Unpopular opinion: the Ikigai framework is not helping you

The Ikigai framework is not helping multipassionates find clarity.

It is making them more stuck.

You have probably seen the diagram.

Four circles. What you love, what you are good at, what the world needs, what you can be paid for. Find the center where all four overlap and congratulations, you have found your purpose.

Sounds clean, right?

Here is what nobody tells you.

That diagram is not even real Ikigai.

It is a Western invention that got projected onto a Japanese concept and went viral.

The actual Japanese understanding of Ikigai has nothing to do with a Venn diagram.

It is a feeling. A state of being.

Japanese researchers describe it as something deeply personal and internal, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗮 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 you fill out in a weekend.

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But the bigger problem for multipassionates is the assumption baked into the diagram itself.

It assumes you are looking for one thing. One intersection. One answer.

So when you sit down to fill it out and you have seventeen things in every single circle, the framework has no idea what to do with you. You feel like you failed the exercise. You think the problem is you.

The problem is the framework was never built for a brain like yours.

Ikigai was designed for people who need help finding their one thing.

𝗠𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗶𝗽𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝗱𝗼 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗽𝘂𝗿𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗲.

They have too much of it in every direction.

What they need is not a tool to narrow down.

They need a container that can hold all of it and still make sense from the outside.

Have you ever tried the Ikigai exercise? What happened?

I am genuinely curious 👇🏽

Never heard of IKIGAI 🤔

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