As a child, I was a creator. Thousands upon thousands of pages were filled with my inner world. On a good day, nothing could stop me. With pencil and paper, my imagination was limitless.

From then on, my life was defined by my desire to create stories from my experiences. As someone who owns minimal belongings, I live by this philosophy — it gives me meaning. And today, I have the privilege of working in a field which gives me the opportunity to create experiences. In doing this, I am enriching the lives of others.

Though my initial research revealed that there is money to be made in this field, I knew my motivations had to be guided by intentions far beyond that. While crafting my mindset based on Japanese principles of work, I understood that the daily effort of work itself must be what provides me meaning.

Why this is rare in our (broken) society

The land of the free isn’t the land of happiness. 85 percent of us aren’t even engaged at work.

You’ll be hard pressed to find someone who isn’t working in a job that feels purposeless.

It’s a real conundrum we’re in — and for many of us, life has seen to it that we aren’t getting out any time soon. The key, then, is to see things a little differently.

A career is something you do to pay the bills. A path is entirely different.

When we think about a stress-free option, we pursue a career. Careers bring security and certainty — 2 things that make life predictable. But sometimes, predictability is a trade off. Before you know it, we realize that we are part of the unfulfilled 85 percent.

In the book, Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life, Hector Garcia describes the Ikigai as our reason for being — our reason for getting up in the morning. It’s a mixture of what you love, what you’re good at, what you can be paid for, and what the world needs.

What brought me here?

From my perspective, it was storytelling.

From an early age, I was always interested in being creative and sharing my knowledge with others through this medium. This interest was what allowed to build relationships easily. From my poverty-stricken childhood, I was able to gain an understanding of what it was to have nothing. And though those experiences were uncontrollable from my viewpoint, what I did have during my early adulthood was control — control of my mindset and how I chose to approach life.

My most profound moments of self-realization came during my my difficult times. As a full-time college student, good time management was essential. Once I would finish working the two jobs that kept my busy during the day, I spent the evenings studying the field of UX. Procrastination simply wasn’t an option.

After many nights, I realized where my potential for storytelling could truly have a profound impact — in software design and research. Of course, it didn’t happen all at once: I had to understand that I had the power to change my future. As I continued to encounter challenges in my life, I recognized a powerful fact: my success in life is determined by getting where I want, by knowing who I am.

Finding my Ikigai was a meaningful effort

When considering a career change from transitional print & graphic design, there was a lot going through my mind. I knew that there would be a continued need for people who had an in-depth understanding of software principles. At first, I didn’t know why I felt the drive to improve how others experience the world — but I did know that my experiences shaped how I developed empathy for others.

Making a this career change also meant becoming more creative about how I approached learning. I had to see that my own efforts were a personal success —and not believe the idea that resulting success was what mattered. To find my Ikigai in the field of design, I had to understand the idea of meaningful effort. Meaningful effort combines the drive for a higher quality of life with an intangible purpose — one that can’t be measured in any material sense.

Doing this was no simple task — in fact, there were a few mental barriers I had to overcome to discover what I was capable of.

Beliefs. Self-limiting beliefs such as I’m not smart enough and I’m not good compared to them represented my imposter syndrome. To overcome this meant that I needed to make a conscious decision to learn daily.

Research. With my mind set on the process, I understood that there were many resources available — in fact, too many to count. This meant I had to search for right information, which brings me to the third barrier:

Implementation. Targeting the right resources was key to the process of learning new design methods. To handle this, I had to internalize the idea that action, like research, takes time.

Once I overcame these obstacles, I saw a new world of possibilities — not just for myself, but for the world. I knew from that point on that my true place in the world was using my understanding of lived experiences to create better ones.

What you can take from this

A career is something you do to pay the bills. A path is entirely different. It’s a conscious choice driven by determined effort, no matter the obstacles. That’s why there’s something special about discovering a path and how it can increase your sense of purpose.

A sense of purpose is connected to a longer and more fulfilling life. And in our modern age, that sense of purpose has become more integral to our overall happiness.

To quote Victor Frankl, a renowned writer and Holocaust survivor:

Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

References

Dismal Employee Engagement Is a Sign of Global Mismanagement by Jim Harter. Gallup Workplace. 2020.

Ikigai: The Japanese Secret To Living A Long And Happy Lifeby Hector Garcia and Fransesc Miralles. Penguin Books. 2016.