Ikigai - The enjoyment of daily lifestyle habits, and pursuing large life missions!

👋Welcome to our fortnightly lifestyle newsletter! Today, we’re looking at the treasure map of what we actually want to do in life through the Japanese principle: Ikigai:

Ikigai:

💡 The values/things/habits that make one’s life worth living that gives a person a sense of joy, fulfillment, and a balanced lifestyle (Kamiya, M. (1966)., Mitsuhashi, Y. (2018)., Nakanishi, N. (1999)). It also reflects a combination of small daily joys, and significant life goals reflecting the pursuit of personal growth (Kemp, N. (2019)). Some describe it as: The reason you get up in the morning.

This principle acts similar to the Lifestyle approach¹ we discussed in earlier newsletters. But Ikigai can also involve using this sense of joy/fulfillment/purpose to serve or help other people. It acts as a synergy² between what you find meaningful, and giving others something to enjoy. Because you have the desire to do something, and do it with excellence when giving it to others, they get to enjoy that service/product/experience. It’s a win-win for everyone involved.

¹💡Lifestyle Approach: Learning skills/processes to create sustainable and enjoyable regular life habits that help you to reach milestones, achieve goals, and maintain progress even after completion, ensuring that these new habits benefit you over the long-term.

²✨Synergy – Finding the common ground between two different concepts to create something greater than what they can achieve separately.

🪙The two sides of Ikigai 🗣️

On the one hand, most people who have heard of Ikigai know it from the Westernized version from the figure below. Traditionally though, Ikigai isn’t a single career oriented thing; however a career/life-mission can be part of your Ikigai.

On the other hand, a better description of Ikigai can be found in Kemp, N. (2019), and Mitsuhashi, Y. (2018), where it is the sum of all the smaller, different things that give you joy and help you, and others to live happier, better lives. A lot of what we focus on in Norskiwi is similar to this, where our focus is to encourage and support readers to make sustainable, long-term lifestyle habits that have a positive impact on their lives and the lives of others around them.

In addition, Ikigai is different for everyone; at times, when you are in Ikigai, it can act like, ‘Flow State:’ where you enjoy yourself so much that you don’t know where the time goes. For example, in Norway, going for a hike is one part of almost every Norwegians’ Ikigai, or going out for a coffee on a Saturday morning to read a book, enjoy a hobby, do fitness, etc. But for most people, a major aspect of their ikigai is what they do for a living through cultivating their own potential and working hard to make it greater.

To find your Ikigai, we’re going to apply a two-pronged approach:

🌟 Applications of Ikigai 🌟

1. The daily focus Ikigai

This isn’t going to be the main emphasis today, but it’s something worth stopping and thinking about. Get a pen and paper, open Word on your computer, or a Notes app on your phone.

🪞 What are the things in your everyday life that give you joy and meaning?

🤔What areas of your life do you feel like you’ve only been there ten minutes, but actually at least an hour has gone by?

These don’t have to do anything with earning money, what you’re good at, serving others, or something that the world needs (but they can be those too), it is just the things that you find meaningful. Each one of these are part of the smaller joy aspects of your Ikigai. Keep these as a reminder of things that can support you or help cheer you up on a rough day 😁.

2. The Life-goal Ikigai

This is where our main focus will be: helping us look at ourselves, see where we are at at the moment, and discover more about what we really want to do with our lives, in order to help make a enjoyable lifestyle through our life-goals/careers.

The point of this version (the Westernized aspect) of Ikigai is to find something that we don’t have to drag yourself out of bed to do, but it’s something we actually want to do, get paid for; that serves others, and something that we’re good at.

I really like 💖 this summary picture for Life-goal oriented ikigai, so we’re going to use it to help visualize it better:

Where do you see yourself in this picture at the moment?
What do you need to do next?

Take some time to think about it. Then, write up a plan, go out, have fun, and experiment and see what sticks!

With this in mind, we’re going to take the Westernized career/life-goal oriented area of Ikigai one step further to help you find this form of Ikigai 👇

🔎 Pursuing your life-goal Ikigai! 🔍

To get to the life-goal style of Ikigai, we’re going to use the strategy from Richard St. John, in what he calls: “The 8 to be great”:

This template can help us in our pursuit of our own life-goal Ikigai, but most importantly, the big questions to ask yourself when using this model:

Do you enjoy:

1. What you do? – Passion
2. Working really hard in this area of your life-goal? – Hard work
3. Focusing on this one thing? (remember not to focus on everything!
Bonus: Does it feel like only ten minutes goes by when you focus on it for long periods?) - Focus
4. Pushing yourself, and learning new things in this area you like? - Push
5. Coming up with applications and good ideas relating to this passion? - Ideas
6. Continually improving yourself in this field? - Improve
7. Serving others something of value, since success isn’t just about you? - Serve
8. Conquering the trials and setbacks relating to this field? - Persist

Overall, do you enjoy what you are doing? Or does something need to change?

Steve Jobs puts this well, “‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been 'No' for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”

(Also, keep in mind that your Ikigai can, and likely will change over time, both in daily focus, and in life-goals Mitsuhashi, Y. (2018). For example, for me, there was a time I found a part of life-goal Ikigai working in a laboratory, but that’s not where I find it anymore.)

I am also going to do these exercises if you want an example to read, and will be writing them up at the blog 👉 here

✍️ Quote to ponder: ✍️

“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” 

– Albert Schweitzer

📖 Want something else to read? 📖

Blogs where I expand on the Newsletter and show you more about how I use these tools: 👉 Here
More newsletters 👉 Here
Sci-Fi Fantasy Short stories 👉 Here 

🎨 Lastly, this edition’s Artwork Alcove design: 🎨

At the time of writing, these are just artworks, but soon, these are going to be made into t-shirts and posters, so watch this space for when they are ready for purchase!)

This newsletter has a slightly different format than my previous ones. Far more introspective, and asks for more from you. I hope that it helps you have an honest look at where you’re at, and where you’d like to be; to find not just the daily joys of life that help you find Ikigai, but some of the bigger life-aspects to help you find some joy, and fun in areas such as your work/career.

I hope you give these exercises a go. It may be worth coming back to it a bit later, or just taking some time to think these things over, and see what you come up with. These aim to help provide with some extra insight into what can help to create Ikigai for you in your life.

That’s it for this edition! Share your ideas, comments, and feel free to ask questions on my posts in Instagram, Facebook, or X/Twitter: @the_norskiwi_nz. I will be posting material relating to this newsletter to help encourage, and inspire you throughout the fortnight.

Until next time!

Much love to you all, and see you in the next one!
🍵Cheers!☕

Norskiwi