Here is a list of the five steps that clients work through to complete the four headings:
- Understand what ikigai means
- Filling in your ikigai chart
- Find overlapping responses
- Find the missing circle(s) of your ikigai
- Address the missing circle(s)
Further on in this article, we provide a sample of 20 prompts that can be used to help clients fill in the four circles.
You can access the full-length version of this tool, as well as its accompanying diagrams, with a subscription to the Positive Psychology Toolkit©.
Job Crafting
You do not need to change jobs to get closer to your ikigai (Mitsuhashi, 2018).
Instead, it is possible to craft your current role, making marginal changes to what and how it is performed, into one that benefits others and enables you to experience a sense of joy in what you do.
But first, it is essential to understand how you spend your time.
Use this Job Crafting worksheet to keep a log of your activities on a typical day.
It can be surprising to find out how you spend your time, and possibly a little disappointing.
Are you spending time making connections with others or being passionate about what you are doing? Or are you caught in a mundane unproductive task?
Can you change how much time you spend on tasks that are not rewarding or vary them to be more engaging and fulfilling?
Identify what you could do to spend more time on activities that appeal to you or craft others (less intrinsically interesting) to make you feel happier, motivated, and interested.
The aim of job crafting is that, through ongoing experimentation, you can find more creativity and enjoyment in what you are doing and strengthen your connections with others (Mitsuhashi, 2018).
Minor changes made over time can have a significant impact on your sense of fulfillment while moving you toward your ikigai.
Strengthening Ikigai in the Workplace
While relevant to all aspects of our lives, ikigai is of particular value in the workplace.
We spend much of our lives at work; it often leaves us wondering if it is possible to make that time more meaningful and enjoyable (Brueck, 2020).
Use the Strengthening Ikigai in the Workplace tool to consider the answers to the following questions:
- What are you good at?
- What do you love to do?
- What does the world need?
- What do you (the organization) need for the market?
For ikigai to be successful, the needs, values, and passion of the organization, employees, and customers must be in equilibrium.
Reaching such a state and making it sustainable is challenging and only possible through reflection and asking the right questions.
Identifying Your Ikigai
A common misconception of ikigai is that it only relates to your career and how you earn a living (Mitsuhashi, 2018). And while this application is helpful, care must be taken that the four overlapping circles we often use to understand the term are not limiting.
Not that this representation is inherently wrong, but it constrains the idea of ikigai. To the Japanese, while ikigai can relate to their work, it could just as easily be a pastime such as fishing, meeting with friends, or enjoying a glass of wine (Mitsuhashi, 2018).
Mitsuhashi describes finding your ikigai as embarking on an unknown adventure that takes us beyond choosing a vocation and looks at all aspects of our living.
Finding your ikigai is about recognizing value and happiness in individual moments and across the big journey of life. You must not limit yourself to the present, but search your past for clues. Your ikigai was most likely apparent from your early school years onward and recoverable by sifting through your memories (Mitsuhashi, 2018).
Reflect on the questions in the Identifying Your Ikigai worksheet before completing each box provided.
Review the answers, and use them to reflect on their meaning regarding your ikigai.
Can you see common themes and pastimes that were important to you?
Are the patterns from your past reflected in your present?
What our readers think
I want to thank you for the amazing work that you do! It’s always enriching, empowering and outstandingly, brilliant! Bravo!
Beautifully explained. Writing style is simple and holds the reader throughout. Article provides points for viewing the world from perspectives usually different from the prevailing ones. It motivates oneself to shed negativities and encourages to explore alternative approaches for life to make it better. Thank you Dr. Jeremy for the wonderful gift.