Finding your ikigai

Make three small lists:

• Your values
• Things you like to do
• Things you are good at

The cross-section or overlap of these three lists, is your Ikigai, something you should do for the rest of your life.

Ikigai: The Reason for Being

Ikigai is illustrated in four overlapping circles, as in a Venn Diagram which talks about a synthesis of:

 • What you love to do.

 • What you are good at.

 • What the world needs.

 • What you can be paid for.

We spend almost 25 percent of our adult life in our jobs, which most of us hate. So we basically wake up every morning and do something which we don’t even like to do.

We need to find a career that does not make us miserable all the time, and according to the Japanese conc...