My recent email about the hobby issue reminded a reader of the folks trying to complete this ‘ikigai’ bullshit square to feel happy.
This was a fantastic cue for a new email, as Ikigai can be a good tool in your toolbox, but some misunderstandings prevent success.
Or in the worst case, an endless cycle of trying to chase happiness.
Ikigai is a Japanese concept of finding what brings meaning to your life. And it’s highly personal, so meaning can range from grand purposes to enjoying tea in the morning or raising kids.
What makes life worth living is your “ikigai,” and there can be more than one.
Sounds simple, right?
And nothing to check.
The first issue is how it spread into the West.
Suddenly, it became a Venn diagram across four areas of life:
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What you love
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What you’re good at
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What the world needs
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What you can be paid for
Like this one here:
Now, we suddenly have limits and constraints, which direct our focus to the center.
To get there, you need to check all the circles.
Folks rack their brains, go on trips, crying and despair because they don’t find their one thing that fits into the center of the diagram.
Along the way, they often ignore the thing that actually brings meaning to their life.
Just because it does not fit into the diagram.
Even if they find something, a few months in, they might realize it wasn’t it or isn’t the right thing anymore.
One main culprit is that they fail at the “What you can be paid for”.
Which joins hands with our hobby topic from last time.
The misassumption that when you get paid for doing stuff you love, you will be happy.
No, no, no, no.
Whatever thing you enjoy, when you bring money into the equation, it can ruin your joy.
Sometimes it takes a few years, other times it’s gone in a few days.
Another main issue why “ikigai fails” is that we forget the circle of change. Life is everlasting change. Everything will change. Nothing is set there once and stays forever.
You change. The things you love change. The things you don’t like change.
Let’s accept and go with it and not start regretting or blaming ourselves.
Pick the things that bring you meaning and satisfaction and focus on them.
Accept that it will change.
You might even need to do things you don’t like to keep your meaning. Or, phrased for the Venn diagram, stick to a decent job even if it’s not your life-fulfilling purpose.
So be it.
You can always change that to something you like more without having to go crazy to hit the center of a “stupid” diagram.
Enjoy your ikigai :-)