Finding greater purpose
When I was contemplating a change in career direction from general counsel to legal COO, I was clear in my head what I did not want. Where I struggled was answering the question ‘What do I want?’. I had to connect to something much higher than what my strengths are and what I enjoy doing. I had to ask myself the fundamental question, ‘What is it that I do that will allow me to contribute at my highest level of value?’ I had to go in search of my purpose in life and work.
Discovering your ikigai
Your ikigai is your reason for being; your purpose in life and work. Your ikigai is the reason you get out of bed each day. It’s what motivates you, connects you to your highest levels of fulfilment and drives your commitment to learn and grow.
The reason it’s important to connect to your ikigai is that it supports a long and meaningful life. It starts with understanding the essence of you and what you stand for. It leads you to connecting the dots between what you can offer the world, and how this can sustain you and the people around you.
Discovering your ikigai is the practice of finding the epicentre of your passion, vocation, profession, and mission.
Finding clarity
Most of us are clear on what we do well and how this contributes to our life. Clarity of purpose, however, goes much further than this. It may be satisfying to do the work we enjoy and watch the numbers increase in our bank balance every month but does this pleasure sustain our souls?
We have to dig deeper to uncover what fundamental contribution we make, how this helps us, and what legacy this creates for the future. In doing so we discover our ultimate purpose for being on this earth. This is a primary inner purpose of ‘being’ rather than a secondary outer purpose of ‘doing’.
In summary, ikigai lies at the very centre of these 4 pillars:
· Your passion – what you love doing.
When you ask yourself what you loved to do when you were young, you can often uncover your truest passions in life. You can also examine what puts you in flow – the states of being that are the most fulfilling to you. These are the activities in which you lose yourself due to the levels of challenge and reward (for an exercise in finding flow, visit https://www.kiranscarr.com/downloads).
· Your vocation – what you can contribute.
When you are clear about where you make your highest contribution, you can identify where you can create your highest value. This requires you to focus on core competencies (problem-solving, creative thinking, being a change agent) more than skills or strengths (negotiating, dealmaking).
· Your profession – what you can be paid for.
We usually have a clear idea of how to satisfy our monetary wants. But for this exercise, dig deeper on roles that can generate passive income in a sustainable and fulfilling way as well as the conventional methods of earning salaries, income and revenues.
· Your mission – what matters to you.
A fundamental part of establishing your purpose in life and work is to clearly articulate what you deeply care about. This is about articulating what you feel the world needs, what problems on this earth need solutions, and what you would change tomorrow if you had the divine power to do so.
Drawing these 4 fundamentals of who you are together - your passion, vocation, profession, and mission - and dedicating yourself to them, each day, you centre yourself deeply into a life of purpose. For an exercise in finding your ikigai, visit https://www.kiranscarr.com/downloads.
By uncovering our purpose – our reason for being – we connect to what we want. Our jobs or titles are not the sum of our intended contributions in life. There is a higher calling for each of us and the journey is to find it and live it wholeheartedly.
If you want to Awaken your purpose in life and work, reach out to find out more about C-Success Coaching at https://www.kiranscarr.com/coaching.
References
García, H. and Miralles, F., Ikigai: The Japanese secret to a long and happy life (2017) Penguin Life.