So Then, What's My Igikai?? 🌱 Lessons from Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life - PART 4!

January 26, 2018dayleeo

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It’s time for me to show you my IKIGAI! If you've been following along, maybe you’ve been thinking about yours, or at least the things the help you find Flow. It can be an illusive little thing, your IKIGAI, but hopefully by sharing how I’ve been thinking about mine, you’ll have some ideas about how to narrow yours down too!

What’s IKIGAI?

In case you missed it—Here’s The Whole Sha-bang…

Because there’s so much awesomeness to be absorbed, I thought we’d split this up into 4 posts. They are as follows (unless I have a better idea and decide to ditch the format for something else… I’M A CREATIVE DAMNIT DON’T BOX ME IN!”)

PART 1 | The 80% Rule
PART 2 | Work to Live, don’t Live to Work
PART 3 | FLOW & distraction economy
PART 4 | My IKIGAI — Show me yours & I’ll show you mine

This series is in no way meant to deter you from reading the book yourself. — I’d HIGHLY recommend grabbing it, cracking open a new notebook for your thoughts and giving it a read over the course of a week or so. You won’t regret it!

My Igikai

I’ve mentioned this before in a previous post but I’m not sure that an IGIKAI can be discovered in a clean, curated package like opening up this perfect little gift. I very highly doubt that most people just wake up and say

“Yes! It is Piano Playing! That’s my IGIKAI!”

And they close the book. Sorted. Happily Ever After..

Probably not right?

Maybe It’s me and I make things more complicated than they need to be (it wouldn’t be the first time). But I’ve yet to find the one activity, role or job that encompasses my entire happiness. So I decided to make a list of all the things I’m happiest doing, and try to find similarities across them..

Here’s the mind map I came up with. I found that most of the things I enjoy doing fall into these categories

**Making** - things with my hands, cooking, building, solving a physical problem
**Communicaton** - storytelling, exchanging ideas, getting feedbak, empathy, caring for animals
**Exploration** - taking in new locations & cultures, travel momentum, exploring nature
**Skill Building** - self improvement, design, yoga, new techniques/trades

Upon further reflection, I realized that I could further simplify by finding that all of the things I love serve the following purposes for me, and that may be a clue as to why I enjoy them, and find so much satisfaction from them.

They solve a problem
They allow me to orient myself and find meaning through external feedback
They are challenging in some way
They stimulate me mentally & make me feel useful

We talked about FLOW in our last post, but in case you missed it, Flow is that state where you become completely immersed in what you’re doing. You feel whole, happy and confident while doing it, and it’s almost impossible to notice the passage of time. All there is, is you, and your work, in that moment.

That’s flow. And when you’re feeling it, you’re probably doing something contained within your IGIKAI.

So, Now what!

Well, as we’ve mentioned, this whole IGIKAI thing is much more of a process than a set destination but I will say that Steemit has been a huge part of me being able to step away from the things that make me less happy, and to focus more of my time on the things that bring me to that happy Flowy place.

I really love sharing things with my blockchain gang of misfits here. Rewards or not, blogging on Steemit has been the most rewarding media making and blogging experience I’ve had online. Truly….

Steemit means I can pursue the things I love doing and making, story tell around them, and make that story in the form of any media expression I want. That’s HUGE.

Getting closer to my IGIKAI means I can pick clients and projects with a better understanding of the job bringing me creative fulfillment, or being a total drag. Using these parameters instead of money when it comes to deciding what to work on has made all the difference in my freelance happiness.

Sometimes, it’s just as important to be able to say NO to what doesn't serve you, as it is knowing what you love, and what makes you feel like you’re fulfilling your purpose.

Coffee Talk: It's your turn!

Talk to me about the things you love and how they might point you toward your Ikigai! What activities help you flow, and give you purpose in your day to day !

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I SO hope you enjoyed this series, and if this is the first you're seeing of it, feel free to check out the rest in no particular order. I loved going through this book with @teamhumble and passing on some of the thoughts that came to the surface as I thought about it's concepts. I'm already thinking about the next book we can read together, more than anything, I realized that analog reading together time at the end of the day was a perfect way to wind down. I highly suggest it, and I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Until Next Time Friends!
<3 Dayleeo