Finding your Ikigai in your business or career

If your job/work makes you exhausted and you finding life meaningless. If you find you can't persevere through your passion and wants to give up every time. This article is for you.

There are 4 key factors I am covering in this article, we can never be truly happy. In order to be happy in what we do, we need to achieve Ikigai.

What is Ikigai

Ikigai 生き甲斐 was originated from Japan, Okinawa. It is softly translated as the "reason of being".

Okinawa is the highest number of above 100 years old human alive per capital.

Okinawa was being studied for their longevity in life, which include their diet, their active social life and their practice for Ikigai. The discovery of this practice is the secret to longevity in Okinawa population.

Doing something that we love or passionate about.
Doing something that the world needs or what people are looking for.
Doing something that can be rewarded.
Doing something that we are good at.

Most people are not in Ikigai

You need money to maintain a stable income for securities.
You are being told that your passion cannot earn you a living.
You are at a lower level of the hierarchy of need.
You are too busy and occupied in a competitive environment.
You think you are not good enough in your skillset.

Why you need to find your Ikigai

Some of you are working a job that pays well and people looking for the services. But find that there are still something missing in it.

In old-time, when in a group everyone can have a skill set in a community that the rest of them are looking for. And then we barter our services for the item we require. We immediately see a positive effect on our effort has on others. Everyone is happy.

Since industrialization and the incorporation of a large organization. We are employed as a cog to turn the big money generation machine. Working for the shareholders of the company, to increase productivity we are given bit size repetitive task to work on and slowly we find that the task we do is actually not making any impact on the society.

Sometimes we find that even if we leave our job, no one will ever notice anything.

How I find my Ikigai

In my work place, they always have a common phrase going around.

"No one is irreplaceable if you are not up for your job. Someone else better and cheaper will come and replace you."

The competition is real, but nonetheless unhealthy.

I strongly disagree with that. I believe everyone is unique and special. The role and job can be replaced but never the person.

I quit my job which was then a well-paid position. I want to escape the rabbit hole of constant being place into the competition. I worry less about the money and that where I can truly do what I love doing.

Job : Paid position of regular employment.

Work : An activities that involve mental or physical effort in order to achieve a purpose or result.

I find myself a new role which can complement what I value in life. I value about life long learning which satisfies my desire for knowledge. The result of my work actually makes a difference in a business owner's life and the many families which rely on the job from the SME spaces.

How you can find your Ikigai

Profession

What things are you doing that can pay the bill? Which part of the work that you are doing is enjoyable?

The job currently we are holding is an example of our profession and skill set. Not many people are enjoying their job.

Never fall into the rabbit hole for working too hard. Remember the 80 20 principles where people just need 20% of the effort to achieve 80% of the result. Good news is you are considered a pro when you know 80% of the subject and there are many people who will come to you for advice.

For me, I graduated as an Engineer and make a career switch into banking and finance. My current skill set is advising on financial solution for small business owners.

Beside being proficient in my work requirements. I place high emphasis on soft skill building like

Effective Communication
Negation
Salesmanship
Interpersonal relationship

Passion

What things do you mind doing without earning any money? What are the things you always find time to do when you are free?

Technical people call it the flow state, most of us we simply call it "doing the thing we love". Doing this makes you stay focus, stay in the moment and enjoy.

Things like Singing, Reading, Learning, Sports.

I find myself reading up a lot for knowledge. I like to jot down reflection using a blog as our brain is not framed for memorizing. Anything that needs to be recalled should be written down. Have a blog also improve my language and it is import for effective communication.

I am also passionate about digital marketing. Instead of leaving digital footprint of useless photos and video on social media, I rather have something valuable to share and mentor others at the same time.

I love design although I am not good with it. Design can be artistic or structural. Web design can fulfil my desire to build and engineer something from scratch that can express my creativity.

Mission

How do you want to be remembered when you leave this place? What is the purpose of life and what you want to contribute to the world?

Mission statements should be broad. It should not be how the world wants us to be, or what career end goal we are heading. It should be broad enough that there are different paths and strategy to achieve it. Yet narrow enough that it is the single most important things you are worth spending your life on.

For me, it is to make a positive impact on other people life. Through inspiring, adding value, being humorous and enlightening.

Vocation

What ideology or methodology you use in life? What you do unconsciously every day when you wake up?

I was often labelled as indifferent and unorthodox. My belief system is strange and it was not well received by others. I am not shy of being who I am and I love to spread my ideas around.

Being a mentor helps me to share knowledge around, the world needs it. It for legacy. I love being a theorist as I love to observe phenomena and come up with reasoning to proof a concept.

What should you do now?

It is hard to give up your current job for the current stability income. First, you need to find a job that is you are actually good in.

If you like to cruise through life with a 9-5 job, you can always start finding your Ikigai part-time. Like having a side hustle.

It will be difficult to fulfil all your passion, your skillset, what you are being paid for and what the world needs. It probably going through many trail and error.

However, realizing it early in your career can help you embrace changes rather than fighting it or avoiding it altogether. This can give you a good head start in whatever work you are doing now.