One of the things that has always fascinated me is the idea of a life purpose. In Japan this is called ‘ikigai’ and the search for ones ‘ikigai’ or meaning in life is seen as hugely important.
I am in awe of people who have known from an early age what they are going to do and have done it. Is this luck, tenacity, passion or sheer bloody mindedness ? Who knows ! What I do know for myself is that when I stop enjoying something then I have to change my attitude or stop doing whatever it is and move on to the next thing. An enduring memory I have is of trying ballet classes and after a few months deciding I didn’t like it. My parents used this as an excuse for me not trying anything else, as they said I probably would give up ! Through my life I have always had things I was passionate about Elvis, horses, baking, gardening, music, pottery art. Being allowed and allowing ourselves the chance to try different things, is one of the ways we find our ‘ikigai’.
A few weeks ago my eldest had to make the first of many decisions that will affect her future. It was time to decide on her subjects for the Junior Cert. Luckily for us it was unremarkable in its passing. She decided, filled in the form and handed it in. Done and dusted just like that. It was interesting therefore to be a fly on the wall at the recent parent teacher meetings where it was clear that many children and parents were struggling with the choices.
It is sad to see children turned away from subjects that they love and that they are skilled at for the sake of a future career that they may or may not have in 10 years time. In fairness to the school they also pointed the children towards subjects that they enjoyed. But still the underlying tensions regarding Music, Art and Home Economics could be heard.
School is a chance to try out different subjects and to find out what our personal strengths are. If we are forced to study things we don’t like, is it any wonder we end up in jobs we don’t like.
Taking the time to remember or maybe even discover for the first time, what you love to do is an essential part of a life well lived. I don’t believe that we all have just one life purpose, something that we were meant to do and that we love to do, even have to do. A human life can be long. I like to think that we can have many passions that ebb and flow and change as we grow older and more confident. If we could live our lives following our passions instead of the crowd, then maybe our children would be allowed the freedom to study subjects they enjoyed, which would possibly result in more people being happier in their career choices. Perhaps it would no longer be seen as ‘unrealistic’to be wanting to do something that fulfills us and gives us pleasure. The world is full of people who have taken the chance to follow their passion and have succeeded.
The greatest obstacle to finding our ‘ikigai’ is our fear. It’s risky hard work and worst of all it puts us in the firing line to be criticized and judged if we don’t succeed. We are raised to tread the safe and known path. To do as everyone else does, start at the bottom and climb slowly to the top. We are led to believe that we require qualifications and experience in order to get a job Admittedly we like our doctors to be qualified and have experience but do we need qualifications to write plays, make music, act, make furniture, clothes, help others ?
What if we were taught to believe that anything was possible, that we could shoot for the top . I know many people happily doing jobs that they have chanced their arm to get, passion is where its at. We are in danger of qualifying out natural talent and passion. Without passion what’s the point ?
We have all been taught by passionless teachers, treated by doctors with no empathy, served by waitresses with no smile, given advice by those who don’t care ; the list is endless. Is this why we are in such a mess ? At the extreme end of the scale we have foster carers unchecked, priests left loose, surgeons who remove the wrong organs, banks allowed do what they like and a government so grey it makes John Major look positively colourful !
If we don’t have passion in our lives, we send out ripples of disenchantment that affect more than just us. If we choose to do something, it is our responsibility to do it to the best of our ability or get the hell out and do something we love and enjoy.
