How to Profit from Living Your Purpose: By Finding Ikigai — Michell Stanley

Ikigai derives from the words iki meaning ‘alive’ or ‘life,’ and gai meaning ‘benefit’ or ‘worth.’ It’s the Japanese concept of living a life of worth and meaning by finding purpose and balance. It is about achieving your reason for being.

But how do you achieve Ikigai and what is the philosophy behind it? Keep reading to find out.

Finding Purpose in Work

Finding Ikigai is about achieving the balance between the four elements in your life: Your passion, your skills, how you earn a living, and the needs of the world.

It goes without saying, if you work to improve your work life, you’ll be closer to achieving the Ikigai state of mind.

First, you have to consider whether you have career satisfaction? Do you like your job? and What needs to change for you to enjoy it more?

This is something you continuously need to reassess as your desires and your life moves and changes.

Do you find yourself engaged in the work you do, eager to get up and go each morning? Or is it difficult to remain focused and to get motivated? If so, it’s time to think about making a change. That might mean changing jobs or a career shift. It might simply mean changing your routines or your perspective.

The premise of Ikigai is that purpose isn’t reached through one decision or even one career. True purpose is a journey that can begin immediately as you start spending more doing what you LOVE. If you work on something you enjoy, it gives you meaning, motivation and inspiration— this is how you find your Ikigai. When you’re so immersed in living your worth the day flies by, instead of dragging on as you watch the clock.

Philosophy of Purpose

If you want to start figuring out your purpose. You can start by looking at the Ikigai Venn diagram (shown beside this text) with the four overlapping circles that represent the four elements and Ikigai holding the central positions. The key to filling in the different spheres is not just to use your thinking-mind but to also tap into your intuition and insight. Next, fill in the 4 categories according to your personality.

Start with What You Love? This can also be done similar to a gratitude practice. You can reflect, remember and acknowledge the things you are grateful for.

Next move to: What are you good at? This can also be prompted with the statement: “I Am . . .” this might help you bring to mind things that you know and believe about yourself, as well as things others have shared about you.

What do you think the world needs? I caution anyone doing this exercise from getting pigeon-holed into only thinking about potential jobs or careers you know of. Instead: First think about all the roles, responsibilities and processes you most enjoy. Then list out all the benefits to others that can come from these responsibilities, processes and roles you most enjoy.

What can you be paid for? This category is definitely the hardest part for most people. I suggest you start with the list above to identify ALL the possible jobs and work roles you can think of that incorporate what your good at without limiting yourself to your current or past work experience. The point here is to find as many possibilities as you can. A common life coaching prompt would encourage you to make a list of 25 possible job and work roles. Challenge yourself to see if you can do it!

Living into your Worth

Once you’ve designed this, you’ll have a visual representation of the overlap of the four elements in your life — if any at all. The point is that you don’t have to figure it all out today. All you need to do is to simply start spending more and more time living into as many of these categories as you can every day. Even if it’s just one at a time. Over time, you’ll be able to determine where you stand in reaching the ultimate balance and finding purpose.

You can see which elements of your life are lacking and where adjustments need to be made to improve the balance. Once you’ve completed the diagram, dive deeper into thinking about the intersections between the diagrams to connect to your worth.

Achieving Ikigai, Achieving Balance

Where do you stand on the path to achieving Ikigai? Take time to think about the content of the four elements and where they intersect in order to uncover your purpose and reason for being.

If you can work to find these balances and overlaps, you’ll find Ikigai. Life coaching is a conversation geared to help you understand your core values, mission, worth and purpose.

Through life coaching, you can begin your journey today. Get in touch with us today if you are interested in either receiving life coaching or even becoming one: Click Here to Learn more!

Originally published at https://mokshaliving.org.