IKIGAI: a reason for being. Whenever you are puzzled about your career, happiness and meaning of your life, try finding your ikigai that can be a lamp to know your way. Ikigai is seen as the point in the center of interconnection of 4 components:
- Mission: What you love
- Passion: What you’re good at
- Vocation: What the world needs
- Profession: What you can get paid for
Great! this formula can be my guidance. But what if I couldn’t get answer for all these with my choice of life?
The most common questions that make someone to step back in deciding their ikigai are:
- Does doing this job really make me happy ALL THE TIME without boring?
- Am I good enough to follow my passion?
- Will I have a future scope if I take up my passion as my career?
- Will the world support me if I choose to do what I love?
All these fear arise out of the priorities you give for things in your life and defining your ikigai depends on this. Say, your mission is painting and your passion is also that. If it didn’t satisfy the rest of the questions, should I bid farewell to my wish? If it is the society that comes to your mind first and you depend on them,then this couldn’t be your ikigai. If your blood relations are the choice, then this is not perfect ikigai for you. But if it is “You” whom you rank first, then obviously this could be your best ikigai.
In their book “Ikigai The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life”, Hector Garcia and Francesc Miralles broke down the ten rules that can help anyone find their own ikigai.
1. Stay active and don’t retire
2. Leave urgency behind and adopt a slower pace of life
3. Only eat until you are 80 per cent full
4. Surround yourself with good friends
5. Get in shape through daily, gentle exercise
6. Smile and acknowledge people around you
7. Reconnect with nature
8. Give thanks to anything that brightens our day and makes us feel alive.
9. Live in the moment
10. Follow your ikigai
Last but not the least, ask the question “WHY” until you reach the core level of any problem. And never forget one things, “No decision is a wrong decision. Do what you feel because it’s your life.”
Sisha Says 