Last 100 days · Exercise · about 30 minutes
Ikigai
What you love, what you’re good at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for. Where those four meet is your Ikigai. Thirty honest minutes here is enough to know where to put your focus for the last 100 days.
Understand the four pillars of Ikigai
Your Ikigai is found at the intersection of:
Pillar 1
What you love
Your passions & joys
Pillar 2
What you're good at
Your talents & strengths
Pillar 3
What the world needs
Problems you're drawn to solve
Pillar 4
What you can be paid for
Sustainable value creation
Your goal is to reflect on each of these separately, then bring them together.
Reflective journaling prompts, for each pillar
Answer these questions in depth.
What you love
Your passions and joys.What you're good at
Your talents and strengths.What the world needs
Problems you are drawn to solve.What you can be paid for
Sustainable value creation.Find the overlaps
Map where your answers overlap. Each pair of pillars names something; the centre is your Ikigai.
- Passion What you love + what you're good at
- Mission What you love + what the world needs
- Vocation What the world needs + what you can be paid for
- Profession What you're good at + what you can be paid for
- Ikigai At the centre, where all four meet
Craft your Ikigai statement
Now, write your Ikigai statement in one sentence:
“My purpose is to [verb] [who/what you serve] by [how you deliver value] so that [impact you create].”
Example: “My purpose is to empower emerging creators by building tools and communities that help them turn ideas into sustainable impact.”
Define vision goals for 1, 2, 5, and 10 years
This step is its own sheet. Take your Ikigai statement into the 1, 2, 5, 10 year vision exercise and set a horizon for each.
Integrate it into your life
- Put your Ikigai statement and 10-year vision where you’ll see it weekly.
- Review and rewrite your 1-year goals every quarter.
- Use your vision to filter decisions: “Does this move me closer to my Ikigai?”
Worked example
Ikigai, filled in
These are not my answers. They belong to an invented person, a final-year student who works in technical support and teaches on the side, filled in start to finish so you can see what a finished sheet looks like. The same person fills in the vision sheet.
Understand the four pillars of Ikigai
Your Ikigai is found at the intersection of:
Pillar 1
What you love
Your passions & joys
Pillar 2
What you're good at
Your talents & strengths
Pillar 3
What the world needs
Problems you're drawn to solve
Pillar 4
What you can be paid for
Sustainable value creation
Your goal is to reflect on each of these separately, then bring them together.
Reflective journaling prompts, for each pillar
Answer these questions in depth.
What you love
Your passions and joys.What topics, activities, or types of work make you lose track of time?
Teaching a friend something technical and watching it click. Building a small script that removes a chore from my week. Long runs with no podcast.
If money were no issue, how would you spend your days?
Mornings writing and building. Afternoons coaching a small group of people who are trying to change careers. Evenings training, then dinner with people I like.
What were you passionate about as a child or teen that still excites you?
Taking apart electronics and making “how it works” posters for my room. It turned into explaining tech to everyone around me, and I still do it.
What you're good at
Your talents and strengths.What do people often compliment you on?
Staying calm under pressure. Making a plan when everyone else is stuck. Explaining things without jargon.
What comes easily to you that others struggle with?
Breaking a big, messy goal into a weekly checklist. Writing clearly. Picking up a new tool fast.
What skills or abilities have you consistently improved over time?
Public speaking, from dreading it to running workshops. Python. Staying consistent with training for three years.
What the world needs
Problems you are drawn to solve.What global or local problems stir up strong emotion in you?
People who are capable but stuck, because nobody ever showed them how to start. Financial illiteracy in the community I grew up in.
What change do you wish you could make in the world?
That learning a practical skill and building something with it feels normal and reachable, not reserved for a few.
Who do you feel called to serve or support?
First-generation students, and career switchers in their first years of working life.
What you can be paid for
Sustainable value creation.What valuable skills or knowledge do you have that others pay for?
Technical support and onboarding (my current job). Tutoring. Building simple automations for small businesses.
What industries align with your interests and values?
Education technology, fintech, and small business software.
Where could you build a sustainable business or career?
A paid cohort course, funded at first by done-for-you automations for small business owners.
Find the overlaps
Each region carries one line from the answers above. The centre is the Ikigai.
- Passion What you love + what you're good at
- Mission What you love + what the world needs
- Vocation What the world needs + what you can be paid for
- Profession What you're good at + what you can be paid for
- Ikigai At the centre, where all four meet
Passion: what you love + what you're good at
Teaching technical skills in plain language
Mission: what you love + what the world needs
Helping people who feel stuck take a first real step
Vocation: what the world needs + what you can be paid for
Affordable skills training and automation for small businesses
Profession: what you're good at + what you can be paid for
Technical onboarding, tutoring, building automations
Ikigai: where all four meet
Teaching practical technical skills so people who feel stuck can build something of their own
Craft your Ikigai statement
Now, write your Ikigai statement in one sentence:
“My purpose is to [verb] [who/what you serve] by [how you deliver value] so that [impact you create].”
Example: “My purpose is to empower emerging creators by building tools and communities that help them turn ideas into sustainable impact.”
Your Ikigai statement, in one sentence.
My purpose is to teach practical technical skills to first-generation students and career switchers by building plain-language courses and tools so that they can build a career, or a business, of their own.
Define vision goals for 1, 2, 5, and 10 years
This step is its own sheet. Take your Ikigai statement into the 1, 2, 5, 10 year vision exercise and set a horizon for each.
Integrate it into your life
- Put your Ikigai statement and 10-year vision where you’ll see it weekly.
- Review and rewrite your 1-year goals every quarter.
- Use your vision to filter decisions: “Does this move me closer to my Ikigai?”
Where will these live, and when will you review them?
Ikigai statement pinned above the desk, 10-year vision as the phone lock screen. 1-year goals reviewed the first Sunday of each quarter. Every new commitment gets one question: does this move me closer?