Ikigai (生き甲斐)

Ground Rules

You must be 110% honest to yourself. After all, it is about finding reason for your life.

If you lie, you will get into the world you do not desire to live with.

Sensing Your Potentials

These are the 4 stage questions to figure out your potentials. They are arranged in sequences.

1 - What Do You Love?

List out all the things you love, as in, cat, ice-scream, tv shows, etc. This list can be very big as long as you feel warm and filling inside.

The goal is to list out how many things you love.

2 - What Are You Good At?

List out all the things you are good at, like touching your nose with your tongue, singing, making best scramble eggs, etc.

The goal is to figure out how wide your potential is.

3 - What Actually You Can Get Paid For?

List out all the job / profession based on the previous 2 lists.

The goal is to figure out what you are good at and get paid for.

4 - What Does the World Need that You Can Provide?

There are 2 sections in this question:

• What do you personally need? (master of swordsmanship, master in social marketing, ...)
• What do the world needs? (kindness, discipline, talent, ...)

Figure Your Passion, Mission, Profession, and Vocation

Now we will need to organize all the activities according to 4 focal points. These are not arranged in sequence so feel free to do them at your wish.

Passion

Passion are the common activities you love and good at. You need to get those activities that appear in both "What Do You Love?" and "What Are You Good At?".

These activities can recharges you mentally and spiritually.

Mission

Mission are the activities love and the world needs. You need to get those activities that appear in both "What Do You Love?" and "What Does the World Need?".

These activities give you meaning in your execution.

Profession

Profession are the activities you are good at and get paid for. You need to get those activities that appear in both "What You Are Good At?" and "What Actually You Can Get Paid For?".

These activities give you money.

Vocation

Vocation are the activities the world needs and get paid for. You need to get those activities that appear in both "What Does the World Need?" and "What Actually You Can Get Paid For?".

These activities give you the meaning of you work and get paid for it.

Explore and Balance

Now that you have the list of focused activities, you can now balance them in your daily routine. Try to incorporate as many activities you love into your daily life to make your execution more fulfilling.

Note that it is not necessary that you must be focusing on profession (getting paid) only. You can balance out like spending time with your health, family, etc.

Some tips from Mogi Kenichirō (茂木 健一郎) related to balancing your life:

Form a Morning Ritual

The beginning of the day is the best time to plan for your day and execute your routine. Try to plan with more focused activities you love and you will be happily executing them everyday.

Enjoy Every Single Moment

Enjoy the presence. Do not forget about your gratitude and appreciation.

Find Your Happy Hobby

You need something you enjoy to recharge yourself.

That's all about Ikigai!