243: What is Your Reason for Being? Ikigai for Your Career
RATE, REVIEW, SUBSCRIBE CONTEST IN SEPTEMBER To participate: Rate (1 entry); Subscribe (2 entries); Review (4 entries) Winner will receive $250 Visa gift card Participants should notify me of their participation and what they did via lesa@exclusivecareercoaching.com Winner will be selected on Friday, September 30th, at 5:00 p.m. Eastern I came across this concept of Ikigai recently – the Japanese answer to a life of purpose. In practice, this concept of Ikigai is a lifestyle, which the Japanese live somewhat instinctively. To quote the ikigailiving.com website, “Your Ikigai wakes you up in the morning and leads you away from a mundane, status-quo lifestyle. It empowers you and drives your actions and purpose.” Ikigai is the intersection of: -What I love -What the world needs -What I can be paid for -What I am good at Let’s drill down on this a bit further. I recommend journaling your answers to these questions if you are seeking your professional purpose…thinking about a significant career shift but you aren’t sure to what…looking for your Ikigai. What I love As you journal your responses to this prompt, I recommend avoiding the universal responses such as your significant other, family members, or children. Here are five responses for me: -Helping people navigate their careers -Coaching -Making presentations (including podcasting) -Writing resumes -Writing I recommend you fill up an entire page of paper, listing the things you love. What the world needs Obviously, the world needs a lot of things, so I recommend you focus your responses on the things in your wheelhouse. For example, if I give the response of “cheaper gas prices,” I have responded with a need I have no control over. Here are five things I think the world needs, within my sphere of influence: -More people who love, and are fully engaged, with their jobs -A more effective way to connect employers with quality employees-Affordable coaching for people wanting help in navigating their careers -Job seekers need support and encouragement from other job seekers -Help for people needing to manage their minds around their job search, their careers, their marketability Fill up as much of a full page as you can on this prompt, remembering to keep your responses in your wheelhouse. What I can be paid for Most of us need to make money following our purpose – unless we are trust fund babies who can go around being altruistic all day, every day. Take your previous list of “what the world needs,” and think about the job titles and opportunities you might have to get paid for delivering what the world needs. Here’s my list: -More people who love, and are fully engaged, with their jobs – I can use my writing talents and presentation skills to deliver this information to job seekers via newsletters, speaking engagements, podcasts, and coaching -A more effective way to connect employers with quality employees – Not sure what this might look like,