4 Questions to Find your North Star
The year is 2021, the world is living through the global pandemic of COVID-19. Companies have all shifted to work from home and people everywhere were just trying to make it work. But then something strange started to happen, “The Great Resignation”. Employees all over North America & Europe were voluntarily resigning from their jobs ‘en mass’. This economic phenomenon, also called the “Big Quit”, was researched and studied by some of the best and brightest consultants, and one thing continued to show up – people felt a lack of purpose connection to their work.
The thing is, the forced isolation, the working from home and not having to commute, gave many people time they simply never had, to think about what they were doing – was it meaningful, did they feel they were doing anything that made a diSerence, or was it just a paycheque and was the paycheque worth it?
It’s as if the whole world went quiet just long enough for people to think ‘why am I doing this’, and to hear maybe for the first time, a response - in the form of a still, small voice saying, ‘you were created for something more, you were created for purpose.’ A purpose that our spirit longs to connect with, as French Philosopher & Jesuit Priest, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin said:
“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience.
We are spiritual beings having a human experience.”
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881 -1955)
Now, fast forward to 2024 - the air waves and internet are chock full of people posting about living their #purposefullife and not to mention myriads of motivational quotes on the subject. Lots of talk about purpose, but not a lot out there on how exactly to find it.
In the business world the concept was made popular with Simon Sinek’s Ted Talk ‘Start with Why’. Simon Sinek postulated that people don’t buy ‘what you do’, or ‘how you do it’, but they buy ‘why you do it’. His now famous ‘golden circle’ has sparkled on the whiteboard of many companies over the years.
But have you ever tried asking a group of people what their ‘why’ is? How about ‘why does this company exist’? Or how about ‘why are we doing what we do?’ The response is mostly crickets, except for the sound of the odd feet shuSling under the table as people’s eyes dart around the room uncomfortably. Imagine asking your friend – ‘do you know your why’, what would their response be?
The challenge with asking the ‘why’ or ‘purpose’ question directly, is that it’s uncomfortable. Not only can it be paralyzing, it can sometimes even come across as confrontational. So how do we find our ‘why’ if it’s so hard to answer? How do we unlock purpose?
My suggestion is don’t start with why, start with what.
Let me introduce you to IKIGAI, one of the frameworks I use for uncovering personal and even company purpose. Ikigai is a Japanese concept that loosely translates to English as ‘reason to live’ or ‘finding joy in life through purpose’. Pronounced as "ee-kee-guy", the word comes from a combination of two words - 'iki' (to live) and 'gai' (reason), and it’s deeply engrained in Japanese culture as a philosophy that believes the path to greater meaning and joy can be found through living a life aligned to your purpose.
If you think about purpose as your North Star,
then Ikigai is like the guide that helps you find it.
Now who wouldn’t want to find greater meaning and joy in their life? Who wouldn’t want to feel like all aspects of their life – relationships, job, hobbies, ambitions, etc. - were all aligned and working together for a greater purpose?
The question you’re probably asking is ‘Sounds great, but how does it work?’
Think of Ikigai as a framework, or better said, a series of questions that overlap. And for all you visual thinkers, Ikigai is mostly depicted as a Venn diagram (one of my favourite ways to illustrate relationships and common themes).
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
You start from the outside and work inwards asking 4 critical questions, at the centre of which lies Ikigai:
What are you good at?
What do you love/deeply care about?
What does the world need?
What will people pay you for?
Finding the overlap between these can sound daunting, but it’s a journey well worth it. Give yourself time to reflect and you’ll start to see commonalities and relationships emerge that bring to the foreground 4 key areas that will lead you to a better understanding of your purpose.
Your Passion: activities or things you love to do, that when you do them it feels like time just flies by; found at the intersection of what you love & what you’re good at
Your Mission: issues/ problems in your community or in the world that you feel intensely about solving, or making a diSerence in; found at the intersection of what you love & what the world needs
Your Vocation: occupation or skill for which you have innate, special ability; sometimes described as ‘calling’, e.g. music, art; found at the intersection of what the world needs & what you can be paid for
Your Profession: career path that requires specific knowledge, training & qualifications in a field, e.g. Doctor, Lawyer; found at the intersection of what you’re good at & what you can be paid for
Pay attention to common themes as you work though these 4 areas, because it’s in this overlapping space that Ikigai will start to emerge.
Pro-tip: Don’t rush.
Give yourself the time and space to experiment with diCerent ideas.
Be open and ask for feedback.
Ikigai is a process – that means you don’t just do it once and put it in a drawer, you need to practice it and continue to refine it as you put things into action.
Once you have a sense of your purpose, you can use it as a powerful tool to make decisions in all areas of your life - from which university degree to enroll in after high school, and which volunteer activities to join, to new business opportunities, and whether you should take that promotion.
And while finding your purpose may not be easy, the benefits will enrich and transform your life from barely surviving and just making it to the weekend, to thriving every day. Like Mark Twain said, “The two most important days of your life are the day you were born and the day you find out why.” So, whether you just started asking the question, or you’ve been on your purpose quest for a while, Ikigai is a worthwhile guide to have with you along the journey.
#TGIM
