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The complex layers of Japanese culture remain a mystery to the casual observer. However, recently the concept of ikigai has gained attention internationally due to its link to longevity. So what is ikigai and how do you find yours?
In the early 1990s, I worked for Hitachi, in their European office in London. The week I joined the company my Japanese manager sat down with me and told me a story about a man who had worked for years as the driver of a school bus. Every day he drove the local children to and from school. The job was boring and repetitive. However, this Japanese man was different from your average grumpy driver. He smiled at each child as they boarded the bus, greeted them by name, asked how their day was on the return journey. He loved his job and his young passengers.
Although my manager didn’t explicitly use the term, I now realise he was introducing me to the Japanese concept of ikigai.
What is ikigai?
Ikigai (生き甲斐) is both widely understood throughout Japan, and connected to longevity in the southern islands of Okinawa, one of Dan Buettner’s Blue Zones (a region where people live much longer than average). The word derives from iki, meaning life and kai, meaning the realisation of hopes and expectations. It loosely translates to ‘a reason for being’, but has a wider definition that encompasses both a sense of fulfillment and contribution.
It seems that the current diagram doing the circuit on the internet is a bit of a Western mashup of the concept. (Read more about how this diagram evolved in Kyle Kowalski’s blog.) However since many of us spend a large percentage of our time at work, it’s a useful way of identifying if your paid employment aligns with your talents and passions, thus leading to career satisfaction. So let’s look at it first.
The starting point is to identify what you love doing. If you are good at what you love doing, and there is a need for it, then chances are someone will be willing to pay you to do it. Where these four attributes intersect is your ikigai, your reason for getting out of bed in the morning.
In the story above the bus driver had combined his skill and enjoyment of driving with his love of children and found fulfillment in his job. But I got a sense from my manager at Hitachi that the point of his story was that the Japanese driver would have done the job regardless of whether he got paid and that his contribution to his local community was as important as the remuneration.
The following diagram for ikigai removes the circle for remuneration and takes it closer to its Japanese origin. This diagram is more useful to those who are retired, volunteer workers, full-time parents, and so forth.
Those who found their identity through work may struggle to transition in retirement. Again the key here is to find a balance between the three circles, starting with what you love doing, and what you can contribute, which leads to a sense of purpose and fulfillment. There may be times when your talents are called on by those in need, but if you don’t enjoy what you are doing then there is a sense of obligation in giving your time that may not be sustainable in the long-term.
Be aware that there may be more than one ikigai for you, or it may change over time as your interests change and your skills develop. You might volunteer your time in something that you are not initially that good at, with an eagerness to learn new things, that eventually you master. Being a parent may be your main calling, but financial obligations mean you need to work. Finding work close to your ‘paid’ ikigai will make your time away from parenting seem more worthwhile.
I’d like to leave you with the New York Post’s review of Héctor García and Francesc Miralles’s book Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life, since it greatly amused me:
“If hygge is the art of doing nothing, ikigai is the art of doing something—and doing it with supreme focus and joy.”
—New York Post
I’m sure there is more to hygge than that, so I will be covering this Danish life philosophy in a future post.
References
Kyle Kowalski: The Truth about Ikigai: Definitions, Diagrams & Myths about the Japanese Life Purpose
Dan Buettner: Blue Zones
Héctor García and Francesc Miralles: Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life
Heather Ogden-Handa
Good to meet you! I’m a marketer and writer interested in aging and longevity. I see lots of great information out there, so I’m keen to share topics that take my interest. Over time I hope the knowledge and community around this blog will have a positive impact on the healthy lifestyles of many individuals.