Why did you wake up today?
We know that partly because of your body asking for food or because the alarm went off, but
let us rephrase that question: what makes you want to get out of bed every day and go
out into the world?
What is the purpose for which you are trying to live your life?
Have you found it yet or are you still looking for it in every corner and under every dusty
memory?
Well, the Japanese people seem to have found the secret for uncovering the purpose of life
and they call it IKIGAI.
Let's see how that works, shall we?
IKIGAI originates from one of the Japanese islands in the East China Sea called Okinawa.
Interesting enough, it is also the place where the martial arts style known as karate has
been invented.
What is special about Okinawa, aside from all the beauties of the Japanese culture,
is that it has the highest percentage of centenarians from the world.
Presumably, this is why the concept is called "the Japanese secret to a long and happy life".
To better understand the whole idea behind it we should split the name in its two component
syllables: "iki" which means "life" and "gai" which means "worth" or "purpose".
Roughly translated, IKIGAI means "the purpose of life".
Now comes the interesting part, how does it work?
What you have to do is to think about yourself and identify four aspects of your life: What
you LOVE, What you are GOOD AT, What you can BE PAID FOR, and What the world NEEDS.
Write them in four circles that intersect and voila!
Their main point of intersection represents the purpose of your life or your IKIGAI.
It might sound easy, but here it gets a little bit more tricky.
Finding the answers to these questions is not an easy job and there might a chance that
at this point in your life you don't have the answers to all of them.
Maybe you will not have them for a while since now on, as well.
But IKIGAI is like a treasure map.
To find the treasure you must pass through each checkpoint first.
This checkpoints can be found at the intersection of each two questions.
For example, between What you LOVE and What you are GOOD AT lies your PASSION; between
What you are GOOD AT and What you can BE PAID FOR lies your PROFESSION; between What you
can BE PAID FOR and What the world NEEDS lies your VOCATION.
Last but not least, between What the world NEEDS and What you LOVE, lies your MISSION.
Once you have unlocked each of them you are one step closer to your IKIGAI.
This is one of the aspects that makes the concept so appealing to everyone.
In a world that focuses on fast results, IKIGAI allows you to take your time and achieve success
at your own pace.
Tim Tamashiro, one of the TEDxYYC speakers from 2018 says that "IKIGAI is as reliable
as a mathematical equation.
IKIGAI equals time affluence plus your gifts plus rewards in return and you can do it over
and over and over again and you are going to be so much richer because of it".
According to him, a meaningful life is not a destination, but rather a trip we should
enjoy every bit of and the more joy we put in, the more is going to come back to us.
Consequently, when we finally get the time to answer the questions, our IKIGAI will start
coming into the light and finally, we will uncover our purpose.
IKIGAI is more than just the secret for a happy life.
A state of happiness can be achieved relatively easy when we get more money or meet a very
dear friend after a long time.
Uncovering the purpose of your life is the key to a living consciously, to a life you
can thoroughly enjoy.
So whether the meaning of your life is 42, as the famous joke says, or not, is up to
you to find out.
And once you've done it is up to you to follow your purpose, but that is a topic for another
PureJOY video... see you next time!