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What is your IKIGAI?

I came across this term called “IKIGAI’ during a seminar and found it really interesting. IKIGAI, pronounced as “eye-ka-guy”, is a Japanese terminology which means “reason for living” or “life purpose” or “life mission”. You may ask yourself – what is the reason for your getting up from bed every morning that motivates you to go to work? What work can you do that you really enjoy doing and gives you self-satisfaction? The key is to finding the right balance between your Mission, Passion and Profession.

The 4 Questions you could ask

 According to IKIGAI, you ask yourself the below four questions:

 What do you love to do? ……..Mission

What are you good at, that you enjoy doing? …….. Passion

What does the world need? …..Vocation

What can you get paid for? …….Profession

The balance is found when your Mission converges with your Passion, map this to what other people need, and then, find a way to get Paid for it. Take a look at this diagram. Your IKIGAI lies in the centre of the four interconnecting circles.

The IKIGAI Diagram

When you work with a deep sense of purpose, then the commitment and quality of your work is high, and above all, you enjoy it. This is because a strong purpose involves having a wider perspective of how you could impact the larger community, so then, work down towards your goals.

Being a career success coach, I meet clients who are looking to transition to other career streams and often, a question that they have is, “What would be a suitable career that I could take up?”. Some even ask “What’s the purpose of my life?” and so on. I beleive, it’s for each of us to find out what is our purpose in life and then align our career accordingly.

I asked myself these questions, and got my answers. I enjoy coaching people, and nothing gives me greater satisfaction than when my clients tell me how the sessions changed things in their lives. 

I have found my IKIGAI !!

So, what’s your IKIGAI? Think about it. Would love to hear your comments about how you feel about this.

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