Why Life is More Than Just Living?
It is all about finding the joy in life through purpose
A person wakes up every morning feeling tired and exhausted. He wakes up and does his usual errands regularly. He goes to the office, he works hard, he comes back home, watches tv with family, eats dinner, and then back to sleep.
The next day he wakes up feeling tired and you can see a kind of apathy on his face which never fades. He again does his usual morning errands and goes to the office comes back and goes to bed. It’s been 10 years and he is doing all these things perfectly.
One day, while he was sleeping a helping ghost named ‘kai’ came. He observes his face and he saw something unusual, “our man seems to be dreaming” — the ghost said. He watches his dream, he saw him playing guitar in front of everyone. He seems to like playing guitar the ghost said.
On the following night, the helping ghost again came, he again saw him playing guitar. The ghost kai then scans the apartment and he found the broken guitar in the cabinet. Kai got an idea and he planted a seed in the man’s brain to fix the guitar and play tomorrow, then the ghost left.
Later, in the morning the man wakes up and picks up his guitar from the cabinet, started to clean the dust with a mop. The man’s wife suddenly came and yelled “Oh God, what are you doing ? Go get ready for the office, your breakfast is ready, and do not forget to bring Sam from the school back in the noon”. GO QUICKLY PUT THIS CRAP ASIDE. FOR GOD’S SAKE! The man puts the guitar aside and does what she said.
He comes back from the office, eats his dinner, and goes to bed. The helping ghost came tonight expecting that the guitar must be fixed, but he founds it in the same condition. The ghost found that the seed he planted was destroyed before it grows. So the ghost decided to enter his dream tonight, he enters!
He met him. The ghost asked the man to answer 4 important questions in the dream, the man answered all of them correctly and then the ghost left.
The next morning our man wakes up as usual. But today his face was filled with joy, he was shining bright like a diamond. He dashes to the upper floor and opens up the cabinet and started to fix the guitar by himself. He typed on google “How to fix guitar….” and in no time he fixed it.
He visited his office today with a never seen before the smile, he completed his work comes back to home, eats dinner, and after everyone was sleeping. Our man goes to the terrace and started playing chords. He was feeling so happy that night and he kept doing it for 7–8 nights until one night.
A drunk neighbor saw him going to the terrace, he follows him and saw him playing melodious tunes on the guitar. The drunk man shouted at him and said “Hey you, You play really well!” Our man said thank you! The drunk man again yelled and said “You know, you can do this for a living?”
That night the seed the ghost planted began to grow & our guy started uploading all his sounds on YouTube. One day he found his boss playing listening to his music in the cabin. He entered his boss’s office, the boss said: “Congratulation Fynn, your video has crossed over 4 and half-million views in just 2 days.” Fynn thanked him politely and left.
From that day his life changed. Fynn left his job and started working for a sound label. They give him a contract to compose 10 songs for a new album. Fynn was happy, smiling all day and contented. The ghost came that night and saw the seed has grown into a full tree with fruits on it.
The helping ghost kai left the house happily and began another search.
Remember the four questions the ghost kai asked Fynn in the dream?
- What are you good at?
- What does the world need?
- What you can be paid for?
- What do you love?
When you answer these four questions to yourself, you’ll find your “IKIGAI”.
“Ikigai is what gets you up every morning and keeps you going…”
The well-known Japanese ideology Ikigai [ee-kee-guy] means the highest level of desire or the process of cultivating one’s inner potential or that which makes one’s self “significant”.
In Japanese, it is written as 生き甲斐. It can be broken down in 生き, life, and 甲斐, to be worthwhile.
To discover your Ikigai, you must first find what you’re most passionate about. Then, you find the medium through which you can express that passion.
Steve Jobs is a fantastic example of this idea. It’s easy to think of Jobs as a titan of technology, but that would be inaccurate. Jobs was a lover of fine craftsmanship, first and foremost.
From where the “Ikigai” come from?
Ikigai — Book Cover
The term ikigai originates from the Heian era (794–1185). Clinical psychologist and avid ikigai evolution researcher, Akihiro Hasegawa published a research paper in 2001, in which he wrote that the word “gai” comes from the Japanese word “kai” which translates into “shell.”
If you can find pleasure and satisfaction in what you do and you’re good at it, congratulations you have found your ikigai.
What’s your ikigai?
Hector Garcia says in his book that learning the philosophy of the ikigai has changed the way it forms the day.
“I have improved my morning routine to start my days doing what is most important to me before getting busy with others.” In other words, he prioritizes the duties that give him purpose. “This means that I have a cup of green tea, do 15 minutes of easy yoga poses, and then write for one hour. Before leaving home, I have dedicated time to my health and one of the activities that give ikigai to my life: which is writing books.”
There is much more than finding a purpose of life, Ikigai has a vast meaning in Japanese culture, We as westerns will never be able to understand it completely until we practice and see the change.
I hope this post will help you to find your inner passion or as we say “IKIGAI”. Be sure to share it with your friends. ありがとうございました (Arigato Gozaimashu — “Thank You”)