Hi everyone.
Welcome back to Lavendaire.
Today I want to talk about
how to figure out what to do with your life, especially if you're in the early stages
of being lost.
Maybe you're young, you don't know where to take your life.
Or maybe you've been going down your path in one direction, and then you're like,
"Wait.
I don't know if I want to keep doing this for the rest of my life."
So you're trying to see what you're going to do next.
Before I go into it, I do have to note that there's not one thing that you're supposed
to do
with your life.
There are an array of options that you could take your life.
So it's entirely up to you.
And also: there is a possibility that you feel like
you want to do this thing for this number of years and maybe you'll change
and then you want to do something else.
I don't think that life is one set path.
There are loops and turns and maybe you'll go back to something else, and I don't know.
There's no way to predict it, but there are ways to hone in on
some clues on what you could be doing with your life that will make you feel fulfilled,
as well as giving you a way to make a living.
The way I see it is: You're born with a set of gifts, strengths, and talents,
and you're meant to use those.
And as you go through life, you're going to pick up skills
here and there, and I believe you're meant to use all of those skills as well.
You're equipped with this set of resources, and you're meant to use those
to do something that you love, something that contributes to the world
and helps others in some way, and also something that can help you make money,
make a living.
Because that's gonna enable you to keep doing more of what you love.
So there's definitely a sweet spot where all of these things overlap and that's the area
where you should be looking towards when deciding what to do with your life.
If you've seen my "How to Find Your Purpose in Life" video–I'll link it right here–
it's very similar to finding your purpose.
But today I want to focus more in terms of career,
what you can do with your life career-wise.
In that purpose video,
a subscriber actually recommended I check out the Japanese concept of ikigai.
So I checked it out and I was like, "Whoa.
This is basically what I'm getting at."
It's so similar so I thought I'd share that as well.
Ikigai basically means a reason for living.
It's your reason for getting up in the morning.
They break it down into four parts and then the area where it overlaps in the middle is
called
your "ikigai".
Or I call it "your sweet spot".
You could also call it your purpose or your mission in life.
Whatever label you want to put on it, it's essentially the same thing.
It's what to do with your life.
The first area is what you're good at.
These are your gifts, your talents,
and your skills, whatever you have in your arsenal.
The second part is what you love to do.
These are your passions, your interests,
your curiosities, things that spark something in you that get you excited.
The next section is what the world needs.
These are ways you can contribute to the world,
ways you can help others or help society in some way.
The last section is what you can be paid for.
These are things you can do
that people would pay you for.
Brainstorm your skills, things you can offer to the world.
Once you can list out all the things in each of these four sections, figure out what can
overlap.
What is in that middle?
What is in that sweet spot?
And that is your ikigai
or your purpose or your reason for living, what you should do with your life.
For those of you who want to work through this exercise on paper.
I've made a free worksheet you can download if you click here or in the description below.
If you also want to just save this graphic, maybe pin it on Pinterest, I put it up on
my blog.
Links are down below.
I'll just share what I wrote down on my worksheet so maybe that can spark some inspiration
for you when you're working through yours.
"What I'm good at": I feel like I'm good at making videos.
I'm good at writing.
Marketing.
Anything to do with visuals, whether it's graphic design, photography.
I'm good at music.
I can sing.
I can play piano by ear.
I'm good at organizing and planning.
And I'm pretty good at directions, like remembering where I came from
and not getting lost, things like that.
Things that I love: I love art, visuals, photography, music.
I love performing.
I love learning.
I love reading.
I love improving myself, I love growing.
I love sharing things I'm excited about.
I love dancing, traveling,
exploring new things.
And I love getting inspired.
In "What the world needs", I wrote: millennials on YouTube teaching
and talking about self-help and living your dreams because before I started this channel,
I couldn't really find people my age talking about this.
I just learned it from old people in books.
I truly believe the world needs more people who are confident, loving,
supportive, and proactive.
People who are actively going for their dreams
and giving their best for the world instead of just settling for what society told them
to do.
And lastly "Things I could be paid for": copywriting, photography, or videography.
Social media marketing, a job that requires organizing or planning.
Content-creating, video-editing.
Even things like teaching piano, teaching English.
Uber driving because I'm great at driving and I'm great at directions.
But yeah, you guys get the point.
After filling out the four areas,
I would see if there were any things that I wrote in all four categories that could
overlap
and become part of that ikigai.
You have to use some creativity here
because it might not be so obvious.
Obviously, for me, I know that what I am doing now
is something that I love and that I want to keep doing for the rest of my life.
So I feel like I've found my ikigai, at least for now.
And so it's pretty clear for me
that I can put all my gifts and talents into the content-creating business that I have
right now.
But I do want to note how there are things in certain bubbles but not all four bubbles.
For example: I love music, I love singing, and I was pursuing music for some time,
but I realized it wasn't contributing to the world in the way I wanted to contribute to
the world.
For example: I felt like, with songs, you can only do so much.
Yeah, you can inspire people
but it's not really a direct impact where I will actively change people's lives.
And I was seeking that direct influence to be able to help people live their dream.
With music, it wasn't exactly helping the world in the way that I wanted to help,
and it wasn't exactly giving me as much of an income as I wanted to live my dream life.
And if we look at the last bubble, I could totally be making a living teaching piano
or teaching English in a different country or even Uber driving, but how much of a waste
would it be to just teach piano if I had all these other gifts of writing and designing,
taking photos.
So you have to find a way where all these four things overlap
because if you just do something that's in one circle or in two circles or even three,
you're missing one other area that's pretty crucial.
So now, I hope you guys got a better sense of how you can start to discover
what your sweet spot is, what your ikigai is.
Let me know how it goes.
Alright, last resource that I want to point you guys to is this video that I made
called "Find Those Moments Where You Shine" because I realize that
even after you do this exercise and this worksheet, it might not be clear what you should do.
It might help you figure out the direction, but you still have to live life and explore
a little bit.
So, in that video, basically what I talked about it: Start paying attention to moments
where you're shining, where you're glowing, moments where you're at your best
and you feel like things are just so fun, things are happening easily because–
Just keep an eye on those moments.
Be aware because those are clues
that you are doing what you should be doing with your life.
For example: I've been taking a lot of dance classes and each class there's a different
teacher,
but I notice that some teachers have more of a glow to them than others.
And it's because those teachers, maybe they're glowing because that's exactly
what they're meant to be doing.
They're meant to be teaching, they're meant to empower
other people through dance.
And in those classes, it's especially empowering and inspiring,
even if it's just a hip hop dance class VS other teachers, I don't get the same feeling.
Maybe those teachers are just good dancers, but they're not meant to be teaching.
Not to say that they can't teach at all, but maybe that's not where they're supposed to
thrive.
So find those moments where you come alive and you're thriving and you feel amazing.
For me, I feel alive and I feel like I'm shining when I'm performing or when I'm in the flow
of creating a visual document like the worksheet that I created for you guys.
I have a lot of fun doing that.
Even when I was in business school,
the class that I excelled at was called Business Communications
where we had to write business memos.
I had to format all of this visual information
in bullet points and make boxes . And I had a lot of fun with that
and I got like an A++ in that class, because I was so good at making things
that are similar to the worksheets that I create now.
It's so funny, right?
So download that worksheet, do this exercise, but also start paying attention to moments
where you shine, moments where you're thriving and you're at your best
because these are all the clues that can help you figure out what to do with your life.
Good luck!
I really hope you find it because when you find that thing that you're meant to do,
you're gonna feel so happy.
Your life is gonna feel so full, and you're gonna bring
your best to the world, which means that we get the benefits of having your best.
You contribute to society, and you make a living doing what you love,
doing what you're good at.
That's the best of everything.
Thank you so much for watching.
Please comment below if you plan on
doing the exercise because I'm really curious to hear your thoughts and your results.
Alright, see you next time.
Bye!