You don't find meaning and purpose in your life, you create it.
Seena and I will be launching our new and improved Building a Better You program in a few days and it's been really gratifying to develop this program over the past few months. For us, creating educational programs like Building a Better You ... and mentoring students, residents, and colleagues ... gives our lives meaning and purpose. The idea that our lives are enriched because we get to do something we think is important is a concept the Japanese call ikigai. Loosely translated, ikigai combines the word iki, meaning “alive” or “life,” and gai, meaning “benefit” or “worth.” The French call it “raison d’etre” or your “reason for being.” While creating the Building a Better You program isn't our ONLY reason for living, having the opportunity to use our skills and talents in personally meaningful ways really boosts our sense of wellbeing.
Ikigai arises from devotion to activities you enjoy, which, in turn, brings a sense of fulfillment. Increasingly, psychologists have realized the importance of meaning to our wellbeing and happiness. Research has shown that people who find significant meaning in what they do are happier, exhibit increased life satisfaction, live longer, and report lowered rates of depression. Your narrative, the story you create in your mind, produces the meaning you assign to yourself, the world around you, and your role in it. Your purpose – your aim and goals – motivates the activities that take you through life. Thus, both meaning and purpose are vital to your wellbeing and help you define who you are. We are all free to lead a life according to our values, assigning a meaning to what we see as vital, and pursuing our unique purpose.
Meaning in life is achieved when a person believes his/her life has purpose, significance, and coherence.
Ikigai is not transitory pleasure. The ancient Greeks used the word hedonia to describe the fleeting pleasure we feel from such things as eating indulgent food, having sex, watching a sitcom, or buying new clothing. Instead, ikigai is similar to the ancient Stoic concept of eudaimonia – the sense of a life well-lived, a virtuous life.
Ikigai is also related to the concept of flow - a state first described by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. A flow state is something we've all experienced and that's immensely satisfying. When you are in a flow state you are in your “zone,” and the world around you seems to melt away. Flow is a string of moments when you are at your best, when your body or mind is stretched to its limit to accomplish something difficult and meaningful. (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). Flow can be said to occur when you are doing something you love and that you are good at.
You have to fall in love with your work … dedicate your life to mastering your skill. I keep trying to reach the top, but no one knows where the top is. -Chef Ono, in the documentary film Jiro Dreams of Sushi
It is important to note that ikigai does not typically refer only to one’s personal purpose and what brings fulfillment in life without regard to others. Rather, ikigai involves a personal pursuit that brings value to the world by contributing to the common good. Thus ikigai has both personal and social dimensions. As this diagram shows, ikigai involves the overlap of four major spheres of interest.
Some people find it helpful to reflect on this diagram in order to clarify what their ikigai might be. Some of the things that could be placed in each sphere might come easily to you. Or it might take more time and self-reflection.
Love It: This sphere includes what you do or experience that brings you the most joy. Things that make you feel most alive and fulfilled. What we love in this sense might be sailing, writing poetry, rock climbing, singing in a rock band, reading historical novels, spending leisure time with friends, or taking photographs. Truly consider what you love to do without any concern as to whether you are particularly good at it, whether the world needs it, or if you could get paid for doing it.
Be Great at It: This sphere includes anything you are particularly good at, such as skills you’ve learned, hobbies you’ve pursued, talents you’ve cultivated. What you are good at might things like playing the piano, being empathic, public speaking, sports, brain surgery, or painting portraits. This sphere is about your talents and skills, whether or not you are passionate about them, whether the world needs them, or if you could get paid for them.
The World Needs It: The “world” here might be all of humanity, or just the small community where you live, or anything in between. What the world needs might be based on your impressions or the needs expressed by others. The world’s needs might include skilled nursing, clean water, home heating, election day volunteers, or writing instruments. This domain of ikigai connects most explicitly with other people, doing good things that add value to the world.
Get Paid for It: This dimension of the diagram also refers to the world or society at large because it involves what someone else is willing to pay for what you do. You might be passionate about writing poetry or very good at rock climbing, but this does not mean anyone is willing to pay you to do it. Whether (and how much) you can get paid depends on many factors including the state of the economy, whether your talents and skills are in demand, and how many other people are able to do it well.
Ikigai is personal and specific to each of us. The Japanese believe that we all have an ikigai – the intersection of passion, talent, and benefit others. It is only a matter of cultivating it. The journey to ikigai requires time, deep self-reflection, and effort, but it is a journey that we can all make.
Adopting a growth mindset can also lead to an increased sense of purpose in life. It is helpful to identify and build on your personal strengths. You can complete a free online questionnaire such as the Values in Action (VIA) Strengths Inventory to discover your key strengths. Once identified, finding ways to regularly use and develop your strengths by job crafting at work and employing them in other aspects of your life can increase your sense of mastery.
In 1990, astronomer Carl Sagan convinced NASA to turn the Voyager Space Probe toward Earth to take one last photograph as the probe left the solar system. Roughly 3.7 billion miles away and traveling at 40,000 miles per hour, it captured Earth as a small pale blue dot in a band of sunlight. The image likely leaves you humbled as you contemplate how insignificant we are in a vast, uncaring universe but filled with awe and wonder contemplating how we came into being in such a vast cosmos. We should all be humbled and awed. Watch this stunning YouTube video narrated by Carl Sagan to see what I mean.
When compared to the vastness of the universe, our lives can seem insignificant and unimportant. But the drive to develop our talents, to help others, to improve the human condition, imbues our existence with meaning. Ikigai gives us a reason for being ... for joyfully waking each morning. This motivating purpose, while it is subjective and personal, can bring great fulfillment and happiness to our lives. Using my skills and talents to improve a tiny sliver of this world has certainly brought meaning, purpose, and satisfaction to my life.
Cheers-
**Stuart**
References
Csikszentmihalyi M. Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. New York: Harper & Row, 1990.
Fido D, Kotera Y, and Asano K. English translation and validation of the Ikigai-9 in a UK sample. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction 2019; 18: 1352–1359.
Kumano M. On the concept of well-being in Japan: Feeling shiawase as hedonic well-being and feeling ikigai as eudaimonic well-being. Applied Research in Quality of Life 2018: 13: 419-433.
2 comments
Erin Brooks
Jun 8, 2021
I was a fortunate participant in Seena's Cakra Workshop this past weekend. Please know that your work is having a very REAL impact. Through this workshop, I was able to make connections between questions asked resulting from therapy and proposed concepts of universal impact on cakra centers. Discussing "generational trauma" and accepting that traumatic experiences can begin in-utero was quite the eye opener.
Reading your short blogs here and spending time in discussion about how life experiences can energetically impact a person's being has helped me begin to understand what the deeper questions of self actually are. In addition, the exploration of these questions has helped open the door to awareness that has been sorely lacking my entire life. Sometimes, it's NOT the answer that matters. So often, finding the RIGHT QUESTION and having the courage to EXPLORE POSSIBLE ANSWERS creates the awareness needed to achieve growth.
In my personal choice to heal and grow, the only goal I could bring myself to set was to "become a person" again. Before being anything, one MUST be human. I was an emotional and psychological robot for more than a decade. This made me socially inept, was harmful to me, and stood to harm others. This goal was further broken down into a desire to smile and not feel like a liar, as well as, a longing to laugh and not be surprised by the sound of my own laughter.
The Cakra Workshop this weekend opened my energy flow to help achieve new levels of self-awareness not previously possible. I attended therapy yesterday. I was able to demonstrate my new found awareness, articulate appropriate curiosity, make new connections, and find a vulnerability and trust within myself. I made the statement that I was proud of myself for making that progress, however small it seemed. My therapist said that's something she never hears her patients say.
While I am in the care of a very non-conventionalist therapist, your words of wellness are highly impactful. Your words and the simplicity of your approach have contributed tangible positive forward motion in my decision to heal. Your work is quickly becoming an integral element in my healing process and new life journey.
Please, continue to keep it simple. Your work matters. You are healers. Thank you. For I am so forever grateful. Namaste
Stuart Haines
Aug 5, 2021
I love this quote by Richard Feynman (famed Physicist):
Fall in love with some activity, and do it! Nobody ever figures out what life is all about, and it doesn't matter. Explore the world. Nearly everything is really interesting if you go into it deeply enough. Work as hard and as much as you want to on the things you like to do the best. Don't think about what you want to be, but what you want to do.
Source: The Feynman Lectures on Physics (http://www.richardfeynman.com)
