The Ikigai Self-Test

I tried this simple iki­gai self-test.

I am (like many oth­ers, I’m sure) par­tial to the concept of iki­gai (生き甲斐). Ikigai is a Japanese concept that means “reas­on for being.” 

The below Venn dia­gram is a fam­ous rendi­tion of one’s ikigai:

How can you use the iki­gai dia­gram for audit­ing your­self quickly?

For my iki­gai, I would say that my pas­sion is 1) com­mu­nic­a­tion, my pro­fes­sion is 2) pub­lic rela­tions, my voca­tion is 3) teach­ing and my mis­sion is 4) learn­ing and sharing.

Here goes:

1. Do I love com­mu­nic­a­tion? Yes.

2. Am I good at pub­lic rela­tions? Yes.

3. Can I get paid for teach­ing? Yes.

4. Does the world need learn­ing and shar­ing? Yes.

All good. It seems that I’m passing this simple iki­gai self-test. 

However, while doing this little exer­cise, I was sur­prised that teach­ing came to me without hes­it­a­tion. I was sur­prised since there’s a dis­tinct dif­fer­ence between doing things for oth­ers (like a con­sult­ant) instead of show­ing people to do them for them­selves (like a teacher).

Moving for­ward, I will try to be mind­ful of this dif­fer­ence to ensure that my iki­gai comes through — for myself and every­one around me.