Ikigai & Kaizen: The Japanese Strategy to Achieve Personal Happiness and Professional Success (How to set goals, stop procrastinating, be more productive, build good habits, focus, & thrive)

by Anthony Raymond

Ikigai is a Japanese life strategy that emphasizes the importance of finding your “true calling.”

“Kaizen,” — often translated as “continuous improvement.” With Kaizen, we understand that the answers to life’s biggest quandaries do not come in the form of a magic pill. Instead, our most momentous accomplishments are typically the result of years of concentrated effort and dedication.

The term is comparable to the adopted French phrases “raison d’etre” (your “reason for existence”) or “joie de vivre” (your “zest for life”).

First, you can think of your Ikigai as being comprised of four parts: Passion Vocation Mission Profession

Could this be my Passion? How much do I love this skill? Could this be my Vocation? How good am I (or could be) at this skill? Could this be my Mission? How much will this skill benefit the world? Could this be my Profession? How likely am I to get paid well for this skill?

even though you are well aware of the fact that the entire enterprise will result in no monetary reward whatsoever. And yet, at a carnal level, you want to master the game. You want to defeat the final boss. You want to win the top score.

Mastery describes our inner urge to “be the best.” I.e., to become an expert in a particular skill. Purpose describes our desire to engage in endeavors that yield a great benefit of some sort (financial, spiritual, educational, etc…). Ideally, such endeavors will result in long-lasting and meaningful value to us, our family, our community, our planet, or perhaps to all of the above. Autonomy describes our desire to lead a self-directed life—one that affords us with the freedom to make choices for our daily actions, manifesting personal agency as we plot a personalized course for the journey of our life.

Passion has little to do with euphoria and everything to do with patience. It is not about feeling good. It is about endurance. Like patience, passion comes from the same Latin root: “pati.” It does not mean “to flow with exuberance.” It means “to suffer.”

I hate writing, [but] I love having written.

“It is not the last drop that empties the water clock, but all that which previously has flowed out.”

People who are better at criticizing than doing. People who try to pull you down to their level. People who live only for the next weekend adventure. People who live to drink and party. Or, people who have given up on life altogether.

Listed as traits of toxic People

Quests are easier to complete when we’re surrounded by like-minded comrades who are willing to march in pursuit of mutually beneficial goals.

Lingchi can teach us to recognize the pernicious effects of each tiny life transgression. But without Hansei, we might not know the best way to interpret this information, nor how to devise a plan to improve our situation. Hansei enables us to look back and thoroughly evaluate our personal shortcomings. But without Kaizen and without our Ikigai, we might have trouble determining how to make our future journey more profitable and spiritually fulfilling. Ikigai will teach us to find our true calling. But without the guidance of Kaizen, we may falter in our commitments and fail to execute the many steps that are required to become a master of our craft. Kaizen will turn us into more efficient and productive workers. But if we have a misaligned Ikigai (i.e., if we hate our meaningless job), then we’re just another wage slave — pushing papers across a desk instead of gifting the planet with our true talents.