Need help figuring out how to spend your time and erect boundaries? Check out "ikigai"

Ikigai is a Japanese word that roughly translates to "a reason for being" but could also be described as a sense of purpose or a reason for living. This word was then extrapolated out via at least two different Westerners -- one Spanish speaking and another English speaking -- to become something like the VENN diagram/framework above. However, we felt like something was lost in translation and so we've changed the verbiage to be easier to understand.

What we love about this framework is its ability to help you tease out your level of satisfaction with how you spend your time and pinpointing what might be missing. While it mostly gets used in the English-speaking world as a way of determining your ideal career, it can actually be used for anything that you spend time on.

Here are some ways you could use the diagram above to gain self-knowledge:

1) You could go through the ways you spend your day and plot them on the diagram above. Are you satisfied with that distribution? If not, what can you add/subtract?

2) If you are looking to start a business, you could plot all the ideas or industries onto this chart to help find the one you most want to do. The more alignment you have with your business, the more likely you'll stick with it until the point where it can pay you a living wage.

3) If you are looking at careers, you could similarly plot your options like an entrepreneur would.

Like any personality test, the Ikigai Framework can help you put yourself under a microscope and help you understand yourself. It's not a solution, it's just another tool that we found to be illuminating.

Only you can decide what your "ikigai" is. It might not be an occupation, it could also be a cause or a person. However, like other "self-knowledge" tools, we think it sheds light in a very interesting way.

Listen to our chat about ikigai on our podcast "Harness the Power of Planning".