A path to fulfillment that's uniquely yours is waiting for its big reveal. Follow these steps to identify your Ikigai and bring passion and abundance into your everyday life. Warning: this requires honesty and a lot of sticky notes. Budget 4-6 hours or spread this introspection exercise out over a couple of days.
If you want a life rich with fulfilment, passion, connection, and need your work, your source of income, to reflect those aspects, you're searching for your Ikigai. It sits at the intersection of passion, mission, vocation, and purpose.
Yes, there is something you're fantastic at, that's of value to others, and it will not only pay your bills and pave a path to abundance, but it will also fill you with joy!
Regression hypnosis taps into many layers of our being by connecting us directly to our subconscious. During a session, your subconscious will show you what's most relevant and helpful at this point in your life. This may include a glimpse at your pre-birth plan.
Each of us plays a pivotal role in choosing a life path with key events, relationships, and milestones to experience for our greatest growth. But then of course, we're born, and our plans intersect with free will -- ours and everyone else's. That's where things get interesting :)
This exercise to surface your Ikigai also helps you tap a flow in which inner guidance and wisdom shine through.
Perhaps you intended to dedicate this life to helping others heal and awaken spiritually, yet at age 19 you took your family's pragmatic advice and are now an 80-hour-a-week corporate accountant ;) Or maybe you're soul searching as you career plan, be it your first career or your 5th.
Get the sticky notes out and clear a wall to use as your workspace. A private room is best.
Start putting everything inside you on paper: hopes, wants, needs, dreams, worries, until your head is empty. One sticky note per unique idea. Don't omit "the impossible;" write down what's in your heart and in your head. (i.e. Write a bestselling book. Become a people manager. Have showstopping hair. Learn to Salsa in Colombia. Find balance in close relationships. Immigrate to Australia. Finally learn to surf.)
Route all your sticky notes through two filters of "I want" versus "I have to." "I want" is driven by your needs, desires, passions, callings. "I have to" is you executing someone else's will. Like society's (to have a big house with two Land Rovers and two point five perfectly smiling children), your boss' (work 15-hour days to raise profile of this team), your family's (buy bayside vacation property to share with in-laws), your partner's (make $$$ a year to sustain lifestyle), and so on.
Discard the "I have tos" one by one (20-30% of your stickies will fall away). Evaluate each one. How did it end up on your list and in your mind to begin with? Are these things that you truly subscribe to? Think this through so they don't resurface later in life. Executing the will of others will not bring you closer to your own reason for being.
Set a three-part mission statement for your dream life. A sample mission could be to live a joyful life in which you are tremendously financially successful and contribute to solving the global climate crisis. Keep it clear and simple. This is a private exercise. Be honest.
Pass the remaining stickies through three filters that reflect your unique mission and purpose. The three filters that emerge from this example are: happiness, financial success, and solving the climate crisis. Do some stickies just not fit? Evaluate and dispose of them.
One more time. Move all remaining stickies into one of five categories: personal growth, family, work/business, social good, hobby. Each category should contain something, but you're not looking for balance or equal weight across all five. Some persons will have many more stickies under "family," others under "business," and so on. There is no right or wrong answer. This is simply your truth.
Final step: Start moving your stickies into the years in which you will accomplish them: 2022, 2023, 2024. Separate the coming year into 12 columns, one for each month. If some stickies are too abstract or too large to conquer at once, break them into measurable tasks. For instance, if you want to learn a new language, you may break that sticky into four: memorize the alphabet, learn 100 phrases, be able to hold a basic conversation, and reach reading proficiency, then dispose of the original (all-encompassing) sticky.
At the start of each week, day, whatever works for you, you can move your stickies through this funnel: Planned, Ball Is in My Court, Ball Is in their Court, Today, and Completed.
When I first did this exercise, it explained to me in my own language why I was feeling more and more depleted as I dedicated 70-80 percent of my waking time to a business path that no longer excited me, while my core needs sat mostly unattended under "personal growth." I gained so much clarity from just seeing what was really inside of me displayed in one physical space. From there, I couldn't help but move forward toward my fulfilment.
Keep the completed stickies so you can see for yourself what a productive year you've had, and make it a point to relish in what you've accomplished.
The sorting and filtering exercise is a one-time activity. Managing progress toward your goals can be done daily, weekly, monthly. It will become second nature.
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Here is the wonderful step-by-step to Ikigai + Kaizen Planning exercise I personally followed. It's delivered by a master in this field. Just flip on "CC subtitles" to your preferred language.
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