Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Purposeful Life

What happens when hard work meets lighthearted joy? My recent journey to Japan revealed a fascinating cultural paradox – the remarkable ability of Japanese people to balance intense dedication with an unexpected lightness of being. Despite their reputation for discipline and high standards, I witnessed people of all ages radiating joy, openness, and a refreshing approach to life that seemed to make them more youthful than expected.

This balance stems from "ikigai," the Japanese concept meaning "a reason for being." It's your purpose—why you get up each morning—created from the overlap of your passions, strengths, vocation, and contribution to the world. This powerful concept explains how Japanese people embody seemingly contradictory traits: hardworking yet playful, devoted yet delighted, strong yet gentle. More importantly, it connects directly to Japan's status as a Blue Zone, where people commonly live healthy, active lives well into their 80s, 90s, and beyond 100—not just surviving but thriving with fewer chronic illnesses than their Western counterparts.

Your ikigai might come from spiritual beliefs, family connections, professional pursuits, creative expression, or community involvement. As we grow and change throughout life, our sense of purpose naturally evolves too. The beauty lies in its flexibility and our ability to continually realign with what truly matters. I invite you to reflect: What gives your life meaning? What excites you to start each day? What fills you with purpose? Whether you're seeking your ikigai for the first time or navigating a transition that's shifted your purpose, this exploration can transform not just how long you live, but how vibrantly you experience each moment. Listen now to discover how purpose affects health, happiness, and the energy to embrace life fully.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hello everyone, welcome to this week's episode.
I am so happy that you're herewith me today, wherever you are
listening from.
I mentioned in my last podcastepisode that I was in Japan
recently and it was such awonderful place to visit the

(00:27):
people, the country.
Everything was absolutelyamazing, and something that I
kept observing was how theJapanese people were so open and
kind to foreigners, but alsojust to everyone.
They had such a positiveoutlook and demeanor.

(00:52):
Everyone was happy and laughing.
It was kind of like they didn'ttake life too seriously.
They were very at ease andjoyful.
It was something that I sawwith everyone, regardless of the
age they were, and it almostmade them seem even more

(01:14):
youthful expected.
Going to Japan, I had my ownperception of what I thought the
people would be based off of mylimited knowledge and different
things that I have read, and Iknow that Japan is a country

(01:36):
where hard work and devotion toself are something that are
deeply valued, are somethingthat are deeply valued.
They have this really deepdedication to everything that
they do and it's almost highexpectations for themselves, for
their country, so it wasinteresting to see how that was

(02:00):
very much still there, but theyalso have this completely other
lightness to them, and it wasinteresting to see how these two
ways of being could coexist.
And it just made me think howwe as humans are so
multi-dimensional and we can beable to delight in our life and

(02:24):
also be deeply devoted to it.
We can be strong and soft, wecan be soft-spoken and assertive
, so it was really wonderful tobe able to see that.
But what really made me wonderwas where does this light that
they move through in theirday-to-day actually come from?

(02:47):
Why is it that so many of themhave this way of being?
They're just laughing andhaving fun with their life, with
their day-to-day, with theirwork, even if it was something
that didn't seem particularlyexciting.
And the Japanese call thisikigai, and it roughly

(03:10):
translates as having a reasonfor being.
For them, it's their reason toget up in the morning, their
reason to live their life, andikigai gives us a sense of
purpose and satisfaction in ourlife.
And this is a very multifacetedthing because it encompasses so

(03:34):
many different things in orderfor us individually to figure
out what our ikigai is and youcan look at things such as what
makes you joyful, what are youpassionate about, what is your
vocation, what is it that youenjoy doing?

(03:56):
How do you want to live apurposeful life and put your
strengths into changing theworld in some positive way?
So you can almost think of thislike a Venn diagram of like
multiple different things thatmake up your ikigai.

(04:18):
Japan is a country thatcontinues to be researched for
their longevity and theiroverall life satisfaction.
They've been studied for many,many years and continue to be
researched because they are oneof the countries that do live
the longest, but they also havea high life satisfaction, and I

(04:44):
did discuss this a little bit ina podcast sometime last year
where I talked about blue zones,and I will link that below if
you haven't listened to that yet.
Blue zones, if you have neverheard that term before, are
areas in the world where peoplelive longer and healthier lives

(05:07):
beyond the age of 80.
I also like talking as wellabout centenarians, which are
blue zones as well, but wherethey also have a high population
of people living over the ageof 100.
So these are areas in the worldwhere people are living a lot

(05:30):
longer than usual, but also alot healthier and disease-free
lives, unlike in America where,at 80 years old, most people
have a slew of health issues.
That is not the case in a lotof these blue zones.

(05:51):
They are living their livesdisease-free, at a very advanced
age, and blue zones all sharecertain characteristics that
actually support them in livingthese longer lives, and they've
been studied in different partsof the world and they have been
able to pinpoint certain thingsthat they share in common,

(06:15):
certain ways that they live lifeor approach it that allow them
to live to these very advancedages in a very healthy and able
body, and some of those thingsare like having a sense of
community, moving their body ingentle ways like walking or

(06:36):
gardening, and eating awholesome diet from wherever
they may live in the world,seasonally eating foods that are
available to them.
When we look at all the bluezones, japan in particular has
one of the lower rates ofchronic illness than most of the

(06:58):
world, and the centenariansthat do live there live a life
that is so full at such anadvanced age.
It's actually really amazing tosee what someone over the age
of 100 can do and how they canlive their day-to-day.
It's really inspiring.

(07:18):
One of the key things that bluezones have in common, outside of
some of the things that Imentioned, is having a deep
sense of meaning in their livesand when blue zones are studied,
this can come from manydifferent things.
It can have from believing insomething greater than yourself,

(07:40):
like having a religion or aspiritual practice of some sort,
but it could also not be tiedto that at all.
But it's living life withmeaning.
It is having a vigor.
The backbone of that could beour spiritual life or outlook on

(08:02):
life right, believing in God orsomething greater than
ourselves.
But that's not the only thingthat could create this sense of
purpose within our lives.
And when we look at the wordikigai, it captures that so

(08:23):
beautifully and if you wanted togoogle the word at some point
in time after this episode, it'smade up of two different
characters and the twocharacters used to write out the
word ikigai in Japaneseessentially translate to life.
That is the direct translationof the first character, and to

(08:48):
be worthwhile is the translationof the second character.
So it's life to be worthwhile.
What can our ikigai be?
I mentioned a spiritualpractice as our backbone, but I
also mentioned that thisencompasses so many different

(09:11):
things.
It can be our family, our work,what we do, our community, and
all of these different thingscan create this deep sense of
purpose in our life.
So they all build upon it, andit's our excitement for our day

(09:33):
tomorrow, for the life that weare choosing to live each day,
because it's a life that honorsour strengths and our passions.
And what gives you a sense ofpurpose will evolve and change
as you continue to grow throughyour life, because your passions

(09:53):
will change, your values inlife will change.
How you feel like you can helpthe world will change as well.
I would love for you to takesome time right now to think
about what gives your lifemeaning.
What are you excited to wake upabout?
What fills you every single daywith a sense of purpose?

(10:16):
What do you feel like you'reworking towards?
These can be big things orsmall things, things that we're
working towards little by littlein our life.
They can be things that areonly meaningful to us, because
that's ultimately the mostimportant thing, and if you are
struggling to find something,it's maybe because your life

(10:42):
might not be fully aligned withyour passions or your purpose or
your strengths, and that'scompletely okay, because it's
never too late for you to alignto a life that allows you to
experience all of this.
The most important thing is tobe aware.

(11:05):
I simply wanted to highlight theimportance of us living a life
that is deeply meaningful to us,because we can see how this
affects us in so many differentways.
It has a direct relation to ourhappiness and satisfaction in

(11:28):
life, our overall health andlongevity.
It's all connected.
Our vitality is something thatplays out in so many different
realms of our life.
I have another podcast episodeif you want to listen.
That touches on purpose, but thebiggest thing that I want you

(11:50):
to take away from this episodeis to know how big this puzzle
piece is in our life and how itreally does make an impact in
how we live our everyday life,in the overall life that we
envision for ourselves.
It goes so far into our meaningof what is possible and how we

(12:16):
choose to live life.
If you feel like you don't havea deep sense of purpose in your
life, taking some time toreally create space and allow
yourself to explore what thatmight mean for you, maybe you're
in a chapter of your life wherethis has recently changed.

(12:36):
Maybe you've never actually duginto it before actually dug
into it before but it's soimportant that we take the time
to do it because it will makeour life so full, so vibrant, so
exciting.
It'll fill us up with so muchenergy of wanting to go and live

(12:56):
this incredible life of purpose, of meaning, of having fun
while we're here on this earth.
I hope you all enjoyed thisepisode.
I will talk to you all nextweek.
I am sending you a big huguntil then.