Ikigai Meaning: How to Find Your Life Purpose

The Japanese word “ikigai” means a “life purpose” or “raison d’être.” Ikigai refers to defining your personal meaning of life in relation to your talents, passions, and profession, as well as what you can give to the wider world. Adherents to this philosophy believe that finding such a nuanced and personalized sense of purpose can lead to a more fulfilling life and increased longevity.

Ikigai compounds two smaller Japanese words: “iki” (meaning “life”) and “gai” or “kai” (meaning “worth”). While the concept has a long history in Japan and other parts of Asia, the term recently resurged in popularity throughout the western world with the publication of Héctor García and Francesc Miralles’ 2016 book, Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life.

Awakening your ikigai (Japanese for “life purpose”) can lead to a greater sense of fulfillment and happiness. Neuroscientists, journalists, and ikigai adherents have pointed to the longevity of the Japanese people to establish that defining and following your life purpose in this way leads to a longer life span. For example, in Tokyo, the average life span is nearly eighty-eight years old for women and eighty-one years old for men.

Similarly, off the coast of Japan, the island of Okinawa boasts an impressively high number of centenarians. Plenty of these hundred-year-old Okinawans point to their well-defined ikigai as a reason for their long and happy lives. Scientifically speaking, of course, correlation does not equal causation—there might be a different reason for this sort of longevity. Still, the high degree of self-awareness and joy in these “Blue Zones” (areas of the world in which people live significantly longer than other populations) suggests there might indeed be a connection between the pursuit of ikigai and a long life span.

Your ikigai resides at the intersection of multiple factors in your life. These four components are essential to the Japanese concept of ikigai:

1. 1. Mission: While defining your ikigai requires focus on what makes you tick individually as a human being, you also need to look outward to what the world needs, too. A person’s ikigai connects to something greater. Ask yourself how you can contribute to making the world a better place—it’s at least one-fourth of what makes life worth living, according to the general concept of ikigai.
2. 2. Passion: Self-development is as rewarding as it is challenging. To find the true meaning of life for you personally, feeling ikigai (or a sense of joy in fulfilling your purpose) is as essential as any broader duty to the common good. Define what you love to do the most and keep doing it for the rest of your life.
3. 3. Profession: Ikigai means making a real-life difference day in and day out, both personally and professionally. Finding a sense of fulfillment at your job is a core element to building a holistic ikigai. Look for a career that serves the world, sparks your own interest, and brings you joy.
4. 4. Talent: If you can pinpoint what you’re naturally good at, you have yet another core element of your personal ikigai in your grasp. Especially for younger generations, ask what talents you already possess and which you hope to develop. Spending each day doing something you love, that comes easily to you, and helps the wider world might lead you to live a happy and long life.

To discover your own ikigai, it’s important to look within, explore the world around you, and ask what makes life worth living for you personally. Here are three tips to defining the concept for yourself:

• Ask what brings you joy. Throughout the course of your everyday life, notice what increases your sense of well-being. Define the small things you can do on a daily basis that you love doing, feel innately good at, and can channel into a career, as well as what will better the state of the world. When you experience this joy of little things, you can feel ikigai at work in a tangible way.
• Create a Venn diagram. Create four overlapping circles (mission, passion, profession, and talent) and start to fill them with words. This sort of ikigai diagram or template enables you to start defining your sense of purpose in a very hands-on way. As you fill in each circle, try to keep an eye out for the commonalities between them—and especially the similarities that fit right in the center of the diagram. This is the sweet spot that will help you clearly define your ikigai.
• Try new things. Everyone can define and experience their personal ikigai in a unique way. For instance, an introvert might seek out a podcast about new ideas or experiences, whereas an extrovert might try things more directly. As you learn more about yourself and explore opportunities, you’ll experience moments in which you feel you’ve achieved a state of flow—instances in which everything seems just right. It takes examples of ikigai in action like this to better define what the concept means for you in a more general sense.

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