Ikigai Quotes

“It’s not what happens to you, but how you react that matters.”
― Hector Garcia Puigcerver, Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life / The Little Book of Hygge / Lagom: The Swedish Art of Balanced Living

“We don't create our feelings; they simply come to us, and we have to accept them. The trick is, to welcome them.”
― Hector Garcia Puigcerver, Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life / The Little Book of Hygge / Lagom: The Swedish Art of Balanced Living

“Stop regretting the past and fearing the future. Today is all you have. Make the most of it. Make it worth remembering.”
― Hector Garcia Puigcerver, Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life / The Little Book of Hygge / Lagom: The Swedish Art of Balanced Living

“appreciate the beauty of imperfection as an opportunity for growth.”
― Hector Garcia Puigcerver, Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life / The Little Book of Hygge / Lagom: The Swedish Art of Balanced Living

“a happy man is too satisfied with the present to dwell on the future.”
― Hector Garcia Puigcerver, Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life / The Little Book of Hygge / Lagom: The Swedish Art of Balanced Living

“We don’t create the meaning of our life, as Sartre claimed—we discover it.”
― Hector Garcia Puigcerver, Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life / The Little Book of Hygge / Lagom: The Swedish Art of Balanced Living

“Instead of searching for beauty in perfection, we should look for it in things that are flawed, incomplete.”
― Hector Garcia Puigcerver, Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life / The Little Book of Hygge / Lagom: The Swedish Art of Balanced Living

“Instead of worrying about the past or the future, we should appreciate things just as they are in the moment, in the now.”
― Hector Garcia Puigcerver, Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life / The Little Book of Hygge / Lagom: The Swedish Art of Balanced Living

“God, give us grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other."

- Reinhold Niebuhr”
― Hector Garcia Puigcerver, Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life / The Little Book of Hygge / Lagom: The Swedish Art of Balanced Living

“[...] Get rid of the things that make you fragile

We're taking the negative route for this exercise. Ask yourself: What makes me fragile? Certain people, things, and habits generate losses for us and make us vulnerable. Who and what are they?

When we make our New Year's resolutions, we tend to emphasize adding new challenges to our lives. It's great to have this kind of objective, but setting "good riddance" goals can have an even bigger impact.”
― Francesc Miralles, Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life / The Little Book of Hygge / Lagom: The Swedish Art of Balanced Living

“Life is pure imperfection, as the philosophy of wabi-sabi teaches us, and the passage of time shows us that everything is fleeting, but if you have a clear sense of your ikigai, each moment will hold so many possibilities that it will seem almost like an eternity.”
― Hector Garcia Puigcerver, Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life / The Little Book of Hygge / Lagom: The Swedish Art of Balanced Living

“Only things that are imperfect, incomplete, and ephemeral can truly be beautiful, because only those things resemble the natural world.”
― Hector Garcia Puigcerver, Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life / The Little Book of Hygge / Lagom: The Swedish Art of Balanced Living

“The grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love and something to hope for.”
― Hector Garcia Puigcerver, Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life / The Little Book of Hygge / Lagom: The Swedish Art of Balanced Living

“Keep going; don’t change your path.”
そのままでいいがな”
― Hector Garcia Puigcerver, Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life / The Little Book of Hygge / Lagom: The Swedish Art of Balanced Living

“七転び八起き
Fall seven times, rise eight.

— Japanese proverb”
― Hector Garcia Puigcerver, Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life / The Little Book of Hygge / Lagom: The Swedish Art of Balanced Living

“when you have a clear purpose, no one can stop you.”
― Hector Garcia Puigcerver, Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life / The Little Book of Hygge / Lagom: The Swedish Art of Balanced Living

“Just as worry often brings about precisely the thing that was feared, excessive attention to a desire (or “hyper-intention”) can keep that desire from being fulfilled.”
― Hector Garcia Puigcerver, Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life / The Little Book of Hygge / Lagom: The Swedish Art of Balanced Living

“Only staying active will make You want to a live a hundred years.”
― Francesc Miralles, Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life / The Little Book of Hygge / Lagom: The Swedish Art of Balanced Living

“Happiness is always determined by your heart.”
しあわせはいつも自分の心がきめる.”
― Hector Garcia Puigcerver, Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life / The Little Book of Hygge / Lagom: The Swedish Art of Balanced Living

“the things we love are like the leaves of a tree: They can fall at any moment with a gust of wind. He also said that changes in the world around us are not accidental but rather form part of the essence of the universe”
― Hector Garcia Puigcerver, Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life / The Little Book of Hygge / Lagom: The Swedish Art of Balanced Living

“Can someone really retire if he is passionate about what he does?”
― Hector Garcia Puigcerver, Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life / The Little Book of Hygge / Lagom: The Swedish Art of Balanced Living

“[...] Get rid of the things that make you fragile

We're taking the negative route for this exercise. Ask yourself: What makes me fragile? Certain people, things, and habits generate losses for us and make us vulnerable. Who and what are they?

When we make our New Year's resolutions, we tend to emphasize adding new challenges to our lives. It's great to have this kind of objective, but setting "good riddance" goals can have an even bigger impact.”
― Francesc Miralles, Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life / The Little Book of Hygge / Lagom: The Swedish Art of Balanced Living

“Life is not a problem to be solved. Just remember to have something that keeps you busy doing what you love while being surrounde by the people who love you”
― Hector Garcia Puigcerver, Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life / The Little Book of Hygge / Lagom: The Swedish Art of Balanced Living

“Walk slowly and you’ll go far”
― Hector Garcia Puigcerver, Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life / The Little Book of Hygge / Lagom: The Swedish Art of Balanced Living

“Taking a hit or two can be viewed as either a misfortune or an experience that we can apply to all areas of our lives, as we continually make corrections and set new and better goals.”
― Hector Garcia Puigcerver, Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life / The Little Book of Hygge / Lagom: The Swedish Art of Balanced Living

“The key is to accept that there are certain things over which we have no control, like the passage of time and the ephemeral nature of the world around us.”
― Hector Garcia Puigcerver, Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life / The Little Book of Hygge / Lagom: The Swedish Art of Balanced Living

“In an increasingly unpredictable world moving ever more quickly, a detailed map may lead you deep into the woods at an unnecessarily high cost. A good compass, though, will always take you where you need to go. It doesn’t mean that you should start your journey without any idea where you’re going. What it does mean is understanding that while the path to your goal may not be straight, you’ll finish faster and more efficiently than you would have if you had trudged along a preplanned route.”
― Hector Garcia Puigcerver, Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life / The Little Book of Hygge / Lagom: The Swedish Art of Balanced Living

“finding flow in the tasks you’ve chosen to do, eating in a balanced and mindful way, doing low-intensity exercise, and learning not to give in when difficulties arise. In order to do this, you have to accept that the world—like the people who live in it—is imperfect, but that it is still full of opportunities for growth and achievement.”
― Hector Garcia Puigcerver, Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life / The Little Book of Hygge / Lagom: The Swedish Art of Balanced Living

“He was simply someone in search of a new life’s purpose; as soon as he found it, his life took on deeper meaning.”
― Hector Garcia Puigcerver, Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life / The Little Book of Hygge / Lagom: The Swedish Art of Balanced Living

“Csikszentmihalyi called this state "flow, and described it as the pleasure, delight, creativity, and process when we are completely immersed in life.

There is no magic recipe for finding happiness, for living according to your ikigai, but one key ingredient is the ability to reach this state of flow and, through this state, to have an "optimal experience".

In order to achieve this optimal experience, we have to focus on increasing the time we spend on activities that bring us to this state of flow, rather than allowing ourselves to get caught up in activities that offer immediate pleasure [...].”
― Francesc Miralles, Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life / The Little Book of Hygge / Lagom: The Swedish Art of Balanced Living