What is Ikigai?
Ikigai is a Japanese term that roughly translates as an idea of happiness in living. It is essentially about valuing your life and finding happiness in your everyday choices. It is the intersection of what you love, what you are good at, and what the world values. It is the reason you wake up every morning and embrace another day in your life.
Understanding the true meaning of Ikigai is a powerful way to base your life on self-motivation and enjoy a healthy sense of achievement.
- To be purposive
Ikigai is about the need to be motivated and being quick to act on your purposes, every moment, every day. If you want to do something but are scared to venture, witness someone already doing something similar to what you have in mind. Be confident that you can do it too and that the world around you will value your actions even if it means spending a quiet day with an elder, reflecting about their life through the years.
- To think smaller
Ikigai is also about feeling that your work benefits the world around you and makes a difference in people’s lives. It is finding a more significant meaning to even the simplest and the minor things that you accomplish. Instead of trying to solve world hunger or give up in frustration, you can start small by helping someone around you.
- To diversify your life
It is about accepting that there is more to happiness in life than just waking up every morning and accomplishing your duties for the day. One needs to broaden horizons and be happy to reach out and explore several other ways to engage with the world around you every day.
- To find happiness in living and achieving
It is the process of allowing the self’s possibilities to blossom. Imagine your life as a flower that blooms to its fullest potential. It is to delight the world with who you are and who you can be. Ikigai is what, day after day and year after year, each of us essentially lives for.
- To not relate everything to work or money
Ikigai isn’t necessarily about your chosen line of work because you were not born only to work for a living. Instead, you are living because you can accomplish many things, not all of it for money. It is about pursuing your Ikigai until the end of your life.
- To find the ‘Why’ of your life
Your purpose to live and be happy need not be a pursuit only of your career or the happiness of your family. While it does encompass those, too, your purpose of living can go far beyond and includes the things you do simply for the pleasure of yourself and others. To find meaning in what you love, what you are good at, and what the people around you value at any given moment.
- To realize life is not about one true purpose
Ikigai is not a grand design or something extraordinary. It is, in fact, about leading a matter-of-fact life. It realizes that being happy is not about huge ambitions; sometimes, all you need is some friends to sip tea with and talk to. It is about getting rid of the chaos and learning to live in the moment, one day at a time.
In conclusion
The idea of Ikigai, at its core, tells you that there is nothing called one true purpose. It is about many happy reasons to remain active, taking it slow, never giving in to greed, surround yourself with good friends, smile, connect with nature, be thankful, and always live in the moment. If you want to know more about Ikigai, there are several online courses available at a click. Do explore them. It is, after all, a matter of following your Ikigai.