Designing your reason for being
The Japanese concept of Ikigai describes finding the perfect balance of 4 things — what you love, what you’re good at, what the world needs and what you can be paid for. Here’s how to start designing the next steps in your career and your “reason for being”.
The Japanese have lots of great phrases that we have adopted into our working lives.
If you have experience of Agile and Lean practices, for example, you’ll probably be familiar with words like Kanban (the signboards and markers used in Toyota car assembly lines to control and limit work in progress and improve flow) and Kaizen (the idea of continuous improvement of all parts of a business).
One phrase I was introduced to this week was the concept of “Ikigai” (生きがい) which translates to “reason to live” or “reason for being”.
This concept resonated with me because the idea of combining what you love, you’re good at, the world wants and what you can be paid for, was very similar to an insight we had for a project I worked on back in 2012 for Google Science Fair called the Idea Springboard.
The idea was that we could help budding young scientists come up with ideas that could change the world by sparking off ideas through getting them to consider what they loved, were good at and wanted to solve.
So it was great to see that someone had created a similar model, but had applied it to find a personal sense for being and living.
Finding your own reason for being
Achieving your own sense of Ikigai will help you make the best use of your professional skills and tap into your passions, whilst giving you a mission that people will appreciate you for, and one that enhances your sense of a value and vocation in life.
The path to achieving this starts by looking inwards at what you’re good at and love and then comparing this to what the world actually needs and you can also be paid for.
By considering each of these you can think about and plan your own personal development and career and make some more purposeful and considered choices about how you may want to develop your skills and capabilities to achieve your own “reason for being”.
Let’s work through an example…
What you’re good at
As it’s probably the easiest place to start, I would recommend first looking inwards and considering your own skills and abilities.
Ask yourself what you’re capable of doing…
- What are you good at?
- What questions can you answer that others struggle with?
- What skills do you have qualifications in? And to what level?
- What do you want to get better at and spend time learning more about?
As an example, I have always tended more towards the sciences both in my education and career. I’ve picked up skills and qualifications along the way in coding, management, human-centred design, agile ways of working, innovation, entrepreneurship, lean startup and metrics, business case modelling, finance & investment, product management, coaching and strategy.
These are the skills I can put to use in any situation, that I either already have some degree of expertise in, or am well on the way to doing so.
But, I wouldn’t claim that I love every aspect of these skills and disciplines, so what are the things I do and don’t like about them? What would I enjoy doing more of or less of?
What you love
Next, think about the parts of your work life that you enjoy the most…
Ask yourself…
- What do you enjoy doing about a particular task? or activity?
- What do you get moments of joy from?
- What gets you excited when it comes up? Who do you like to work with and why?
(note: I also found it useful to reflect on what I don’t enjoy as well)
For example, I love solving complex problems, I love coaching people and putting questions in front of them that helps them challenge their thinking and overcome their biases. I love it when people come up to me after workshops and say that they learnt something new that they can take back to their personal practices, especially if they started as a detractor or a doubter.
If I could do any of these things every day, imagine how great work could be!
What people need
Now it’s time to look outwards and think about what problems you want to apply yourself to…
- What problems do you personally care about, but also that you know that others do as well?
- What issues affect the people close to you and that you care about?
- What subjects do you find yourself reading about in the news that keeps you up at night? And critically, do you care enough about it to spend every day working on this need?
I must admit, I struggled a bit with this one. Just because I care about something doesn’t mean that I want to work on it.
If you’re a budding entrepreneur, it can be even more of a challenge, especially when you have an idea in your head already. There’s an art to finding meaningful opportunities (that I will write about another time), but the key here is to focus on problems that people face and start there.
The key to this stage is avoiding jumping to solution mode, and aim for quantity and not quality, as you’ll start to filter things out at the next stage based on whether anyone would pay for it.
What people will pay for
Now (unless you’re a millionaire), which of those problems will you get paid to solve…
- How many other people experience the same issues?
- Are those issues being solved by others?
- If not, are you clear on what people would pay and how much it would cost to solve?
How could you check? talking to them? surveying people? Checking online traffic for potential competitors? Are there any competitors?
This part will likely take the most time and testing because it relies so heavily on others.
My recommendation would be to start creating testable hypotheses around these.
Putting it all together
The final step is then to consider what will help you achieve your sense of Ikigai.
In all likelihood, your sense of purpose and being will change over time, but just by carrying out the exercise, it will help you break down the problem and be more strategic and considerate of what you yourself want and need concerning others.
Here’s where I got to with my Ikigai.
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