Ikigai for Happiness

Wow, what better way to get into 2023 than with some heart-warming praise! In my last post, I talked about the importance of praise as a professional love language, to inspire buoyancy, hope and motivation (read that post over here). So imagine my joy when I then received this amazing testimonial from a client, who I’ve been working with for the last few years:

“Several years ago, I attended a Self-Publishing course, run by Zena Shapter. She impressed me with her knowledge and teaching style. Not long after, I committed to her year-long course ‘The Year your Book gets Written’.

For someone who has loved writing since childhood, this was an eye-opener. Who knew that writing had become so formalised and structured since my school days? Did Hemmingway have to contend with this? Having a desperate need to chronicle my grandmother’s life, I embarked on the twelve-month course under Zena’s tutelage and mentorship. Her credentials as a published author, speaker, and active participant in community writing groups gave me confidence to begin my work of creative historical non-fiction.

Zena has a achieved the delicate balance of generosity and efficiency in her mentorship. She encouraged me to keep going when I frequently ‘ran aground’, or I had become overly caught up in my research. The one year turned into a three-and-a-half-year project, and fortunately Zena was there to support and assist when needed. At the end of the process, she was again available to use her amazingly sensitive and competent skills as an editor, spending many hours on my precious manuscript, turning it into a more polished version of itself. I cannot thank her enough for her time, dedication, and encouragement. She is worth her weight in gold!”

Gosh, thank you Rosalie! It’s been a pleasure assisting you, especially since ‘helping others’ forms a part of my Ikigai, or ‘reason for being’.

Ikigai is a Japanese concept that I consider essential in my personal journey towards happiness, fulfillment and contentment, because cultivating my inner potential feels very satisfying to me.

It has been since I watched ‘Dead Poet’s Society’ as a teenager and heard its famous Henry David Thoreau quote, which I then proceeded to memorise:

“I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life. To put to rout all that was not life; and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”

That, to me, seemed the greatest failure: to die without first living as deliberately as possible. Thus I dedicated myself to loving and living passionately, I changed careers and continents multiple times, and constantly sought to achieve my full potential.

When I later discovered the concept of Ikigai, it also resonated deeply.

Here’s a venn-diagram representing Ikigai:

You can have more than one Ikigai, and your Ikigai can change as you grow. There’s so much to know about the concept, but here’s how I interpret the basics:

‘What you love’

I love my family and friends beyond words. I also love words. Anything with words. I wish I’d appreciated this earlier on in my career, when I tried to be anything other than a writer, but once I accepted that words is ‘what I love’, life got a lot simpler. If I’m not creating with words, I feel unhappy.

What do you love? When it comes to Ikigai, ‘what you love’ doesn’t have to be something that forms the basis of a career – it can be about living by your values and finding meaning and purpose in daily living. It can be a hobby or activity. Simply acknowledging what you love is enough.

‘What you’re good at’

I’m good at being creative, meticulous and conscientious. I’m a problem-solver who’s good with details. This helps in many aspects of life, but when combined with ‘what I love’, my passion thus materialises accurately into writing novels and short stories, for which you need to be creative (to imagine them), meticulous (to give attention to story detail) and conscientious (to actually finish projects, especially lengthy ones).

What are you good at? It doesn’t have to be something you’re proficient at already, just something you have potential to improve. Combined with ‘what you love’, this might express or reveal your passion.

‘What you can be paid for’

People pay me for everything listed under the ‘Creative Support‘ tab on my website, including editing, mentoring, book layouts, publishing assistance, and teaching. This has changed over the years, reflecting my expertise at any given time – constant diversification and re-assessment is key when you’re self-employed. Combined with ‘what I’m good at’ (being creative, meticulous and conscientious), my profession thus materialises accurately as a full-time literary artist.

What do people pay you for, and what else might they pay you to do? In what areas do people consider you an expert or proficient? This aspect of Ikigai can include success or an accumulation of wealth as a by-product of your Ikigai, rather than its focus.

‘What the world needs’

As a distinctly empathic and optimistic person, the world needs me to care for others, spreading positivity where I can. This involves sharing my experience and skills as a creative with others, to benefit their lives, thus benefitting the societies in which they live by populating them with happier and more fulfilled people. Combined with ‘what I can be paid for’, my vocation thus materilaises as mentoring and teaching; whereas combined with ‘what I love’, my mission expresses itself as steering the world towards more inclusive creativity. Among other things, this has lead me to establishing writing groups – first at school in 1991, then the Northern Beaches Writers’ Group in 2009, which I still lead. It’s also lead me to work with local councils and create projects to inspire creativity as a personal mission. Where I can also be paid for doing such work, it supports my vocation.

What does the world need from you? This can simply be about connecting with and helping the people who give meaning to your life, including family, friends, co-workers and community.

Ikigai

Once you are aware of your Ikigai, it not only helps to evoke feelings of contentment and life satisfaction, but it creates drive. Knowing I am on the right path motivates me to continue, to accept the sacrifices involved, to appreciate the journey and all its different aspects – including helping others, like I help my clients. It enables me to presevere and be determined, which some might say is something I’m ‘good at’. But I don’t see motivation as an innate skill, more as a muscle that needs training, and Ikigai is a great training tool for that. Try applying the concept of Ikigai to yourself, and let me know how you go!