#Microblog Monday 190: Ikigai
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I didn’t hear about hygge until hygge was everywhere, so I am especially excited that I heard about ikigai before it jumped the shark. What is ikigai, you ask?
It’s the newest addition to our trend of borrowing ideas from other cultures without paying an iota of attention to other elements of the culture that support and nurture the idea. Fun!
Your ikigai is your “reason to jump out of bed each morning.” Or “the intersection of what you are good at and what you love doing.” You find your ikigai by doing four things: (1) making a list of everything you love doing, (2) making a list of everything you are good at doing, (3) making a list of profitable skills — things you know how to do that you can get paid to do, and (4) making a list of what the world needs. Where do all of those lists overlap?
At first I thought my ikigai was going to be writing, but I think it’s actually somewhere between disseminating ideas and pollinating thoughts.
What is your ikigai? And are you in the correct profession for your ikigai?
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10 comments
Good grief. I think I know, but I’m going to go and do these four exercises first. Though I have been thinking along these lines for years without clear success, so I’m not holding out much hope. Sigh.
I love your point about how we borrow ideas from other cultures without any of the surrounding contexts or supports. So true.
To answer the question, I think I’m with Mali and need to make the lists first. I do think that my chosen profession does fairly closely align with my suspected ikigai, though.
Meh – the things I love to do are not profitable. And if I had to do them for money, I would probably no longer enjoy them. Meanwhile, my profession employs many of my strengths, and, in many aspects, enjoyment would be a detriment. (Depending on which aspects one enjoys, it could lead to very harmful biases.) And the best things about my job are generally more about the flexibility of my employer than about the job itself.
Maybe when I retire, I’ll consider something like this.
I don’t think I have a ikigai 🙁
I am absolutely in the right profession for my ikigai (and I can say that without doing any of those four things) but my problem is I don’t have a permanent or even a relatively stable job and I can’t figure out where else to go that would also give me such a good match.
This requires a lot more time and thought than I am capable of right now! I love the idea of doing this exercise though, and will bookmark it for later.
Um, yeah…you’re right about borrowing things from cultures without all the supports and cultural pieces that go with them. I do love hygge, and have an obsession with Nordic culture. Rochester is actually the 6th most hygge city in the US (although that mostly means that we have real awful weather), which made me happy. It would be nice if some of these things could be TRULY adopted into culture. So, I made a real rudimentary ikigai list, and I feel like the word “profitable” trips me up. Because I feel like teaching combines a whole lot of my loves and my good ats, and definitely what the world needs, but profitable? Stable, yes, make-a-stack-of-money, no. I don’t think I have a lot of traditionally “profitable” things on my lists, but maybe if I think about that word differently it’s okay. If it’s truly the intersection of what you’re good at and what you love doing, then teaching Special Education reading and English is definitely my ikigai. I love this exercise, actually.
Maybe it’s because I’m responding at the end of the day, but I feel I’m too tired to have an ikigai.
I think you are spot on on yours.
1. I didn’t find out about hygge until people were saying it wasn’t a trend anymore.
2. Being a non-morning person, I typically only jump out of bed when I’m worried I’ve overslept. 😉
My job is close! It helps people, makes me money, and I like it. I’m not always convinced I am as good at it as I wish I was… That’s probably mostly self doubt talking!