Human beings always seek for things they don’t have. They truely believe that once they archive their targets, they will be finally happy. However, the satisfaction and happiness does not last long and soon they need to find the next exciting thing. This is in particular true for materialistic things, such as fancy clothes or a brand new car. Yet, this is also true for desirable long term and non-materialistic goals, such as financial independence.
Find your ikigai
Ifounded a real estate investment company and after ten years of hard work, I hired a manager to run daily business for me. It is like a pepetuum mobile now: It creates more passive income then I can spend, without me doing much. I could just retire and do nothing. But still I am working as a Senior Director for a consulting company, which actually is not an easy job and can be very stressful sometimes.
Just yesterday, I went for a foot massage and what I am telling you now, is a real story. The masseur, who was two years older than me, very proudly told me that last week he went to a casino and won literally one million USD. So, naturally I asked him, why he is still here and not on a fancy vacation and planning his retirement with his wife. To massage other people’s feet is what he does, he told me, and that he will keep doing it for a long time.
In other words, being a masseur is his ikigai and my ikigai is to be a husband, father, son, friend, consultant and entrepreneur.
It is the ikigais, why we stand up in the morning.
As part of the human evolution, mankind only survived against much stronger animals, as they were able to group in social groups and organize and operate as teams. Hence, we developed the desire to be part of a social group and learned how we need to behave, communicate and collaborate, so that this groups can survive against their enemies. Part of this behavior is to play a certain role and receive recognition if we perform our duties well.
Even though, we do not to fight against saber-tooth tigers anymore, this has not changed. Same as the masseur feels joy when he can help his clients to relieve muscle pain, I perceive a lot of satisfaction, helping my loved ones or leading a team to achieve a common goal.