Coaching Tools: Finding Your Ikigai

Coaching Tools: Finding Your Ikigai

Ikigai is a Japanese concept that means "a reason to get up in the morning," There is no one-size-fits-all solution. Instead, we must each seek our path to joy, curiosity, and passion. Identifying your ikigai requires perseverance and ongoing refinement, as it can help you reflect on your actions, behavior, and interactions with the world.

The information in this article about finding your ikigai will help you reflect on what is important and how you can find better ways to meet your personal ikigai.

What is the Finding Your Ikigai Coaching Tool?

Finding your Ikigai is a life-long journey of self-discovery. However, you must invest time and energy into the process. It necessitates self-reflection and answering difficult questions. But you will discover a lot about yourself. 

A person's ikigai can be anything, such as a passion, a dream, or a mission. It is something that motivates you to get out of bed every morning. It's what keeps you going and gives you the drive to do something in pursuit of that ikigai. Some people can quickly determine their ikigai. For others, the search may still be ongoing. Everyone's Ikigai is unique: it is influenced by your personal history, values, beliefs, hobbies, and personality. 

"ikigai" is a topic for interdisciplinary research in psychology, pedagogy, and philosophy because it can be a guideline for an individual's way of life. It's a combination of the Japanese characters IKI, which means "life," and KAI, which means "the realization of hope and expectations." The Finding Your Ikigai tool is a simple exercise that can help clients find purpose and meaning in their lives by engaging in the Japanese practice of ikigai.

What is the Purpose of Finding Your Ikigai?

Ikigai encompasses happiness, life satisfaction, the joy of doing something, and a sense of purpose. It's about having the sense that your life is valuable and that you make a difference. There are four things you must cross off your list in your quest to find your ikigai. Knowing what these four things are will help you continue your search in the right direction. Your ikigai should be as follows:

1. What you are passionate about

Your ikigai should be something fun for you. It can be anything that makes you happy; something you would do at any time. It's something that will boost your dopamine levels, and you'd gladly talk about it and share it with others if given the opportunity. It can be as simple as a hobby, such as writing, making videos, taking photos, painting, dancing, baking cakes, or even collecting stamps.

2. What you are good at

Finding out what you are or would like to be good at can also help you get closer to discovering your ikigai. Is there something you're naturally good at? Something you can do effortlessly or in which you are considered an expert? Or is there something you'd like to learn, something you've wanted to learn, or something you've worked hard to achieve?

It could be a skill you've spent years honing, like videography, public speaking, fashion design, marketing, counseling, or computer programming. So, if you are doing something you enjoy and are good at, you have crossed two items off your list to find your ikigai.

3. What you can be compensated or rewarded for

You should know what you can get financially rewarded for to find your ikigai. Remember that to survive, we must earn money to cover our daily needs and expenses. As a result, your ikigai should ideally be something that will pay you. It is not enough to simply enjoy what you do or to be good at it. It is also important that you are fairly compensated for it and that it contributes to putting food on the table and clothes on your back.

4. What the world requires

The fourth factor in determining your ikigai is something that the world or a community requires. Knowing that what we do contributes to a better world makes us feel good. It gives us the impression that we play an important role in our community. Nowadays, one of the reasons why many people are dissatisfied with their jobs is that they do not always see the value in what they do. Knowing that your work has the potential to improve the lives of others can help you get closer to discovering your ikigai.

How to Use Finding Your Ikigai in Coaching?

Ikigai assists you in understanding what you are up to and what your life's purpose is. It is used in many situations throughout life to consider what is good and bad and what to do. There are several ways to use your ikigai, which we will go over in this section.

STEP 1: Complete The Ikigai Questionnaire

Consider what brings you joy, what activities make you forget about everything else, and what makes you feel in flow. It can be a hobby, and you may already be doing it. It could also be a routine task that you enjoy doing.

DO SOMETHING THAT MATTERS TO YOU

Do what will have the impact you want to have, whether it is on your neighborhood, a particular demographic, or the entire world. There is nothing arrogant about thinking big, so go ahead. Consider your sources of inspiration as well as the things that frustrate or irritate you.

DO SOMETHING YOU CAN BE PAID FOR

The last section is about earning money. Although it wasn't a part of the original Ikigai concept, money is a reflection of the fact that to maintain the lifestyle we have chosen, we must earn a living. Therefore, it's better if you can include a money-making activity in your Ikigai. It might be accomplished through work, sales of goods and/or services, 

or both.

STEP 2: Form a Visual

After responding to the questions, you'll begin to notice themes and keywords that you can use to fill out your Ikigai map. As you jot them down, check in with your emotions and thoughts. Do you feel happy? scared? full of anxiety? You can go one step further by considering your mission, vocation, passion, and profession as potential intersections for each of these categories. Although it's optional, it can assist you in developing a list of slightly more focused options to consider.

STEP 3: Form a Plan

This final step may be the most crucial one. It's about incorporating everything into your life. Ikigai manifests in a variety of ways, and this is how you discover your purpose: by fusing several enjoyable and fulfilling activities.

RITUALS 

These are the times throughout your day or week that make you feel fulfilled and in alignment, and they should be connected to the themes you identified during the exercise. Perhaps you already have rituals established, in which case you could tie them to your Ikigai to give them the respect they deserve.

Here are a few instances: a morning stroll, 20 minutes of daily writing, 10 minutes of meditation, breakfast in bed or with a book, a candle-lit bath, planting flowers or vegetables, taking a class, getting together with friends for a drink or coffee, baking, cooking, or journaling...

HOBBIES

These are the pursuits that take up the majority of your time outside of work. They differ from rituals in that they might need more time and a special place. They may also involve more organization and regularity (rather than being spontaneous).

JOBS

What jobs could you combine to generate the desired income? Or perhaps you could work a full-time job and devote your weekends and evenings to developing a side project or hobby. Don't forget to list the products you could sell as well as the abilities you could teach others.