Finding your Ikigai is a Japanese concept that consists of finding your raison d’être and therefore the joy of living.

Ikigai is a Japanese concept from the 14th century. He first appeared on the island of Okinawa. The word ikigaï is made up of “iki” which means to live and by gaï which means reason. We could translate it as “raison d’être”. For the people of Okinawa Island, Ikigai is “the reason we get up every morning”, the purpose of our life, our mission, which makes us say that life is worth it. to be lived. This philosopher of life would make it possible to be happier, less stressed, to have a healthy life and a long life. 

We need to find our ikigai hidden within us at the intersection of our passion, our mission, our profession and our vocation. To find it, you have to find the common denominator in the answers to four questions: What do I like to do? What am I good or good at? What could I get paid for? What does the world need? Finding your ikigai can mean changing jobs, cultivating a garden, playing the piano … To each his own ikigai, to each his reason for being. 

Making our ikigai emerge from our unconscious allows us to regain self-confidence, pleasure in the little things in life, to see the glass half full and not the glass half empty. Finding your ikigai and living according to its principles provides the joy of living despite the difficulties of life. Living according to your ikigai is learning to see your daily life from a new perspective. 

Finding your ikigai allows you to give meaning to your life, to find a source of energy and anchorage. 

For that, you have to let it emerge from the depths of your being. 

Finding your ikigai takes effort, patience and introspection. It requires trying to get to know yourself better, taking the time to answer these questions: what makes me curious? What am I good at? What’s my style? What activities revitalize me?

This self-reflection takes time, time during which it is important to disconnect in order to concentrate. It can take several weeks or even several months. It is possible to get help from a coach or therapist to get to know yourself better or to use a tool. 

Venn diagrams are a tool for finding your ikigai. It is a question of making a set of circles by filling each circle. The tiny circle in the hearts of others is ikigai. It corresponds to the conjunction, the common point between what a person likes to do in his personal or professional life, what he knows how to do, what the person can be paid for, not necessarily in money, what the world needs and that the person can bring him. The two essential circles of Ikigai are “what I love” and “what I’m good at.” 

Ikigai can take several forms (an idea, one or more key words, a motto, a mantra …) with the idea of ​​revealing our life mission as a watermark.