My journey of finding and creating life purpose is coming up on the 5-year mark.
Of all the concepts I've learned about and experimented with, my personal favorite is still ikigai.
Like many, my introduction to ikigai started with the viral 4-circle diagram. But, the "what you can be paid for" circle rubbed me the wrong way. After researching the truth about ikigai, I learned that money—and even work in general—is not necessarily associated with the concept at all. So, I redesigned the ikigai diagram for life purpose to better reflect reality (I call it ikigai 2.0). Money was removed as one of the mandatory criteria and moved to an outer circle as an optional byproduct.
All that being said, many people are interested in both aspects:
- Finding/creating purpose, and
- Making money from that purpose
Why? Here's my quick perspective on it:
In our current world, most humans need money to survive and thrive. The way that most humans get this money is through what we call "work." So, for most people, work and money are coupled together.
"Work" is something that traditionally has consumed 80,000 hours of life over the course of 40 working years. To put 40 years of 40-hour workweeks in perspective:
Work is 34% of all your waking hours for 40 years (yes, this even factors in weekends and two weeks vacation each year).
This is an incredible amount of time and energy. So, if most people have to work for money, can you really blame them for wanting a third (or more) of all their time awake and the bulk of their energy to be more purposeful, meaningful, and fulfilling?
Ken Mogi, author of a few books about ikigai, describes the Japanese term "datsusara":
- "Datsusara is a phenomenon in which a salaried worker, usually employed in office work, decides to leave the safe but unexciting life as company employee to pursue their passions. Etymologically, datsu means ‘to exit,’ whereas sara is an abbreviation for ‘salarymen.'"
- "A common characteristic is that these occupations are most often examples of extended ikigai—the former employee wishing to earn some kind of a living while doing something they feel passionate about, something they find interesting and fulfilling."
Humans have energy that needs to be used daily. Many people are stuck in work that isn't the best utilization of their energy. This is when work feels like work.
But, it's possible to align your natural self in a way that expends energy for the greater good of yourself and others. This is when work feels more like play.
Perhaps humanity will eventually evolve to transcend money in a way that more naturally allows for individual-collective alignment and the positive-sum greater good of all. But, until then, we'll need some solutions. That's what we'll tackle in this premium post.
Premium Post Contents:
- Step 1: Understand that Money is a Byproduct
- Step 2: Find & Create Your Life Purpose (Ikigai 2.0)
- Step 3: Understand Monetization (4 Concepts)
- Step 4: Monetize Your Life Purpose (Ikigai 2.0+)
- Step 5: My Real-Life Personal Examples
