#10 Ikigai – Finding Your Purpose

Why do I exist? How to make my life more meaningful? What is my purpose in life?

What is Ikigai?

Ikigai – is a Japanese term that means – the happiness of always being busy. This is a philosophy that goes beyond mundane tasks and forces you to think your purpose in life.

In this post, I will discuss Ikigai, how I am trying to implement it in my life. Maybe through this, you might get some idea of how you can implement it in your life and have a fulfilling one.

Framework

I was introduced to Ikigai by Shri Shyam Taneja Sir during my first ILEAD Commune Session. We were handed over a sheet that had 4 sections. They were:

1. What I love?
2. What the world needs?
3. What I can be paid for?
4. What am I good at?

Intersection of the answer to these 4 questions would be your Ikigai. These 4 questions impact 4 different areas of life.

The intersection of these 4 sections reveal 4 areas that form the basis of Ikigai. These 4 areas are:

1. My Mission (My Interest & Worlds Needs)
2. My Vocation (Worlds Needs & My Finance)
3. My Profession (My Finance & My Forte)
4. My Passion (My Forte & My Interest)

I, Inspire

I will explain you how I came about finding my Ikigai. With the help of the Framework shown above, I was able to understand Ikigai and find my own.

1. What do I love? I love communicating, I love inspiring, I love helping people come out of tough circumstances, that gives me a new high.
2. What the world needs? In this fast-paced world when people are stressed because of jobs, relationships, peer pressure, it is imperative to inspire them, give them hope, and help them come out of difficult situations.
3. What can I be paid for? If I could create a business model where I can help people and Organizations can help me sponsor my content, it could make me help reach more people and increase the number of people that I could impact.
4. What am I good at? I am good at technology. I am able to learn technology

Now I will show how I used a combination of these answers to come up with Sarathi, the blog that I write every week and ultimately finding my Ikigai.

Example

Before I made Sarathi a reality, I was contemplating on my Ikigai and what was my purpose in life. I would be frank in saying that Ikigai was not my sole reason for starting Sarathi, but a number of factors came together.

While contemplating on my Ikigai, I realized that I was keen on helping people and this has been a trend right through my school life, college life as well as professional. Not necessary on a professional level, I have been somebody who has always come forward to help people who are in difficult situations. My interactions revolved around overcoming a professional setback, battling depression or mental illness, improving relationships.

This has led me to realize that there are hundreds of people around the world who need similar motivation. How could I be of help to them? How could I become a Change Agent (ChA.. As Shyam Sir calls) in their life?

If I want to reach a wider audience, technology could be leveraged. Since since technology is my forte, I believe it was fitting perfectly in my plan.

The only challenge was, how could this be self-sustaining and in case this grows, how would it pay for the enormous finances it would need to become sustainable. t

Here, come the last part of the puzzle i.e. technology. Technology would help me garner more reach and this will in turn help me get funding from corporates who could support my work.

End Note

I have been very fortunate to attend that session of Shyam Sir which introduced me to Ikigai. Ikigai has been a revelation to me since it has introduced me to the concept of living a purposeful life, a life with a mission.

I suggest you to buy a book on Ikigai by Hector Garcia / Franscesc Miralles to give you a more wholistic view on this topic.

~ RG

P.S. My gratitude to Canva for giving me a precise photograph for IKIGAI. This was beyond expectation. Since I am using a free version, you might observe Canva watermark on the image. Please ignore the same.

Tags:

• idea sharing,
• ikigai,
• inspiration,
• Motivation,
• purpose