Ikigai

I recently read a short book about the Japanese concept of Ikigai. It hails from a time when publishers were scrambling to find the new Hygge. The book is okay but a bit dashed-off and unfocussed. The key concept, however, is worth some thought. Ikigai is about the search for a personal meaning — a raison d’etre — in life. The diagram above (oft-used when explaining Ikigai online) makes it look more complicated than it is. The authors claim that healthy, long-lived people (including those in the world’s “blue zones” where lifespans regularly exceed 100) generally have a strong sense of Ikigai. I can see how a sense of mission would keep a person going strong. Not that we should think of Ikigai as a means to an end. I have noticed that Escapologists are often quite driven to find the right path, the one that leads to a truer purpose in life. It’s why we quit our day jobs: while rotting in an office, we often experience profound separation anxiety from the (often unlikely, often poorly…