IKIGAI
A Japanese concept that means “reason for being”. It is usually used to indicate the source of one’s value in life or the things that make one’s life worthwhile. We use it when we’re coaching people at a career junction to help them think deeply about where they want to be.
(We’d love everyone to have a 5 year plan, with their next career move being a considered part of a journey getting them where they want to be.)
You can download your own copy by clicking on the image above.
Exercise: What do you think you’re good at?
List all of the parts of your life which may offer up a skills (work, studying, hobbies, relationships).
Brainstorm your skills (with an example for each).
Allocate them to these these three categories (adding any extra skills as you think of them).
Breakdown each skill to its core constituents:
Personal traits
Gained through life
Expressed using adjectives
For example:
Calm
Diplomatic
Detail-oriented
Transferable skills
Applicable in other roles/ industries/ areas of life
Expressed using verbs
For example:
Evaluating
Communicating
Inspiring
Knowledge
Subjects/ processes/ information
Developed through education :/ training/ on the job
Expressed using nouns
For example:
Project management
Excel
Strategic design
Exercise: Passion
Describe the five most enjoyable, fulfilling and wonderful work days/ projects in which you have participated and the five most enjoyable, fulfilling and wonderful non-work days/ projects you have participated in (hobbies, volunteering etc):
What was the project?
When did the project take place?
What was your role?
Who else was involved?
What did you enjoy about the process?
What did you enjoy about the outcome?
Exercise: Who do you know in your industry?
Make a map of all of your industry contacts by role and seniority.
You could use a key to indicate the strength of the relationship.
Then overlay their contacts – who do they know that you would like to meet/ work with (hint – use Linkedin)
Are any of these people potential mentors?
Exercise: Projects have you admired
List at least five projects you have admired from afar (and even wished you worked on).
What do you love about them?
Can you unpick their value – what did they achieve or mean in the world?
Who delivered them (and where are they now)?
Exercise: Daydreams
Spend a few days dwelling on the dreams you held when you first started working. What did you imagine you were aiming towards? Which were your big dreams, the ones you felt maybe a little embarrassed to share?
Note them down – what they were, and what it was about them which felt compelling in the first place. Just a few lines. Then put them to one side.
Visualise a single day ten or so years from now. Sit or lie somewhere quiet, shut your eyes, and imagine your day. Imagine where you wake up, and what you can see, in your bedroom, out the window. Describe what you wear, what you eat, what you read, what you see, who you speak to, how you spend your time.
If you want to, write it down. As long as you can recall it, that’s the main thing.
Your last job to do is compare this daydream with those dreams from when you first started work. What do they have in common? What are the themes which underpin your dreams and ambitions?