This blog is not it, but it’s a step in the right direction
I haven’t been to Okinawa (yet), but their word “ikigai” resonates with me. There are plenty of articles and books exploring this concept, and the earliest reference to it I could find is from Dr. Sanjay Gupta, reflecting on what he learned writing his first book, “Chasing Life.” Dan Buettner talked about it in a TED talk a few years later.
Ikigai really came into vogue with Hector Garcia’s book of the same name. Hector lives in Japan and wrote “A Geek in Japan.” He visited Ogimi in Okinawa prefecture, which has a large population of centarians, and with them explored what the concept means. Since then lots of travel writers have visited the village trying to find out how to “live to one hundred,” but the better question is “how to live more purposefully.” Ogimi has taken to this well, with even their website having content about how to live with more ikigai.
Dr. Gupta says the word means “a sense of purpose,” while more recent definitions say it means “a reason for being,” or in more crude articles they say it means “purpose.” I like Dr. Gupta’s realization that living with a sense of purpose, a positive outlook, a sense of worth and family are very important things to have. I especially like the idea of “living with a sense of purpose,” instead of “living with purpose,” since you can only see purpose in the abstract – it isn’t a solid object.
For the past few years I didn’t think about a sense of purpose, and felt like I’d been cheated out of fulfilling my purpose by miserable people who just existed to drag me down to their level. I made a conscious decision to abandon what I knew how to do so I wouldn’t get hurt by similar people again, but I’ve come to realize that was not the right approach. What I needed to do was go back to what I knew, and surround myself with the right people and the right aims.
The world isn’t full of bad people, or anybody out to get me. So, world, I’m back.