IMBA 020 Pozuelo

Individual Case

Case Ikigai
Signature: Conscious Leadership

Student ID: 344852

Number of words: 1500
Date: 07/02/23
INDEX
1. Introduction 2
2. What is Ikigai for me? 4
3. Why Ikigai is a good way to have a peaceful mind? 4
4. How have I applied it? 5
5. Telling my friends about my Ikigai 6
6. Bibliografy (APA/Harvard) 7

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1. Introduction

What is Ikigai? Ikigai is a concept from Japanese philosophy, which is defined as

“your reason for being” (Garcia & Miralles, 2017), that goes back to the Heian period
(794 to 1185) and is meant to find your purpose in life. “Iki” means life and “gai” means
value. As specified by Japanese culture, everyone has an ikigai.

In order to find your ikigai, you need to ask yourself four questions:

• What do you love? – your passion.

• What are you good at? – your vocation.
• What can you be paid for? – your profession.
• And what the world needs? – your mission.

By asking these four questions, we are able to find that thing that makes us happy,
what we are also good at doing, and that can contribute to the world and also, we can
be paid for, leading to living a happy purposeful life. In the following diagram, we can
observe that at the center of all the four questions, there is our own Ikigai.

Once we have found our ikigai, we are aligned with our reason for existing. In Western
countries, ikigai is used to find your ideal professional path. The Japanese island of
Okinawa holds the greatest population over a hundred years old, and the Ikigai’s
philosophy plays a major role in this island1.

1
What is Ikigai and how can it change my life? (no date) What Is Ikigai and How Can It Change My Life?
Available at: https://www.betterup.com/blog/what-is-ikigai (Accessed: February 6, 2023).

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 Source: Own elaboration, Canva (2023).

In this paper, I will focus on what is ikigai for me focusing on what I learnt during the
conscious leadership class, the benefits of finding my ikigai for living a peaceful life and
how have I applied this concept and share it with the people around me.

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2. What is Ikigai for me?
Ikigai for me is the way to leave a long purposeful life. I have read the book prior to
attending the Conscious Leadership class, and I was aware after reading the book about
how knowing your purpose in life, can make you healthier and live a happier life which
translates into a longer life. When I came across the Ikigai concept a few years ago, I
started making some conscious choices about my life, that turned to be things I love
now, like eating healthy, working out every day, trying to have a walk-in nature, and of
course, trying to find my purpose in my professional life, which I think is a bit more
complicated.

During the Conscious Leadership class the exercise that we performed in pairs helped
me to dig deeper into what is ikigai for me in my professional life, by asking questions
and my peer acting as a coach, and vice versa. Also, I learnt that ikigai is not limited to
those four circles, that it can be multidimensional, and that it can change overtime.

3.Why Ikigai is a good way to have a peaceful

mind?
Ikigai can help you have a peaceful mind for several reasons. First of all, it makes you
feel like you have an ultimate goal in life, which is happiness, and that you exist to fulfill
a purpose, not to merely exist without direction. Therefore, every daily decision you
make and every action you take you know it is serving your ultimate purpose. Secondly,
it promotes mindfulness and self-reflection by encouraging to ask yourself to think
about the activities you enjoy the most, and we aware and grateful for the present.
Moreover, ikigai proclaims how happiness relies in living a simple uncomplicated life,
contrary to what we are surrounded with nowadays. It encourages to live a calm life,

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being kind and active. Regarding being active, the book promotes diet, social life,
exercise and finding your ikigai to being a long life but rather than doing in a restrictive
way or intense it inspires to doit in a healthy manner following your own instinct, doing
exercise that you enjoy, and eating healthy because you enjoy giving your body
nutrients and for the overall benefits of doing it. It encourages you to feel positive and
focus on your goal becoming a happy person.

4.How have I applied it?

During the Conscious Leadership class, we answered the four different questions
proposed by ikigai, as well as some other questions like our values, fears and our one
big thing. Our one big thing refers to this issue that you tend to do and want to
overcome by taking action. In my case is multitasking and not being able to focus on
just one thing, and the feedback that gave my peer when I told her that is that some of
the competing commitments that I could do in order to overcome this issue was writing
down daily goals, setting a timer to focus on just one thing at a time, have a clean space
(desk, room) to not get distracted and try to hide my phone or other possible
distractions.

Having a clear understanding of what one loves in life and what one values most is
crucial in determining one’s ikigai. In my case, I love working out, anything related to
wellness, entrepreneurship, beauty, animals, and wine. During the “coaching session”
with my peer in this class, she told me that from what I was telling about the things I

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love, I seemed to love strategy, so I include that in the list of things I love. Regarding
the question about values, the values that influence my decisions and drive my life are
authenticity, ambition in the form of trying to be the best version of myself all the time,
focus, gratitude, honesty, passion, and empathy. For me, these values are essential to
my personal growth, and I make sure to incorporate them into my life, building
relationships based on trust and respect. After that, we did an exercise to identify
certain beliefs, that in my case align with my values. I believe that you have to create
your own luck, also, that it is important to treat others the way you want to be treated,
and if you are not going to be coherent between what you say and what you do, is
better to not say anything at all. These beliefs drive me to work hard and be the best
version of myself. It is important not to forget about our fears. It is natural to have some
fears in life, but we need to be able to handle that emotion in order to not let it hold us
back from reaching our full potential. In my case, my biggest fears are failure in life, in
the sense of not achieving my goals or reach my expectancies, something bad
happening, and regretting not doing something or not living my life to the fullest. This
leads to my assumptions, which in my case, I am driven by a need to be successful in
all aspects of my life, and I work hard to ensure that I am making progress towards my
goals and living a fulfilling live. After that we asked questions about what we are good
at and how much money we would want to be paid for, as well as thinking about
companies that we would love to work for, search for profiles of people who are doing
the job that we would want to do there. This exercise was really useful to come across
different jobs that maybe I have not think about in the past, but I would enjoy doing in
different sectors, and to acknowledge the necessary abilities that other people at those
jobs have, to see what skills I need to cultivate.

5. Telling my friends about my Ikigai

Now that I have discovered my own ikigai, I am eager to share this realization with my
friends, since I believe it is important for them to know this concept. I will provide a

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brief introduction to the concept of ikigai and explain what it is and share my own
personal journey of discovering my ikigai, how it has impacted my life and how I plan
to apply it, while highlighting the importance of finding one’s ikigai in living a peaceful
and fulfilling life. When we discover our ikigai we can make better decisions about our
life since we have the main purpose in our minds.

By telling my friends about my own ikigai I hope to inspire and encourage them to
explore and find their own, in order for them to live better lives, grow personally and
professionally.

6. Conclusion

In conclusion, finding my ikigai has been a journey of self-discovery and introspection.

Even though I had already read the book years ago, the Conscious Leadership exercise
on ikigai has helped me re-align my passions, values, and skills, ultimately leading me
to my purpose, which for me is being able to launch the startup that I am starting to
build and have success with it. Through this class, I have learned that having an ikigai
not only brings meaning and fulfillment to one’s life but can lead to a more successful
professional career.

The importance of understanding and embracing your ikigai, lies in the fact that it lets
you live a purpose-driven life, which generates satisfaction and happiness. Having a
sense of purpose, is really crucial in overcoming challenges and fears, and staying
motivated.

I plan on incorporating my ikigai into every aspect of my life, and to continuously reflect
on it, to ensure that it evolves as I grow and change. I want to continue developing my
skills and knowledge in areas related to my ikigai, such as wellness or entrepreneurship.

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7. Bibliografy (APA/Harvard)

Fernandez, A. (2023) “Concious Leadership Discovery.” Madrid: ESIC.

García Héctor and Miralles, F. (2017) Ikigai. Kbh.: People'sPress.

Fernandez, A. (2023) “Concious Leadership Discovery.” Madrid: ESIC.

Jeremy Sutton, P.D. (2023) Finding your ikigai: 8 questionnaires and Tests,
PositivePsychology.com. Available at: https://positivepsychology.com/ikigai-test-
questionnaires/ (Accessed: February 6, 2023).

Lita, E. (2021) 5 reasons to read 'Ikigai: The Japanese secret to a long and happy life',
Medium. Books Are Our Superpower. Available at: https://baos.pub/5-reasons-
to-read-ikigai-the-japanese-secret-to-a-long-and-happy-life-d972c94dfa0d
(Accessed: February 6, 2023).

Manickam, D. (2020) Council post: The importance of finding your true 'Ikigai' as a leader,
Forbes. Forbes Magazine. Available at:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2020/03/02/the-
importance-of-finding-your-true-ikigai-as-a-leader/?sh=616459a44b71
(Accessed: February 6, 2023).

Saha, S., Terry and Gupta, P. (2022) A definite guide to purposeful, healthy, and mindful
living, On My Canvas. Available at: https://www.onmycanvas.com/purposeful-
healthy-mindful-living-ikigai/ (Accessed: February 6, 2023).

Tempone, D. (2022) What is Ikigai and how to apply it to your creative career: Blog,
Domestika. DOMESTIKA. Available at:
https://www.domestika.org/en/blog/9911-what-is-ikigai-and-how-to-apply-it-
to-your-creative-career (Accessed: February 6, 2023).

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What is Ikigai and how can it change my life? (no date) What Is Ikigai and How Can It
Change My Life? Available at: https://www.betterup.com/blog/what-is-ikigai
(Accessed: February 6, 2023).

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