How Does Ikigai Differ From Today’s Self-discovery Techniques

Suresh Kandru
6 min readJan 16, 2023

Ikigai is a Japanese concept that refers to a sense of purpose or meaning in life. It is often translated as “a reason for being” or “the thing that makes life worth living.” The word “ikigai” is made up of two Japanese characters: “iki,” which means “life,” and “kai,” which means “value” or “effect.”

The concept of ikigai is often represented as a Venn diagram with four circles: what you love, what you are good at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for. According to this model, your ikigai is the intersection of these four circles.

The advantage of the ikigai philosophy is that it can help individuals find meaning and fulfillment in their lives by identifying their passions, skills, and values and aligning them with the needs of the world. This can lead to greater satisfaction and happiness in one’s work and personal life.

It help people find what they love, what they are good at, what the world needs and what they can get paid for and make it the center of their lives.

The Ikigai Method: A Look at Okinawan Culture

The Japanese Ikigai method of finding one’s purpose dates to ancient times, and the people of Okinawan culture living on the southern island of Okinawa adopted this lifestyle long ago. This island and culture have…

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Suresh Kandru
Suresh Kandru

Written by Suresh Kandru

Cloud Architect | Innovating with Machine Learning, LLMs and Generative AI - Sureshkandru.com

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