What is your ikigai?
What’s that you say? An “icky guy”? I’m not sure what you mean… you may be saying to yourself.
No, I’m actually referring to the Japanese word ikigai, which literally means a life worth living.
You may ask someone:
“What is your purpose in life?”
“Why were you put on this earth?”
“What is the overarching mission that is the motivating factor in the most important decisions in your life?”
Or you could just ask, “What is your ikigai?”
I recently asked myself this question, and the thought has been on my mind for some time.
Interesting story: I woke up one day, and the word ikigai was on my mind for not particular reason. I had heard the word once or twice editing the many health and fitness podcasts that are among the client list for our podcast production business, but had never used it in a personal way.
But it was there, and it wasn’t just a fleeting thought. It was one of those thoughts that your gut tells you to act on, you know the kind.
So I went on Amazon and found a book titled, Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life. The author’s name is Hector Garcia. So after devouring the book on my Kindle, I found Hector on a web search and asked if he’d be willing to do an interview for my little Trumpet Dynamics podcast.
I’m sure he’s inundated with interview requests, but I thought I’ve already got a “no” by not asking, so why not go for it?
Well, it turns out that there aren’t that many podcasts devoted to the tiny pond called Trumpet, and people like Hector are always looking for new markets to share their message (Reason #4518 to focus on one niche with a show). So he was happy to jump on a call, and I published our interview last week.
No, we don’t talk about long tones and lip slurs and scales (Oh my!) but we did talk a lot about purpose, why we do what we do for as long as we do it, boring stuff like that.
Well, I enjoyed it. And I’m the host, so what else matters, right? 😉
Click the ugly link below to listen for yourselves: