Ikigai

Ikigai is usually drawn as four overlapping circles — what you love, what you are good at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for — with the word sitting in the middle. The diagram is a Western addition. In Japanese usage the word is smaller and warmer than that: it is closer to what makes your days worth getting up for, and it is as likely to be a garden or a grandchild as a vocation.

Both readings are useful, and they answer different questions. The diagram is a good way to notice that you have been optimising one circle and ignoring three. The older sense is a good corrective when the diagram starts to feel like a job search.

Omzoe uses the four-quadrant form in the Ikigai Exercise, and it uses it as an elicitation device rather than as a test. The assistant asks; you answer in your own words; nothing is assigned to you that you did not say. What comes out is three candidate Calling Statements, which are proposals to argue with rather than a result.

The word that most often gets attached to ikigai in English is passion, and it is the wrong one. A passion is a feeling you have about something. An ikigai is a relationship you have with your days.