One of the gifts of being a therapist is that often you learn from your clients as much as they do from you. A client recently referenced a concept he came across. It was a Japanese idea - Ikigai. Recently, while I was at the bookstore (yes, Amazon, they still exist), I noticed on the shelf this book, and realized that this was the concept he had shared.

The concept is laid out briefly in the opening pages and illustrated well in the graphic below.
I immediately resonated with the concept.  Ikigai roughly translates to "the happiness of always being busy."  But a more detailed breakdown of the Japanese characters gives a richer definition.

 

The first chapter connects the idea to the "Logotherapy" of Viktor Frankl. If you're not familiar with "Man's Search for Meaning"  you should check it out. It's an essential read (especially if you're an existential psychotherapist like myself.).

It also discusses the "blue zone" of Okinawa which reportedly has 24.55 people over 100 years old per every 100,000 residents.  While diet, lifestyle, exercise, and environmental factors are obviously also at work I think it's hard to argue that a sense of purpose late in life will keep you going.  The book even claims that there is no word in Japanese that translates “retire” (as in leave the workforce for good).  One need only look at American icons Dick Van Dyke, Mel Brooks and the recently departed Norman Lear to know that a sense of humor in combination with a sense of purpose is a powerful thing.

But the part that resonated the most was the venn diagram.  I've talked with many clients over the years about how we need to align with our passions and our talents. Just because we're good at something doesn't mean we're willing to sacrifice for it.  Passion comes from the latin root word "patior" which means "to suffer or endure."  (As a child I was very confused by the Passion Sunday story at church.  To me passion meant lust, like the soap opera "Passions".  What was passionate about a crown of thorns, mob violence and crucifixion?).
And just because we're willing to sacrifice and work hard at something doesn't mean we're good at it. Just look at the first few weeks of American Idol auditions and you'll see lots of passionate people with no talent.

And of course we all need to make a living so you could be the most passionate and talented poet or saddlemaker and it's still going to be hard to make a living. Ikigai gave me a fourth component I hadn’t quite added into that equation, which is "what the world needs."

I'm proud to say that in my role as a therapist, following in the lineage of my mentors, doctors Bill Flaxman at Stephen Johnson, I feel I’m completely living in Ikigai.  Are you?  What's your ikigai? Maybe I could be the right guide to help you discover it.