Using IKIGAI to Discover and Manifest Your Life’s Purpose

Do you ever feel like you have not found your life’s purpose and that time is running out?

You are not alone. Many people spend their lives looking for their purpose, and in midlife especially, they can become a bit panicky.

Deep down inside, you probably know what you would like to do but fear that it’s too late or you won’t be able to make money at it or that people will think it’s strange for you to make a switch after doing something else for so long. Many of us have muted our desires as we support everyone else’s dreams.

In midlife, many of us want to stop pleasing others and start pleasing ourselves, and it’s a neutral time to seek out a new vocation. However, it can sometimes be hard to know where to start. Enter, Ikigai!

Ikigai is a Japanese concept that translates to "a reason for being" or "a reason to wake up in the morning." It's a philosophy that seeks to balance several dimensions of life:

• what you love (passion)

• what you are good at (skills)

• what the world needs (mission)

• what the world values and will pay for (value)

At the intersection of these four elements lies Ikigai, the sweet spot where personal fulfillment, societal contribution, and professional or entrepreneurial success converge.

Finding your Passion. What do you love? What would get you to jump out of bed in the morning? Do you even know?

Take some time to think about what you love. If you’ve been keeping a gratitude journal, it can offer clues since you don’t tend to be thankful for things you hate! Look at your Pinterest pages or Instagram feeds. What posts do you like and save? That can also show you what you love.

What did you love as a kid? What would you love to do if nobody was monitoring you? If you won the lottery, what would you do with your time?

Taking Inventory of Your Skills and Strengths. What are you good at? If you work outside the home, where do you shine on your performance review? What qualities do your clients appreciate? If you’ve been at home, start to think of all the skills it took to keep things running smoothly. List all your skills!

Next, you want to start to look at the transferable skills that you have that you can apply to a new career or activity. One way to do this is to recall 10 significant events in your life that made a very positive difference. This does not have to be work-related: it might be organizing a wedding or taking time to help a friend who was ill. Then, highlight the strengths listed below:

• Analytical Thinking

• Assertiveness

• Building Collaborative

• Relationships

• Change Management

• Coaching/Developing Others

• Commitment to Learning

• Conceptual Thinking

• Coping

• Commitment to Excellence

• Communication for Results

• Credibility

• Customer Orientation

• Decision Making

• Decisiveness

• Developing Others

• Empowering Others

• Energizing

• Entrepreneurship

• Establishing Focus

• Ethics/Integrity

• Flexibility

• Forward Thinking / Proactive

• Initiative

• Information Gathering

• Information Systems

• Influencing Others

• Interpersonal Awareness

• Interaction with Others

• Job Knowledge

• Judgment

• Listening and Responding

• Leadership

• Managing Performance

• Motivates Others

• Networking

• Objective Setting

• Oral Communication

• Organizational Awareness

• Perceptivity

• Persuasiveness

• Positive Attitude /

• Enthusiasm

• Problem Solving

• Problem Analysis

• Process Management

• Products, Services

• Knowledge & Application

• Providing Direction

• Resilience

• Relationship Management

• Results Orientation

• Self Confidence

• Strategic Thinking

• Stress Management

• Teamwork

• Technical Expertise

• Thoroughness

• Versatility

• Written Communication

• Discover what the world needs from you. Most people are happiest if their skills and strengths are valued so it’s important to figure out what the world needs from you if you want to turn your passion into a career. You may need to do some research.

You can use Pinterest search or Google analytics to see what the world is searching for. You can meet with people in your community to find out what they need. You can think about your own life and invent a product or service for an underserved market.

This is an important step as you can start to visualize how your skills and strengths fit into the world. When you can see yourself serving others, you move from the theoretical to the real which allows you to act as if your success has already happened. This is a key part of manifesting.

If you have trouble imagining your work in the world, you can try the loving-kindness meditation. (We love this one by Sharon Salzberg) As you show compassion for people further outside your circle, start to see how the work you do could positively impact people in the world. This is not just about identifying a demographic or figuring out your client avatar. This is about connecting to the world around you.

Find out what skills and strengths are valued. People want to pay you when you are an expert in solving whatever problem they have. Are you a good painter? Sell your art. Are you good at organizing stuff? Become a closet organizer. Discover if you need to get any licenses or certifications in order to be valued. This can look like being paid well, being thanked and recognized, and being validated by others. You don’t need this since manifestation is an inside job, but it’s a lovely cherry on top!

Then get out there and start doing what you love. Build in feedback loops. Do you love it? Does it get you out of bed in the morning? Do you feel like your work is valued and you are being compensated well? If not, keep tweaking the formula until it feels right.

Ikigai does not just apply to a job or business. Examining your passions and skills can help you find hobbies, determine where to travel or live, or even find friends and romantic partners.

The Ikigai exercise can help you get clear on what you want so you can start manifesting it.

Let’s go!