Do What You Love - An Introduction To Ikigai

1. Introduction: There's a very good chance that you might not have ever heard of Ikigai before. But Ikigai is the reason why you get out of bed every day. In fact, it's a map for how you can do more "you" every day. This map only has four steps; do what you love, do what you're good at, do what the world needs, and do what you can be rewarded for. Now, if that sounds like a meaningful way to live your days then this course is definitely for you. My name is Tim Tamashiro. I'm the author of How to Ikigai. I know what it's like to wish that life was more fulfilling. But when I was 20 years old, I decided that my life would be based on doing just what I love to do and I've done that ever since. I've been a record label representative working with rockstars, I've been a recording artist, and a national radio host. I've performed on some of the greatest stages in the world than even sang on a flying piano. I've lived the lifetime of doing exactly what I love to do, so that's why I decided to put this course together. It's all about Ikigai. You'll learn all about the origins of Ikigai and the difference between your job and your work. You'll reconnect with what you love to do and what you're good at. You'll gain some fascinating information about positive psychology, and best of all, you'll name your Ikigai. In fact, that's your assignment for this class is to name your ikigai. Because when you name your ikigai, you are giving it clarity, power, and responsibility. Your ikigai will bring you joy and purpose every day, but even more importantly, it will benefit others as well. My Ikigai is to delight, and that's exactly what I hope to do throughout this course, so let's get started. 2. Ikigai Origins Life Purpose in a Shell: Ikigai is essentially life purpose in a shell. Literally, Ikigai originated because of a beautiful, rare, red oyster shell. It comes from Okinawa, Japan. Okinawa, seems like an impossible place on Earth for people to live, because it's this tiny batch of 113 islands just south of the main islands of Japan. Quite honestly, it is in the middle of the ocean. The people of Okinawa have lived on these islands for thousands of years. They were surrounded by beautiful ocean that gave them a wide selection of things to eat, like fish, sea cucumbers, seaweeds, and shellfish. Seafood played a big role in ikigai. You see, it takes a unique talent to gather shellfish from the floor of the ocean. This task became the work of the women in Okinawa. These women in Okinawa would dive to the bottom of the ocean and gather whatever food they could find. They were providers. These women were called ama divers, and they would start diving at a young age. Over time they would gain the ability to dive deeper and deeper to gather seafood. The ama divers would gather the shores each day with their sharp stones and their large floating wooden tubs, and on the beach they would visit and laugh and prepare to head out to the water. Ama divers would swim out with their wooden tubs to a location they felt would be bountiful and then they would start to dive. Ama were very skilled at holding their breath for diving. Some ama could dive down as deep as 80 feet below the surface and stay down there for minutes at a time. One of the items that they looked for was a unique, red, thorny oyster that was only found in Okinawa. This oyster shell was beautiful and unique enough to be prized by the rich people on the main islands of Japan. Finding one was like finding a gold nugget. The shells were very exciting to find. It was hard work to be an ama diver, but it was also rewarding. As the ama continued their helpful tradition, they began to appreciate it more and more. They began calling their daily ritual Iki kai or life shell. After those red oyster shells. Over the centuries, the word Ikikai moved into Ikigai or life's worth. Imagine how rewarding it would be to not only provide food for your family and community, but also bring home shells they could trade. The ama divers loved their work. In fact, they recognized that their great skill combined with their great appreciation from the community was highly rewarding and they wanted to do it again and again. Ama divers to this day still dive regularly. Some of the oldest ama are in their 80s. Ikigai became a lifestyle that others on the islands would adopt for their own work. They would find something that they were good at and that they enjoyed, and then they would share it with their community. That's the essence of Ikigai. Use your unique gifts to share with others, and in return they'll provide rewards and thanks back to you. The concept of Ikigai has been part of the Okinawan culture for centuries. But its definition of life's worth just scratches the surface. If you were to look up Ikigai today on the Internet, you'd find a commonly referred to Venn diagram that explains Ikigai in a modern way. In essence, Ikigai is a four-step map for life's worth. Each of the four circles of the Venn diagram represents one of the directions for Ikigai. Starting with the first step or the top of the diagram, step 1 is to do what you love, and then do what you're good at. Then do what the world needs, and do what you can be rewarded for. In the center, where those four circles converge is Ikigai. The confluence of those four actions is the secret to Ikigai. This Ikigai diagram is a modern representation of what Ikigai's actions represent. The diagram was created by philanthropist Marc Winn. Thank you, Mark. That's Ikigai in a shell. I really hope you're enjoying yourself so far. Coming up, the difference between your job and your work. You are not your job, you are your work. When you do your work, your life gets much more clear and more meaningful. 3. Why Your Job Is Different Than Your Work: To learn about Ikigai, you must first learn all about yourself and one of the first things to learn is the difference between your job and your work. We tend to use the words job and work interchangeably these days, but in this class we're going to establish that your job is totally separate from your work. What do I mean by that? Well, the dictionary definition of a job is a paid position of regular employment, so in other words, your job is something that pays the bills. It puts a roof over your head and food on your table. It provides you with security and status as well. A job is something that everybody needs in order to survive and your job plays a very important role in your everyday needs. Work, on the other hand, is something entirely different. The definition of work is an activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a purpose or result, so in other words, you are your work, you exist for a purpose. In this class, when you hear me refer to your work, I'll never be talking about your paycheck. Your work is your self actualization and your purpose, so you are not your job, you are your work. Your work is something that is beyond your job. You don't get paid cold hard cash for your work. You do get rewarded by doing your work though. Your work is your self-actualization that will help you reach your fullest potential, but your work is often something that gets skipped on most days and that's often because your job and the rest of everyday life requires all the energy that you have. The past two years since the pandemic, we've seen a big shift in the way people see their jobs and their lives. It's no longer fashionable or universally accepted that you will build your life, time or energy just around your job. Today, it's much more acceptable to live your life to its fullest and include a meaningful job as part of it, so to reiterate, your job is something that you get paid to do in exchange of your time and energy but your work is the energy that you put into yourself in order to achieve something greater. Your work is what you do in order to do more to you. Coming up, you'll learn how you use to know what your work was when you were a child and why you might not know your work now. 4. You Used To Know Your Work: Story time. When you were born, you had work to do. In fact, throughout your childhood, you instinctively knew what your work was. As an infant, you have work to do. Mum and dad took care of all your needs but as an infant, your work was to be. The only thing you had to do as an infant was to survive between food and poops and peas and everything else was taken care of for you. Then as you grow older, you became a toddler. Your work as a toddler was to do, so you could crawl and walk and you could really get around, so your world became exciting and you gain the ability to explore the world around you and it consumed you. You tried everything that your little toddler brain inspired you to do, like what does that piece of paper taste like? What happens if I jump on the cat? As you explored, you learned that some things were very nice to experience and other things weren't, so you began to understand the idea of consequences, no more jumping on the cat. As you entered your first few years of school, your work changed again, because your work as a young student was to follow rules. Your teachers or the grown-ups would show you the rules and your work was to stick within those boundaries, so you became a bit of a rule mule. Your work helped you fit in as a piece of your little world and rules started to really make sense to you. A few years later, you hit puberty, and there were a lot of things happening in your body and brain when you hit puberty. This could have been a very confusing time. But as far as your work was concerned, the main task was to be seen. The teenager's body and brain is entering a time when it's getting ready to reproduce or search for a partner, so being seen by as many prospective people as possible is your way of attracting and finding a potential partner. Everything that is happening to you during that time comes from ancient cavemen or stuff, and the reason for it happening was purely survival. In high school, you started to experience some freedom, so you are older and wiser. You still had a lot of exploring to do, but you also had work. Your work as an older teenager was to make space between you and your parents. You were preparing to enter the world of grown-ups, so you were able to stay out later and begin driving and maybe get your first part-time job, you were gathering evidence for yourself and your parents that you are ready to leave the nest. But when you graduated from high school, typically that's when your work became confusing because you entered a phase of choose and follow through. What's the most confusing and in my opinion, the most unfair question you've injured having to answer several times when you graduated? It was an innocent little question that the adults asked over and over again. They'd ask, what are you going to do now? That's a hard question to answer. But the simple answer to that question is, I have no freaking idea. Your life until graduation has prepared you for no such decision. Society has this believe that we'll be ready to make the ultimate decision of choose and follow through on a meaningful career and life, but the fact remains that you're 17 or 18 years old. Everything in your life has been dictated by the work that you've done naturally and especially by the rules and directions of adults, so is it fair for adults to be asking that question? Well, I'm sure they don't mean any harm by asking it, but the question has created a lot of confused people throughout history, confused people who don't have a grasp on what their work is anymore. What is your work when you're old enough to go out into the world? Well, I have an Ikigai answer for you in the next module. To wrap up this module, let's recap why you used to know your work, but it's more challenging for you now. Yes, you are born with a set of instructions, but as soon as adulting started, those instructions became very confusing, and that's because you still have work to do as an adult. Coming up, the three steps that every adult can do in order to understand their work and the Ikigai. You'll finally start to understand why you get out of bed every day. 5. It's Time to Focus on Yourself: It isn't normal to know what we want. It's a rare and difficult psychological achievement, Abraham Maslow. In order for you to know what you want in life, it's important for you to focus on yourself. Allow me to introduce to you Maslow's hierarchy of needs and the man who created it. Abraham Maslow was a pioneer in the field of positive psychology. Maslow was very curious about the positive potential of people. Throughout his research, he and his colleagues developed a theory that on a daily basis, humans have five needs. He displayed these five needs in the shape of a pyramid. As you can see, each layer of the pyramid represents your specific daily needs as a human being. Your needs are broken down into two categories. They are deficiency needs and being needs. Here's how they work. When you wake up in the morning, you have a certain set of needs that are non-negotiable and they are the first four layers of this pyramid. On the base layer of the pyramid are your physiological needs and these include things like daily food, water, air, shelter, pizza, all the essentials. On the second layer lie your needs for safety and security and everyone needs and likes to be safe from danger every day. You also like to be financially secure and healthy and emotionally secure too. The third layer represents your need for love and belonging each day, having friends and family who care about you and you care about them, that is the bomb. The fourth layer of the pyramid is your need for esteem. It's nice to have a daily feeling of accomplishment. This layer is all about how esteem lifts you. We're all wired to ensure that our deficiency needs are being taken care of every day. Imagine what it would feel like if you were to miss out on having food, shelter, safety, or your self-esteem one day. That's a bit terrifying, isn't it? But here's the thing. Most people only focus on their deficiency needs on a daily basis. That's only four out of five needs. The fifth layer is just as important as all the others. This layer represents your personal growth and self-actualization. It's at the very top of the pyramid. This level is all about how you can reach your full potential in life. There's something really magical about this layer too, because when you achieve some growth in your self-actualization each day, it doesn't just become a check mark that indicates that you've done in. Instead, when you accomplish growth, it increases your desire to do it more. You're being needs are an important part of your ikigai. They help you grow. What's fascinating about being needs is that most people don't wake up in the morning with a burning desire to work on their self-actualization. We're more accustomed to put priority on our deficiency needs and then skip our work on ourselves. Ikigai takes care of your being need each day by helping you know what your work is each day. That's why Maslow's hierarchy of needs is such an essential part of understanding and naming your ikigai. Maslow believe that there are so much in store for you in life and yes, you might consider yourself just a regular person who goes through life on a day-to-day basis, just trying to make the ends meet but Maslow knew that there's much more in store for you if you choose it and if you put in the work. In fact, he said, "If you deliberately plan on being less than you are capable of being, then I warn you that you'll be unhappy for the rest of your life." When you name your ikigai, the work becomes so much clearer and simpler. It's necessary for you to focus on yourself. Let's get you to work as an adult now. Just like when you were a child, you have work to do as a grownup and I'm going to tell you all about it next. 6. What's Your Work Now?: What's your work now? It all starts with answering just one question. What do you love to do? Do you have a definitive answer to that question? Most people don't have an answer to that one essential question for Ikigai. Why don't you have an answer? Well, as I explained in the previous module, you have not been prepared to answer that question. Your education has focused on reading, writing, and arithmetic. You followed a systematic approach to preparing you for a life of survival. Thinking back to that question that adults used to ask you when you graduated, what are you going to do now? If you were trained in self-actualization as a young person, you could have provided an inarguable answer to that question. You could have said, I'm going to explore, zero in on who I am, and ponder my strengths. That is the three-step process that you'll concentrate on throughout your Ikigai exploration: explore, zero in, and ponder. To explore means to ask yourself that most essential question of Ikigai, what do you love to do? What thrills you? What are you curious about? What have you always wanted to try, but you haven't gotten around to doing it? To explore means to try everything. If that means travel, or hiking, wall climbing, learning how to play the cello, art, dance, learning how to fly a helicopter, or taking up skateboarding, then do it. Every answer requires input in order to gather evidence whether it works or not. When you think about it, every scientific, medical, mathematical, and biological discovery in history has been based on exploring the best possible ideas in order to come up with the best answer possible. Too often, we become grownups and forget how to explore and play. But exploration is essential for gathering evidence for a thoughtful and meaningful Ikigai. The second step in the process of Ikigai is to zero in. As you start to take action and start to check off your passions, fascinations, and curiosities, you'll begin to realize that there are some things on your list that when you've done them once, you no longer want to continue doing them. This is very good feedback. Actually doing things that you've been curious about will help you eliminate the things that you're not fully attached to as far as your Ikigai. We all have fascinations, but those don't always lead to what you love to do and what you're good at. Taking action in the process of elimination will help you zero in on the actions that you are good at, and what you love to do. The zero-in segment of Ikigai might also lead you to discovering something about yourself that you didn't expect. For example, you might realize that you're not actually interested in being a painter, but you're really interested in helping people see the beauty in painting. Zero in is a very necessary step in Ikigai. That takes you to step number 3. The third step in the process of Ikigai is to ponder. To clarify, let me just ask you this question. Has anyone ever approached you with a question at your job, and you didn't have an answer for them right at the time. But you might have said, let me think about that, and I'll get back to you. Well, chances are that you didn't go back to your office and schedule 30 minutes of your time to think about that problem. Instead, you filed that question away in your subconscious to let it do the work. Your subconscious is a powerful computer. According to studies, your subconscious is a million times more powerful than your conscious mind, a million times. When your colleague saw you the next time and asked you if they'd thought about your question, you probably did have an answer, and was probably a really good answer too. That's the power of your subconscious mind. In the ponder stage, you want to put your subconscious mind to work on your behalf. You've already explored all the things that you're interested in. You've zeroed in on the actions that have given you the best feedback and now, in the ponder stage, you'll just stop doing everything. You'll let your subconscious do the work for you. Explore, zero in, and ponder. It's quite elegant in its simplicity, isn't it? To understand your Ikigai, you must find new routes forward, though. To do that, you got to start with exploring. Your first assignment is to explore for answers. Note, answers, plural. You're looking for answers to that question, that very important question, what do you love to do? Make a list of all the things that fascinate you. Include on that list all the things you've wanted to try out. Take an hour, take five hours. Use sticky notes or a notepad, a booklet, or your computer, and compile a list of what you love to do. Do the work. Because in the next segment, I'll explain to you why you might not have been doing your work. It's a fascinating theory from the world of positive psychology, and I'm really excited about sharing it with you. 7. The Four Stages Of Adulthood: As you recall, when you were born, you came with a set of instructions for the work that you would be doing as you grew up. As an infant, your work was to be, then as a toddler, you were to do, when you start a school, your work was to follow rules. Young teen was to be seen and eventually as an older teen, your work was to make space between you and your parents. Then when you exited from high school, your work might have become a lot more confusing. For the first time in your life, you're in a position where you had to make all the decisions on your own. I call that the Choose & Follow Thru Program. Choosing and following through on a meaningful and rewarding life is a massive achievement at any stage of life, let alone fresh out of high school. However, according to psychiatrist Carl Jung, your work doesn't stop when you've formed into an adult. In fact, Jung believe that like stages of childhood, you also come pre-packed with instructions for going through the remainder of your life as well. Jung believed that there are four stages of adulthood too. This really does make a lot of sense. Because when you think about it, it's safe to say that a young adult at maybe 21 years old has a completely different outlook on life than a middle-aged dude at maybe 56 years old. Jung describes the stages of adulthood as roles. They are the athlete, the warrior, the senator, and the spirit. The first stage of adulthood starts when you are young and beautiful and capable of incredible physical feet. When you're 18 to say maybe 28 years old, you are an athlete. You're strong and capable of doing anything you want to do physically in order to be able to find your way through the world with your friends. Everything is about your body when you're young, nothing can hold you back from your daily missions because you're young and eager to take on the world, you are an athlete. Then as you grow older, your work changes again. You eventually move from being an athlete into a warrior. Your work as a warrior transforms you from being all about your body to being all about your ability. A warrior wants to really kick bad on something specifically, you want to show the world that you are the absolute best at something, be it business or art or welding or mathematics. They will do battle at any and all opportunities that come available to ensure that they are known for their ability to really kick button in a chosen field. As you grow older, Carl Jung described the next stage that comes afterward as the statement stage. Now I choose to call this stage something different. I tend to call the stage the senator stage. As a senator, you are really at a time in your life where you are absolutely aware of your abilities and your field of expertise. You've learned a lot about life. You are aware of context and circumstance. You know what you were personally capable of doing. You also know that you are capable of doing it all over again if you need it to. Senators really understand their capabilities intimately. But instead of continuing to prove themselves like they did in the warrior stage, senators start asking a question. That question is, what can I do to help you achieve what you'd like to do? Now personally, I believe that I'm in the senator stage of my lifetime. I really enjoy helping others. I'm eager to share my ikigai to delight. Being a senator allows me to offer meaningful guidance whenever the opportunity arises. Of all the stages of life so far, being a senator is my favorite. It feels so much more relaxed and authentic. The fourth stage of adulthood, according to Carl Jung, is the spirit. This is the time of your life when you start wondering what is next in your journey. Your life has reached a time of reflection and repose. You're relaxed about life in general, and you've reached the point where you are preparing for whatever comes next, whatever that might be. You are an energy living a human experience. Your perspective of life is allowing you to peek into the next place. We have the athlete, the warrior, the senator, and the Spirit. Those are the four stages of adulthood. Where do you feel you are in your journey? Ikigai plays a role in each of the stages. To recap what you've learned here in this module, your work doesn't stop after your childhood. Carl Jung believed that you have work to do as an adult as well. But remember, according to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, work on yourself, is a daily need. Daily, the more you self-actualize, the more your desire for doing more of it increases. If you were a betting person, would you bet that your personal happiness would be affected by more self-actualization? Coming up next, it's your time to work on your half-ikigai. Now, your half-ikigai is the basis of ikigai. and it starts with one very important question. What do you love to do? 8. Half Ikigai: Now let's talk about your half Ikigai. Why would you want to learn about half of anything you might be wondering? Well, the concept of Ikigai is broken down into two benefit component. The benefits that you receive from your Ikigai and also the benefits that others receive from your Ikigai. Half Ikigai is all about your benefit. This module is all about you in essence. As you progress through this course, you'll also discover how full Ikigai is all about the combined benefits for you and others. But for now, let's dig into, well, you. This module focuses on two questions. What do you love to do and what are you good at? Now these are foundational questions for Ikigai because they're the things that are absolutely unique to you. First up, what do you love to do? What thrills you? What fascinates you in life? What did you love to do as a kid, but you don't do anymore? I've asked these types of questions to thousands of people over the years and it's always really surprising to me to see how they answer it because many people will answer this question by saying things like activities like travel, sports, or cooking. But as we delve deeper into how they feel when they do these things that they enjoy, that's when I often see a change in their energy. The key in this component is to focus on how you feel when you do your favorite things. When you do what you love, there's always a benefit attached to it. Doing what you love is an action that only you can instigate and that only you can do. That action provides you with a benefit. Now you might be thinking things like hockey, or drawing, maybe math, science, cooking, rapping, I don't know, filmmaking. Those are all hints at what you love to do, but are those all actions that make you feel good? Do they lift you? Do they give you a sense of accomplishment? How does it make you feel to take part in the stuff you do love to do? Now this might be the very first time you've been asked to consider this type of a question. So for the sake of your own self-actualization, I invite you to make a list of the things and actions you love to do. At the bottom of these lessons, you'll find a seven minute timer. For the next seven minutes, take out your smart phone or maybe grab a piece of paper and a pen and write down everything that you love to do. You can put seven minutes into yourself right now, can't you? This simple exercise will help you gather intelligence on yourself. Your only mission is to just make a list and maybe some point in time this week, sit down with one of your most trusted people and share that list with them. Ask them if they see the same things about you as you do. What you're looking for are clues for who you truly are. There's a part 2 of half Ikigai as well. That means answering the question, what are you good at? You might be good at strategy or leadership, puzzles, helping others, building others. Take another seven minutes and make a list of all the things you are good at. Your half Ikigai is when you gain a better understanding of what you love to do and what you're good at. Your half Ikigai will provide you with the most important part of Ikigai, the unique to you part. But Ikigai is not a one-way street. Your Ikigai also provides benefits to others. So coming up next, we'll be covering full Ikigai. Do you know how lonely you would be if you knew what you love to do and what you're good at, and you had no one to share it with? Ikigai is something that is only enjoyable if it's shared with others. 9. Full Ikigai: Take your pleasure seriously. If you've never heard that saying before, it comes from American designer Charles Eames. You'll learn all about Charles and his partner in design and in love, Ray Eames, in this module. The Eames' held very practical views on the way that they wanted to serve humanity. They did it by recognizing their strengths and putting them into action in thoughtful ways. So in this module, you'll get a feeling on how the Ikigai perspective can be utilized as a lifelong strategy for taking your pleasure seriously. This module is all about how to make your useful, beautiful. Take your pleasure seriously. That is a powerful perspective on how to live each day. On one hand, it indicates that pleasure requires thoughtful attention and action. On the other hand, it shows that with intention, pleasure is an important part of life itself. Take your pleasure seriously. I'm sure that there are other ways to interpret how Charles Eames intended his quote to be interpreted. But I can assure you that he said it for a purpose. You see, he wanted his words to be useful. This is a photo of the famous lounge chair that Charles and Ray Eames created back in 1956. This is a toy elephant. All of these examples could easily be put into an art gallery and passed off as masterpieces. Yet, the Eames' didn't really consider themselves artists. Instead, they considered themselves problem-solvers. They believe that their work was an extension of their lives and vice versa. Their lives were an extension of their work. Charles and Ray lived each day to solve problems for people in universal ways. In order to do that, they enjoyed what they did each day and believed that the problems they solved would provide enjoyment for others. They followed the Ikigai lifestyle without even knowing that Ikigai existed. The key to the Eames' way of life was their clarity of purpose. They did a lot of exploring, zeroing in and pondering to come up with a clear and simple understanding of what they would focus on each day. Once they embraced the idea that they were problem-solvers, they knew how they could do it a 100 times a day. They utilized their unique set of skills in design, art and usefulness to solve problems like a lounge chair or a stacking chair or a splint for soldiers in World War II. They were happy doing themselves so others could benefit. Full Ikigai is like that. It's a process of purpose that has two beneficiaries. You benefit from what you love and what you're good at, and the world benefits from your ability to solve their problems. The key is to choose what problems you solve for yourself and for others. The result is positive emotions for you and for recipients. Positive emotions are the why of Ikigai. Charles, and Ray had beautiful artistic minds, but they didn't see themselves as artists. They chose to see themselves as problem-solvers in [NOISE] design. So each day they had a clear understanding about what their work was, and they summed it up by saying this, "We want to make the best for the most for the least." That deserves repeating. "We want to make the best for the most for the least." That was their Ikigai. It was the North Star that they followed each day without ever having to think about it. They just went where they knew they needed to go to benefit themselves and others, and you can do the same. Take your pleasure seriously by doing what you love and what you're good at, you solve problems that will bring pleasure to others. Your Ikigai doesn't have to boil down to a clever statement like what the Eames came up with. Remember, they were problem-solvers, so they solved their own problems by coming up with their own unique way of looking at the way they lived their lives. You can do the same. Do what you love, do what you're good at. Solve problems with your unique set of skills and strengths. Do the work. Explore, zero in, and ponder. Take your pleasure seriously. Do more you. Coming up next, learn how full Ikigai is really a two benefit solution for a meaningful life. 10. Ikigai is a Boomerang: In the words of Khalil Gibran, "Do not accept half a solution." You see Ikigai is a tube benefits solution for a purpose and well-being. The more generous you are with your Ikigai, the more rewards flow back to you in return. Ikigai then is a boomerang, not a stick. Share your Ikigai generously every day, because when you do, you'll find something inspiring happens to you. You'll notice that it just feels good to do it. Regardless of what thanks comes your way or how many high fives you get, it really feels good to give generously of yourself every day. The real reason why Ikigai is so thrilling, is because it's you giving generously of yourself. Is Ikigai a form of kindness then? Yes, it is. But more importantly, it's an act of Ikigai and you will increase your overall well-being. By doing that, you get immediate feedback in three ways. First, according to research, the simple act of just thinking about doing something good for someone else, can raise your base level happiness. Isn't that something? All you have to do is just think about it. Secondly, though, when you do take action and follow through with an act of kindness or Ikigai, your base level of happiness increases as well. Thirdly, beyond that, having just the memories and thinking back to your acts of Ikigai, increases your base level happiness again. By doing more you with your Ikigai, you're actually doing yourself a favor. You're increasing your overall well-being to a new level that you can sustain. As Maslow's hierarchy of needs indicates, self-actualization is your one being need that helps you reach your full potential. When you experience growth, it increases your desire to do it more and that includes acts of Ikigai. Ikigai is a boomerang. When you throw it out into the world, it comes back to you. Each throw increase your desire to throw more. Throw your boomerang, throw that sucker as often as possible because each throw is helping you reach your full potential. Coming up next, your class project. It's time for you to name your Ikigai. 11. PROJECT: Name Your Ikigai: [MUSIC] Well, it's time to name your ikigai. This action that I'm asking you to do holds a very special place in this class because of the weight it will have on your journey going forward. The name you choose for your ikigai will give it clarity in many meaningful ways. As writer, Maria Popova says on her blog, Brain Pickings, "Finding the words is another step in learning to see." It's time to find the word. You know by now that ikigai much more than just a fluffy, touchy-feely concept meant for a motivational posters or greeting cards. Your ikigai is an important part of who you are. Your ikigai will provide you with direction like a compass. When you name your ikigai, you'll be giving yourself the most powerful part of any compass. You will be giving yourself the needle of the compass, and it will direct you in your journey forward. When you name something, anything really, you are assigning responsibility to that name. Naming your ikigai means it carries importance. You are assigning the way that it will fit into your life. The name you choose will direct your behaviors and your motivations. The name will provide you with organized evidence that you know where you're going. As a result, you will keep your ikigai name at the top of your mind because you have identified it and you know its definition. What will you name your ikigai? Well, here are a few thoughts to keep in mind. First, start your ikigai with a preposition, and that preposition is to. The word to shows purpose or intention. For example, the ikigai name I chose for myself is to delight. That means my intention is directly tied to the action of delighting. The name you choose for your ikigai will include an intention and an action. Secondly, name your ikigai whatever you like, but bear in mind that your ikigai is an action. When you name your ikigai, you're naming it after an action that you love to do and that you're good at. Keep action words at the top of your mind when you're naming your ikigai. Here are a few that you might want to start off with, but there are more suggestions below. To serve, to create, to nourish, to provide, to teach, to heal, to connect, to build, to inspire. In the class resources, you'll find a list of more verbs that you can refer to when you're considering what your ikigai could be named. Now bear in mind that the name you choose doesn't have to be just two words. You can name it anything you like. It's your ikigai after all. You might find a verb that only partially names your ikigai so you might need to drill down a little bit further to accurately describe your ikigai. For example, you might choose to name your ikigai to inspire. But your focus might specifically be to inspire women or to inspire young minds or coaches. Ultimately, the name you choose is up to you, but make it meaningful to you. The name you choose will describe you and what you love to do and what you're good at, and the impact you intend to manifest. When you've chosen a name that is important, then it's time for you to take the next step. Ponder that name one more time. Give you ikigai name time to percolate in your mind. Remember your subconscious will begin to make connections to the name that you've chosen. You may find that in time your ikigai name will make more sense. But then again, you might also find the opposite, and the name will start to lose its meaning, and another name will take its place. Pay very close attention to what your subconscious is telling you. Remember, it's a million times more powerful than your conscious mind. When you name your ikigai you are acknowledging that it is real. In the words of Maria Popova, once again, "To name something is to transform its strangeness into familiarity," which is the root of empathy. To name is to pay attention. To name is to love. There's power in the name that you choose for your ikigai. You will gain the power of effortless intention. You'll no longer search for purpose. You will simply do more you and your purpose will be realized. To wrap up, let's just recap what we've covered here. When you name your ikigai, you are giving it responsibility, you are assigning it a way to fit into your life. The name you choose will direct your behaviors and motivations. The name you choose for your ikigai will be the needle of the compass that will guide you forward. Start your ikigai with the word to, it implies intention. Choose an action word, a verb for your ikigai that is meaningful to you. Below you'll find a collection of actions that you might want to consider. But the action you choose will motivate and inspire you. Thinking of it, doing it, and remembering it will lift you in meaningful ways. Then ponder you're ikigai name. Put the power of your subconscious to work for you, and let your name go from strangeness to familiarity. Your subconscious will tell you whether you've nailed your ikigai name. It will also provide you with alternatives though if needed, so trust your feelings. Your project now is to name your ikigai. Thanks for taking this class. If you've enjoyed it, please feel free to follow me here on Skillshare. My name's Tim Tamashiro, I hope to see you again very soon. Do more you. [MUSIC] 12. 7 Minute Timer: Hi. I'm live. Hi. Hi. Hello. Hi. Hello. Okay. Hi. Good. 13. Ikigai Examples: One of the most powerful ways to learn about the IKIGAI is to show instead of tell. So in this module, I'd like to share some examples of some people who exemplify their IKIGAI and put it into action for themselves and others every day. I hope you enjoy these stories. When Mandy Stobo picks up her paintbrush, her goal is to paint portraits of people, but she isn't afraid of making her paintings perfect. Instead, she's much more content in making them bad. Mandy Stobo is the creator of bad portraits. She estimates that during her career she has painted maybe 50,000 bad portraits, maybe more. Art has always been a really big part of Mandy's life you see. Growing up there was a piece of paper and the whole house that was safe from her doodles or crayons. Art was like therapy for Mandy. Because when Mandy painted, she found that her mind went silent and she used the solace of art to deal with a debilitating life of trauma. Then in early 2006, Mandy moved with her newborn son to a place called Canmore Alberta in the mountains. She noticed that there was something brand new starting to show up on her radar. It was something called Twitter. It had only really been around for about a month. Well, she became enamored with this idea of being able to follow people from all over the world, especially celebrities on Twitter. So if Tina Fey, for example, posted that she really enjoyed a bowl of soup and New York, Mandy could send Tina comment and Tina might even send a reply. Twitter was like having direct access to anyone in the world." What potential could it have?" Mandy thought. As a young mother with time on her hands, Mandy decided that she really wanted to put some time into her art practice. She was especially dedicated to developing her skill with her line work. Now artists develop muscle memory to draw better using line work. The more she would practice mastering her line work them more proficient she would become. That's when Mandy had an amazing idea. She could practice line work by painting just really quick portraits of people's profile pictures on Twitter and then send a photo of that painting with, ''I think what you're doing in the world is awesome. I made this portrait for you. Bad portrait bomb.'' With limited funds though, Mandy could only afford art supplies that were cheap, like newsprint and water paste it she found at the $ store. She grabbed that what could afford and she started making bad portrait. Now the special thing about bad portraits is that they look like the person. Pretty soon people like our [inaudible], Canadian celebrities and of all people, movie star Gary Busey started responding to Their bad portrait and they loved them. Soon a respected Canadian magazine contacted Mandy to do a story all about her. Within days of that magazine story being released, Mandy had 3,000 bad portrait orders. Each one of them would pay $100. There's still a $100 today. Mandy Stobo is a shining example for how to focus on natural gifts and put them into action for your own joy and for the joy of others. I estimate that Mandy's IKIGAI is to create community. She's one of the most joyful people you could ever meet and if you'd like to learn more about Mandy and the incredible work she's doing these days, check her out on Twitter @stoboart. I'll leave her other links below as well. Here's IKIGAI example number 2, getting out of bed isn't really a problem for Scott Forsyth. He knows what he loves to do and what he's good at. You see? It just so happens that is IKIGAI is split into two halves. Scott is a family doctor, but he's also an award winning nature photographer. He spent the early years of his life exploring every fascination that he could come up with. His goal was to find the ''perfect career'' whatever that was. What he created though instead, is beautiful balance. So when Scott gets out of bed each day, his balance is already set. For the first maybe four hours of his day up until noon, he focuses his time on his photography practice. Then at noon he puts on a stethoscope and puts his energy towards his patients and his family medicine clinic. He came to his love of photography combined with family medicine through many years of exploring, zeroing in and pondering what he was good at and what he loved to do. You see straight out of high school, Scott had hints about what he wanted to do with his life, but he wanted to explore all the possibilities before choosing. He had always been an excellent student, but he was also passionate about things like art, culture, travel, and languages. He also love to connect with people. He decided to travel to northern Japan to live for a year. There, he learned Japanese and taught English. He was fascinated with painting at that time, so he gave that a try and soon Scott ended up back in Canada with the desire to go to art school. But at the very last minute, he decided that he would forego art school even though he had been accepted and he would go to law school instead. When his years of studying law wrapped up, Scott didn't even take his bar exam. Instead, he decided to start medical school. Scott finished his studies in medical school and became a family doctor. Now of all the people I know, Scott is the best IKIGAI guy Explorer that I've ever met. He explored his passions and curiosities, but he also honed his skills and areas that it became very good at. Photography especially was always interesting to Scott and that's where his self-expression eventually steered him to land. As a photographer, Scott is recognized now as the go-to adventure photographer in Canada. He gets invited along on expeditions to icebergs, into mountain ranges, onto ships, and into rain forests. Scott shoots photos of Aurora Borealis and spirit bears and wales and wildlife. What's most fascinating to me is how Scott flipped his days so he could practice his photography first and then focus on his medical practice. You see, most people tend to live opposite to what Scott does. They front load the job into the early part of the day and bet they'll have the energy for self-actualization at the end of the day. Now, although it's not really up to me to name Scott foresights IKIGAI, I estimate that it might be to explore. His passion for photography and people is awe-inspiring. It's what brings him joy and provides joy to others. Finally, our last IKIGAI example. Mike and Anne Howard are known as HoneyTrek. They're on the world's longest honeymoon. These lovely people departed that on their honeymoon on January 22nd, 2012 and they've been on their honeymoon ever since. Leading up to their wedding Mike and Anne dreamed all about the amazing places that they could go on their honeymoon, and they started to write out a list of places to go and things to do when they got there. Their list grew longer and longer. They figured that they could go on a 10 day honeymoon anywhere they wanted to but would that be enough? What would their life be like after their honeymoon, they wondered. As they scratched out more and more ideas onto their honeymoon list, their minds began to shift. You see, Anne and Mike began to dream even bigger. A honeymoon would be lovely, A honey trek would be an adventure. They came up with the most amazing idea ever to take a one-year trek for their honeymoon. When the year was up, they'd come back home and resume life just like everyone else, Boy, were they in for a surprise? Mike and Anne's reasoning for their adventure turns conventional thinking on its head. Conventional thinking steers people to just get a job, earn money, save money, retire, and then go and travel. Instead, the honey trekkers decided to travel early to do all the things that they wanted to do. They chose to see their honeytrek as an investment in their lives. They were especially inspired by one pearl of wisdom from writer Randy Cozy Moore who wrote, ''And then there is the most dangerous risk of all. The risk of spending your life not doing what you want to on the bet that you can buy yourself the freedom to do it later.'' I asked Mike and Anne Howard what they believe the IKIGAI is, and their answer was lovely. They believe that the IKIGAI is to share kindness with strangers. They have developed a deep understanding of themselves and others over the years traveling and they've opened their hearts to offer the international language of kindness to everyone they meet. Their kindness allows them to crack open instant trust between themselves and the people they meet. They're often invited to join in on experiences with their new friends. When they give kindness, they get kindness in return and that's the beauty of IKIGAI. It's a cycle, a boomerang. I hope these IKIGAI examples provide you with the insight and assistance for how you can put your IKIGAI into action. Remember though, IKIGAI is a two benefit solution that starts with doing what you love to do and what you're good at, but even more importantly, your gifts also benefit others and they provide you with rewards and return. I've provided links to Mandy Stobo, Scott Forsyth, and HoneyTrek below. Make sure that you keep them top of mind as shining examples of how doing what you love is doable if you put the work in.