There are many things that can motivate us to jump out of bed every morning (it could be a new job, a vacation, an exciting project) but there are also days when we would prefer to stay warm under the covers. Right?
Finding your Ikigaï changes everything! There motivation flows naturally. Every day becomes a new opportunity to accomplish something important in your life. You have the impression that she has a meaning.
Why find your ikigai?
One of the most intuitive tools for finding one’s life mission is the Japanese concept ofIkigai. Originally from Okinawa, this philosophy (which has become a practical method), designates both the meaning of life, what life is worth living for, and the happiness of doing things for the pure pleasure of doing them. , self-fulfillment and the feeling of being alive, the reason for being and obviously… the mission of life.
So, on a practical level, how do you find your Ikigai? It doesn’t happen overnight, it takes time and effort. It’s not about finding two or three things that excite you or make you happy.
Ikigai consists of identifying the space of intersection of several elements of your life: fun (what you love to do), talent (what you are good at), contribution (what the world needs) and source of income (what you are – or can be – paid for).

Finding your ikigai is therefore a process that allows you to better prepare yourself to take action to design your life project. It involves taking a step back to reflect on one’s passions, talents, values and aspirations, but also on one’s means of subsistence and the meaning one wishes to give to one’s activity.
However, we should not take the concept of Ikigai literally and go in search of an unattainable ideal. You have to stay concrete: you can see Ikigai, not as an oriental philosophical concept, but as a practical personal development tool to ask yourself the right questions, take stock of your life and your career and, if necessary, find paths for development that make sense.
How does it work?
I’ll give you a caricatured example to help you understand the concept of Ikigai.
Think of a solo violinist who is part of an orchestra. We take the 4 elements, one by one to analyze your situation:
- Her pleasure: she loves playing the violin and she fully blossoms in her activity.
- Her talent: she is visibly gifted since she joined a group that performs in public.
- Her contribution: she does not play at home, in her corner, but gives concerts and brings pleasure and well-being to the spectators.
- Her remuneration: she turned her passion into a profession: she is paid for her services, which allows her to make a living from it.
In conclusion, our violinist is fortunate to know what makes his life worth living. She can combine pleasure, talent, meaning and remuneration in her daily activities. She was able to find her Ikigaï: music.
Beware of the risks!
The first risk, when you want to find your Ikigai, is to let yourself be carried away by your imagination to go beyond the field of possibilities. To make your Ikigai useful and actionable, you must prioritize the concrete over the ideal. In other words, it’s beautiful and noble to want to solve the problem of world hunger, but perhaps you should start by helping the homeless in your neighborhood…
The second risk is losing sight of the necessary balance between the 4 elements by favoring, for example, talent and pleasure over contribution and remuneration. If you are passionate about origami and know how to make paper casseroles like no other, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you can make it a profitable activity that is useful to the world.
Here are the practical recommendations of Yukari Mitsuhashithe author who popularized the concept of Ikigai among Westerners, eager for self-knowledge:
- We do not think about an entire life, but we concentrate on daily life.
- We do not focus on our inner life, but on the contrary on what connects us to others and to the outside world.
- We integrate the notions of change and progress so as not to remain prisoner of our habits.
- We adopt an active approach rather than a passive one and we ask ourselves what puts us into action, without particular effort, to obtain concrete results.
- We rely on emotions rather than logic. We focus on what we feel with our heart and not on what we think with our head.
- We carry out concrete rather than idealistic reflection.
Ikigai in practice
To feed your thoughts, I’ll give you some practical tips to help you find your ikigai:
Pleasure
- List the actions and tasks that you do regularly each week (not forgetting the weekend).
- Select only those that give you joy, pleasure or a feeling of accomplishment.
- Identify the moments you would like to extend and note the reasons.
- Think about the actions and activities that you don’t do but that particularly appeal to you.
- Ask yourself why you want to achieve them
Talent
- List your talents and skills
- Think about the things you do naturally and without much effort.
- Think about your values, your aspirations and the things that are important to you in life.
Remuneration
- List everything that brings you income today: salary, assistance, pensions, etc.
- Look for what could bring you additional income. For example, if you are good at math or English, could you give lessons?
- What missions or activities would you like to be paid for?
Contribution :
- Ask yourself how you could help others: what types of problems would you be able to solve for or with them?
- What are people worried about right now or in general?
- In what practical way would you like to contribute to the well-being of others, to an association or to a cause?
- What activities are necessary in today’s world? And in the world of tomorrow?
Take your time. Not everything will come to mind on the same day. Don’t put pressure on yourself, it’s a process that must mature within you.
- Then, when you are satisfied with your first draft, look for what could bring together all 4 aspects, or just 2 or 3 of them.
- Don’t worry if you can’t find the same activity that checks all 4 boxes. Your ikigai can correspond to several distinct activities that form a whole.
- Finding your ikigai means finding the right balance, that is to say activities in which the 4 elements have a response.
Finally, Ikigai is not frozen in time. It will evolve with you, according to your new experiences, your encounters and the skills you will develop.