生きがい-ikigai: Something one lives for
Maybe it’s winter, maybe I am just sick of school, but I have been extremely unmotivated to wake up in the morning. I was listening to a TED talk on how some people live to be 100 and came across the idea of ikigai, which the speaker translated as “something you wake up in the morning for,” and honestly, most mornings I would really rather stay in bed. For that reason, I am glad to be graduating at the end of April, but the cause for lack of ikigai may be that I haven’t found the next thing I can look forward to waking up to.
Today, I ponder the question of if whether I made the wrong choice in studying what I study. Should I have chosen journalism? Would I be have been been off studying photography or something? Would I be more passionate about these things? I don’t think that my choice was wrong, it’s just that I do have interests in many things and I like the interdisciplinary nature of IR. It may also be so that I am not really excellent at any one thing, but just good enough at some things to satisfy my interests.
The looming graduation is scary. Mediocrity is also scary. I guess the upside is that a large percentage of population that is mediocre does get by.
“Beginnings are hard. All paths lead through darkness. Plant your foot firmly.”
I think I’m gonna write a post about this, if you don’t mind me stealing your topic. I started to write you some encouragement and it got a bit long, and I thought… hmm. Post on the way.
By: halcyonandon on January 21, 2010
at 12:35 am
I feel the same way. Good at many things, excellent at nothing. Just gotta pick one I guess and work real hard until you’re satisfied? Which I suppose is hopefully never because then you’ll stop trying… bah, I don’t want to get up in the morning (well nighttime) either. Eventually it will happen though, and life will be what you want.
By: Barwick on January 21, 2010
at 1:40 am
Excellent post. That’s one thing that has been bothering me for awhile now, that I dont’ have ikigai. I’ve been looking for it. Rather difficult to find. Most days I’m content to stay in bed and sleep, but I want more out of life then that.
By: littlelynx on January 24, 2010
at 1:28 pm