Purpose & The Ikigai (CORE)

“Reason for being”

What does ikigai mean? Ikigai is a Japanese concept that means your ‘reason for being. ‘ ‘Iki’ in Japanese means ‘life,’ and ‘gai’ describes value or worth. Your ikigai is your life purpose or your bliss. It’s what brings you joy and inspires you to get out of bed every day.

There is a saying that I love, ” do what you love and you will never work a day in your life.” That is how I imagine my purpose and reason for “being” feeling. I imagine that is exactly how Ronaldo and Messi feel, being able to play football, a sport that they excel in due to their love and passion for the sport, which ultimately becomes their purpose and what they are paid for. Their mission is to always be the best and provide the world with sporting entertainment and an inspirational to many young children who are also passionate about the sport.

Growing up I believed that finding your purpose had to be something huge, like Gandhi or Mother Theresa and it was very scary, how was I ever going to impact countries and nations? As I got older, I realized that purpose could also be found in small actions, impacting one person at a time. I drew on my skills and what made my eyes shine to find my reason to get up every morning. I focused on what gave me the most energy and I became aware of what drained my energy. I am in constant awareness that my purpose and being is how I fall in love with everything I do and those that I engage with. The world certainly needs more Love and I believe that my purpose is to give my love freely in support of growth and nurturing others to be the best version of themselves. This does mean that I must also constantly work on my own growth and choosing work that allows me to fulfil my purpose. I have experienced environments where I was not free to be myself or practice my strengths, it was not a great feeling and often closed me off to the environment. I believe in the role of a Coach it is important to be curious with the Coachee around their feelings, what brings them joy, their skills or gifts that they would love to offer to the world. What is the gift inside them that they might be holding in exile?

I loved the four C’s

Create: where do I create the most, with ease and flow. The image I see is how naturally the rivers flow into the ocean, it is what they are meant to do. When I create as a Facilitator, I am in absolute flow, from one hour to the next with so much of joy and love.

Consume: What are you thinking about all the time, reading, your thoughts. What lights your inner fire every time you hear it or read about it. My absolute consumption is love and how it absolutely liberates us to be the best version of ourselves as leaders, as humans. I am also consumed by understanding people, listening deeply to them and sharing journeys of lives experience.

Calendar: I love that when I look at my calendar, its full of coaching sessions and facilitation (yes there are some meetings and I honestly don’t mind these, because they speak into the work that I absolutely love.) Asking the Coachee to reflect on his/her calendar and be curious if its helping them with their purpose or is it hindering their purpose ? I know for me personally, I can very easily spend time on things that are not serving me and I very quickly have to pull myself back from those situations. My yes means nothing if I cannot say no to the things that are not serving my purpose.

Care: What do you most care about. What is it that you love doing? This can easily become a cause that you focus on, your purpose. I am passionate about education and leadership built on love, my focus to ensure that the work that I do speak to both the cause of Education and Leadership.

When you put all the C’s together it allows us to Connect the dots in the direction of our “being” and purpose.