Totally Stuck? Japanese Ikigai Can Help You Live a Happy Life

When Héctor García and Francesc Miralles met each other in Japan, they discovered a shared interest in the concept of ikigai. According to the Japanese, everyone has an ikigai—which the two men liken to raison d’être. As they spent time with some of the world’s longest-living people in Okinawa, García and Miralles learned more about this principle. Their book focuses on many habits of the Okinawans—gentle movements, finding flow, cultivating joy—but they also included an ikigai diagram first published by Marc Winn (who himself was inspired by Dan Buettner’s work on living a longer, healthier life, which included a mention of ikigai). Here’s the diagram:

While this and similar diagrams have spread like wildfire across the web, when we spoke to García and Miralles, they were very careful to note that only 1 to 2 percent of people on the planet find an ikigai, or purpose, that covers all four circles—like the musician Lang Lang, who knew from a very young age that he wanted to be a concert pianist and made a global career of it. For the rest of us, our goal is to find ways to cover all four facets in our life, not necessarily in our job.

To begin, fill in the circle “What you love.” Then list your strengths in “What you are good at.” García and Miralles have heard from thousands of readers of their book, many of whom found this to be a challenging circle. The authors believe it’s hard because many people think their talent needs to a huge, world-changing skill. That’s not the case, they say. It’s the innate skills you’ve cultivated.

Now complete the next two circles, listing the skills you have that fall under “What the world needs” and “What you can be paid for.” If you’re struggling to fill in circles, ask trusted friends to share their thoughts on where you really shine, or which skills you could be paid for.

García and Miralles suggest you wait three days before moving forward. In their experience, the ikigai exercise is a “shake to your subconscious.” Over that time, you may come up with more items to list or realize you need to move some around.

Once you’ve listed all your skills in the appropriate areas, look at the diagram two circles at a time and craft a sentence for each of the following for the “overlap” categories. For instance, if you love researching and reading and you’re good at communicating ideas, your passion might be “writing about X, Y, and Z.” If you’re good at communicating ideas and the world will pay you to write press releases, your profession might be “to become a PR director in X type of field.” You might see several options, depending on what you’ve put in the circles. Feel free to list each option within the overlaps.

Passion ________________________________________

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Mission ________________________________________

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Vocation _______________________________________

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Profession______________________________________

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In the next step, consider combinations of the above that would give your life purpose. For example, if you’re good at finance and you can get paid for it as a venture capitalist but it’s not what the world needs, you might combine something else you love (hiking) with, say, taking a seat on a board of an environmental nonprofit. (Finding a career that hits all four circles is hard, but in this example, you find a job that covers two of the circles and a hobby that covers the other two.) García and Miralles also suggest people could incorporate things they love into a job that’s only so-so (cultivate small joys) or put down their phones and mindfully develop a new talent. What combinations could you envision?

Combination 1__________ ____________ __________ _____________

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Combination 2__________ ____________ __________ _____________

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Combination 3_________ ____________ __________ _____________

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Combination 4_________ ____________ __________ _____________

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Looking at the prior combinations, which resonates the most? How might you expand this into a first draft of what your purpose could be? Don’t be afraid of making it as big and ambitious as possible. Using the prior example, García and Miralles might say something like: “My purpose is to change the way people think about how they will live their life; I will do that through writing books.” Or “My purpose is to support my family through a career in finance, and I will use my skills to also commit to preserving lands in my community.”

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This statement may need refining in the future, but for now, allow it to help you identify your passion, mission, vocation, and profession, and then take steps to combine those elements in a way that your life begins to align with your reason for being—your ikigai.