The ikigai comes to us straight from Japan. It allows you to reconnect to your Why, to your life mission, to what makes you want to get up every morning. Many people have the impression of wandering, of not being useful, of lacking a little something that would make all the difference. What if by connecting to your ikigai, you allow yourself to give meaning to your life while contributing to a better world?
L'ikigaï, pourquoi faire ?
Ikigai comes to the aid of those who have lost motivation and meaning in their lives.It is obviously not a miracle cure, but it does allow you to reconnect to what makes you tick. We all have talents (even well hidden ones!) that are just waiting to be tapped into! Recognizing your zone of genius allows you to breathe new life into your life if you feel it is slipping away.
When you find your ikigai, nothing stops you anymore! Life's little difficulties are put into perspective and are no longer excuses for depression and malaise.
Embodying one's ikigai does not necessarily involve work. While some people need their job to reflect their high aspirations as a mechanism of identification with their position ("I am my job"), others will thrive outside of the professional sphere by joining associations, enrolling in workshops, opening blogs, getting involved in politics, etc.
L'ikigaï et la sphère professionnelle
Most people need to make sense of their work because, according to their psychological mechanisms, they have developed a kind of identification with their job. Thus, for some of them who work in a sector that reflects neither their deepest values nor their ambitions, work becomes a constraint that only and solely allows them to pay the bills. Nothing pleasant about that! What they deeply lack is meaning. Without this vision, they cannot feel fulfilled.
Thanks to ikigai, work is no longer seen as an energy-consuming task, but rather as a time of resource and fulfillment. Being connected to your ikigai avoids disillusionment, disappointment and above all, burn out. It connects you to what's right for you in the moment.
Comment trouver son ikigaï ?
To find your ikigai, simply ask yourself the questions:
What do I like to do?
What am I good at?
What can I be paid for?
What does the world need?
The ikigai is thus at the crossroads, where the 4 questions meet. Your ikigai is both what you love to do, what you are good at, what you could be paid for, and what you can contribute to.
It requires a good dose of self-honesty. It is a powerful introspection that invites you to draw from what gives you the most pleasure and to assume it. It is not always easy to combine pleasure and work because, in the collective unconscious, you have to work hard to deserve your salary... Understand that by adhering to this belief, it will be difficult not to feel "indecent" to be paid for something that is easy and pleasant for you!
Trouver son Ikigaï pour soi, mais aussi pour le monde
Finding your ikigai is of course personal and individual. However, we must not lose sight of the fact that you are also a contribution to this world. By connecting to what makes you tick, you radiate far beyond your own person. In fact, you inspire others by giving them a license to live their dreams too. Moreover, we are all connected to each other. An action on your part will have repercussions on the other side of the planet. This is called the butterfly effect. This chain reaction can serve the world, so why not?
Peur d'être enfermé dans un rôle toute votre vie ? Pas de panique l'ikigaï évolue au cours d'une vie
A person at 18 will not have the same desires as when he is 30, 40 or 50 years old. Over the course of a lifetime, we evolve, we change, we mature. Pleasures follow this evolution and so the ikigai evolves as well. This particularity is interesting, because it creates an opening in the field of possibilities: nothing is immutable. This is the very principle of impermanence, that philosophy dear to the Asian peoples.