Ikigai: The Japanese Secret Of Finding Purpose In Life

[MJ DeMarco]

I can't disentangle my love of inventing from my passion for it

Would you have a passion for inventing if your inventions sucked? And no one used them or found value in them, including yourself? My guess is your passion would eventually disappear if the world found no value in your outcomes ... superficial passion is activity based, transformative passion is outcome/solution based.

A musician won't be passionate pounding off-key disharmonic shrill on the piano while an audience covers their ears in terror...

He's only passionate when he plays the piano in a beautiful, harmonic tune that his ears can appreciate, and later, sees his audience also appreciate it.

 

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[Bertram]

And I'm mad this didn't get more views. This idea was really profound for me.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uazl_pBzUwQ

Mad what didn’t get more views? That YouTube video of the Ted Talk, or this thread?

Regardless, my learnings from posting stuff and watching it tank, slowly get traction, or take off unexpectedly are:


# Don’t be mad. Be curious.

• Will people click through
• Will they watch/listen to what I linked to?
• What can I do to sell the click to open the thread
• What can I do to sell people on watching/listening? (Without misrepresenting the content and being too click-baity).

Why would a piece of content that I think is good not get viewed/traction?

• Is it because I think it’s good but it’s not what the market wants?

# Does the market need it but not want it?

• Is the market aware they even have this problem?

# CTA

• Am I even asking people to click/view/listen (that would be the CTA!).
• Am I asking people to come back and post their main takeaway or what they will do different going forward?

# Want more engagement?

Want to start a conversation around the topic? Want more eyeballs on the thread?

• Ask a question.
• Make it simple to *start* answering. How about a binary question (with a yes/no or some other black/white reply)?
• Don’t ask too many questions. (Have one CTA!)

# Want more meaningful engagement?

• Reply to the replies.
• Dig deeper. Find the why behind their response.
• Fan the flames, or draw create a safe environment for discussion? I prefer to be non-judgemental about it, but controversy can help flame conversations. Not my style!

# Tag people

• Who would this help?
• Who would this appeal to?
• Who talks about this a lot already?
• Who has credibility and authority on this subject?
• Who has a (good) following on this subject that will see the thread if they comment on it?

# Change things up

• If it’s worth it, bump the thread with additional info or thoughts.

# Forum members don’t want to watch videos.

• We’ve really got to sell people on watching the video... especially if it’s over 5 minutes long!

Be curious, not furious.

From native Japanese speakers, I've been told ikigI is best translated to "ones life motivation'.

I'm not really aware of how it's being used outside Japan, but I really like that a single word has such an expansive implications towards personal development and finding one's passion.

I'm researching Ikigai in Estonia and Latvia.

 

[Andy Black]

On a related note Andy, what's your Ikigai, and when did you discover it?

Helping businesses get more leads and sales using Google Ads.

I’m good at it.

I love it.

It helps people.

They pay for it.

 

[Raveling]

Would you have a passion for inventing if your inventions sucked? And no one used them or found value in them, including yourself? My guess is your passion would eventually disappear if the world found no value in your outcomes ... superficial passion is activity based, transformative passion is outcome/solution based.

A musician won't be passionate pounding off-key disharmonic shrill on the piano while an audience covers their ears in terror...

He's only passionate when he plays the piano in a beautiful, harmonic tune that his ears can appreciate, and later, sees his audience also appreciate it.

MJ, in short NO. I'm 52, & been inventing since early childhood, there has been virtually no external validation that I don't suck as an inventor, no income, no license deals ( though close), so NO it's all fuelled from within. IF I relied on outside reinforcement, I probably would have quit the first time a license deal fell through.

My love for inventing has Always been there, and the sloelane zombies, especially family, but also rest of the world have been almost exclusively discouraging and pushing like hell for me to "get a job" I already have and avoid the disappointment that I may fail.

 

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[Raveling]

Helping businesses get more leads and sales using Google Ads.

I’m good at it.

I love it.

It helps people.

They pay for it.

Awesome!!! That's the dream trifecta

 

[Raveling]

Would you have a passion for inventing if your inventions sucked? And no one used them or found value in them, including yourself? My guess is your passion would eventually disappear if the world found no value in your outcomes ... superficial passion is activity based, transformative passion is outcome/solution based.

A musician won't be passionate pounding off-key disharmonic shrill on the piano while an audience covers their ears in terror...

He's only passionate when he plays the piano in a beautiful, harmonic tune that his ears can appreciate, and later, sees his audience also appreciate it.

BTW MJ thanks for ACTUALLY being a real participant in your forums.

It seems self evident that one would participate in a forum they created about their own ideas or product, but I've been on enough such forums to know it's not somehow not:-?

RESPECT

 

[lucasb]

I love Ikigai, the interesting thing is that there are authors for each of the vertices ... for the contribution Demarco, for the competition carl newport and Peter Drucker, for the passion steve jobs with his speech, for the money eliyahu Goldriatt with the book "The goal" and companies that stand out that is a best seller talks about the concept of hedgehog that includes three vertices "Passion, being able to be the best in the world and money" lacked the contribution.

Ikigai makes us see that all roads are valid, what matters is working to reach the center and understand the four.

In my personal case, the approach that resonates most to me is that of the contribution and that of the competition.

 

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[Raveling]

Mostly the first two lol. I'm a Data Scientist, but much of my work is in the fields you mentioned.

I think ultimately Iwould love to do something like scientific personal development. I think that Self Help is an enormous field, but most of it is fluffy nonsensical bullshit. Theytake no measures to actually check if their hypotheses are actually correct and just put things out there because some other self-help author told them it works. So what you see is that generally people get a spike in motivation for a few days, then that motivation wanes. So I'd like to do things that actually teach people to make lasting changes.

But for now most of my work is in Research Psychology.

You and I need to collaborate!!!

My formal education is just a BSc. Psych. with a Neuroscience focus. But I have a life long love of inventing / (informal) engineering that's sufficient for me to be mistaken as an engineer BY engineers. And an equal love for psychology and self-development with scientific rigor.

I despise bullshit pedalers, especially those who neither know ( ignorant ) & / or care ( unethical ) whether their stuff actually works.

And by collaborating I mean ( for the time being at least ) just mastermind together and see how/if we can help each other make great stuff that actually helps people/works.

I recently got an idea about creating sustainable design standards and consultancy for physical products. It's WAY beyond the fairly broad scope of my eclectic but perhaps not always deep knowledge. Its mitosis has barely started, but it may be something BIG and truly meaningful.

As for personal development, I've long been considering several products that are based around teaching people HOW to find their own path based on strong and specific proven science, while avoiding being so over-generalized as to be useless and impossible to take specific immediate actions on. I hate fake cookie-cutter, oversold "easy" solutions.

Finally, about short motivational spikes, I can honestly say, I know and know of no one with more real-world knowledge of staying motivated in a virtual vacuum of external validation or reinforcement than myself. I'm IMOHO the leading expert I'm aware of on not quitting or giving up when the going remains unrewarded:-?

 

[ChrisV]

You and I need to collaborate!!!

My formal education is just a BSc. Psych. with a Neuroscience focus. But I have a life long love of inventing / (informal) engineering that's sufficient for me to be mistaken as an engineer BY engineers. And an equal love for psychology and self-development with scientific rigor.

I despise bullshit pedalers, especially those who neither know ( ignorant ) & / or care ( unethical ) whether their stuff actually works.

And by collaborating I mean ( for the time being at least ) just mastermind together and see how/if we can help each other make great stuff that actually helps people/works.

I recently got an idea about creating sustainable design standards and consultancy for physical products. It's WAY beyond the fairly broad scope of my eclectic but perhaps not always deep knowledge. Its mitosis has barely started, but it may be something BIG and truly meaningful.

As for personal development, I've long been considering several products that are based around teaching people HOW to find their own path based on strong and specific proven science, while avoiding being so over-generalized as to be useless and impossible to take specific immediate actions on. I hate fake cookie-cutter, oversold "easy" solutions.

Finally, about short motivational spikes, I can honestly say, I know and know of no one with more real-world knowledge of staying motivated in a virtual vacuum of external validation or reinforcement than myself. I'm IMOHO the leading expert I'm aware of on not quitting or giving up when the going remains unrewarded:-?

Interesting.. we'll definitely talk.

 

[Champion]

Cool diagram, thanks for sharing

 

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