Fulfillment in small doses
On "ikigai" and turning impossible into manageable
You’re reading this because of a question I was asked over dinner one year ago.
A group of my closest college friends had gotten together for a weekend AirBNB reunion. That night, our host asked us two questions: “What would surprise your college self the most about your life now?”
And: “What would you like to be able to say 10 years from now?”
I surprised the table, and myself, when I said I’d like to have written a book about Career River. A few weeks later, I launched this newsletter.
I figured I needed a manageable weekly writing goal if I was going to pursue this project on my own time, while still working full-time and raising three kids. Tackling a whole book seemed impossible. Sending out regular articles did not.
I also craved feedback and the opportunity to workshop my ideas over time (as when I refined the career mapping exercise). It still feels audacious to say I’m writing a book, but I’ve seen enough progress that it no longer feels impossible.
Pursuing a fulfilling career can also feel like an insurmountable task. Whether you’re actively navigating toward what’s ahead or find yourself adrift, we put ourselves under enormous pressure to make the “right” career moves. But there’s an approach that allows us to build up to big successes from a series of small triumphs.
Finding fulfillment in small doses
There’s an eye-catching diagram that’s been floating around career-focused sites on the concept of “ikigai.”
As this excellent BBC article notes, there’s more to it than a simple graphic can capture:
To those in the West who are more familiar with the concept of ikigai, it’s often associated with a Venn diagram with four overlapping qualities: what you love, what you are good at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for.
For Japanese however, the idea is slightly different. One’s ikigai may have nothing to do with income. …
…as a word, ikigai is similar to “happiness” but has a subtle difference in its nuance. Ikigai is what allows you to look forward to the future even if you’re miserable right now.
The article notes that a researcher “discovered that Japanese people believe that the sum of small joys in everyday life results in more fulfilling life as a whole.”
Our lives, personal and professional, are a series of small choices and actions that create a larger whole. When we learn the nuanced truth behind the slick diagram, two key points emerge:
Our everyday actions hold the possibility for meaning and fulfillment;
That fulfillment does not have to be tied to how we earn our paycheck.
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The brilliance of my friend’s question was in the timeframe she created: 10 years to accomplish something. In the year since that dinner, I’ve written 46 of these posts, hosted 25 career chats and interviewed 8 people about their professional journeys. Every one of those moments was part of building something bigger, and every one contributed to my sense of purpose and fulfillment.
Big or small, every step counts. Let’s celebrate the everyday successes that contribute to long-term fulfillment.
Happy navigating,
Bridget
Career River is here to get your career outlook from “oh sh*t” to “hell yeah.” I’m offering subscribers early access to a new worksheet download to map your own Career River, coming soon. Leave your email through the link below to claim your early access invitation.
🔗 Link: Ikigai: A Japanese concept to improve work and life (BBC)