ONE OF our favorite things about what we do in NEARSOL is we have great opportunities to learn from amazing people everyday.
We’re a motley crew of professionals, artists, intellectuals, people from all walks of life, as well as all colors of the rainbow. Because we welcome a wide age gamut, we get the best of everything – wisdom from those who have lived many summers and lightheartedness from the younger set.
In a recent huddle, one of ours brought up a concept that many of us were familiar with but hardly discussed… ikigai.
Ikigai is a Japanese term that translates to “reason for being.” Pronounced ee-key-guy, this concept strives to balance the practical with the spiritual. It is a combination of the Japanese words ikiru (to live) and kai (the sensation of what one hopes for). Put together, it means “a reason to live” or having a life purpose.
The ongoing pandemic moved us away from the idea that economic success, wealth, property, and material possessions are signs of achievement. More than ever, we have realized that what matters is happiness, connection, belonging, health… togetherness.
COVID-19, in a huge way, has reconstructed how we define happiness. It has also made so many of us take a long hard look at our life’s purpose.
Your ikigai is your reason for jumping out of bed
That proverbial coffee commercial (Para kanino ka bumabangon?), which translates to (Who do you get out of bed for?), hit a chord in all of us because it forces us to rethink how we view our reason for being. With that in mind, how do you answer that question? How do we find our ikigai?
No matter how lost you may feel, Japanese culture believes that everyone has ikigai. Finding our strengths, however, isn’t always easy. Here are four questions that usually get thrown around to help you. Ask yourself.
1. What do I love?
2. What am I good at?
3. What can I be paid for?
4. What does the world need?
The first question is your passion. The second, your vocation. The third, your profession. The last, your mission.
Ikigai is the union of those four fundamental concepts – your passion, vocation, profession, and mission.
Simply put, it’s where what you love and what you’re good at, meets what you can get paid for that the world needs.
Many spend a lifetime finding that golden overlap. Ikigai becomes complete when the goal also implies service to the company. After we fulfill our personal needs, our need for satisfaction will now include giving gifts than receiving.
This isn’t, of course, to say, that work is the only thing that matters. There’s a subtle difference between your life’s work and the things that are important in your life. Ikigai is about finding balance, joy, and fulfillment in your daily grind.
It can be easy to fall into the thinking that our families, jobs, and passions are separate and unrelated. But the central truth of ikigai is that nothing is isolated. Everything is connected, and the key here is to find that balance.
If you’re in that extraordinary journey of finding that equilibrium in your life, allow yourself opportunities to try things. Perhaps it’s a different job or function. It could be a hobby or advocacy. The possibilities are endless./PN
