Finding Your Path: When Ikigai Feels Out of Reach
You find yourself drifting without purpose.
There was hope when you followed the Japanese Ikigai Framework, aka "Reason for Being", but in the end, you had nothing left to show for it. The path to finding what you love, what you do well, what the world needs, and what others will pay you to do leads to a blank sheet of paper, leaving you hopeless.
The issue is, you're not looking hard enough.
I recently published an article on how to find your Ikigai (Reason for Being). You can read it here: Beneath the Surface: Excavating Your True Calling. One response made me pause for a moment. He stated, "Unfortunately, for most of us, the 4 never coincide."
The commenter, whom I will keep anonymous, was stating that most people will never have something that works in all four categories of the Ikigai Framework.
What you love
What you do well
What the world needs
What can you be paid for
This comment made me think about why anyone would feel this way. As I thought more about it, I realized that I needed to adopt a different perspective: "What if I ran through the framework, and nothing completely matched up?"
It would make me feel lost, deflated, and unsure where to turn.
If you do happen to find yourself with nothing after following the framework. That means you need to do at least one of two things.
Review & Learn
The first is to review your "What you love" list. Is there anything that didn't make it to your "What you do well" list? If so, look into improving any of those skills. Take a course, search YouTube for free ones. Learning more can help make those skills something you can do well.
Just because you think you have nothing, doesn't mean that it's true.
There is always an opportunity; you only need to pay attention. Learning and improving are constants in life. Finding that you lack a skill means you can get better.
Experiment
The second situation might be that you have nothing else on your "What you love" list, or for some reason, you can't possibly do it well. I love to play basketball, but I will never be good enough to play in the NBA.
There is still hope.
I found myself in this situation while in college. My major was Graphic Design, and something about it didn't click with me anymore. I started to question what to do next. That was when I decided to move to another state and stay with my aunt, uncle, and cousin.
That helped to bring change.
My uncle owned a business at the time and let me work there helping out with different tasks from soldering components to circuit boards, to machining pre-fabricated parts to properly fit a system together. One day, my uncle was working on a design for a component in a computer software. I had taken classes on similar software in high school. I asked him about what he was doing, and found the discussion to be interesting. He was working on a part to be used in a high-powered microscope, but it needed to be made with a material that didn't expand like most metals when heated. Expansion causes movement and that will affect what the microscope sees.
Long story short, I ended up enrolling in some mechanical engineering classes at the local college.
After some time in that, I changed my major again to filmmaking, and wound up with a degree in that. I now work in IT and write in my free time.
Life isn't a direct path to perfection. We find ourselves on a winding road that often doubles back, loops, and zigzags. It will make most people feel lost, even if they were on the correct course. A lot of work goes into finding and following your dreams.
The Ikigai Framework is designed to put you in a direction, and it's not perfect. The good news is, you have more to work with than you think.
Enjoy life for what it is, and the adventure that can bring unexpected turns.
Don't worry, you'll find your way.
