MY IKIGAI STORY

What Gets You Out of Bed in the Morning?

The deadly virus has chained us indoors. It has brought a stop to our lives. I have been, like most people, waiting for my happiness to arrive. A few years back happiness meant going for that dream vacation. Buying a house in Mumbai. Happiness meant owning the car I saw in the movies. It meant having tons of cash in the bank. Going to Las Vegas or attending the Bolshoi Ballet. Suddenly, happiness seems to have has taken a different form. For all those of you who take interest in the supernatural or the occult, you may have heard of the concept of a ‘Shape Shifter’ (In mythology, folklore and speculative fiction, shapeshifting is the ability to physically transform through an inherently superhuman ability, divine intervention, demonic manipulation, sorcery, spells or having inherited the ability. Therianthropy is the mythological ability of human beings to metamorphose into other animals by means of shapeshifting. It is possible that cave drawings found at Les Trois Frères, in France, depict ancient beliefs in the concept. The most well-known form of therianthropy is found in stories concerning werewolves.)

Happiness has gone through a major transformation. That’s the reason why I brough up the topic of ‘Shape Shifting’. Happiness has ‘shape shifted’ into a new form – a new dimension. Now it means being able to move out of home, or being able to walk up to the bar and order a drink. Or being able to take your dog out for a walk, and meet other people who have taken their dogs out for a walk. At the beginning of the lockdown as we were all restricted in the confines of our home, I still waited for happiness to arrive. I believed that happiness was outside the door and I couldn’t get it while being indoors. It was almost as if I had created a shape in mind of how happiness would look. I woke up in the mornings enveloped in despair. I was scared and I was uncertain. Like lot of other people, I was always complaining. 

Then I read about the ‘Ikigai’. Ikigai is a term in Japanese that relates to your sense of purpose. What is it that will provide you with a reason in life? It means different things to different people but essentially it means why you are here, why you get up every morning, what you love, what you are good at and how you contribute to the world. The truth is, if there was ever a time on our planet where a sense of true purpose was needed, required, or desperately called for, now would be that time. 

“Ikigai’ means finding out your very own purpose for which you are living. While I tried to find mine, I slowly realised that I was wrong all this while. I realised I had everything I needed. I didn’t’ need to wait for happiness to arrive. I didn’t need to go ‘out’ for anything. All the happiness I needed was within me. Both inside my home as well as inside my body. So why was I still waiting to be happy?

So, ask yourself. What is it that you think of when you open your eyes in the morning? If your answer is RENT or EMI then you ought to look deeper. What is one simple thing you could do or be today that would be an expression of your ikigai?

And while I was trying to find mine, someone sent me a link and to my surprise it was the Bolshoi Theatre sharing the famous Bolshoi Ballet online for the first time in its history.

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Capt. Shoukat Mukherjee is an International award-winning business leader, trainer and public speaker. He is the author of the bestselling book 'Mind Over Water', maritime industry's first book on Leadership development and Team Building.

To connect with Shoukat or to book him for a lecture of training workshop please write to him at 'thenavalconnection@gmail.com'

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