do you love? What makes you come alive?
What do you think the world needs? What would you like to change in thew world? What upsets you about the world?
What are you great at? What talents come naturally to you? What skills do you have that are natural?
What do people pay you for? What service can you offer that has value that you can get paid for? What is something people need to make them happy they would be willing to pay for?
Once you have done all the above, reflect on what you have created. This may take several sessions to complete - as a matter of fact I often break this down into 2-3 sessions with my clients. Often times a client may have several passions so we need to discover the ones that resonate the strongest, or you may experience a set back once you start living in your Ikigai - this is normal and you will have to make adjustments. Sharing your Ikigai with like minded people help as well so let others know what you are doing and what you have discovered about yourself - it is a gift worth sharing!
I hope this new concept of Ikigai will bring you an Eureka moment - those are so kick-ass and worthy of celebration. Let me know how it goes! Here is a worksheet to help guide you! Download and print today.
Happy Ikigai-ing beautiful people!
Rani
xo