Embracing Ikigai: The Reason To Get up In The Morning!
Ikigai in Japanese concept is the fusion of iki, meaning “alive” or “life,” and gai, meaning “benefit” or “worth.” Something that gives your life worth, meaning, or purpose. I bet you have one, haven't you?
In French, Ikigai is famed as “raison d’etre” or “reason for being.”
But in India, I guess, the term given by Jay Shetty, a former Monk, fits better to understand Ikigai. In fact, I would say it is an Ikigai synonym. it is called "Dharma"- Accordingly, in your life, you ought to be any one of these four personalities (Leader, Guide, Creator, Maker). So who are you originally? Start thinking!
Embracing Ikigai: The Reason To Get up In The Morning!
Now, how to find your Ikigai? Or straightly put, "The reason for you to get up every single morning?" This blog will delve deeper into its definition and simplify the methods to find Ikigai for you.
Did this ever occur to you that after you got up from bed, you felt like unworthy, as if you had asked yourself "What's going on and what next in my life"? Did you experience this lack of life flow or the sense of something being missed but you don't know what? Was your Monday morning a nightmare? Or you got into the loop where boredom, void, and disinterest cling often despite being in the best possible life scenario.
Naturally, you have it all: one nice home, a loving family, a respectable job, a fancy car, some good money, and even sound health, but for how long do all these serve or will serve as an alternative to your wake-up call?
How long will you wake up in the morning with the same booming desire to drive your merc? Or how much bigger home you will build to give your life meaning? Over time, everything fades, loses interest, and eventually, happiness goes costlier. Where is that sustainability that wakes you up with the same amount of push?
In a nutshell, nothing gives you a reason for being, nothing keeps you on the go, nothing gives your existence a meaning, and nothing keeps you in the flow except you have your Ikigai completely defined.
But before diving deeper, let us understand 3 most important characteristics that every individual must possess to have a fulfilling and meaningful life:
- A person must be enjoying the flow of what he is doing
- A person must be pursuing a purpose and not the goal/ objectives (There is a huge difference between Goal and Purpose)
- A person's doing must align with his skill and talent
#Ikigai Framework
It is the core of main four elements: Passion, Mission, Profession, and Vocation. To be in the core, you have to master these four.
#Passion
It is loving what you are good at and/or doing what you love the most. (Here don't get confused with similar terms like Hobby and Obsession. A hobby is something you do when you are free to get pleasure. Passion is something where you manage your time in order to perform the task, and this is in your control. While obsession is similar to passion, but it is out of your control).
You Make videos (Which you actually don't like) just because everybody else is making to increase their followers and monetize the same is not your passion. What you are good at must be appreciated by you every single time, this is your passion.
#Mission
It is what you love doing, must also be something that the world needs. If simplified, it states that your love must contribute to the world. For example, if you are a computer operator and managing data for your company, then here it looks like it is your mission, but if you are not loving the computer job and doing it just for the sake of money, then you are failing at your mission. Your Ikigai just untangles here.
Instead, if you are a singer, something that you love the most is also spreading music in the world and recognizing your country, then it is your true mission. The same could go for an educator, a doctor, or a footballer.
Sudha Murty, Sachin Tendulkar, Warren Buffett, and Saroj Khan are some brilliant examples among a few alike.
My favorite is Clint Eastwood, a 93-year-old Hollywood actor/ director, who still is working with his Ikigai. Still directing movies!
#Profession
It is what you are good at must also pay you. Even more important is, that what you are being paid for must be the kind of thing you ought to be above par with.
Just being an author without the capacity to monetize your work is not a profession. Conversely, If you are rewarded with a handsome salary for being a CEO, but you are terrible at running an organization, then by all means it is not your profession.
For example, nowadays AI(Artificial intelligence) based software developers, Coders, and DATA scientists are paid in millions because they are damn good at it, and vice versa.
#Vocation
It is the work for which you are being paid must be the kind of expertise the world is needing. That being said, what the world doesn't need is not your vocation even if you are being insanely paid for that.
Speaking harshly though; being an astronaut is a Vocation but not being a terrorist, let alone later to be the expert in making firearms and being funded for the same.
Most executive jobs (White-collar 9 to 5 ones) fall in this category but lack mission.
#But is it easy to master all 4 elements?
Well, difficult but not impossible!
Passion gives satisfaction, and keeps you in the flow but fails to create impact.
Mission gives delight, a sense of fulfilment and accomplishment but the creation of wealth could be a challenge here.
Profession gives you a feeling of comfort but over time it converts into a vacuum or emptiness.
Vocation gives you much-needed excitement, complacency, and a sense of self-worth, but uncertainty always looms.
So, a janitor, journalist, or Jeff Bezos, you’ll find pleasure and value in what you do if you find your Ikigai.
#But why purpose is so important?
In a Ted talk, an author and speaker, Dan Buettner preaches about people who live with purpose, who do work that jives with their reason to get up in the morning, live longer.
Lack of purpose not only throws us into a deep depression but also affects the lives of those around us.
Unlike Goal, Purpose never ends but grooms us even better and clears all the chances of a vacuum that could follow. Let's say if your purpose is to help needy people, then will it ever end? If your purpose is to educate the world with your skills, will it end? But your purpose in buying an expensive smartphone will certainly end and generate a vacuum in searching which next.
In conclusion, the purpose is a sustainable life while the Goal is an addictive life that always demands extra, never fulfilling.
#Way(s) to find Ikigai
#1 Finding your calling
Hunter-gatherers had their calling as soon as they woke up - The Food. This sole purpose made them evolve over time and their longevity increased. They loved to feast, so they hunted, at which they were great. Consequently, it became their profession and they were paid back with a variety of meat. However, they didn't know when they became part of a vocation since a food chain was in the making, which was the need of that world.
So I guess, Ikigai is wholly intertwined with basic human instincts. Calling is always there, just you have to put your heart at it. Find it, it is just there!
#2 Begin with little
Finding your calling doesn't mean leaving it all and finding the ways of the Himalayas to have that enlightenment or venturing into a penniless business since you are fading up with your 9 to 5 jobs. No, it doesn't work like that.
Calling comes when one seeks sustainable, repeatable pleasure that asks only one thing, an unwavering will. Starting big has fewer chances of sustainability and repeatability, but a small, peaceful, and unintentional doing always opens doors.
Characteristics of calling: It is distraction-proof, eternally joyful, fearless, secure, and process-oriented.
Planting a sapling, writing a poem, doing a little charity, or simply helping someone in a day are some beautiful examples.
#3 Finding the flow
This is something very close to your passion. Let's say you have identified something that you love and are good at, too, but you can't find your flow if this "something" is not sufficiently fascinating enough that coerce you to overstretch/ manage/ spare your time. No matter how busy you are, you still find your time to do it.
And yet, while doing it you have no regret, no urgency, no expectation, but only peace, tranquility, and the vibes of completeness. That's the flow.
And one more thing: This flow is flawless!
#4 Don't retire
Ikigai in a nutshell is all about keep working! Yes, when your mind senses that the body has stopped working, that it has no purpose as if to get off the bed, step out, and has lost the meanings of its extensions, it starts perishing too.
With this, it loses its core responsibility to wake you up in the morning of this many years, and this shocks your mind. However, this shock spreads gradually and numbs your nerves, further disabling you at one or another organ.
A time comes when it believes that the body is no longer useful and shuts it down long before its time!
This is the core learning from Ikigai: Keep your mind and body busy in working towards your purpose, and you will have a long, meaningful life!
In fact, besides these, a Tokyo-based neuroscientist and author Ken Mogi has identified the five central pillars of Ikigai as:
- Starting small
- Releasing yourself
- Harmony and sustainability
- The joy of little things
- Being in the here and now
Living life with these simple principles makes it meaningful, and the purpose that comes out of it keeps you on the go. Unfortunately, hardly a person tries to look within and picks up the seeds that could grow him into a tree. The tree, which is great at shedding fruits, is needful to this world, and moreover, it is great at it.
In the opinion of Phraseitup, the tree is the best metaphor to explain the Ikigai.
Discussing Ikigai has no end, but I wish, in fewer words Phraseitup has been able to strike your chords, that you shall look deeper into your hearts, and at least once, you shall write for you: What you love? What you are good at? What you are being paid for? and What the world needs from you?
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