Are you living your calling? Check your ikigai!

Over the last few weeks, I have been chatting with people at all levels within my industry. I am thoroughly enjoying the process and the conversations have been enlightening. Before I started this journey, I already had an idea that many people had lost sight of their career calling. This has been reinforced in my recent conversations. However, I am pleased to say that there have been some who are clearly aligned to their calling, and this is inspirational.

“Are you living your career calling?” 

I ask most people this question. From the discussion that ensues it is clear that the answer is not straight forward. Most of us intuitively know, and appreciate, that things could be far worse for us, whatever situation we are in. But we also know that things could be better. In that context, how does one start to answer the question above?

I have been contemplating this a lot. Given my background in engineering, I usually look for logical ways to solve things. But this is clearly one of those questions that can’t be answered through an engineering equation. Rather, it will be determined by how I feel at the end of the day.

Ikigai

A friend of mine recently pointed me to a Japanese concept called ikigai. I’m so glad they did because it has helped me see things a little clearer. The concept is similar to what I have been referring to as a “calling”, but is described far more eloquently. Although the concept itself has evolved over the years, its foundations link strongly to a sense of purpose or reason for living. In more modern times, it has been presented in terms of the following four key considerations.

What you love

What you’re good at

What the world needs

What you can be paid for

It’s important to look at the balance between the four considerations, not the individual considerations themselves as they work together in concert. If someone is willing to pay me handsomely for my efforts, but I’m not enjoying what I am doing, then it’s a compromise and it’s probably not my ikigai.

if you’re interested in exploring the concept of ikigai, then I encourage you to have a look at the following resources as a starting point.

A pretty good overview by Sloww

How to Ikigai | Tim Tamashiro | TEDxYYC

Over to you

With this in mind, and with your permission, I’d like to try an experiment.

I’ve created a very brief survey which starts off by asking if you are currently living your career calling. The answer should be instinctive; a gut-feel. Once that is out of the way consider the ikigai questions in light of how you feel in your career currently. I’ve also added a couple of demographic questions to see if any interesting patterns emerge. After completing the questions, click submit, and your (very much unscientific 😏) ikigai diagram will be displayed. Look for an overlap of the four circles in the centre. I’d love to get a ton of responses to get a feel for where people are sitting on their career journey.

In case you have any privacy concerns, the survey is completely anonymous. Also, I’m not a specialist in this area so please don’t take any of it as professional advice. The exercise is purely to encourage consideration and discussion around this important issue.

Finally, feel free to write a comment at the end of the page. What are your thoughts on the concept of ikigai?