Skip to main content

🌸 Discovering Ikigai: How to Find Your Reason for Being

🌸 Discovering Ikigai: How to Find Your Reason for Being

In today’s busy world, many of us ask the same questions: Why am I here? What is my purpose? How can I build a meaningful career or life path?
One powerful tool to explore these questions is Ikigai—a timeless Japanese concept that has become a modern framework for personal growth, career design, and even business strategy.

✨ What is Ikigai?

Ikigai (η”Ÿγη”²ζ–) comes from Japan and translates loosely as “reason for being.” Traditionally, it described the small joys that made life worth living, such as morning walks, shared meals, or creative hobbies.

Today, it’s widely used as a self-discovery tool to find alignment between passion, skill, values, and livelihood.

Ikigai sits at the intersection of four core questions:

  1. What do you love? (your passions)

  2. What are you good at? (your strengths)

  3. What does the world need? (your contribution)

  4. What can you be paid for? (your opportunities)

Where these overlap, you find your Ikigai.

🌍 How is Ikigai Used Today?

1. Personal Growth

Many use Ikigai to reflect on life direction, uncover hidden passions, or reset when they feel stuck. It helps people clarify values and align with what truly matters.

2. Career Strategy

Professionals and jobseekers apply Ikigai to match their skills and passions with meaningful, sustainable work. It’s a way to avoid burnout by finding balance between purpose and pay.

3. Business & Entrepreneurship

Leaders and founders use Ikigai to design ventures that align profit with impact. Instead of chasing money alone, businesses shaped by Ikigai are rooted in purpose, sustainability, and community value.

4. Community Building

Some groups apply Ikigai collectively—asking what their community loves, is good at, needs, and can sustain. This creates strong, values-driven projects that attract funding and long-term support.

🌱 Why is Ikigai Useful?

  • Provides clarity in decision-making

  • Prevents career burnout

  • Builds motivation through purpose

  • Helps align personal and professional life

  • Encourages meaningful contribution to the world

🧭 How to Find Your Ikigai

  1. Reflect: Write down answers to the four Ikigai questions.

  2. Look for Overlap: Notice where passions, skills, needs, and opportunities meet.

  3. Test & Explore: Don’t wait for a perfect answer—experiment with small projects and learn what resonates.

  4. Evolve: Your Ikigai may shift over time as you grow and circumstances change.

πŸ’‘ Example: Ikigai in Action

Imagine someone who loves sustainability and community, is skilled in teaching and innovation, sees the world’s need for eco-conscious solutions, and can be paid to develop digital tools and training.

Their Ikigai might be:

“To create ethical, sustainable systems that empower people and communities to thrive.”

This clear purpose can then guide career moves, business plans, and daily choices.

πŸš€ Final Thoughts

Ikigai isn’t just a concept—it’s a compass for living well. By finding the harmony between passion, skills, needs, and opportunities, you can unlock a life that is not only successful but deeply fulfilling.

Take the time to reflect, experiment, and grow into your own Ikigai. It might just change the way you live, work, and connect with the world.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Our First Pilot Community Session at Hon Lok Chinese Community Centre

Our First Pilot Community Session at Hon Lok Chinese Community Centre   This week marked an exciting step forward for CROGGI CIC and the D-Circle initiative , as we successfully hosted our first pilot community session at the Hon Lok Chinese Community Centre in Hull. The session brought together participants from diverse backgrounds to explore a range of creative and social activities, including calligraphy, painting, pencil and watercolour art, chess, and draughts . Attendees also enjoyed Chinese snacks, Hong Kong–style tea, and traditional desserts , which added a warm, cultural touch and encouraged friendly conversation. What made the day truly special was the sense of connection and shared effort . Everyone contributed to setting up, cleaning, and tidying afterwards, creating an atmosphere of collaboration, respect, and belonging . The event also helped bring new life and visibility to the area — with activity at the centre providing a welcoming presence and adding to the s...
Post a Comment
Read more

Journal Entry – CROGGI CIC Progress Update

  Journal Entry – CROGGI CIC Progress Update We have successfully registered CROGGI CIC with Companies House. Our company number is 16662666 — an interesting and slightly ominous number if you’re inclined to look at such things. This marks a significant milestone for the project and gives us a solid legal foundation to begin building partnerships, applying for funding, and launching activities. Governance & Communication All directors have now been informed of the registration. A WhatsApp group has been set up to improve communication, share updates, and coordinate actions. The next step is to ensure all directors understand their responsibilities and the compliance obligations of a CIC. Policies & Procedures Recently, I’ve been learning about the importance of policies and procedures . Traditionally, these are created as risk management tools — to deal with problems when they arise. However, I’ve been inspired by the idea of shaping our policies in...
Post a Comment
Read more

AI and the Future of Work: Navigating Change with Purpose

  “The Writer”, is an extraordinary but often forgotten anomaly of its age. So impossibly ahead of its time, even the creator,  Pierre Jaquet-Droz, was fearful he might be arrested for sorcery when he presented his masterpieces of engineering to the royal courts of Europe. The most complex of his self-moving androids is now nearly 250 years-old; a machine that simulates human actions without electricity, controlled by a complex programming system disk fitted inside the carved wooden body of an extraordinary little child. πŸ€– AI and the Future of Work: Navigating Change with Purpose How communities, businesses, and governments can adapt to the accelerating AI revolution Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no longer a distant frontier—it’s here, reshaping industries, workflows, and the very nature of employment. For social enterprises like CROGGI CIC and innovation hubs like D-Circle, understanding this shift is essential not just for survival, but for leading the way toward inc...
Post a Comment
Read more