How to find the purpose of your life? - IKIGAI

Are you someone who always find it hard every day to jump out of bed and get going? You wake up, dress up, eat and rush to office, push yourself into that to-be overloaded lift only to sit inside that small cubicle and wonder is this even your purpose of life?

To be honest, most of them just be alive in their whole life. They are not damn living it!

For you to get going every day, to have a harmonious life you first need to know why you are doing what you are doing.

It will be really easy to push your own limits, work hard and go beyond all the odds if you exactly know what is the purpose of your being.

You actually need a solid reason to wake up every morning and to get going.

Don't worry if you still don’t know the purpose of your life. There is this wonderful Japanese secret to find the purpose of your life. Keep reading to find the secret!

What is Ikigai?

Ikigai has its origin from the island of Okinawa in Japan. Ikigai means "reason for being". The term is derived from the words iki (meaning life) and kai ( the realization of your hopes & expectations)

Okinawa is home to more 100-year old per 1000 inhabitants than any other place in the world. So, researchers set out a research program to find out what people on the island do differently than most of us.

It is found that the majority of inhabitants have an apt ikigai. They know their purpose for their being and live accordingly.

Elements of Ikigai:

Ikigai is basically the combination of four important elements of your life

-What you love

-What the world needs

-What you're good at

-What can you be paid for

The intersection of these four fields are the purpose of your being that drives you.

What you love:

What are the things that light up your heart? What do you love doing?

The purpose of your lives should be something you genuinely love. You will not be able to put in your heart and soul into the purpose when you do not truly love it.

What the world needs:

Perhaps, you are explicitly good at something but if it doesn’t serve the world it might become useless.

Solving the knots of the world combined with your inner drive would bring out tremendous satisfaction to you and those around you.

What you're good at:

Your purpose should also, be aligned with the skills you have. It is obvious that you can acquire many skills and develop as you grow but still, you need to have the specific skills that match your purpose.

What can you be paid for:

Almost, every human being spends 75% of life working. If your profession is not something that drives you, you might not give your 100% to it.

You should be paid for the purpose you are working for. Only then you will have the motivation to thrive harder. If you don’t have the purpose as your profession you might need to take up another job for a living. So again you will not give your full potential into the purpose. There will be no balance.

So, basically Ikigai is something that you get by finding the intersection of all the four elements. If you have read the above elements carefully you will understand how each one is interdependent and without even one of it the purpose of our life would be incomplete.

When in time of a tremendous cold war inside my mind, Ikigai really helped me figure out what I really need to do and where I should head to lead the life of my purpose. It is the real secret that everyone should know and work on!