We might only take a minute out of our busy lives to reflect and then move on. However, for some of us those moments not only last a lot longer but seem to keep coming up at different points. And can make us take a good hard look at ourselves. When that happens, we can often realise we don’t know who we are any more and whether what we’re doing is really bringing us satisfaction. Life in today’s world is uncertain and complex; we can all feel we have little choice or influence over many aspects of our lives and often we don’t. But sometimes we can make changes, including working out the direction we want to head in and why.

Having recently been to Japan, I became even more curious about the way they approach life and work out what’s important for them. I had already come across the concept of Ikigai, a Japanese word or concept that broadly means ‘your life purpose’ before I left the UK. While in Japan I saw it in action for the first time. Further investigations revealed that number of those who have spent time researching Ikigai believe it’s made up of a number of elements and that we can find Ikigai at the intersection of those.

As the diagram below shows those components are

• What you love
• What the world needs (or what your relationships need)
• What you are good at, and
• What you can be paid for.