My ikigai and my goals for the new year of 2023!

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Happy New Year!!

It's time for New Year's Resolutions, I wonder what I want to accomplish this year.

A few people I met while traveling told me about the Japanese concept of Ikigai, and I thought it might be good to think about it for the New Year!

Video from Einzelgänger

What is Ikigai?

The Japanese word “ikigai” can be translated to “life purpose.” Ikigai refers to defining your personal meaning of life in relation to your talents, passions, and profession, as well as what you can give to the wider world.

The 4 aspects of ikigai

According to the video above,  I understood ikigai as "what you want to do in life" that has a combination of 4 factors:
  1. What you are good at
  2. What you love
  3. What the world needs
  4. What you can be paid for
I completely agree that it is something we should all look for. But it might be off from how the term is used by the Japanese. I want to share my opinion on ikigai as a Japanese.

It's close to "lifework"

Life coaches are becoming more and more popular. 
People find good life coaches that let them figure out what their lifework will be, which will be your work that consists of:
  • you enjoy doing it
  • you usually are better at it than everyone else
  • it helps other people 
  • you get paid enough for it, and you feel that you want to continue it
The characteristics of ikigai and lifework are very close to the factors of ikigai listed above. But when it comes to making income, then even the Japanese will refer to lifework as an ikigai. 

生き甲斐 ikigai meaning is "life" and "meaning" so it doesn't necessarily need to be what you can be paid for.

Ikigai is what makes you happy

With that said let me look back at my memory and try to remember if there is a Japanese person that can probably tell me what their ikigai is:

The ones that I can think of will say,
  • the pet cat is her ikigai. She once said it's motivating to know there is a family that needs her help.
  • raising a child. I can think of a bunch that told me their life changed to a more consistent one.
  • passion for studying Japanese sake. Her idol brewery was Dassai. Made me happy also to hear her talk about how she loves the brewery.
I think these are the ones that come off top of my head. They're a little off from being able to make money. So I'd say ikigai is closer to your hobby or something that you can't help doing, because it makes you happy. You really don't mind or actually want to do it even if you're not paid for it.

It's "work" to take care of cats or raise a child for some people, for instance.

But if you like it so much, chances are when you monetize it for example to work at a pet shop, or as an educator for how to raise a child, the value you provide can be more competitive than others that think "I have to do it even if I don't want to."

What is my ikigai?

For me, I think I do have an ikigai. Not just one ikigai but a few ikigais actually. 

But let me just focus on my best one. And that is "finding different flavors and cuisines of the world." I naturally research things that are food related. I prefer to cook at home than to eat out, or don't mind paying for trying food and drinks I've never tasted before. 

I don't suit being a chef. There are so many people that are better qualified than me. But I absolutely love thinking about flavors, and I love cooking for people. And I don't really have to be the best foodie, and it still can be my ikigai.

It can come from your family members

It's interesting how I probably developed this ikigai through my closest family members. We talk a lot about food, my mother also ran a restaurant to "cook for people she can see" and then closed it because "she couldn't see the person she is cooking for" when the restaurant became very busy.

Money was not the top priority for her, it's like a role in life where it is the right fit for the person.

So I would say her ikigai is cooking for people, too. hmm...interesting.

I want to start a food trade business. I love giving things that I liked. Then I realized I sometimes get interesting things back that would take me years to find. Or never probably would have. My dad used to work for a trading company before starting his own financial business. hmm...interesting.

I did better in being a writer than everyone (including me) had ever imagined. My aunt actually used to bully me a lot about my writing in Japanese that which was horrible. But I noticed my mother used to be an editor before my family moved to the U.S. hmm...interesting.

My goal for 2023

Last year I set a goal for 2022 and it worked quite well. 

I was so overweight and my mind was destroyed mainly by Covid. So I needed just one thing that will get me back to a healthy mindset for 2022.
So I also want to note it here for me to look back at the end of the year for 2023.

This year it should probably be something that lets me develop and sustain my ikigai, "Finding new flavors from the world." 

That means my goals should be:

-it enhances my skill to fulfill my ikigai
-SEO: how to promote the blog for more people to access my blog
-Get more knowledge about different flavors of the world
-Improve my cooking skills
-Learn how to make it into a business

My goals for 2023

On top of my head, this was what I could list out today.
I might update this, but here are my daily routines:
  • learn something new and write about it everyday
  • daily post on Twitter
  • lose weight to 68kg (currently 80.7kg)
  • study at least 15 minutes of French everyday

Writing it and telling people is so important

Now that I posted here, it makes it easy for me to stick to it because I'm more motivated to keep my word.

I reorganized my Google Calendar for me to make sure I tick the daily task I mentioned above every day.

In Japan we have what is called 三日坊主 mikka bozu, which translates to, "you end up quitting what you started on the third day (because you don't have the willpower)" or in Singapore, there was an executive that taught me people are too NATO, "No action talk only."

No dreams. Realistic steps every day

So I will have baby routines, small habits every day that I will stick to, and "tick" those small challenges when it's done. I will tap myself so that I'm content that I am being able to be consistent. If I miss it, I will make sure I'm back on track the following day. It doesn't need to be perfect, but I'll continue. I will look forward to where it will take me at the end of the year!

How it became easier to stick to small habits for me was from this book!

Happy New Year, everybody. 2023 may be full of challenges, but let's take baby steps to move just a little forward every day! It's ok to move a little backwards sometimes, too! Take a deep breathe, straighten up and move on :)


Follow Ryu Aomi for more to come :) 

In this blog, I write about my food trips of the list of countries I want to visit. 

I also love to experience how locals live in each destination, and share what I learned.

After closing my travel business in Japan during Covid, I realized I didn’t have the right mindset to sustain the business, and got into Buddhism, mindfulness, knowing myself more.

I realized I wasn’t very materialistic and loved engaging in cooking, nature, and good relationships. 

To know more about me, I wrote it here.
Here are the SNS channels I have, but I mainly focus on Twitter at the moment.
I started blogging in Japanese, too! I hope it becomes something useful for those who are interested in Japan and who study Japanese and plan to live there.

These 2 books changed my life. 

If things are great, keep it up! You’re in the right path. If things aren’t working out for you, then these helped me a lot.

Good habits are essential to achieve your own way of success!
Managing relationships are challenging, but it’s a skill you can learn.


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