Ikigai: The Key Framework That Strengthens My Reason to Take Masters Study.
When I graduated in 2020, I knew I wanted to take a master's but I didn’t know why. I just really love studying, I love the ‘aha moment’ of understanding something new, and I know there are still so many things for me to learn from this world. So, in 2021 I just applied to the master’s program that resonates with me — and I failed obviously.
I simply thought that I failed because I didn’t have enough experience, or that my essay was not good enough. Well, both may be the reason why but later I realized that I did not have strong reasoning as to why I have to go studying a master’s program. So for my 2022 application, I kicked off the process by using the Japanese framework to discover my purpose in life.
Reaching an Ikigai may sound easy; you simply need to fill in the part of what you’re good at, what you love, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for. I did that in a blink when I was in my bachelor study as this was part of my Organisational Psychological Behaviour course back then — which also where I first discovered Ikigai, which also the time when I thought that Ikigai was just ‘another framework’.
Filling in the Ikigai framework was easy but the more you talk with yourself, the more you will ask yourself the question “Oh, really?”. At least for me, that was the case. In the end, I finalize my Ikigai framework in around 2 months after ‘working on it’ every day after working hours. I put an apostrophe on the word working on it because I didn’t literally just fill the circles — I did stuff that helped me figure out my Ikigai.
Figuring out Ikigai
Before you actually start on the journey of finding your Ikigai, let go of any thoughts on who you think you are, let go of any thoughts on how you want to be perceived by other people, and lastly you have to reset and be open to any possibilities. If you forgot to do this, or you find it hard along the way, just remember these three things and constantly reset all the thoughts and free your mind. Now, here’s how I do my Ikigai.
Breakdown the Ikigai.
So, there are 4 main circles when you’re filling in an Ikigai:
1. what you love
2. what you’re good at
3. what the world needs
4. what you can be paid for
My way of filling these in was to fill them one by one, taking a day to fill one circle before moving on to another. This gives us enough time to ensure whether we’re sure with our answers, whether it is really what we think, and eliminate answers that are actually how we want to be perceived by people. To do so, I break down each circle to even a smaller question.
What you love — for me, this stands for things that make my heart feel warm when I’m doing it. I would do it again and again, it’s hard to find me tired of doing this, and no matter how tired I am I will always have the energy to do this. In this circle, I tell the story of how I love cooking and I love cooking for others (especially my family). I also write about how I love listening to other people’s stories and being asked for advice. I write even as many things as possible; I love traveling — exploring new places, I love writing — sharing stories and thoughts, I love storytelling, and I also love being with myself (introvert things).
What you’re good at — Now here is where something requires skills and since good or bad is quite subjective, I take some certification or validation (previous work colleagues’ testimonials), or course grades as a way to confirm that “yes, I am good at it”. In this sense, I write structuring data is something I’m good at (validated by a previous work colleague). I am also good at the topic of CSR, sustainable supply chains, and qualitative — quantitative research (course grades validated).
What the world needs — This is where you would dive deep into the internet. You have to find what are the current megatrends, how is the world in the next 5 to 10 years going to develop, and what is the current demand from the world. I spend a lot of time reading reports from consulting and research firms such as Bain, Deloitte, or even the World Bank, UNEP, Ellen MacArthur, and other organizations to which topics are of interest (based on also what I love & what I’m good at). There I found topics such as green jobs, sustainability movement, and climate action. I also list down several issues and what kind of people are needed such as the issue of plastic pollution would need people who stop plastic pollution from occuring. The issue of hunger would need people who are knowledgeable in the topic of food security. And so on.
What you can be paid for — list down the job you find on LinkedIn that resonates with your interest. When I first wrote this circle, I listed almost any job coming to my head. However, as I go to the n iteration, I start to link this part with what I’m interested in based on what I actually love and what I’m good at. So when previously I would write “brand manager” in the first iteration, in my next iteration I only have stuff such as “business consultant” or “business advisor” because working in marketing is in line with my study background but has nothing close to being something I’m interested in.
You have to define what you see each circle as and for me, it is totally okay to write the same things in a different circle in the beginning. However, as you go on with your Ikigai, in your second, third, and n iteration, try your best to not do that and focus on classifying what that activity means for you. For example, I love writing, I’m good at it, and I can be paid for it. However, after several conversations with myself, I realized that I love writing. Good or bad is subjective and I don’t have any necessary certification or something that could certify that I am a good writer. Also, as much as I love writing, I write not to be paid for. I write for myself so it falls into the category of I love writing.
After finishing each circle, I continue the process by filling in the intersections of the two circles, and the intersections of three circles, to finally write down my Ikigai. If many find this post interesting, I might write more about how I filled out these parts in another story.
Take a lot of time talking with ourselves.
So, if you look at the previous paragraphs, I write a lot about how doing the Ikigai is not to be done in a single sitting. I did several iterations and in between one iteration to another, I talked with my closest friends, I read books — Failoshophy by Elizabeth Day, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson, and Whatever You Think Think The Opposite by Paul Arden are several books I could recommend for you to read in the journey of finding your Ikigai — , and I talked with myself a lot. By talking with ourselves, I really asked myself again “Oh, really?”. For example, I remember that for the section on what I love, I initially wrote that I love doing exercise. Well, I do, but the more I ask it’s not that I do it out of love for the exercise, but out of love for my body. I have to take care of my body so I have to exercise. This is not the same as saying that I love cooking. Because for exercise, as much as I love my body, there will be days I don’t have any energy to do it at all. But for cooking, no matter how tired I am and the available option to do an online delivery, I would still love to cook some heartwarming meals. So, I highly suggest you talk a lot with yourself like A LOT. Ask again, do you love it? do you really believe you’re good at it? is this it that the world needs? and is that it that you can be paid for? In the end of the day, it is totally okay to have your Ikigai changes and it is okay too to have several Ikigai. At least for me, I have several things that I would call my Ikigai and I’m content with it.
Use the Ikigai.
When I already had the Ikigai, the next step I did was identifying how to reach my Ikigai. In summary, when I was preparing for my master's studies, my Ikigai was to be a researcher/consultant with the output that is useful for businesses enabling green policy or for policy enabling sustainable business. I realized that at the end of 2021 nowhere close to being my Ikigai. I still have so much to learn to reach that point — I have little knowledge of environmental processes, I don’t have experience in public policy, and I also have little experience in providing business consultancy. These can be filled with several years of experience and certifications but that might take years and hella a lot of effort — that can be easily substituted by a 2 years study in a master's degree that is in line with all of this stuff. I call this process identifying the gap between who you are today and who you want to be, and I feel Ikigai helps me a lot in identifying who I want to be. Having my Ikigai with me, I feel firm about which path I want to choose, which university I want to apply to, and what kind of program I am looking forward to. I might make another post on how I finally decided on my study at Lund University IIIEE, but for now, you gotta work on your Ikigai and let me know how you do it after reading this post.
One more thing, Ikigai is among the things that made me confident with my decision and had no FOMO at all. I mean, when I was applying for a master’s degree, many of my friends were going to Ivy Leagues, or applying to a top-notch university, while I was going to a university my friends never heard of in a country they always thought of being Switzerland. But, I was firm with myself about what I wanted to study and nothing else mattered.
Best of luck,
Aninda.
