Ikigai and personal purpose: an archived Project Mindset post, originally published in 2021. Dates and roles reflect the original publication.
Ikigai: A Reason to Get Up in the Morning
Finding purpose is a lifelong journey. Listening to others, you may feel you should know early what interests you and which goals to pursue. It is not that simple. Many people search into later life for their own purpose or why.
One reason, I think, is that desires change. We start new things before finishing old ones, repeatedly. I do not blame anyone: changing wishes seems human. Many also lack suitable questions or a framework to identify their goals.
If you do not know your destination, no path is the right one.
Ikigai is a concept I find helpful for exploring purpose: roughly, the thing you live for or the reason you get up in the morning. Life means more than money or an impressive title.
The framework presented in the original post asks:
- What do you love?
- What does the world need?
- What can you be paid for?
- What are you good at?
Answering can, hopefully, help you identify your direction. The original illustration credited Dreamstime.
For a detailed discussion, see the linked article. I also discussed finding your why with Daniel Schäfer in the linked video.
Related source 1 · Related source 2
More in the Project Mindset archive (German) and the Reza Mehman Podcast.
