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For the uninitiated, Ikigai is the Japanese term for what gets you up in the morning, basically your raison d'être.

I’ve had a pretty long think about this Ikigai thing, and I think it can all be summed up with this one post:

For example, my father often says “Eating is my Ikigai”

Eating!

Ikigai is a great concept. I certainly like it. And when a friend and I made an attempt at a podcast we gave it an awesome title.

Can you guess what it was?

‘Iki-guys’.

Original.

I know.

As far as I’m aware, the term Ikigai really blew up with the book: Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a long and happy life.

Since then, everyone and their Nyan-Cat has been trying to decipher exactly what Ikigai means and has begun a search for their own.

Ikigai was used as one way to explain Japan’s ‘Blue Zone’ in Okinawa (see the Japanese Wikipedia article on Ikigai). Although the claims have since been downplayed somewhat, the people there are said to live long and happy lives precisely because of the existence of Ikigai.

And I’d believe it.

However, over time, Ikigai has become yet another term to add to the list of overused and bastardised Japanese terms.

(Japanese is probably equally guilty though; my number (our social security cards), my pace (doing things on your own schedule), high tension (being hyper or overly excited), to name a few. Not to mention English doing this for centuries already with French, for example.)

Search images of Ikigai and this Euler diagram keeps popping up:

Search in Japanese, and this comes up:

‘Japan’s Ikigai praised highly around the world’.

In this case I think it’s fair to say Japan is guilty of drinking the Chuhai. However, this could simply be an extension of Japan’s inferiority-superiority complex; that of constantly searching for approval from overseas countries while simultaneously failing miserably to realise how amazing and highly-praised their culture already is.

Well, until someone publishes a book on an isolated aspect of the culture that gets worldwide attention, that is.

Like Ikigai.

Still, I have a few other issues with that Euler chart.

According to the chart, your Ikigai is:

1. What you LOVE
2. What the world NEEDS
3. What you can be PAID FOR
4. What you are GOOD AT

Emphasis in original.

You’ll also see sections for mission, vocation (I have also seen vAcation, nice for some), profession, and passion.

Looking at the chart, it would appear Ikigai requires a combination of all these things.

I’m not buying it.

One of these things alone should be enough for you to want to get up in the morning.

Plus,

1) If you have something you love to do, then of course you’re going to want to get up in the morning.

2) Does the world need another excessive eater YouTube channel? Probably not, but it appears to be many people’s Ikigai.

3) What you can be paid for is the worst of the lot. You don’t need to be paid to do a lot of things that could be considered Ikigai.

Raising kids for example?

(Although it would be nice to be paid for that. I’ll send you my bank details after this)

4) You don’t need to be good at something to enjoy it either. Just look at that Otani Shohei guy who is loving it. I kid, I kid. Otani is the best. But you could probably name any professional sports player who doesn’t perform here. They have to love it to get there, right?

Plus plus,

Japanese is a language that, for the most part, does away with singular and plural nouns. For the most part, we get by just fine not having to specify the number of things, because for the most part, the numbers don’t actually matter.

Until they do.

Like my friend whose Japanese girlfriend didn’t realise men had two balls…

Until she did.

And so it is with Ikigai.

We don’t know whether Ikigai is a singular thing, or whether we can have multiple Ikigai.

I argue for the latter. Mainly because there is more agency.

Plus plus plus,

Like emotions, people, and nature, your ikigai can change and go through changes. So to say you have found your ikigai is great for the moment, but that will change in the future.

The problem is,

Ikigai is treated as a magic bullet.

‘If only I could find my Ikigai’.

Anyone who says this has completely missed the point. That’s what Shinrinyoku is for.

No. You’re supposed to be living your life, and that’s when you discover your Ikigai.

Or maybe you don’t. Not yet at least.

Ikigai is not something we find. It’s something that finds us. In the now. It’s something we realize when we have it, rather than actively going searching for it.

“Is this it?”

The last guy who found his Ikigai.

I’m afraid this is it.

Well, for now I guess.

We may have more than one Ikigai. And at the same time, as soon as we think we’ve found it, it could change in an instant.

As the famous saying goes, it’s the journey not the destination that counts. Searching for Ikigai is the same. But the thing with Ikigai is that it doesn’t have to be, nor should it be, an active search.

In other words,

Just live your life as you see fit.

Your Ikigai should take care of itself.

Oh, and if you haven’t found it yet,

have you tried eating?

This article from the Kiwi Yamabushi newsletter got more than 1,000 reads, so I decided to put it here for everyone. Get articles just like this in your inbox by signing up here. Paid subscribers get priority access and access to the full archive of over 100 articles.