3 steps to find your ikigai (life's purpose)

Do you know your life purpose? What brings meaning into your life?

A month or so ago, I came across the concept of ikigai. Ikigai is a Japanese word that translates to “purpose in life” or “reason to live.” I’m a sucker for anything talking about life purpose, so I watched a Ted talk by Tim Tamashiro (I definitely recommend watching it) describing ikigai.

Ikigai is your life’s worth.

It’s a verb that can be described as a combination of passion, mission, purpose, meaning, profession, and drive.

To discover your ikigai, you must first discover:

What you love
What you’re good at
What the world needs
What you can be paid for

When you find this sweet spot where these for areas overlap, you have found your life’s worth. Your ikigai makes life worth living.

Obviously, the first thing I did after discovering this concept was trying to discover what my ikigai is. I made four lists (one for each of the four principles of ikigai). I tried to make them as long as I could, hoping to discover some overlap. I tried to keep my list only to things that are especially meaningful to me and that I always turn back to over the years.

After some work, I decided that my ikigai should be described in the words: to teach.

Now, throughout my life, I’ve always wanted to teach, however, I never had much desire to teach in a traditional classroom. Rather, I loved finding teaching moments in my daily life. I love giving advice, writing blog posts, teaching piano in college, teaching English online currently, and facilitating discussions in church.

Knowing teaching is my ikigai, does that mean I should only teach and do nothing else? Of course, not!

I loved the idea Tim Tamashiro gave that when you first start to incorporate ikigai into your life, you can start part-time. Start just with what you love and what you’re good at, but keep your job.

Spend your time before and after work solely with your ikigai. In time, you can find ways to incorporate what the world needs and how you can manage the financial side. You aren’t obligated to quit your job and tip your life on its head because you’re “supposed to.”

About now, you’re probably wondering what your ikigai is.

I also created a worksheet to help in this process. Feel free to print it off and fill it in as you follow along. Remember to take your time as you go through these three steps below. Ponder on each of these steps before moving on. You can take 15 minutes on each step or a week, so don’t feel obligated to rush.

Here’s how you find your ikigai in 3 steps:

1. Make four lists

Following the principles of ikigai, label four columns 1) What I love, 2) What I’m good at, 3) What the world needs, and 4) What I can be paid for. Spitball as many ideas onto the paper as you can.

Once your list is complete, star ideas that have stuck with you the longest. What is most important to you? What brings meaning into your life? If you didn’t have financial obligations to worry about, what would you do?

2. Find the overlap

Are there any similarities between the columns? Write these down as well. These overlapping areas are where you’ll find your ikigai.

3. Define your ikigai as a verb

Taking all of this, condense it into one verb. For Tim Tamashiro, his ikigai is “to delight.” Mine is “to teach.” Here are a few more ideas. Notice if any stick out to you.

To connect
To serve
To inspire
To refine
To create
To aid
To heal
To explore
To design

Before I end, I just wanted to share one last brief note. A few months ago, I watched another Ted talk called There’s more to life than being happy by Emily Esfahani Smith. While I don’t remember most of her talk, I’ve been pondering her main point ever since; rather than searching for happiness in life, we should search for purpose. Once we find purpose, happiness will come. This struck me because with all the books, podcasts, video, and ads screaming at me that they have the answer to happiness, I had never considered that it wasn’t what I should be searching for.

Ikigai shows me that happiness is found through purpose. It is only through aligning my own life with my ikigai that I have found more peace and contentment. Ikigai is what brought me to blogging before I even knew there was a word for it.

Let me know below how your search for ikigai goes. I would love to hear about all the other verbs you use to describe your life’s purpose.