Have you ever wondered why do we exist? What is our purpose on this earth? The things we are studying, do they define our purpose? Were we made only for studying and doing a job after graduation? Or is there more to life than we know? If there is more, then have you ever wondered how to achieve it?

Do you feel the need to know the ‘why’ of your existence?

With so many possibilities and opportunities, life has to offer, it becomes often difficult to decide what to do with our lives. Usually, society dictates children from a very young age about what paths they have to take when they enter adulthood. Many kids have no clue what their adulthood life would look like and what they want to do when they grow up. Many adults today have no clue what they want to do, they just follow the crowd and settle for less without even the effort of trying to know what they are truly capable of doing and achieving.

In Japan, an island called Okinawa conceived a concept of the ‘formula of happiness’. The residents of that place are over 100 years old and they work with all their heart, with no plan to retire. The secret lies in achieving the Ikigai.

Ikigai is a Japanese concept to question oneself and knowing one’s why, which eventually leads to a person finding their purpose in life and their happiness. It helps us determine what it is we want to do with our lives, what we are capable of, what gives us benefit and a sense of achievement in all areas of life. Ikigai is a reflection that rockets the right questions in your brain to kickstart! The sooner a person knows their Ikigai, the happier and better life they will live.

Often the right question leads you to the right answer. We often run away from questions. We, humans, question everything and everyone in our surrounding, but not ourselves! Why do you think we don’t question ourselves? Is it because we are afraid of what surprising, unexpected answer we would get? And that answer could lead us away from the majority of people?

To achieve Ikigai, there are four main points to consider. But before we dive into this, grab a piece of paper and a pencil. Now let’s figure out your Ikigai!

What am I good at?

Everyone has a different skill set. We, humans, have inborn characteristics that make us suitable for different things. For example, we see differences in IQ, empathy, interpersonal skills, leadership skills, time management skills, physical skills, cooking skills, art skills, writing skills, observational skills, filming skills and much more.

Some people try to improve what they’re bad at while ignoring what they’re good at. There’s nothing wrong with improving skills and strengths one is interested in, but ignoring skills one already possesses isn’t right.

Focus on what you’re good at to become the master of it. Why become average at best when we have the opportunity to become best at best. Manifest your inner strengths!

What do I love?

You have to ask this question to yourself — what is it that you love doing? Some prime examples could be reading, writing, painting, teaching, designing, coding and much more.

Write down in a notebook what you love doing the most, something that you enjoy with your whole heart, what comes easy to you, what you do effortlessly. What are the things that when you do or indulge in those activities, you forget everything around you because you’re enjoying them to the fullest? What is that one thing that you pour your heart and soul into? When you are indulged in that activity, nothing else matters to you, you sort of enter some other parallel dimension or universe while doing that thing.

Write everything you love doing. Something that you don’t have to force yourself into, and you do it with all your will and ease. Here, listen to your guts and let your intuition guide you!

What does the world need?

We live in a world where people work either for the benefit of their own well-being or the well-being of others. Some people live in a way to benefit others. I consider those people lucky who live by benefiting others around themselves, who get a sense of positive impact on the lives of other people.

It doesn’t matter if we make a small impact or a large impact, what matters is that we live in a way that does create an impact of benefit and ease on other people’s lives. Such people are contributing somehow in their capacity.

A simple example would be a shopkeeper selling warm clothes in the winter. The world has many flavours of needs. Sometimes the job some people look down at as less important or less respectful, is often highly important, e.g., picking up the trash or cleaning the sewer. Someone has to do all these.

Our work should benefit the world in any capacity. And, most importantly, one has to achieve a sense of contribution. A person without having a sense of contribution will not feel satisfied with their lives and work style.

See the world with a larger perspective, research market to know what the world needs and ask yourself how can you contribute with your skillset and strengths that will make the world a better place. And when we think about the word ‘world’, it doesn’t have to mean impacting thousands of people. Impacting a single life is a world in itself.

What can I be paid for?

Some people would argue that money isn’t an important factor but, to be honest, we live in a world where at one point or another when we become adults, we think about earning. We feel obliged to earn because it’s logic we consume resources and we have to pay bills for those.

Think of ways and work through which you can earn rightfully. What is the work that you can earn from, you can be paid for? Sometimes people do jobs they hate, they wait for the weekends because they are that tired of their life. Then why not do something through which one can earn and be happy with the work too, with a sense of satisfaction?

A simple sign would be that the person who’s happy with their job won’t count days to the weekend and won’t be upset that it’s Monday tomorrow. Money is important, or else our activity becomes more of a hobby. Without money, we can’t pay the bills. To live and sustain in life, we need rightfully earned money. And it is right to expect some kind of remuneration for things that we do.

We, as kids in Pakistan, have few ways to decide on a career. The traditional way includes the pressure of expectations from our surrounding. The surrounding could easily include parents, siblings, relatives and cousins doing well in their career. We tend to make our career decisions influenced by either dreaming to fulfil our parents’ expectations, or in comparison to our siblings or cousins, who somehow seem to do well, or the relatives who tend to give career advice randomly to anyone without even knowing the children’s true power, strength and skillset.

Every human being on this earth has a different skill set. And our career choices should solely be based on our strengths and skillsets only.

It’s about time that we break all these traditional ways of choosing a career, our future. No matter which of the above-mentioned factors influenced or pressurised you to make that career decision, when someday in the future you’ll be sitting alone, thinking why do you have to go to that job, even if it pays well, you’ll realise that you’re missing your Ikigai — your true happiness, true purpose of life, a sense of achievement, contribution and satisfaction, a sense of positive impact on others.

When we choose a work that has all of the four elements mentioned above, we achieve Ikigai, which is the purpose of life and the source of happiness in life.

The idea is to do some work from which we would never want to retire. Sometimes we are betrayed by the image we want to see of our future selves. It’s ‘we’, we should think of. If the work seems enjoyable and worth it, then go ahead!

Published in Dawn, Young World, April 24th, 2021