IDENTIFY YOUR IKIGAI (CREATE A PURPOSE VENN DIAGRAM)

Ikigai is a Japanese word that translates roughly as “reason to live.” Ikigai and purpose are often conflated, but they’re not quite the same thing. They’re both a reason for being, but “purpose” suggests a grand, lofty goal you can dedicate your entire life to, while ikigai can be found in the smaller, everyday realities of life. In the Japanese philosophy, ikigai is the thing that makes you want to get out of bed in the morning, and it can be anything—it could be the ninety-year-old woman who gets up to see her grandchildren, or the forty-year-old man who gets up to help launch a new product at work, or the twenty-year-old college student who gets up to spend time with friends. Part of practicing ikigai is practicing gratitude—learning to appreciate what you have in life and cultivating a positive mindset. You can also have more than one ikigai, and it can change over time.

The exercise I’m about to show you is not really an ikigai exercise. If you look elsewhere, you will often see it called ikigai, but it is actually a Westernized framework only loosely based on this concept . Most accurately, it should be called a purpose Venn diagram. I’ve chosen to use the ikigai terminology as well, because understanding the concept of ikigai will help you get the most out of it.

What you need for this exercise:

  • A printed copy of the Ikigai Venn diagram, or draw your own (4 overlapping circles)

  • Something to write with

 
 

STEP #1: PRINT (OR DRAW) YOUR DIAGRAM

Start by creating your diagram. You can download and print the one on this page, or draw your own.

STEP #2: LIST THINGS YOU LOVE

In one circle, list anything and everything you love and enjoy doing—for example, sailing, hiking, solving interesting problems, making things with your hands.

  • • Don’t worry yet about whether you’re good at these things, whether you could make money from them, or whether they’re things the world needs. Right now the only thing that matters is whether you enjoy them.

    • Make sure you are listing things you actually enjoy doing, not having done. For example, I think it would be really cool to be able to tell people I hiked to the South Pole. Do I think I would actually enjoy doing that? Nope. Avoid listing things you would like to be known for or that you’d like people to know you have accomplished. Focus on the things you enjoy inherently, for their own sake.

    • Include both specific examples and broader categories. For instance, let’s say you put sailing and hiking on your list. If what you love about those things is being active outside, you should put that on your list as well, as it will open up many more potential options.

 

STEP #3: LIST THINGS YOU ARE GOOD AT

In another circle, list the things you’re good at—for example, practicing new skills, working with others to solve problems, sailing, making things with your hands. If you’re using this exercise to set education or career goals, it makes sense to consider your strengths. You might love playing basketball, but if you’re already an adult and still not very good at it, becoming a professional basketball player probably isn’t your best career option.

  • • Again, focus only on your strengths right now. Don’t worry about the other categories in the diagram.

    • Include both specific and more general items, just like you did with the things you enjoy. When you list something specific, ask yourself, “Why am I good at this thing?” That could lead you to a broader strength you didn’t realize you have. For example, maybe you’re really good at jigsaw puzzles—that might mean you’re good at pattern recognition, which is a skill that has lots of uses.

    • Consider listing not only what you’re good at right now but also what you think you could become good at. Remember that your skills and strengths are not fixed. If there’s something you show potential in and you’re interested in it or passionate about it enough to want to develop your skills, it’s okay to include it here.

 

STEP #4: LIST THINGS YOU CAN GET PAID FOR

A fundamental aspect of well-being is having one’s basic needs covered—food, shelter, and security—and that rarely happens without at least some amount of money coming in. So, assuming you’re not already independently wealthy, what can you get paid for? List them in another circle—for example, handyman, building furniture, teaching.

  • • List only those things you could reasonably work your way into from where you’re at now. The idea isn’t to list every single possible job in the world. That would be a very long—and unhelpful—list. You need some boundaries on this. This is where leaving “professional basketball player” off the list is appropriate for most of us. It’s definitely a thing some people get paid for, but not a thing most of us ever will get paid for, even if we try.

    • Keep your mind open to the possibilities. This can be a tough balance. You need some boundaries here, but you don’t want to get too aggressive, dismissing potential jobs as “unreasonable” or “off-limits.” A certain job might take a lot of time and work to be a possibility, but it’s still a possibility. Leave off the truly unreasonable options, but challenging ones are okay.

    • Again, be general and specific. You can list a particular role, like web developer, or an entire field, like computer science, or both.

 

STEP #5: LIST THINGS THE WORLD NEEDS

Now move on to the final circle, and list things the world needs— for example, access to education, safe shelter, and beauty.

  • • Focus on the needs you care about most. As with jobs, the world has a lot of needs. If you try to list everything, it’ll be overwhelming. So instead, zero in on the needs you’re passionate about, personally interested in, or think are most important.

    • Think both big and small. The world needs people to address large issues like climate change, and it also needs people to address smaller needs, like the need for safe and secure homes or pets to keep us company.

 

STEP #6: DO A SECOND PASS, THEN LOOK FOR THE OVERLAPS

Go back and review each category a second time.

Did things you thought of for later categories trigger ideas about things to include in earlier categories? Add those in now.

Then, look for the overlaps and add those into the diagram.

For instance, in my example, there’s an overlap between making things by hand (which appears both in “things you enjoy” and “things you are good at”), building furniture and being a handyman (“things you can get paid for”), and the need for both beauty and safe shelter (“things the world needs”). This suggests several different options you could put at the center of the diagram. Build furniture? Work in construction? Make inexpensive tiny homes? Join a nonprofit that works to house the homeless, either as a full-time job or as an intermittent volunteer?

Where are the overlaps for you?

The Ultimate Goal of Ikigai

The ultimate goal here is to try to find things that combine all four categories, but it’s worth noting any overlap. Even if something only overlaps in two or three circles right now, you might realize that there’s actually a way for it to check off every category. For instance, with the example I’ve used, sailing appears in both “things you enjoy” and “things you’re good at.” Looking at that overlap, you might realize, “Oh, I could totally make money through sailing! I could give lessons or take people on sunset sails. And hey, that actually solves a need in the world too—people need new experiences to be happy, and I’d be providing them an adventure.”

What if you go through this whole exercise, and you don’t find anything that overlaps in all four categories?

  • First, go back, look at the specific things you’ve listed, and see if you can translate those into broad, general things. Do the opposite too, looking at the broad things you’ve listed and coming up with more specific examples within that category.

  • Second, look at the places where you have some overlap and see if you can find ways to create additional overlap (as in the sailing example).

  • After that, if you still don’t have anything in the center of your diagram, don’t worry! This is not an all-or-nothing exercise. Any overlap at all is a good thing. If you have an overlap between what you love and what you’re good at, that’s a passion. Overlap between what you’re good at and what you can get paid for is a profession. Overlap of what you can get paid for and what the world needs? Vocation. Overlap of what the world needs and what you love? Mission.

You can achieve ikigai without having an overlap in all four categories. In fact, not a single one of these categories is required for ikigai in its true form. Ikigai in the Japanese philosophy is about feeling that your life is worth living. You could experience ikigai doing a job you find meaningful but don’t necessarily enjoy. You could experience it in taking your dogs for a walk on a sunny day. You could experience it volunteering at your kid’s school. The point of this exercise is basically to identify the things that will get you the most bang for your buck. We all need things in our lives that we enjoy, that we’re good at, that we can get paid for, and that help solve the world’s needs. If we can identify one thing that does all of that, great! If not, that’s okay too. You are allowed to do more than one thing.

If you find you have the opposite problem - that you now have too many things to consider and aren’t sure what to do about that, the Pick 5 Things exercise (and especially the discussion of Hierarchy of Goals in that exercise) might help you out. What also helps is to remember that that’s a good problem to have - so many things that it’s hard to decide between all the things that you enjoy and can do well that can also get you paid and fill a need in the world!