The Japanese Have it Figured Out

Have you ever heard of blue zones? These are areas in the world where a large number of centenarians live. That’s people who are over 100 years old. Many people have studied these areas to try and discover the secret to longevity, and the thing they found is ikigai, the Japanese secret to a happy life.

Ikigai literally translates to "your reason for getting up in the morning." It's a state of well-being that comes from pursuing your purpose in life. Ikigai is a part of traditional Japanese thought; it's a culturally ingrained concept inseparable from the Japanese understanding of well-being. Although there's no single Western concept that encapsulates ikigai, most of us chase some aspects of it daily.

The Japanese psychiatrist Kamada Miko was one of the first to study ikigai as a concept. She understood it as being somewhat ambiguous in nature, less philosophical and more instinctual. More recently, Japanese psychologist Michiko Kumano wrote a detailed account of ikigai. He described it as the concept of achieving a better and more fulfilling life. It's the feeling of a life worth living, a life of meaning.

The state of ikigai commonly comes from devoting yourself to activities you enjoy— the kind of activities that bring a sense of fulfillment. This satisfaction comes from that activity's connection to your larger sense of purpose in life and what you consider the meaning of existence. Kumano distinguishes ikigai from momentary pleasures, whereas hedonistic pursuits bring you happiness; that feeling is fleeting.

Ikigai produces joy, something more long-lasting. Aristotle had a similar concept he called eudaimonia, a sense of life that is lived well. It could more simply be described as flourishing, which Aristotle considered something desirable for its own sake. As psychologist Kamada Miko suggests, ikigai is supposed to be felt in positive and negative moments alike. When you experience something challenging or painful, it can get you through it by recognizing it as part of your higher purpose.

For example, let's say you're writing a novel and you get devastating feedback from a potential publisher. Would you just quit? If you strongly believe that writing was tied to your purpose in life, your sense of a more meaningful pursuit keeps you going. Ikigai is felt even in these difficult times.

If you're struggling to find meaning in your life and it feels like everything is going wrong; if you can't seem to find the light at the end of the tunnel and you're drowning in dissatisfaction, I actually can't recommend therapy enough. Therapy helps to put these feelings into words and gives you the tools you need to look inward and find your ikigai—the thing that'll make you want to get up in the morning.

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Back to our story, ikigai is what makes flow possible. In psychology, a flow state is a mental state where you're completely focused on the task at hand. You're not distracted by your phone or even thoughts about yourself and how you're doing with your task. You are completely immersed in the project. Hopefully, most of us experience this somewhat regularly, although TikTok probably isn't helping any.

A key part of achieving a flow state is that you have to be working on something that feels meaningful to you, and this is where it connects back to ikigai. To enter the flow state, you need to feel ikigai; otherwise, it's too easy to be distracted. Ikigai also aligns nicely with the cognitive behavioral therapy approach to alleviating depression. CBT therapists often recommend you participate in activities that give you enjoyment and a sense of mastery—very much in the spirit of ikigai.

While ikigai is most relevant in Japan, the concept has taken off around the world. Its recent surge in popularity comes from a Western interpretation of the Blue Zone research I was talking about earlier. Longevity researcher Dan Buettner investigated these blue zones and focused significantly on the residents of the Japanese island region of Okinawa. In a famous TED Talk, he used Okinawa's concept of ikigai to understand how its residents live such long, happy lives.

During his time there, he noted that the people had strong social connections, a good diet, and most notably, lived with a strong sense of purpose. This TED Talk was then turned into an almost-famous Venn diagram by blogger Mark Win. The diagram has become almost synonymous with ikigai in the West.

The Venn diagram is intended to help you find your purpose by suggesting four main criteria represented as circles. The first criteria is something you love. The second is something you're great at. The third is what the world needs, and the fourth is what you can get paid for. In the intersection of these four things, you get ikigai.

This Venn diagram has probably helped a lot of people reorient their lives, but it's not fair to equate it with ikigai as known in Japan. If I'm being completely honest, it seems a bit unsound on a philosophical level. The weakness of this Venn diagram is that it ties this feeling of meaning tightly to the external world. It makes our happiness dependent on material conditions that don't always match reality.

For a lot of people, the intersection of these four circles simply isn't possible. How many people have you met who don't get paid enough for doing the things they love to do or find most meaningful in their lives? Many of us have passionate goals where financial success is just too far out of reach. We pursue lofty dreams like becoming great writers, actors, or performers, but very few of us get paid well in these pursuits, and most of us don't get paid at all.

Does that mean that all of those who don't get paid enough aren't chasing their true purpose? To assume that would be ridiculous. The reality is if we remove financial compensation from the equation, we might actually find more satisfaction in our pursuits. We can find contentment by acting in smaller roles in local plays or performing stand-up comedy routines in our basement for our friends.

The other three circles of the Venn diagram were also unnecessary additions to the traditional notion of ikigai. You don't have to love something for it to give you purpose or satisfaction, and you don't have to be skilled at it either. Most of us don't have an extraordinary skill, but that doesn't mean we're not worthy of pursuing ikigai. Ikigai doesn't need to be something others need either.

Your purpose in life doesn't have to be tied to your economic value, nor should it be. It's just not possible for most people to have a perfect career that gives them purpose. The material conditions have to be just right for this to be possible. Now, CEOs tend to love this diagram; they're often in the perfect position to make their Venn diagram ikigai possible.

But then again, they'd probably be confusing what other people want for what they need. Most CEOs oversee the production of a want, not something essential. Stoics have rightly pointed out that we can't rely too heavily on the external world for our happiness. The events of the universe are out of our control, so we're better off focusing on what we can control.

Unlike the Venn diagram, the Japanese take on ikigai explored by Kamada and Kumano doesn't rely on financial compensation for satisfaction, and it doesn't agree that your purpose has to be something others need. It's more open and less corporate-minded.

Now, for the sake of being comprehensive, there's something else about ikigai I wanted to share. The average person in Japan doesn't necessarily think of ikigai in terms of a larger purpose. Some say it has to do more with small joys rather than aligning your activities with a grand purpose or success in your career. Their idea of ikigai ranges from living with a sense of purpose to enjoying the small things in the here and now. It's a bit more similar to Zen Buddhism and focusing on a pure present.

It's difficult to pinpoint the exact meaning of ikigai for everyone, but there's clear value in thinking of it simply as your reason for getting up in the morning. Studies do support that living with a sense of purpose adds years to your life. It can also help alleviate depression and the physical conditions that come from it.

That's why in Japan, policymakers are making efforts to improve ikigai for elders. They've established programs to give the elderly the option of flexible part-time work. Although we often think of retirement as a glorious end goal, it can compromise our ikigai in a big way. One in three retirees report being depressed—a much larger percentage when compared to the rest of the adult population.

The reason is likely that retirement removes our sense of purpose and our reason for waking up in the morning. Finding a reason for getting up in the morning isn't going to be as obvious as analyzing a Venn diagram. French existentialist Albert Camus considered the task of finding meaning to be like Sisyphean—infinite labor pushing the boulder up the hill for eternity.

But maybe the promise of a long, happy life is good motivation to keep pushing that boulder. If you keep searching for ikigai, you may just find it. It might not be found in the perfect career but in the smaller activities we enjoy. Who knows? Maybe you've found it already.

But finding ikigai is still only one side of the struggle; how we pursue it is another. Kamada documented her own struggle with ikigai in her diary. She wasn't able to pursue work as a writer and scholar for a long period of time and felt a deep lack of ikigai in her life. When she was able to write, she still had her teaching, translating, and domestic responsibilities to attend to.

The writing brought its own challenges; she was occasionally filled with self-loathing and boredom. She questioned whether she should abandon writing and just focus on making money instead. But she persisted with writing and found a profound feeling of ikigai in it. It was the only thing that gave her a strong sense of purpose—her reason to get up in the morning.

Your ikigai will never be without struggle, and your ability to fulfill it may be limited. But if you're going to get out of bed in the morning, you might as well have a good reason.