Ikigai

Ikigai is four circles. What you love, what you are good at, what the world needs, what you can be paid for. You fill each one, then look at the overlaps. Some history, because this one gets misrepresented. The Japanese word ikigai roughly translates as a reason for being, and in Japan, it has nothing to do with work. It can be your grandchildren, your garden, the coffee you look forward to. The four-circle diagram is a Western invention. It was drawn by the Spanish astrologer Andrés Zuzunaga in 2011 as a diagram about purpose, and Marc Winn put the word ikigai over the top of it in a blog post in 2014. He has since said himself that the two things got merged by accident. Treat the circles as a thinking tool rather than as ancient wisdom, and they earn their place. The overlaps are where the work is. Loving something you are not good at yet is a hobby or a practice. Being good at something nobody needs is a hard business. The pairs tell you more than the centre does. Do not strain for the middle. Most people never find a clean four-way overlap, and chasing it is a good way to talk yourself out of a decent life.