IKIGAI EEKY-GUY!?
A New Take On an Old Concept: Finding Your Life’s Purpose
“The things that make me different are the things that make ME.”
- (Piglet), A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh
EEKY-GUY!?!
Sorry! Couldn’t resist the crazy title but at least now you know how to properly pronounce:
IKIGAI!
Yep, IKIGAI. You may have already read about or heard about this divine Japanese term.
If you are ALREADY familiar with the concept and have read other articles about Ikigai I encourage you to:
KEEP READING !!
BECAUSE this is not a cookie-cutter-rip-off treatise of the concept of Ikigai. I’ve done my homework! I’ve made a few IMPORTANT adjustments to what most writers (who have come before me) have to say. Some well-meaning writers and coaches may have veered off the path a bit when addressing the original intention of this beautiful and essential concept.
Ikigai is your “why” in life. The French call it your ‘raison d’ etre’, your reason for living. Ikigai boils down to that ‘thing’ at the center of your being. The thing that gets you out of bed in the morning — beside your alarm clock, having to pee, or your dog leaping on your chest and licking you in the face — that’s your Ikigai. Get to know your Ikigai and wake up to joy — every day.
Sounds heavenly, right?
Ikigai requires you to ask yourself:
“WHAT MAKES MY LIFE WORTHWHILE?”
That’s really a WOWZA of a concept to wrap your head around, right?! But it is also an exciting one and there is an INFINITE amount of magic and power you will discover in identifying your unique IKIGAI.
No wand required.
I am super excited to share this with you and if you’ve never heard of Ikigai or if you have read 500 articles about it, I guarantee THIS article will be a life changer for you.
The Japanese perception of Ikigai is spiritual. It’s deep. It’s nuanced. It is soulful and ingrained in the culture and lives at the center of every human and is a universal human experience.
There has been much written about it. A lot. So, that is the good news and the bad news. A few ‘pop’ psych blogs and sites and some Ted Talk mania have branded and Westernized and boiled this concept (that is deeply integrated into the Japanese culture) down into a Venn Diagram. Many have attempted to make it a trend. Kind of like an ice-bucket-challenge-of-life-philosophy.
WHAT!?!
No worries. No FOMO. Its pop zeitgeist status is good, in a way, because shining a light on enlightenment and having an exercise for people to sink their psyches into can be useful. I am all for that.
But I feel the cookie-cutter diagram commonly used (Google it and you will see the Venn’s all over the internet) is not entirely accurate. I’m more of a purist in my view of Ikigai. And so are the Japanese and a few other purists out there who feel that the simple singularity of this life focus is better off unfettered by ‘Western’ views of what is truly important in life.
Yes, there is a simplicity to “Eeky-guy” but make no mistake, this concept and the exercise provided in this article just might be the biggest, baddest, deepest life-dive you will ever do!
So, get ready.
The concept of Ikigai is nuanced to say the least. There is an ethereal nature to it, however, once locked and loaded, this fairy dust of a concept miraculously has the potential to blast an essential path into your future.
The Greeks also had a word for it: eudaimonia. Aristotle refers to it. Without getting into Philosophy 101 here, suffice it to say it was a deep sense of a life well lived, pursuing what is worthwhile in life. The deep-thinking Greeks also revered the words and concept of “Know Thyself” which was carved into the stones at the entrance to the Greek Oracle of Delphi.
Philosophies, no matter the origination, provide a framework, a toolkit, and some instructions to help you build your life and allow you to be a better person and live your best life.
Enough of the backstory. What are the deets on Ikigai?
Your Ikigai is an exclusive rendezvous of all the things that are uniquely ‘you’. You might be thinking now, “ok, thanks. But how the heck do I figure that out?” No worries, I have a little exercise I am going to share with you here that provides a shortcut (not invented by me but slightly MODIFIED by me because I’m a purist and a bit of a perfectionist).
So, isn’t this Ikigai thing just like that old saying: “follow your passions and the (insert noun you would like here) will follow”?
Kind of. Think of it as more of a life mastery, a challenge, a center of gravity. Ikigai is part compass; part commitment; part intention. It’s not just a ‘one-off’. It’s more of a navigation tool for all life decisions, be it personal relationships, work, learning a trade or skill — anything really. The process is very turnkey, and the results are life changing.
Do not expect an ‘abracadabra!’ kind of magic. Expect more of a warm, glowing, energy-emanating kind of conjuring. Think about your life choices in terms of planting a garden or a field. The IKIGAI will inform what you decide to plant, where you will plant it, how to prepare the soil, how you care for what you plant, how to tend and prune it all as it grows and how and when and if to harvest it.
But won’t it take a lot of energy and work to do this?
Marvelously, the amount of energy you put into this exercise will give you back that much more energy a bazillion-fold. Taking the time to discover your Ikigai is a reflexive and powerful exercise. Have you ever looked in a mirror with another mirror behind you in such a way that it looks like there are an infinite number of mirrors and infinite number of ‘yous’ — unending, boundless and without limit? It’s kind of like that.
Also, I want to let you in on a little secret. The things you are uber-excited to do in life, the things that you are passionate about are NOT just random, indiscriminate, haphazard bits zinging around in this wondrous world of ours.
Nope.
EVERYTHING is connected.
EVERYTHING is connected to purpose.
YOU are in THIS WORLD.
And
The WORLD needs YOU.
That unique intersection of your gifts and passions that have been bestowed upon you; the why the world needs you; that reason to pop out of bed every day; your IKAGAI — that is what you should FOLLOW in life.
Pablo Picasso said,
“The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.”
Gaining a deeper knowledge of your gifts in life allows you to give a gift to the world and that is a fairly worthwhile endeavor don’t you think?
Once you understand your Ikigai you will possess a deep ‘knowing’. This magical knowing is a true compass directing you with a power all its own and my intuition tells me you will not be able to stop once you start down your “Eeky-Guy” path.
Ok. I’m ready. What’s next?
About ten years ago pop Spanish Astrologer/Psychologist, Andres Zuzunaga, wrote a book containing a “Venn Diagram of Purpose”. This diagram was picked up by a blogger and then a Ted Talker and then others who used the “Diagram of Purpose” to illustrate a simple way to think of Ikigai. This newly minted “Ikigai Diagram” went viral and reached meme status as a color-coded-fill-in-the-blanks illustration used by life coaches and HR people worldwide.
Google images has a million of ’em. Not all bad news. This little Venn Diagram provided a decent construct for life’s purpose, illustrating it as an intersection, a meeting place, a convergence of what Mr. Zuzunaga saw as four main ingredients:
- What you LOVE
- What you CARE ABOUT and are most likely GOOD AT
- What the WORLD AROUND YOU NEEDS
- What you can get PAID FOR (apparently real deal Ikigai doesn’t call for this!)
Luckily the very handy-dandy ‘Venn-Diagram’ Mr. Zuzunaga came up with DOES help you focus some very important elements of YOU. Honestly, I am all for tools to help people focus their passions, hearts desires and to pursue their life’s purpose.
BUT
(there is a significant BUT here)
In the TRUE spirit of Ikigai, I had to take a red pencil to it. I just made some small modifications, slighty tweaking the key elements so that the diagram you will create will:
Reflect more accurately
the simple joy of life’s purpose
and
illuminate the purity of the concept of Ikigai.
Although I did have some questions and made some changes, I believe using the diagram is a fun, useful learning tool. These kinds of diagrams have been used by philosophers and mathematicians for centuries. Not a math-wonk? No worries. You’ve seen Venn-Diagrams everywhere! These wonderful and easy to read series of simple overlapping circles will help you see where and how various and different categories or “subsets” of your ‘self’ might intersect. It’s a very straightforward concept and pretty cool, actually.
I would like to emphasize that this is just a tool. Math is formulaic and helps find solutions but life is not absolute. Life is mutable and therefore, so is your life’s purpose. Oh, and you can have more than one throughout your life! Always time for a bonus round.
My wonderful inspirational and supportive mother said to me a long time ago: “You can do whatever you want in life. You can achieve all you want. The problem is finding out exactly what that is. Once you do, sky’s the limit.” I may add that she had several careers in her life.
I say, why not use a tool to help you find out ‘what that is’ NOW…at this moment in your life?!? Right?
So, here are the ‘new and improved’ categories you may use to aid your focus.
Note the changes I made in BOLD:
- What you LOVE
- What you CARE ABOUT/ARE GOOD AT/WOULD LIKE TO LEARN
- What the WORLD NEEDS. WHAT CAN YOU GIVE?
- What you are REWARDED BY
Let’s look at and review the categories:
->What you LOVE:
What makes your heart sing? What do you love to do? What tickles your happiness bones?
I like to write. I like to help people. So, I do it.
->What you CARE ABOUT/ARE GOOD AT/WOULD LIKE TO LEARN
I augmented this because what you care about isn’t necessarily what you are good at. Your life’s purpose can be aspirational in addition to being inspirational, right!? Why not incentivize yourself to learn something?
I care about communicating with people in other languages. I speak a couple of languages but I have devoted time to learn more. It’s part of my life’s purpose to communicate with people.
->What the WORLD NEEDS. WHAT CAN YOU GIVE?
I added “What you can give to the world” because when I answered this question I wrote in World Peace. No big thing, right? But not something you can snap your fingers and achieve.
So, I constantly ask myself what I can give to the world and try to just do it. Baby steps. But firmly in my life’s purpose.
->What you are REWARDED BY
I really felt the need to modify this from the ‘original’ Western ‘money, money, money’ WHAT YOU CAN GET PAID FOR,
BECAUSE compensation is not always monetary, right?!?
Life is multifaceted. In addition, life grows and changes as we grow older and our values and relationship to remuneration is mutable.
I’ve provided you with a nice template here. All you must do is fill in each of the categories, step back and take a GOOD look.
Right there in the center of the diagram a version of your
IKAGAI will MAGICALLY appear
and become clear to you!
Poof! No Eye of Newt needed!
It is YOUR Venn-Diagram. Make Mr. Venn Proud! Feel free to create your Ikigai diagram in color or in black and white; use words and/or images to fill it in; Pencil it in or collage it. Make it wonderful and creative! Who knows, you might just want to frame it!
Don’t be impatient.
Let the process flow.
This is not a TEST where you check a bunch of boxes!
Let it be an exercise in introspection and exploration.
Let it be an inquiry into the soul.
Allow for the fact that the things you identify today might grow and change over time.
Allow the process to help guide you to your life and to living your life well.
And feel free to let me know how it goes!