Pic Courtesy: career coaching in London

 

‘Ikigai’ (ee-key-guy) is a small word with a profound meaning. Translated from Japanese, ‘ikigai’ means reason to live.

 

It is a fascinating concept, and has many quotes related to acceptance and living in the moment, nature and beauty, health and longevity, movement, happiness, purpose, and passion.

 

 Ikigai can be defined as ‘a sense of being alive now, an individual’s consciousness as a motive to live.’

– Aikihiro Hasegawa

 

Acceptance & Living in the Moment Quotes

 

There is no future, no past. There is only the present.

-Hector Garcia Puigcerver

 

Stop regretting the past and fearing the future. Today is all you have. Make the most of it. Make it worth remembering.

-Hector Garcia Puigcerver

 

We don’t create our feelings; they simply come to us, and we have to accept them. The trick is, to welcome them.

-Hector Garcia Puigcerver

 

A happy man is too satisfied with the present to dwell on the future.

-Hector Garcia Puigcerver

 

Nature & Beauty

 

If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.

-Frances Hodgson Burnett

 

In Japanese culture, there’s a belief that only imperfect objects, like a cracked teacup, can truly be beautiful. This is called wabi-sabi. Try to let go of the quest for perfection, and instead accept the beauty that lies in all of life’s imperfections. The result will be extra energy, less stress and a longer life.

-Blinkist

 

Only things that are imperfect, incomplete, and ephemeral can truly be beautiful, because only those things resemble the natural world.

-Hector Garcia Puigcerver

 

There is pleasure in the pathless woods, there is rapture in the lonely shore, there is society where none intrudes, by the deep sea, and music in its roar; I love not Man the less, but Nature more.

-Lord Byron

 

Health & Longevity

 

True silence is the rest of the mind, and is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment.

-William Penn

 

Just possibly, ikigai makes a Peter Pan of all of us. And that is not necessarily a bad thing. Let us all be twelve years old! Youthfulness of mind is important in ikigai, but so is commitment and passion, however seemingly insignificant your goal.

-Ken Mogi

 

Movement and Flow in Ikigai

 

Only staying active will make you want to live a hundred years.

-Japanese Proverb

 

Keep going; don’t change your path.

-Hector Garcia Puigcerver

 

Whatever you do, don’t retire!

-Hector Garcia Puigcerver

 

As soon as you take these first small steps, your anxiety will disappear and you will achieve a pleasant flow in the activity you’re doing.

-Hector Garcia Puigcerver

 

The happiest people are not the ones who achieve the most. They are the ones who spend more time than others in a state of flow.

-Hector Garcia Puigcerver

 

Can someone really retire if he is passionate about what he does?

-Hector Garcia Puigcerver

 

Happiness

 

If you can make the process of making the effort your primary source of happiness, then you have succeeded in the most important challenge of your life.

-Ken Mogi

 

Savor this moment as if it were your last breath. You can live only one day at a time, and no one can be certain that they will wake up the next morning. So let’s not postpone happiness. The best moment in your life is always this one.

-Garcia and Miralles

 

Ikigai translated into English as ‘life purpose’ sounds quite formidable, but ikigai need not be the one overriding purpose of a person’s life. In fact, the word life aligns more with daily life. In other words, ikigai can be about the joy a person finds living day-to-day, without which their life as a whole would not be a happy one.

 -Akihiro Hasegawa

 

Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.

-Joseph Addison

 

Ikigai is the action we take in pursuit of happiness.

-Yukari Mitsuhashi

 

Community & Family

 

Find your own ikigai by asking yourself how you want to serve your community. If you are undecided, remember your dreams from when you were younger, maybe in your youth.

-Tsutomu Hotta

 

Young people often say, ‘My life has no ikigai.’ This is obvious. People who isolate themselves can’t have ikigai – meaning or purpose. Meaning and purpose is only found in interpersonal relationships.

-Tatsuzō Ishikawa

 

“Treat everyone like a brother, even if you’ve never met them before.” It turns out that one of the secrets to happiness of Ogimi’s residents is feeling like part of a community.

-Hector Garcia Puigcerver

 

A man is like a forest; individual and yet connected and dependent on others for growth.

-Ken Mogi

 

Purpose, Meaning, & Passion

 

The purpose of life is a life of purpose.

-Robert Byrne

 

Above all, he has to find his purpose, his reason for getting out of bed, his ikigai.

-Hector Garcia Puigcerver

 

What is the one thing you’d like to change the most in the world? − Currently, what is it that makes you very happy and joyful in life? − What makes you wake up in the morning and go through your day?

-Alan Daron

 

Our ikigai is different for all of us, but one thing we have in common is that we are all searching for meaning. When we spend our days feeling connected to what is meaningful to us, we live more fully; when we lose the connection, we feel despair.

-Hector Garcia Puigcerver

 

Once you discover your ikigai, pursuing it and nurturing it every day will bring meaning to your life.

-Francesc Miralles

 

Ikigai gives your life a purpose while giving you the grit to carry on.

-Ken Mogi

 

Bottom line

 “We don’t create the meaning of our life, we discover it!”

 

Question

Have you discovered your IKIGAI?

 

Suggestions and value additions are most welcome

Please share your IKIGAI in the comments column. It may help someone else discover theirs.

 

Link to : Ikigai the mysterious word.

Link to : Five pillars of Ikigai.

 

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References and credits

To all the online sites and channels.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikigai

https://www.betterup.com/blog/what-is-ikigai

https://positivepsychology.com/ikigai/

https://www.sloww.co/ikigai/

https://www.betterup.com/blog/what-is-ikigai

https://ikigai-living.com/what-is-ikigai/

https://www.brit.co/ikigai-10-things-worlds-longest-living-people-do/

https://www.cyberclick.net/numericalblogen/ikigai-4-questions-to-begin-your-practice-of-the-japanese-philosophy-on-life-fulfillment

Disclaimer:

Information and data included in the blog are for educational & non-commercial purposes only and have been carefully adapted, excerpted, or edited from sources deemed reliable and accurate. All copyrighted material belongs to respective owners and is provided only for purposes of wider dissemination.