The ‘WHY’ Behind My Searching for My Ikigai, My Life’s Purpose?

Jappanjot Singh, a friend of Niranjana and Devesh, is organising trips to various less frequently visited places exploring the unexplored. His ‘The Culture Trails’ focuses on travel with a purpose – sustainable and experiential journeys where you connect with local communities and create memories that last for a lifetime, Jappan says.

He further added, in the Spiti Valley, where the mountains whisper ancient stories, every turn offers a chance for self discovery and the people he has taken there were excited to see the nature in its purest form! He is taking another batch to the golden city of Jaisalmer during the New Year 2025 for an unforgettable journey filled with myriad shots of culture, adventure, and memories to cherish forever. 

Actually, he has done his masters in Social work at Tata Institute of Social Sciences and recently started “The Culture Trails”, quitting his job at NTPC! Basically, he is a traveller, he used to travel to various places while he was studying also, as he loves travelling and exploring new places, culture and people. Now, his profession itself is travelling, which he enjoys the most. No stress of taking leave from work to pursue his passion, right!

I can say, he is another person I know who has found his Ikigai! He loves to travel, he is good at exploring the places and organising tours to such places which makes the journey  a memorable one, providing a chance to the people a whole new experience. The world needs such guides to people who love to explore and also he is rewarded for the same!! All the four components of the Ikigai are fulfilled, can you see this?

He enjoys what he is doing and does what he loves to do. So, is there any question of quitting at any point of time? Will there be any time in his life that he would  want to retire from his job?

One who is having a clearly defined Ikigai will live a meaningful life with happiness in its continuity and a feeling of satisfaction. If you have found your Ikigai and are living your Ikigai, then there is nothing called retiring from your work, what do you say?

A friend of Aruni, Mr. Sudhesh working for a big automobile industry at Chennai wishes to get retired from his work but he could not as he is having a lot of family commitments. Everytime we meet, he will be talking only about quitting his job and his inability to do that. I could understand the pressure he is undergoing when he is doing a certain job against his wish. Every day will be a warfront,at his office for him, standing in between ‘does not want to go’ and ‘has to go’, right?

Do you think Sudhesh is living his Ikigai? The routine he has been told of ‘education’ to ‘job’ to ‘save for future’ to ‘retirement’ and then to ‘enjoy’ has taken him on a toll. 

Are you also living like him? 

Want to live a beautiful life like Jappan, and a meaningful life like Niranjana & Devesh?

Then, We need to identify our Ikigai for that!

Once I started reading the novel Ponniyin Selvan by Kalki at around 11.00 am on a holiday sitting on the traditional swing at my balcony. Wow, the way he had narrated the story along with the sceneries and description of the characters, I  was visualizing the story scene by scene and got immersed into it. No thought of the past nor worries about the future, I was completely enjoying the present moment. At the top of his impatience Aruni came up calling for lunch at around 03.00 pm! I did not realize that much time had passed!

That state is referred to as ‘Flow’ and in positive psychology, flow is described as a state of complete absorption in the current experience and it is the secret of happiness! This can happen not only in the recreation we like, but also while doing a challenging work which we love to do.

Another time, I was attending a meeting and the topic of that was not relevant to me. You might have caught my experience I am going to share! Yes, you are right. I could not focus more than a few minutes and could not resist looking into my watch! It seemed that it was a very long time though it went only for an hour. 

The flow was there since I loved to read that book, which means if you are doing what you love to do, you will experience the flow, do you accept this? Have you also experienced the flow, the moments when you are completely absorbed in a challenging but doable task? 

Do you want that flow, the happiness in continuity? I have a big ‘YES’ for this, what about you? If so, we need to do what we love to do. For that, first we need to identify what is that I love to do, my Ikigai or my life’s purpose. 

Completely immersed in the experience, not thinking about anything and not distracted by others will yield the highest outcome, what do you say? We will get the feeling of satisfaction and fulfillment if we are able to achieve that. All these could be possible only when we are doing what we love to do. 

My friend Kicha (Dr. Krishnamoorthy) lived in Japan with his family for nearly 17 years. He worked at Shizuoka University and then at Osaka University as a Professor, specially appointed. He used to tell me about the culture there and the working nature of the Japanese.

They are exceptionally dedicated and hardworking. Some people even say that they seem to work harder than they really are!  They have the ability to be completely absorbed in a task and the perseverance when there is a problem to be solved. The research students where he was working will be working in the laboratory during the weekend if there is somework going on even when they have a party and all their friends are enjoying it. I used to wonder and sometimes I argued with him that he was exaggerating! Now, coming to know about Ikigai and they are the native people of the country where this Ikigai originated from, I can understand there is nothing to wonder about their nature!

If we look at people who achieved greatness in their life, they were successful because they were doing what they loved to do. Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam was pursuing his passion of talking to youngsters and guiding them until his last breath. The last thing that Einstein wrote before his death was a formula that attempted to unite all the forces of the universe in a single theory! When he closed his eyes forever he was still doing what he loved. Why go that far in history, if we look around our dear and near ones we can see those who are happy continuously and successful in whatever they are doing are doing things that they love to do, am I right? 

So, we can see from the discussion so far,

If we wish to live with happiness in its continuity, with a continuous flow we need to find our Ikigai, our life’s purpose and live it!

Travel with me, searching for our life’s purpose following the flow, to find the ways to identify your Ikigai! I will share how to research through a few systematic ways to list down all that to make a conclusion by presenting your findings.