In a post on Writers in the Storm, Jenny Hansen explores the concept of ikigai, a Japanese concept that explains fulfillment as a balance of passion, skills, needs, and money. Think of it as a Venn diagram, where Ikigai occurs at the intersection of what makes you happy, what you are good at, what allows you to make money, and what allows you to contribute to your community.
For many of us, this means creative writing, though there is still some room for self-examination. To start, practitioners recommend that you ask yourself what you enjoy most, what you are doing when you’re happiest, and what you are doing when you lose track of time. In other words, what puts you in a flow state, where you are using your skills, achieving contentment, and meeting a need in your community?
If you love what you’re doing and are highly skilled at it, but make no money, you have passion. If your skills allow you to make money, but you don’t have passion for what you do, you have a job. If you love what you do and it fulfills a community need, you have a mission. When you have all of them – passion, skill, money, and mission – you have Ikigai.
(Ed note – Hansen defines the “need” circle as your personal needs, not the world’s or your community’s needs. That’s fine, but we consider those money matters. Ikigai – your purpose in life, your reason for being – should include a service component.)
Where do your passions, skills, money, and community overlap? Assuming that writing is your answer, how can you arrange your writing life so that you use your skills and do what you love in a way that helps your community and allows you an income?
Hansen also suggests considering these questions for your characters. What would give them great personal fulfillment? “Maybe they achieve ikigai through numbers, healing, childcare, building, farming,” she says. “Whatever their dream endeavor, you want to clearly identify the hurdles they must overcome to achieve it.”
