Ikigai: The Formula Towards Happiness and Meaning

Sohan Nicole

We all have trouble finding what we want to dedicate our lives to. The source of this dilema could be many things. Cultural and social beliefs, ideals of success, not recognizing our talents, vocations, and resources.

How would you feel if you could get paid for using your talents and doing what you love?

We are not raised with the notion that we can make a living out of our passions. Most of the time they are viewed as “hobbies”. We end up dedicating more time into our profession (which may have nothing to do with our passions or talents) and spend what little free time we can on our passions.

Could this have something to do with the social beliefs that surround us? I’m thinking yes! If we would have been told to explore our talents and come up with creative and innovative ways of making a living out of them, versus being told which professions give us more money and settling for that, maybe we would be more satisfied with our lives in the end.

The good news is: IT IS NEVER TOO LATE.

Wether you are in the midst of deciding what to do with your life, or you already decided on something years ago and now you want to please yourself I have a pretty simple solution for you!

The Ikigai Model. The Japanese formula for Happiness and Meaning in your life. The japanese believe in life purpose as something a lot more deep than money or big titles. Ikigai means “the reason for which you wake up in the morning”. Now, how can we keep ourselves from waking up to live for others? This model can surely help you.

It centers in:

• Your talents

• Your passions

• Your profession

• Your vocation

• Your mission

So, in this balance we find the ability to use our talents, work with what is passionate to us, and offering it to the world. Your mission combined with your vocation us what the world needs from you. Your profession combined with your vocation is what you will get paid for. Your passion combined with your profession js getting payed for something you are good at. And your passion combined with your mission is what you love.

So, there it is! The ability to put your talents out there, get paid for them, work with passion and offer the world your piece of change and innovation.

Who would have loved it if this would have been a test in high-school? I know I would have!

Repeat or Evolve

Sohan Nicole

How about starting the day, the week, and your life with a different mind-set? Are you going to grow today? Or will you remain the same? Do you want to continue suffering? Or would you like to start evolving into the person you aspire to be?

Will you repeat or evolve?

Repeat the same mistakes or evolve with the insight acquired thanks to those mistakes.

Repeat the same habits and negative loopholes that have taken you where you are. Remain in that place or evolve.

Repeat the same old thoughts about yourself, your opportunities, your confidence, your worth and stay the same or evolve.

Repeat your problems and remain with them or evolve.

Keep living the same life or evolve.

Evolve into a new you, a new perspective, a new way of life. Open yourself to the you that has always wanted to come out. Evolve. Our lives are based on choices. We chose to think a certain way. We chose to see things negatively or positively. We chose the life we want. We create ourselves, our lives and everything around us.

May all our choices be made by choosing either to evolve or repeat. May we always choose to evolve.

The Real Obstacles

Sohan Nicole

Thinking is creating. As I have mentioned before, our thoughts and ways of thinking is what creates our reality. We often ask ourselves “why am I in this position?” Well, it must be because at some point you agreed to be in that position. Every decision we make is based on our intentions. We get a new job because we need more money or stability, we buy new clothes because we need to look better, we move to other cities and countries searching for better opportunities. So, if all our decisions are based on our intentions and what we want out of these decisions, why do we constantly create negative views?

We embark on a new project and most of the time we think to ourselves “what if it fails?”, “what if I’m not good enough?” But, if our intention is prosperity, why would we think otherwise?

We long for a bright future, a new life, a change and yet we continue acting the same as always. How can we expect change if we don’t change?

Most of the time we have a hard time changing, we create obstacles for ourselves based on false beliefs that we have accepted as truths. All of these false and negative beliefs have created a huge boulder in the living room of our consciousness. The real problem is that we have learned to live around this big stone of false beliefs and it brings us down. We have made “peace” with it, accepted it. But, why? Why would we accept negative aspects of ourselves as truths? If all we want out this life is the positive, we must believe it so.

We must be able to clear our paths of these negative milestones in order to achieve our personal growth. This boulder has gotten to be so huge, you have just decided to accept it. By accepting it all the energies and notions created in you numerous false beliefs about yourself and the world around you.

False beauty standards, misleading views on success and “the perfect life”, are some of these created boulders we have accepted as truths. These false beliefs are obstacles in our consciousness. Who has the power to take this boulder out of their living room? Yes, we do. If you don’t take the trash out in your house, no one else will do it for you.

I encourage you to take out the trash in your mind, free yourself of these boulders, and start accepting life for what it is. A limitless world full of opportunities, with enough space for everyone to grow and create as much as they want to create. Why are wasting our time?