How To Use Your Ikigai To Build Better Goals

Following your ikigai means aligning the four main fields of your life:

• what you love
• what the world needs
• what you can be paid for
• and what you are good at.

And if you ever read about ikigai, you might have already seen this graphic.

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As you can see, when you only consider two fields, you get four values you should always be aware of:

1. Passion = what you love + what you are good at
2. Mission = what you love + what the world needs
3. Profession = what you are good at + what you can be paid for
4. Vocation = what you can be paid for + what the world needs

Living by these values can be satisfying for a while. But it will never be fulfilling. And even if you use three of the four fields, the results won’t change much:

1. Without something you can be paid for, you will feel happy and fulfilled but have no wealth.
2. Without something you are good at, you will feel excited and self-approval but have a lot of uncertainty.
3. Without something you love, you will feel comfortable but empty.
4. And without something the world needs, you will be satisfied but useless.

Therefore, to find your ikigai, you must find and master all four fields of your life.

Héctor Garcia and Francesc Miralles wrote the popular book Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life.

Now, we’ve already seen ikigai’s meaning and how it works. You can read the book to know how to live a longer and happier life. So, I will focus on using ikigai to build better goals.

1. Follow your ikigai
2. Give thanks
3. Don’t fill your stomach
4. Stay active, don’t retire
5. Take it slow
6. Surround yourself with friends
7. Reconnect with nature
8. Smile
9. Live in the moment
10. Get in shape for your next birthday

Let’s see how to transform these rules to build better goals.

The purpose is only a quarter of your ikigai. But when you think about your goals, motivation plays a big role. And having a strong purpose is fundamental to feeding it.

Search for your purpose if you haven’t found it yet.

According to Garcia and Miralles, you should always thank those who supported you. So, when you reach a goal, thank yourself and those who were by your side.

Celebrate your wins and achievements. You deserved it.

I know I built a terrible goal when I reached it, but ignore what comes next.

Your goals should always have a next step. So, leave them open. Think of the bigger picture. And keep yourself in movement.

Once you reach a goal, it becomes easier to reproduce that same success. And with time, your routine will stagnate if you don’t challenge yourself with greater challenges.

Try something new. Try something bigger. Search for new stimuli. It will fire up your motivation.

Sometimes, I work more on a goal because I feel the adrenaline rushing. Maybe I’m excited about a new project or I found some spare motivation.

I work double the hours or even more. And then, the next day, I’m so exhausted I skip. But it shouldn’t work like this.

You can delay your excitement until the next day. Value consistency over quantity. And you will never burn out.

A good friend can serve many purposes.

Some friends will support you when you’re feeling down. Others will help you reach your goals. And others can do both.

You can ask your friends to become your accountability system — they will do a great job. A true friend wants the best for you. So, they won’t miss a chance to tell you to focus on your goals if you ask them.

When you think you need a break, it’s already too late. And it would help if you had done it long before.

Breaks are essential for your mind and body to keep doing their best. So, you can just plan your break with the same care you schedule your tasks if you are serious about your goals.

Start with a 24-Hour Do Nothing Challenge , for example.

In my experience, I’ve noticed there are two types of goals:

• those you pick out of greed
• and those that make you happy.

The only difference between them is that greedy goals have lost their reward. And that’s a feature of goals you have prolonged for too much. So, you should rethink them and understand the reward you’ll get from reaching them.

Is it worth your time?

Do you ever try to understand if you will reach your goals?

I often calculate the weekly and monthly average, multiply it by the missing time, and try to foresee if I will succeed. And although this is an efficient way to understand if it’s going great or if you need more work, it could also become dangerous.

Don’t focus too much on how easily you will reach your goal. You will lose a lot of time you could have used otherwise.

We always reward ourselves with a guilty pleasure for our birthday. But we have never thought of a greater reward — a bit of delayed gratification .

So, next time you set a goal, set the deadline next to your birthday. Give yourself this big gift. And you will work with re-found motivation.

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