There’s always a lot to do. Every day is full of new challenges, stress, shortcomings, and chaos. We promise many things to ourselves every single minute. We succeed keeping few and fail to keep many of them. There are days when we get many appreciations and rewards for the work we do, yet we do not feel the spark and happiness from inside. Some other days, even if the whole world is against us, we love the work we do. Have you ever tried to figure out why this happens? Passion? Kind of, but not exactly. Let me introduce you a new term which can be related to most of the perceptions and thoughts running on your mind right now. IKIGAI : The purpose of your living or the reason of your being!

What actually is IKIGAI?

IKIGAI is a Japanese word and concept. It is composed of two Japanese words IKI( means life ) and KAI ( means realisation of what one expects or hopes ).According to Japanese, every person has an IKIGAI. A purpose or desire that makes one jump out bed every morning, the purpose which makes one live and hustle beyond everything.
The origin of this concept IKIGAI took place in an island named Okinawa in Japan. Well, you’ll be surprised to know the power of realising one’s IKIGAI. Researches say that this island is said to have the largest population of centenarians in the world. Shocked? Just by figuring out what you want to do with your lives helps you live longer and healthier. Crazy right? It is , actually. Do you wish to have the same?  Here’s how you find your own ikigai to live healthier, happier and longer in life.

How to find your IKIGAI?

Finding out one’s IKIGAI is not a piece of cake as it seems. It requires little effort, much research of self and many confessions. It isn’t a tough task either. It’s quite interesting indeed, provided you’re eager enough to find one. Look at the picture shown. You can see four circles overlapping each other. I suggest you take a sheet of paper draw similar overlapping circles as shown or you can take a printout of any of the sample sheets available on the internet. Start doing now if you’re really eager. It’s quite fun and interesting. Well, each of the four circles stands for one of the following as it shows: what you love, what you’re good at, what you can be paid for and what the world needs. Let us discuss each one in detail.

1. What you love?

It may not seem exactly like the superficial butterflies in the tummy kind of feeling, but this circle is something which you never get bored with. Things you do with great interest, things that turn you on, things that you feel like doing whenever and wherever are that which come under this circle. List them one after the other. It need not be something productive or something that earns bread, because we’re gonna figure out the right ones at the end. Now just go for everything you love, write them. Sleeping, growing plants, playing musical instruments, visiting an orphanage, cooking food, reading novels, watching movies, organizing room and so on. They can be anything you love doing. Just rewind the moments you feel most alive and list what made you feel so.

2. What you’re good at?

This circle is the one describing your talents and skills. Everyone is good at something. If you’re bad at one thing, your life isn’t over. You may be good at many others. Some people are good at teaching and dealing with students, few are good at coding, some are good at photography, some other are good at riding bikes and stunts and the list goes on. Just close your eyes and think what you’re good at. This may not necessarily be something you love. Sometimes you are so good at something but you don’t like doing that. All such activities do come under this particular circle. So just keep listing everything which is never impossible for you and something you’re skilled in. After you’re done with this, move on to the next circle.

3. What you can be paid for?

This is the most important one. Money is super important for survival. Especially in the modern society and with the increased cost of living, every individual needs money for a good living. Though money cannot buy everything, things can be bought with money redundantly. Not every work we love can help us earn our living. Only certain things we do can give us money. List them all in this circle. Ignore particular activity if you feel the amount you’ll be paid for that is far less than what you need for a good living. Note the things which can assure you handsome pay for a good or comfortable living. Before writing this, you should be aware if you can be paid for a certain activity. Do not hesitate to research a little to know about the same. For instance, many people love traveling and travel photography, but very few of them know the fact that they can be paid for that.

There are companies which pay you for providing information for their site about the places you travel and for providing relevant pictures of the same. So pay some attention, know if your passion can help you earn. List every such thing. After this, we should move on to the last circle.

4. What the world needs?

The Almighty had brought humans to this earth not merely to live their own lives and die, but to help the fellow beings and let them live too. This circle should contain the things which make you feel good and useful for what you choose. List out the things that can help the world in one way or the other. Sometimes they may not help directly but may benefit the world in an indirect way. Consider every little activity that you think will help others and write down every single way you can contribute to making the world a better place to live.

Now carefully observe the whole picture. You’ll notice that there are few elements that are common in two of the circles, few in three of them and few in all of them. The intersection of any three of the circles gives you a comparably great feeling, yet makes you feel there is something lacking. If you don’t love it, you do not get the intuition to do that work ; if you are not good at, if you feel so insecure and uncertain about your job; if you cannot be paid for it, you feel dissatisfied for you can’t live a comfortable life and if you do not do something the world or society needs, you feel extremely useless and disappointed for your job. So you cannot miss any of them. Collect the things that are found in all the four circles and concentrate on them. That is your IKIGAI. The reason for your being and the purpose of your existence in this world.

Now that you found your IKIGAI, it’s time to show your commitment, dedication, and passion for it. Finding out IKIGAI gives you peace and purpose of living. It gives you a deep sense of satisfaction and commitment to your dreams. So my dear peeps, it’s time to work on it, fly high and touch the stars you’re awaited to!