Ikigai and purpose

There’s a Venn diagram that’s been popularized to explain ikigai. I don’t want to post it, because as it turns out, it’s totally inaccurate, but you can see a detailed version of it here. I’m not an expert on the concept, but I wanted to blog about it because it seems to come up for KonMari® Consultants and their clients, what with Marie Kondo being Japanese and all.

According to Ken Mogi, author of Awakening Your Ikigai: How the Japanese Wake Up to Joy and Purpose Every Day, “ikigai” literally translates to “reason to live”. While it can give a sense of purpose to individuals, it applies to small moments (like the glimmers I talked about in my September newsletter) as well as to big life achievements. There are five pillars to ikigai:

1-      Starting small (focusing on the details)

2-      Releasing yourself (accepting who you are)

3-      Harmony and sustainability (relying on others)

4-      The joy of little things (accepting sensory pleasure)

5-      Being in the here and now (finding your flow)

I made the Venn diagram below based on the one created by Andres Zuzunaga to describe purpose. (It was in 2014 that Marc Winn used it and replaced the word “purpose” with “ikigai”, at which point it became viral, but the meaning of ikigai was thus very much westernized.)

I very much like Zuzunaga’s Venn diagram for purpose, and even though it’s a simplified vision of work and labor, it can help people align their actions with their values. For me, being a professional organizer falls right in the middle of that diagram!

As Helena Escalante explains, ikigai “is about being mindful and present, enjoying the little things that make up the moment we are living in, and finding our flow as we get lost in the appreciation of the details.” It does not have to do with money or one’s career, and it’s not necessarily about what the world needs and or what we’re good at – it’s more about what we enjoy enough that it motivates us to keep going. It can overlap with purpose, but it is not limited by it.

I hope this post helped to clear up some confusion!