Before discovering IkigayanI thought it was just older to feel like a broom.
In my 30s, I was constantly chasing something-advanced, achievements, recognition. But no matter how much I have reached, performance always seemed unavailable.
I assumed that slowing in my 70s would mean residence to feel smaller. Fewer excitement, less ambitions and rest accepts that I was watching my strongest years.
Then I learned about finding the goal of Ikiga’s Japanese philosophy in everyday life. To my surprise, instead of smuggling in my own story background, I started feeling more alive than ever.
What changed? This was not a sudden career shift or abrupt lifestyle. It was a much simpler and very powerful thing.
How did I find the purpose in small moments
At first I thought Ikigay means to find a big passion. A few unique goals that would reset my life. But the more I studied the concept, the more I realized that it was not a bigger thing to pursue something. The word would appreciate what was already there.
I began to pay attention to the little things that made me happy. Walks in the morning in the fragile air. Conversations with old friends. Satisfaction with learning new thing for that.
Instead of focusing on what I have to do, I asked myself what made me feel and feel present. I found mentoring more young partners by writing manual letters, taking care of my garden, caring about it instead of hurried through it.
The more he turned on these daily moments, the more alive I felt. Not because I had discovered a secret formula, but because I had stopped searching for improvement in the wrong places.
For years I have believed something completely different on purpose, an idea that kept me for a very long time.
Why did I stop searching for one, life goal
For most of my life, I believed that the goal should be great. A career that changed the world. A life passionate that gave my days.
If I didn’t have it I would have supposed to miss something I couldn’t imagine it yet. So I was constantly searching, I am sure that one day I finally could land on what would make everything click on the spot.
But in my 70’s, I realized that Ikigay was not about finding a big mission. It was about small, meaningful moments that were already part of my life.
I spent decades when pursuing something far when performing was right in front of me. And once I leave my goal to set pressure in one decisive statement, I finally felt free.
Learning to slow down and pay attention
The biggest shift I did was to slow down. Instead, I stopped immediately immediately, I started paying attention to what happened right now.
I asked myself simple questions. Which moments of my day do I feel content? When do I feel the most busy? What little action do you take to me?
Then I did more things. I took coffee in the morning instead of rushing through it. I had longer conversations with friends instead of being treated like their verification. I allowed myself to enjoy the hobbies without needing them effective or impressive.
The more I have presented, so wisely felt my life. The goal was not something I found that it was that I had to notice.
If you are looking for a bigger answer, maybe it’s time to stop looking so far away.
Living on your own terms
For most of my life, I allow external expectations to form my idea. Success meant achievement. Performance meant to find one passion. Slow down felt that he was falling.
But when I began to interrogate those beliefs, I realized that they were not really mine. They were ideas that I absorbed from the public, work culture, the people around me.
Leaving that these expectations gave me the opportunity to reconsider the purpose on their own conditions. And that shift was not just about Ikigai. It was about how I approached everything in my life.
Here is what I have learned.
- The goal is not something you find. It’s something you create what you’re already around.
- Slowness does not mean less to do. It means paying attention to what is really important.
- You don’t need one big mission to have small moments of a meaningful life, they are just as valuable.
- Asking what you have taught about success and performance can open doors that you didn’t even know.
If you get stuck, maybe it’s not because you have lost but because you follow the purpose of the purpose that has never been noticed for you.
When you start thinking yourself and take responsibility for shaping your own way, everything changes. You stop searching and start living.