Iki-What?

IkiIkigai (pronounced ee-kee-guy) isn’t a millennial term for your creepy neighbour. It’s an ancient Japanese philosophy that’s shining a light on how we should live – finding purpose and joy in simple things... keeping busy, but slowing down when we feel overwhelmed.

- Marli Meyer

In short, ikigai is the Japanese secret to a long and happy life. As the New York Post put it: ‘If hygge is the art of doing nothing, ikigai is the art of doing something – with supreme focus and joy.’ Loosely translated, ikigai means ‘reason for being’ or that thing that makes you want to get up in the morning. Everyone has an ikigai; it’s that sweet spot where your passion, mission, vocation and profession meet, and having a strong sense of what this is makes every day meaningful. It’s about staying true to yourself, to the things that are important to you, and spending time doing things that bring you joy.

When Héctor García and Francesc Miralles studied the village of Ogimi on the island of Okinawa for their book Ikigai – the Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life, their aim was to better understand this ancient cultural concept. Okinawa is known for the longevity of its inhabitants. With a ratio of about 50 centenarians per 100000 people, the island is one of the four anthropological ‘blue zones’ (geographical areas where people live longest) in the world, as identified by bestselling author Dan Buettner.

Although finding your true ‘purpose’ in life can seem like a complicated and perplexing process, ikigai isn’t about going on a sabbatical to contemplate the reason for your existence. It’s about doing the exact opposite: paying more attention to what makes your soul sing daily. The key word here is daily: this isn’t about life’s big purpose – it’s about all the things, great and small, that get us out of bed every day and that we need to keep in balance.

HOW TO FIND YOUR IKIGAI

Ask yourself these four questions:

What do you love?

What are you good at?

What does the world need from you?