The meaning of Ikigai is the reason for living. Most of us don’t have a clear reason for living. We chase money and other physical things instead of knowing what we want from our life. Ikigai is based on 2 japanese words called Iki and Kai. Iki means “Life” and Kai means “Effect“. These 2 words are converged and pronounced as “Ikigai“.

Japanese people are known to have a long lifetime than average. They believe that having a reason for living is one of the keys to their longevity. It’s a simple concept, where we choose something that meets all of the following criteria’s:

1. Something we are good at doing.
2. Something we get paid for doing
3. Something others wants us to be doing
4. Something we love doing.

Majority of the people only do what they are paid for doing, regardless of the other 3 criteria’s. Some people are able to live their life based on 2 or 3 of the above criteria’s. But most people don’t do what they love doing. Only very few people are able to find their Ikigai by choosing something that covers all of the 4 criteria’s.

This illustration makes it easier to understand where you are and how close you are to finding your Ikigai.

Let’s understand the meaning of the Ikigai diagram. There are 4 areas in the diagram.

1: This is your Ikigai. All four reasons converge in this position and gives you the reason for your living.



2: This is where three of the four reasons converge. If you are in one of these places, you can be considered successful, and you are close to finding your Ikigai.


3: This is where only two of the four reasons converge. This not a good position to be in. However, it’s better than only having one of the reasons.
If you are not in any of the above places, you are unlikely to be living a happy life.

Let’s take a practical real world scenario and identify each of these reasons that gives you the Ikigai.

Assume you love to talk with others and you are also good at talking. Talking will make you happy, but it wont provide the necessary income for your survival. So, you have to look for a way that you will be paid for talking. Customer service representative is a job that pays you for talking with customers and solving their problems.

Now, you have something you love, something you are good at and something you will be paid for. So, in order to find your Ikigai, you need to understand what the world needs from you. In this case, what customers need is a kind person that listens to their problems and help them solve the problems by talking in a way they understand.

Similarly, you can find your Ikigai in any area by paying careful attention to these four reasons.

Among these four reasons, what you love and what you are good at are the most important two reasons as it will keep you happy regardless of the other two reasons.


In this video, we explored the meaning of Ikigai for successful living. Remember that only small percentage of people will find the meaning of their life. So, start looking for the meaning of your life. Find your Ikigai and be among the small percentage of people with happy life.


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