Finding My Ikigai ☕️.
If you’re anything like me, you have no idea what ikigai is. I first heard about this concept on “The Smart Passive Income” podcast (ep. 539). The concept is all about finding the ‘why’ behind your career (and your life). It spoke to me in many ways. Ikigai is the intersection of passion, mission, profession and vocation and is more relevant than ever. Ikigai is thought to combine the Japanese words ‘ikiru,’ meaning ‘to live,’ and ‘kai,’ meaning ‘the realization of what one hopes for.’ I view this to mean the realization of what you are living for.
We’ve all heard about the ‘great resignation.’ Since 2020, there have been insane labor shortages. No industry seems to be safe from staffing shortfalls, especially given the emergence of a more transmissible COVID variant. A year ago unemployment was at a decade high. Today it’s at a decade low - yet somehow people are resigning more than we’ve ever seen. What the hell is going on?
The pandemic has accelerated something that was already in motion. While it would be easy to blame the swinging employment levels on health and wellness concerns (which are certainly real - e.g. my wife quit teaching when she found out she was pregnant due to COVID concerns), I believe people are quitting because they finally have the opportunity to evaluate their own personal values and intrinsic motivators. People are finding their ikigai in mass quantity. The pandemic has forced all of us to look at the insides of both our homes and our heads for far too long. This has forced some uncomfortable questions. Namely, is my work fulfilling me?
This forced downtime has also opened my eyes to the emergence of side hustles. There is a unique opportunity today to leverage the internet to better fulfill your own passions, learn and create passive income. It seems easier than ever, and let’s be honest, we all have the time to learn how to do it. This phenomenon, on top of obvious health concerns, has led people to pivot their career directions rapidly.
Pulling it all full circle, I encourage everyone to think outside of just their day job when looking for their ikigai. There are supplemental things you can do to help meet your personal fulfillment needs without sacrificing it all. This has become increasingly easier with the internet (many things on here are quite monetizable).
Example:
Frank loves teaching others (his passion).
He wants to help the world stay fit (is a gym teacher at school).
He is really good at basketball (is also high school basketball coach).
However, Frank knows that with inflation and rising cost of living, he can’t make an honest living on a basketball coach / teacher’s salary. So Frank decides to start an online course on the best training methods for a successful high school basketball player.
Boom, Frank has just built an audience through an online community and has now monetized his passion. This, on top of his daily job, clearly fulfills him and pays the bills.
Importantly, not every job will bring you ikigai. Actually, most will not. But before you bail from that job that pays your bills to go and find your lifelong passion (read: usually a hobby), realize there are many ways to find this satisfaction today while supplementing your current situation with side income, if this is what you’re seeking. It doesn’t always have to mean ‘quit to find something better.’
To illustrate, I mapped my own attributes to find my ikigai and quickly realized I need to operate a coffee shop ASAP.
