Ikigai

What is your reason for being?

The Japanese have a concept that helps to articulate the relationship between the different spheres that create meaning in life.

At the intersection of passion, mission, profession and vocation you have Ikigai – the ultimate reason for being. In harmony with what you love, what you are good at, what the world needs and what you can be paid for is what we would consider an ideal.

And yet, the point isn’t to reach Ikigai, the point is to live into it.

The journey that we each emabark on as we try to understand our passion, our mission, our profession and our vocation in life is where the magic is at.

The reason for being is to savor the journey – all the parts of it, to wax and wane with the joys and difficulties – for at the end of a well traversed life is a sense of fulfilment; and with a sense of fullfilemnt comes the realization that the convergence of all that I am and all that the world needs is my reason for being.