Ikigai

You’ve been bamboozled. What you know about “Ikigai” is wrong — dead wrong. And it’s making you choose the wrong things in life. I hate to break it to you but, Ikigai is not the intersection of: ・what you love ・what you’re good at ・what the world needs ・and what …

Emi’s story Emi is a good friend of mine even back in my uni days. I remember she told me once that she had always dreamt of owning a cozy coffee shop in downtown Osaka with lines and lines of people stretching around the block. When we graduated we all …

Facing the fear of failure with Ikigai as your guiding light The sweet aroma of my morning coffee wafts through the room, but the mug sits untouched for hours. In front of me lies a blank page, cursor blinking, waiting for my keyboard strokes. It’s past 6AM, there’s no one …

25 years ago, I was a broke teenage boy with no future. Today, I’m a tech director at an IT firm in Tokyo. This is how I broke the cycle of poverty through a combination of luck, clear purpose, and an unwavering determination to never give up. A Childhood Realization …

(From one newbie writer to another) So you’ve decided to become a writer eh? That’s good, you’re in good company. I’m a writer myself, still in the beginning stage just like you, but a writer nonetheless. If you want writing advice from the pros, you can go with the likes …

I know what you’re thinking. “What’s the point of putting myself out there if there’s no way I can get what I want anyway?” So what do you do instead? You slack off. You tuck your tails behind your legs and you declare “surrender.” Then you hate and curse the …

I know what you’re thinking, what do trains and swimwear got to do with kindness? Let me tell you a story. This morning I wanted to catch the express train so that I could come to work early and finish early. After taking a quick shower, I was readying myself …

Do you know your purpose in life? What makes you get up in the morning and get on with your day? If your sense of purpose is strong, most probably you’re doing great and living your life to the fullest. The same is true for dedicated parents who do everything …

Nowadays, we can get everything in an instant like buy things online; look for information quickly; and get instant gratification through social media. Some people, especially in the urban cities, run fast-paced lives and they are just jumping from one thing onto the next without finding meaning on what they’re …

Do you feel a pang of envy when you scroll your social media feeds seeing your friends living grand? Do you feel small and average when you compare yourself to others’ lives. Not everything on SNS is real–people only post the things they want other people to see. So don’t …