Ikigai

I recently read a short book about the Japanese concept of Ikigai. It hails from a time when publishers were scrambling to find the new Hygge.

The book is okay but a bit dashed-off and unfocussed. The key concept, however, is worth some thought. Ikigai is about the search for a personal meaning — a raison d’etre — in life.

The diagram above (oft-used when explaining Ikigai online) makes it look more complicated than it is.

The authors claim that healthy, long-lived people (including those in the world’s “blue zones” where lifespans regularly exceed 100) generally have a strong sense of Ikigai. I can see how a sense of mission would keep a person going strong. Not that we should think of Ikigai as a means to an end.

I have noticed that Escapologists are often quite driven to find the right path, the one that leads to a truer purpose in life. It’s why we quit our day jobs: while rotting in an office, we often experience profound separation anxiety from the (often unlikely, often poorly remunerated) thing we’re really supposed to be doing in life, i.e. from our Ikigai.

The concept is not so far removed from the “life audit” I encourage people, in Escape Everything!, to make as a way to brainstorm how to spend one’s time on Earth.

Do you have Ikigai?

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