The Ikigai Within

after years of chasing achievement and external validation, i started to feel like i was running w/o direction. i had hit the goals, built the projects, checked as many boxes as i could, and yet, smth remained missing. because meanwhile, the why behind all the what had been blurred into obscurity. around that time was when i first picked up Ikigai: The Japenese Secret to a Long and Happy Life by Fransesc Miralies and Héctor García.

i don't think words printed on a page have ever resonated w/ me as deeply as it did in this book. initially, i believed it to be just one of those lightweight "find-your-purpose" self-help book, but very quickly i realized that this was not the case.

Ikigai, which roughly translates into "reason for being," is the intersection of what you love, what you're good at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for. it's a relatively small word that encapsulates a big truth: that meaning doesn't come from success itself, but from the balance between passion, skill, and service. you can't fake it, and you can't force it. it's not about constant productivity or climbing some imaginary ladder. it's about alignment.

and this is where it got personal.

for so long, i equated motion with progress. if i was training harder, coding longer, or learning at a faster rate, i assumed i was moving toward smth worthwhile. but looking back, a lot of that effort came from fear of losing the edge, fear of being outpaced, fear of no longer being "that guy." i wasn't driven by curiosity, but by comparison.

Ikigai flipped my perspective on ts. it made me question not just what i was doing, but why i was doing it. was i coding cause I loved building things that could help others, or was i just trying to prove i could keep up with my peers? was i running because it brought me joy and clarity, or was i chasing times and rankings to validate my worth?

when i started building projects like VoiceCode or even this portfolio, i didn’t think about competition or credibility. i built because it was fun. because an idea sparked and i wanted to see if i could make it real. that’s Ikigai in motion: doing something because it fulfills you, not because it validates you. somewhere along the way, i forgot that. reading the book reminded me that curiosity isn’t just something that the monkey George had, but that it’s the root of purpose.

the authors talk about Okinawan centenarians who wake up every morning with a reason, whether it be to tend to the garden, to teach, or to cook for their family. their secret isn’t some grand ambition; it’s steady meaning. and maybe that’s what i was missing. i had built w/ momentum, but not in a direction.

i haven't had any time to actually implement the lessons i learned just yet, but my mindset has definitely shifted. if The Curse of Competence taught me how dangerous it is to live for external expectations, Ikigai showed me the other side of the coin: that fulfillment doesn’t come from escaping the grind, but from redefining why you’re in it in the first place.

competence built the treadmill. Ikigai taught me how to step off of it, look around, and walk my own path. one that’s quieter, slower, but infinitely more alive.

thanks for reading.