Continuing our search into finding our purpose in life, we discovered a lovely Japanese word – ikigai. It literally means life’s purpose. It was discovered on one of the many islands in Japan, called Okinawa and there they boast one of the world’s highest numbers of people living into their 100s. They believe it is because they have a sense of ikigai or self-worth and purpose.
One interpretation of this encourages us to look at four areas: what I love to do, What I am good at, what the world needs and what I can be rewarded or paid for. By doing things that fulfil these four areas we will discover our ikigai and always have a sense of purpose.
It can be hard to recognise what we love to do and what we are good at and even harder to get paid for it but exploring these areas and trying to do more of what we enjoy, I feel, is important and leads to a better and happier life – isn’t that what we all want?