We’ve spoken about ikigai and specifically its definition as a confluence of four things:
- What you love
- What the world needs
- What you can be paid for
- What you are good at
This is illustrated in the diagram below:
Do you notice that this diagram not only pictorially illustrates what an ikigai is but also the method to define your ikigai?
Most of us do not have the luxury of starting our working lives in anything other than in the “what you can get paid for” circle.
That’s not a bad … or a good, thing. It’s just a fact. It’s also practical. Life requires money for shelter, transportation, food … all those piddling little things we can’t seem to do without.
So if you are only in this quadrant, that’s great! You’re earning some money. Hopefully, it’s enough to support you and your family. You just need to recognise that the most money will not come from being only in this quadrant. It comes from finding your ikigai.
You also need to recognise that it’s not sustainable to stay only in this quadrant. To remain fully engaged in whatever it is you’re doing, you need to move to one of the overlapped spaces.
You’ll be surprised by how much easier it is to re-engage with colleagues, clients, and family after those 10 minutes. You’ll be surprised at how much more energized and creative you become after just 90-120 minute sprints throughout the day.
The second step many of us take is getting really good at what we’re getting paid for, and that moves us into the “Profession” overlap.
If we’re lucky and it’s also ‘what the world needs’ we moved into the ‘comfortable’ overlap. But it also means we have a ‘feeling of emptiness’. The fix here is simple. We just need to study what we’ve become good at and discover what about that we love, and make the career change.
I have a friend who started in logistics managing the docking and unloading of ships. It paid okay and she got quite good at being organized. But, she disliked the job. She thought about what she loved to do and realised that she loved helping people – and especially helping them feel better.
So, she found a job instead of organizing the office for a physical therapist. She was so good at it that she had extra time to study to become a licensed physical therapist assistant. Now she has a job managing a team and seeing patients.
It doesn’t matter where you start from in this diagram – You can always step towards your ikigai by asking yourself which circle or overlap you are in and how it be combined with the circle you are missing.
It may take time.
It may take reflection.
But the reward … a purpose-filled life … is so worth it!
Good luck on the journey. 😊
