Fig.1 (a) A popular ikigai diagram, which can be misleading and restrictive, even extractive. (b) Ikigai is inclusive, encompassing all categories of activities, leading to a broad and robust base of one's life.

There is a popular diagram circulating on the internet, showing ikigai as an overlapping region of what you love, what the world needs, what you are good at, and what you can be paid for. Surely, if there are any activities that satisfy all these conditions, they would be your excellent ikigai.

However, this diagram (Fig.1(a)) is too restrictive. If you think that your ikigai needs to satisfy all these conditions, they you are likely to miss a wide range of things which could actually be your ikigai. In addition, requiring your ikigai to satisfy all these conditions might result in efforts in your life being used as a tool to serve certain external purposes, making your life fall into the trap of an extractive system, which has been shown to stifle growth by researchers such as Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James Robinson, who were awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2024.

Ikigai is actually very inclusive, encompassing all categories depicted in the popular ikigai diagram and much beyond (Fig.1(b)).

6. Ikigai exercise 3

Since ikigai is quite inclusive, it would be great to recognize those activities that the participants might have thought useless, and not worthy of mentioning as ikigai.

What are the things that you love that the world doesn't need?

What are the things that you love that you cannot be paid for?

These two questions are crucial, in realizing that ikigai is not defined by utility alone.

In addition, the following question would be crucial.

What are the things that you love that you're not good at?

After the participants give responses, the following supplementary clarification might be useful.

In order for something to be your ikigai, you don't necessarily be good at it. For example, you might love playing the piano, while not good enough to become a professional pianist. You might love painting, without any hope of selling your works. The famous case of Florence Foster Jenkins, who loved to sing, but was objectively very poor in singing, is a beautiful example of what ikigai is. The 2016 film Florence Foster Jenkins, starring Merry Streep as the title role, is a great depiction of what ikigai is.

Fig.2 Florence Foster Jenkins (2016) poster for theaters.

Even more crucially, the following question would highlight the possibly wider nature of ikigai.  

What are the things that you would potentially love that you do not love now?

One's ikigai is not a fixed set of things. As you try new things in life, you might learn to love things that you didn't find interesting at first. Ikigai is a learning process. The all-encompassing ikigai circle in Fig.1(b) is crucial in that respect.

7. Ikigai Lecture 4

Being in the here and now (pillar 5) can be understood by remembering how, as a child, one spent time playing or learning something, absorbed in the action. Indeed, the experience of a child at play forgetful of the passage of time can serve as one of the great models of ikigai. The Hungarian-American psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (Csikszentmihalyi 2013) described such a psychological state as flow. There is a significant positive correlation between the experience of flow in childhood and ikigai score as adults (r=0.42, p=8.0x10-5) (reported in Yoshizawa and Mogi 2024, and ongoing).

Having an ikigai is like finding and reclaiming the inner child within you. Even if one feels quite grown-up, it is great to rediscover and nurture the inner child.

As Csikszentmihalyi stressed, flow is tightly related to creativity. Ikigai is also associated with creativity. Ikigai can be a coping mechanism in times of difficulty. The Japanese, in a country frequently suffering from natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunami, and volcanic eruptions, have developed ikigai in part as a positive coping attitude towards life's difficulties.

8. Ikigai exercise 4

Ask the participants to remember a time when they were absorbed in play as a child, having a flow state.

Drawing a picture of a childhood flow time would help reconnecting with the inner child. Fig.3 illustrates Ken Mogi's own recollection of childhood looking up at beautiful butterfly flying around a tree at an unreachable height.

As this example shows (which is not intentional), it is OK if the drawing is clumsy. People typically do not make clumsy drawings as adults. Making clumsy drawings would help bring a person back into childhood psychologically.

Fig.3 Ken Mogi's childhood recollection of looking up at a beautiful butterfly flying around a tree, unreachable. Such remembrance would help reconnection with the childhood, nurturing ikigai as adult.

9. Ikigai lecture 5

In the context of learning in the human brain, ikigai is unique in that it is different from proxy goals.

In life, there are many proxy goals. At school, high scores in exams and good grades are proxy goals. In work, making money and getting promotion would be proxy goals. Proxy goals can be helpful in realizing life's well-being. On the other hand, proxy goals can become extractive, using one's life as tools to maximize a purported evaluation function. If you follow your proxy goals too much, you could lose your well-being and ikigai.

Charles Goodhart, a British economist, made a great observation, which came to be known as Goodhart's law: When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.

There is a deep connection between ikigai and Goodhart's law. Ikigai is something intrinsic, which comes from within you, and cannot be described by any specific external measures. Indeed, ikigai aligns with the Goodhart's law well.

It is naturally possible to define measures for ikigai (which has been done already in the literature), but quantification should never have priority over remaining true to one's inner self and authentic motivations.

10. Ikigai exercise 5

It is possible that in their lives, the participants are putting too much emphasis on proxy goals. It would be great to list 3 important things in life, and reflect whether they aren't just proxy goals. For example, if the three important things are money, social status, and reputation, it would be useful to consider if these are not just proxy goals (which they likely are).

In addition, if participants are concerned too much about measures of one's activities (such as income, grades, and increasingly social media following), it would be great to dissociate these proxy measures from ikigai.

11. Ikigai lecture 6.

The life of typical modern person is too much occupied by digital devises and screen time.

To nurture ikigai, one would be well-advised to conduct digital detox. Digital devises are great means of information input, but the shutting of information is also important in promoting self-reflection and metacognition.

In the brain, clusters of functionally connected circuits, the Default Mode Network (DMN), starts to get active when the brain becomes idle (Fig.4). Meditation practices conducted, for example, in the Zen tradition is a great way to get the DMN activated. In the context of the contemporary life style, it is crucial to cut off the digital information. Meditation is an effective way to achieve digital detox.

In addition, walking or running are great ways to get the DMN activated. For many people, walking might be easier to do than running. In the tradition of Zen training, priests sometimes go for a long walk, in an action called walking meditation. Taking a walk and activating the DMN would facilitate the streamlining of your ideas about your ikigai, making metacognition of it possible.

In the age of artificial intelligence, ikigai is an umbrella term for describing embodied cognition in general. Leading a proactive life using your body would align with your ikigai. Taking a walk is a great way to enhance your embodied cognition.

Fig.4 The Default Mode Network (DMN) is activated when the brain goes into an idling mode, sorting out memories and connecting the dots, leading to inspiration and metacognition.

12. Ikigai exercise 6.

After some time spent indoors during the workshop, now it is perhaps a great time to take a walk, or even go for a run. If the physical setup of the workshop does not allow it, it is at least beneficial to remind the workshop participants to engage in physical activities once they are back in their respective lives. Taking a walk is a great way to nurture your ikigai.

Fig.5 Going for a walk or a run is a great way to nurture your ikigai.

At the end of the workshop:

It would be a great idea to ask Questions 1 and 2 Section 2. Ikigai exercise 1 again, to see how participants' ikigai score has changed, and to check if participants are able to give more examples of ikigai. It would be great to ask the participants if they can distinguish between proxy goals and genuine ikigai.

The participants might be happy to receive a token or a medal celebrating the completion of the ikigai workshop. Fig.6 is such an example designed by Ken Mogi using ChatGPT 4o. You may use if freely if you like.

Fig.6 Ikigai emblem featuring a playing child in the flow.

Thank you for reading my description of a potential ikigai workshop. Needless to say, everything about ikigai is evolving and developing. There would be great many ways to enhance your ikigai from here.

If you have any questions, please contact me at kenmogi2005qualia@gmail.com

Selected References

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2013). Flow: The psychology of happiness. Random House.

Goodhart, C. (1975). "Problems of Monetary Management: The UK Experience". In Courakis, Anthony S. (ed.). Inflation, Depression, and Economic Policy in the West. Totowa, New Jersey: Barnes and Noble Books (published 1981). p. 116.

Mogi, K. (2017). The little book of Ikigai: The essential Japanese way to finding your purpose in life. Quercus (London)

Mogi, K. (2023). The way of Nagomi, Quercus (London)

Robinson, J. A., and Acemoglu, D. (2012). Why nations fail: The origins of power, prosperity and poverty. London: Profile.

Yoshizawa, S. and Mogi, K. (2024) Symmetry and asymmetry in human-AI cooperation. PSTR193.01. Presented at Society for Neuroscience annual meeting, Chicago, IL.