Gotcha! If you have
landed this page it means you are seeking happiness. Are you not happy with
what you have, huh?
No please don't
close the tab, I was just trying to be funny, to set the stage for happiness. I
do have meaningful stuff to talk about. So please stay.
I just finished
reading a book named IKIGAI, it holds the Japanese secret to a long and happy
life. To quote from the book, 'The people of Japan believe that everyone has an
IKIGAI- a reason to jump out of bed each morning'.
Do you think you
have an IKIGAI? Or even you snooze your alarm daily like me and have that extra
10 mins of sleep?
If you are in the
former category, please do not judge me. If you are in the latter category, I
might have something for you. No biases though :P
I started reading this book hoping to make my life happy. But then I came across this: 'Wanting positive experience is a negative experience; accepting negative experience is a positive experience. It’s what the philosopher Alan Watts used to refer to as “the backwards law”—the idea that the more you pursue feeling better all the time, the less satisfied you become, as pursuing something only reinforces the fact that you lack it in the first place'.
I thought that by
the end of the book I would have found my IKIGAI, as the book was supposed to be
a guide. Reading the last page disappointed me, not because of the book but
because I had still not found my IKIGAI. (Reading the book is still highly
recommended). I closed the book, and started thinking while tapping the book,
'how do I find my IKIGAI?'. Just then it hit. No not the book, the idea! My
answer was right under my nose, the back cover of the book.
You see, the
intersection of these four circles is where I'll find my IKIGAI. All I have to
do is fill those 4 circles and try to find the intersection points. That is
something which the book cannot do on my behalf, I have to do it myself.
But before I sat down to find my IKIGAI, I wanted to share my findings with the
people. If I go by what the book says, that my IKIGAI can help me cross a
century, then I would need my friends to live that long as well :)
So go and find your
IKIGAI. Just in case you are too lazy to read the book, reach out to me, I can
share beautiful extracts from there. If you found this useful, do share it.
Even if it isn't useful, you can share this to annoy people ;). It is a win-win.
Have fun, and thank you for stopping by. I hope you find your IKIGAI soon :)
