IKIGAI: The Japanese Secret to Long and Happy Life
- Mella Sutaryani
- Nov 29, 2022
- 4 min read
Do you ever feel a little bit tired of life? Or do you feel like your life lack purpose?
If the answer is yes, don’t worry, you are not alone! Many people live their lives in search of purpose! If you are searching for a life purpose, maybe this article can help you find something new. So, stay tuned!
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Japanese people have this philosophy called IKIGAI which becomes a secret to a happy life. Ikigai is derived from the Japanese word ‘IKI,’ which means life, and ‘GAI,’ which means worth. The term IKIGAI refers to life with meaning or purpose. Ikigai is a part of Japanese culture. The concept of Ikigai has been proven to be true to life based on the residents of Okinawa Island in Japan, who are known as the happiest and longest-living people in the world. People of Okinawa Island live for more than 100 years on average. Most elderly people in Okinawa Island are still working in healthy conditions. Some others who retire from work still actively live their hobbies and contribute to social activities.
To apply this philosophy in your life, Garcia and Miralles, in their book, have some tips for you. You can start by questioning yourself the following question.
What do you love?
Think about something you love to do that makes you happy, focus, and lose track of times when you do that activity. It can be your hobby in your childhood or your current day-to-day hobby. If you need help discovering your hobby, try to ask your closest person, such as parents or friends. Ask them about what activity they think will make you happy when you do it. Write it down on a piece of paper.
What does the world need?
People can find happiness when they feel that they are giving value to others. For example, you feel happy after helping, taking care of, or giving people something that they need. So, think about the people around you or the world around you. What thing can you happily show to other people around you? it's not necessary to be a big or valuable thing. You can give random people a smile to brighten their day.
What can you be paid for?
No matter how happy and how kind you are to yourself or other people, you still need money to make a life for yourself. Here are the tips! So, after finding activities, services, or product that you like to do and has the potential to benefit other people, start to think about the way you can make a living from it. For example, if you love gardening, you can grow flowers or vegetables in your garden and then you can start to sell your flower to florists and vegetables to the traditional market, or you can cook your vegetable, so you don’t have to buy them.
What are you good at?
Thinking about what you are good at can take time and effort. It can be so tricky. This is because people tend to believe others' opinions about the things, they can do better than other people. This is what is called ‘limited beliefs.’ For example, when your friends tell you that you are not a good swimmer, you tend to believe your friend and feel insecure when in reality, your friend is just jealous because you swim better than her. You need to gather your confidence in deciding what you are good at doing. You still need others’ opinions about it, but as long as you enjoy doing that specific thing, you can just go for it. Don’t listen to others' opinions. Just let the result talk.
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So, after asking yourself these questions, what is the next step? What should you do after finding the answer? Here are some tips you can do to apply the IKIGAI philosophy in your life.
Take Action!
Acknowledging your passion is not enough if you are not going to do something about it. Make a move! Just trust yourself. Don’t wait until you have everything to do it. Start today, start from where you are, and just start with what you have. Do not be afraid of mistakes. It is just a matter of trial and error. There is no such perfect thing on the first try. Just like Nike's slogan, “Just do it!”
Stay Active!
You are not going to achieve anything if you are just lying in your bed and scrolling through your phone all day and all night. Build a simple and consistent routine to make you move more throughout the day. It can be a simple activity. It is okay if you just take an afternoon walk, tidy up your table, clean your room, or just walk around your house with no specific purpose. That’s okay! Just move your body.
Take it slow, be mindful!
There are a lot of people that love multitasking because they have a lot of things to do and limited time in a day. However, Japanese people take things slow and live in the moment. They seem to have a lot of things to do, but they do it calmly with no rush. They focus on one thing at a time with great focus and intensity. They did not rush through life.
Most of the tips above are the quick summary from a book with the same title as this article, IKIGAI: The Japanese Secret to Long and Happy Life, written by Hector Garcia and Francesc Miralles. If you want to find out more about your passion and your purpose in life. I would recommend this book to you. So, good luck with finding your passion!
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Reference:
Garcia, H. & Miralles, F. (2017, August 29). Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life - Héctor García, Francesc Miralles - Google Books. Books. <https://books.google.co.id/books/about/Ikigai.html?id=4UCnDQAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y>
Book Summary LAB, (2022, March 10). Ikigai (detailed summary) - The secret to living your dream life. Youtube. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYrB5mOh5Ag>
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