Ikigai - Finding Joy in Doing Work

An overview of the Ikigai model and applying it to figure out how to love what you do

Note - I won't lie to you. My first attempt at writing this post was to provide a framework for living well. I'll be honest. It was hard, and frankly, I was biting off more than I could chew for a kick-off post. We'll get to the broad strokes of living well at some point, but first I want to dive into the weeds.

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Doing work we enjoy is key to living well

Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing - Teddy Roosevelt

Engaging in work that we we enjoy is a critical aspect of living well and our culture is not wired to helping us figure out what kind of work we would enjoy.

Work in some form or another is a part of our lives and one we need to "figure out" how to enjoy for two reasons:

1. Most People Need To Work - We all need to earn money to live. To be alive means to have needs and having needs cost money. For this reason most humans need to do work.

   *I am not addressing people that have enough money to not need to work for a living.

2. We Spend A Lot Of Time Working - The majority of our weekday is spent working

3. Joyful Work Is Real - Doing good work and work we enjoy can bring out the best in us. It leans on our strengths, focuses our attention on things we love, and gives us an opportunity to connect with people and something bigger than ourselves.

The Average American Spends More Time Working Than Any Other Activity on a Weekday

Work: 8.5 Hrs

Sleep: 8 Hrs

Leisure & Exercise: 5.5 Hrs.

Household Activities: 2 Hrs

*source

Americans are satisfied but not thriving at work

Despite spending a lot of time on work, it is not a source of joy for the vast majority of the population.

55% of Americans either feel like they are at a dead end in their jobs or eager to change jobs. More interestingly, only 20% of people feel passionate about the jobs they have (source).

As someone that is going through a professional transition I struggled to figure out the answer to the ever daunting question of "what to do". As a result, I started talking to other people to get a sense of how they figured out what they wanted to do and how they were enjoying their work.

It was interesting to learn that many people were in a similar boat to myself and did not have a perfect picture of what kind of work they would be extremely passionate about or thrive in. Most of them, like myself, are just figuring it out. Day by day, angling to increase the parts of the work they enjoy, and decrease the parts of work they don't enjoy.

When I reflected on why this was the case for so many people it's actually not a huge surprise why there is such a lack of clarity on where we'd thrive:

1. Individual Success is Highly Valued in the U.S.- As a culture we highly value professional success and monetary success. This pushes our attention towards figuring out where we can make great money, which does not always correlate with what we love.

2. We Don't Help People Figure Out What They Want - In college you have a ton of majors to choose from, but not all of them correspond to work you’d actually do in the world. Additionally, there is little guidance on how to choose and limited ability to test if we like things or not.

3. We Ask People Dysfunctional Questions - The most common questions any college student receives are "what do you want to do" or "what are you passionate about". These are terrible questions because:

   1. First and foremost its just a bad question and yes I believe in bad questions. If you ask a CEO what s(he) likes to do it would be strange if they said "Being a CEO". If you ask a Director of Operations what they like to do they likely won't say "Being A Director of Operations." They will say things like “I really enjoy figuring out how to make the day to day run more smoothly” or “I love working through hard problems with my team”. The question "what do you want to do" is not helpful for figuring out roles that correlate with the kinds of work we enjoy.

   2. We have very little professional experience at that point and its tough to know you're going to like something if you have never done it

   3. There are likely a ton of things we would enjoy doing and its not intuitive to have to pick one thing to do

   4. You develop passions over time through exposure to work and getting great at it, but in most cases you don't have passion right out of the gate

4. Social Pressure From 1-3 Causes Us To Make Stuff Up - What do you do when you get asked the above questions as a 20 something year old? Like any other reasonable human being that is just starting out in the professional sphere and trying to make it seem like they have their shit together, you make something up that sounds good. The same thing happens when your older. People ask you if you like your industry and its kind of weird to say you don’t so you go with it.

5. Once You Have Started Down a Career Path It’s Tough to Figure Out How To Switch - Once we’ve committed to a career we feel like we’ve invested too much energy and switching can feel like starting over. Additionally, its not intuitive to figure out how the work you’ve done and skills you’ve developed can successfully map to other kinds of work.

I believe there is a world in which we can shift more people into the bucket of being passionate about what they do and I think its something worth striving to accomplish. The more people that enjoy and thrive in their work, the better outcomes we'll have across the board, both in terms of people's overall well-being and the quality of the work that gets done.

Today I want to share the Ikigai model with you as a useful tool for figuring out what are some things that could make sense to try professionally/as hobbies and how to figure out what you might enjoy working on.

Ikigai - A Model To Help Us Thrive Professionally

The Ikigai model is a practical tool that can help us figure out what kind of work we will enjoy

What is Ikigai

Ikigai is a Japanese concept that roughly means "a reason for being". The word refers to having a sense of purpose or a meaning in ones life. Personally, I think "reason for being" oversells the value of the Ikigai model and it is certainly not exhaustive when it comes to professional fulfillment, but it has been useful when thinking about what kind of work lights my fire.

Ikigai happens or exists at the intersection of four things:

What you love - What you're good at - What you can be paid for - What the world needs.

In the rest of this newsletter I'll dive into how to think about each pillar of Ikigai, provide exercises for you to map out your own Ikigai, and examples of my reflections that you can lean on for inspiration.

As you go through the exercises below do not think about work or professional success when answering the questions. Go as wide as possible. For example, if you love eating Nutella, write eating Nutella. This will help you get clarity on what brings you satisfaction.

Here is a link to an Ikigai map → Ikigai Map that you can use to follow along!

What You Love - Discovering what gets your fire going

What you love is about identifying what you find interesting, enjoyable, fun, and motivating. Think broadly here and reflect on what in your life has brought you positive emotion.

Reflection Prompts

• What brings you joy in your life?

• What experiences in your life have brought you energy or happiness?

• What experiences in your life have been interesting, fun, and motivating?

• If you had infinite money what are some things you'd want to spend time doing?

• If we could freeze time and all of your needs were met, what would you spend the next year doing? What about the next 5 years? What about the next 20 years?

• What do you love to talk about or spend time thinking about?

• What would your closest friend or partner say is the thing you enjoy the most?

Below are some examples of mine

Rank: 3 = crazy about, 1 = enjoy

What You're Good At - Finding your Edge

It was hard to come up with examples for this one when I first did it. The reason being is when I think about being good at something, my mind gravitates towards specific functions (i.e. sales or engineering). As someone that has never gotten excited about working as a particular function of a business it was tough at first to get my brain going on what I was good at. Another reason this was tough at first is there is an element of self-doubt that can come into play. Questions such as what is being good at that look like? Or am I good enough at that thing to consider myself good?

This is not about being the best in the world or about figuring out what work to do. This question is about writing down what you think you're good at. Some advice to make this process helpful to you is be kind to yourself and be more generous than you think you deserve with your self-praise

Reflection Prompts

⚒ 💂🏼‍♂️ 🌎

Skill Edge Personality Edge Domain Edge

Financial analysis, Strategy, Optimistic, relentless, charismatic Cloud services, F&B, Tax Law

Painting, Cold calling, etc. Thoughtful, good judgement Startup operations, Miami Real Estate

1. What skills do you possess?

2. What personality traits are unique to you?

3. What domain expertise do you possess?

4. What are your strengths and superpowers (beyond functional expertise)?

5. What words would your mom use to describe your strengths? What would she say your superpowers are?

6. What is easy or effortless for you to spend time on that others don't enjoy (love this question, think hard about this one)

Note - Big inspiration from OnDeck Reflection Questionnaire, questions (1-3) and graph are Inspired by Entrepreneur First, questions (4,5) were inspired by First Round Interview process, question 6 inspired by Paul Graham

Lastly, I've listed examples of mine below. I'll be honest. It's a bit weird to list these out for a group of people as this is personal and when I say "good" its really within the context of my skills and abilities and not in any way a claim that I am the best or better at those things than others.

Anyway, this is here to hopefully help others think through what they are good at and also to be more generous with themselves in their self-praise.

Rank: 3 = very good, 1 = good

What The World Needs - Developing a sense of purpose

What the world needs in my view is about tapping into your beliefs about what the world should look like. Most of us have never sat down and explicitly thought about what the world needs but we've all in some form or another envisioned something we'd like changed or something that if it existed would delight and excite us. This is an opportunity to paint whatever picture of the world you want.

I believe the world needs more people like you who are taking the time to imagine the world and life as they would like to see it.

Reflection Prompts

• What would bring you delight and joy if it happened or existed? Or, what would be awesome if it existed?

• If you had magical powers and could do anything what would you change in the world?

• What is a problem you care deeply about fixing or spend a lot of time thinking and/or talking about?

• What would be incredibly satisfying to fix, change, or do?

• Is there anything you really want for your community, family, or loved ones?

Rank: 3 = super important, 1 = important

What You Can Be Paid For - Cash money records

You now have a map of what you love, what the world needs, and what you're good at. The next step is to connect the dots across those maps to define the kinds of work that would help you thrive. Something that harnesses elements of those four pillars. Here are some tips for how to best do that:

Two Routes - The work that supports Ikigai does not need to be a full time job right away

1. Your Full Time Job Is Your Passion - This means your full time job leans into what you love, what you're good at, and what the world needs

2. Your Full Time Job Allows You To Pursue Your Passion - Your full time job gives you the means to pursue other work that will lean into what you love, what you're good at, and what the world needs and maybe can turn into what you do full time. Examples:

   1. Banker by day. Angel Investor at night.

   2. Sales Professional by day. Event producer on the weekends.

   3. Operations Professional by day. Startup co-founder at night.

Set Bounds & Ideate

When thinking about what work you would enjoy its useful to define boundaries (source)

1. Upper Bound - Figuring out what you would enjoy does not mean what you’d enjoy most in this exact moment. Most people will choose something like eating pasta, watching TV, or being teleported to Rome.

2. Lower Bound

   1. You should enjoy work more than your most unproductive pleasure carried out over a period of time. Ex. You should prefer your work to watching TV for 6 months straight or playing video games or traveling around Rome

   2. You should admire the work you do - at the end of it, you want to be able to say I did that and it was pretty cool

Lastly, let your mind wander and generate as many ideas as possible. I made one change to my Ikigai map and chose to think of it as work broadly (i.e. paid and unpaid) and I included a column that distinguishes each.

Rank: 3 = love, 1 = not excited by

Connecting The Dots - Putting Ikigai Into Action

I distilled my Ikigai into the following professional pursuits in order of preference

1. Work in a venture studio as an entrepreneur in residence or as a member of the studio team

2. Work in a small health & wellness startup with seasoned execs & entrepreneurs as a strategy & ops human

3. Co-found a health & wellness startup or join as a founding team member

4. Launch a newsletter focused on living well

5. Work at a venture firm that is focused on the consumer space/health & wellness

Here are some common threads throughout the above work

1. Love: Freedom and autonomy, work on problems I find meaningful, challenging problems, work w/ talented humans, variety of work and working on different ideas, learning & growing my abilities

2. Good At: Why behind ideas, strategy from A to B, resourceful, reflecting & learning quickly, research + distilling insights, overcoming obstacles & solving problems

3. World Needs: Businesses to solve problems, improved health & well-being

Compounding Advantage

Another key aspect of work (will share more on this topic in a future letter) is your skills should deepen over time and your expertise should compound, making you more valuable and giving you more leverage to do more of the kind of work that excites you.

1. 0 to 1 Expertise - Continue to develop company building skills

2. Strategy, Product Dev, & Ops Expertise - Strengthen functional areas

3. Health & Wellness - Deepen domain expertise in a space I am passionate about

Lastly, your Ikigai can be used across your life. Greater clarity over what you love, what you're good at, what the world needs, and what work you can do can give you direction on which hobbies might interest you, what communities would be fascinating to join, goals that would be fun to pursue, and much more!

Feedback Is Gold 🏆 - Share Your Thoughts & Ikigai

For those that missed it, here is a link to an Ikigai map you can use → Ikigai Map

I would love to talk to any of you about building one if you have questions or look at it if you want to share!

Would love your feedback (two questions only!) so I can better tailor this newsletter to you all in the future → Feedback Form

Lastly, if you enjoyed this newsletter you can use the link at the bottom of this email to easily share it with others that you think would like it as well!

I hope you enjoyed the first installment of Alive & Thriving and can't say enough how grateful I am for all of your support!

To Living Well,

Alvaro

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Weekly Live Well Recs

Read of the week 📖: How to do what you love by Paul Graham

Listen of the week 🎧: Egmont, Op 84: Overture by Beethoven (listen while walking, doing routine work, or going through your morning routine to feel equal parts soothed and majestic)

Product of the week 🍯: Future Fit is a virtual personal trainer for $150/mo. It’s freaking awesome. Helpful for anyone looking to start working out or improve their existing workout by accessing an expert (i.e. running, sports, weightlifting, bodyweight, etc). Or for anyone that wants someone else to plan their workout routine for them. They also send you a free apple watch :)