What psychological strengths do we need to flourish a rapidly changing world?
In this episode of the Ikigai Tribe podcast, I welcome back my friend, clinical psychologist and author Professor Daiki Kato, to discuss his new book, Beyond Myself 8: Eight Powers to Navigate Myself.
Daiki co-authored the book with Professor Mihoko Tsuruta and Associate Professor Aya Futamura. Together, they developed the BM8 framework: eight non-cognitive capacities designed to help us strengthen ourselves, nurture meaningful relationships and navigate society with greater awareness and confidence.
Daiki has previously appeared on episodes 47 and 107 of the podcast, where we explored rolefulness, the psychological concept he coined to describe the sustained sense of satisfaction we gain from our social roles. Rolefulness is one of the eight powers at the heart of his new book.
Beyond Myself 8: Eight Powers to Navigate Myself
"These eight powers are not something new you have to acquire. They already reside within you. It's just a matter of becoming aware of them and practicing them in daily life. Through this book, my biggest hope is that people all over the world become aware of the BM8 concept and use it to make their lives richer, healthier and more fulfilling.” - Daiki Kato
Daiki Kato
Professor Daiki Kato is a professor at the College of Human Science at Kinjo Gakuin University, Nagoya, Japan; his areas of study include clinical psychology and art therapy. He received a Bachelor in Education in 2003, a Master of Arts in 2005, and a Ph.D. in psychology in 2008 – all from Nagoya University in Japan.
Bringing Psychology into Everyday Life
The idea for Beyond Myself 8 began with a simple wish: to bring academic psychology out of the research laboratory and into people’s daily lives.
Psychological research offers valuable insights into human strengths and wellbeing, but those insights often remain within universities and academic publications. Daiki and his co-authors wanted to translate their work into an accessible, practical framework that people could use to understand themselves and respond to everyday challenges.
Their research and practice revealed two recurring human needs.
The first is the need to understand and nurture our inner strengths. In a world characterised by rapid change, stress and uncertainty, people often ask themselves: What are my strengths? Can I handle this challenge? Yet psychological strength is not a single trait. It is a balance of several resources that we can recognise and cultivate.
The second is the need for connection and social contribution. Personal strength alone is not enough. We also need to feel that we belong, that we are useful to others and that our lives contribute to something beyond ourselves.
The BM8 framework responds to both needs.
What Are Non-Cognitive Skills?
The eight BM8 powers are non-cognitive skills—human capacities that cannot be adequately measured through IQ scores or traditional academic tests.
While cognitive skills generally concern what we know and how we process information, non-cognitive skills influence how we respond to life, relate to others and apply what we know. They include qualities such as resilience, empathy, tolerance and the ability to form healthy relationships.
These capacities support both personal wellbeing and our ability to participate meaningfully in society. They help us develop the confidence to face challenges, understand people whose experiences differ from our own and contribute through the roles we fulfil.
The BM8 framework organises its eight capacities into three groups:
- Powers to strengthen the individual
- Powers to nurture relationships
- Powers to navigate society
Powers to Strengthen the Individual
The first group provides the psychological foundation from which we engage with other people and the wider world. It consists of two powers: resilience and self-efficacy.
Resilience is our capacity to adapt and recover when we experience adversity, stress or disruption. It is not simply toughness. It is a kind of psychological flexibility that allows us to bend without breaking and regain our footing after difficulty.
Self-efficacy is the belief that our efforts can make a difference—the feeling that if I apply myself, I can do this. It develops through experience, particularly when we see ourselves make progress.
Daiki highlights the importance of small wins in cultivating self-efficacy. We do not need to begin with a dramatic goal or major achievement. Completing a manageable task, taking a short walk or following through on a small commitment gives us evidence that we can act effectively. Over time, these moments accumulate into genuine confidence.
Our idea of intelligence is also shaped by the environment in which we live. In another era, intelligence may have been associated primarily with knowledge or high academic scores. In a complex and uncertain society, however, knowledge alone is insufficient. The ability to adapt, recover and continue acting with confidence has become an essential form of intelligence.
Powers to Nurture Relationships
The second group contains three relational capacities: rolefulness, empathy and tolerance.
Rolefulness is Daiki's psychological concept we covered on episode 47. Daiki’s research distinguishes between two forms of rolefulness:
- Social rolefulness develops through interactions with others. We feel needed, appreciated and useful in the roles we perform.
- Internal rolefulness emerges as these positive social experiences become internalised, strengthening our confidence, identity and sense of self-worth.
Rolefulness is therefore about far more than being assigned a responsibility or performing a function. It describes the way fulfilling roles help us feel grounded, valued and connected.
Daiki suggests that people who find fulfilment in their own roles often become more sensitive to the roles of others. When we understand how our own contribution fits within a family, team or community, we become more likely to notice the effort and responsibility carried by those around us. Rolefulness can therefore open the way to empathy.
Empathy allows us to enter another person’s perspective and respond with care. As empathy deepens, it can lead to tolerance: an open-minded acceptance that other people may think, feel and see the world differently from us.
Daiki describes tolerance as a kind of leeway of identity. When our identity feels insecure, a different opinion can seem threatening. When we possess rolefulness and self-efficacy, however, our sense of self has more room to breathe. Difference no longer needs to be interpreted as danger.
Tolerance, in this sense, is not reluctantly enduring another person. It is having enough psychological space to welcome diversity with an open heart.
This idea relates closely to the Japanese concept of yutori, a sense of spaciousness or margin in our minds, lives and behaviour. Satisfaction in our own roles can create the inner margin required to extend empathy and tolerance to others.
Powers to Navigate Society
The final group helps us apply our personal and relational strengths as we face an uncertain future. Its three powers are identifying questions, experiential learning and risk management.
The power to identify questions is especially important in what Daiki calls an age without correct answers. When circumstances are constantly changing, waiting for someone else to provide the answer is no longer enough. We need the awareness to ask: What is the real problem here? What matters most? What question should I be asking?
A meaningful question can become a compass, guiding our decisions even when no obvious solution exists.
Experiential learning is the power to transform our past into future strength. Both success and failure can become practical wisdom when we reflect on them. Rather than remaining trapped by what has happened, we can carry its lessons into our next decision.
Risk management then combines awareness, experience and imagination. It involves anticipating what might happen, considering what could go wrong and thinking about how we might protect ourselves and others. This is not about living fearfully. It is about preparing thoughtfully so that we can step into uncertainty with greater confidence and peace of mind.
Turning Discomfort into a Useful Question
The book includes practical exercises for developing each capacity. One is Question Journaling, a three-step exercise that strengthens our ability to identify problems and recognise risks:
- Verbalise a subtle discomfort. Write down a small moment or feeling that seemed off.
- Turn the discomfort into a question. Ask, for example, Why did this make me uncomfortable? What might be missing?
- Expand your perspective. Examine the situation from several angles to see the larger picture and discover possible responses.
Rather than ignoring our intuition, Question Journaling helps us investigate it. A vague feeling of discomfort can become an early signal, a meaningful question and ultimately a source of wiser action.
Creating a Resilience Map
Another practical tool is the Resilience Map. When we are in the middle of adversity, it is easy to feel isolated and lose sight of the support and resources available to us. Mapping these resources before a crisis creates a psychological safety net.
The exercise invites us to consider four areas:
- What do I have? The knowledge, resources and supportive relationships available to me.
- Who am I? The personal strengths and values I can draw upon.
- What can I do? The practical actions I am capable of taking now.
- Where can I go? The safe places, communities and professional support I can turn to.
Resilience is not only an individual capacity. It is also supported by people, places and pathways to help. Remembering where we can turn makes it easier to recover and move forward.
The Eight Powers Are Already Within Us
Perhaps the most encouraging message of the BM8 framework is that these powers are not foreign abilities we must somehow acquire. They already reside within us.
We have all shown resilience, acted with empathy, learnt through experience and managed risk. The opportunity is to become more conscious of these capacities and practise them intentionally in everyday life.
The eight powers also reinforce one another. Resilience and self-efficacy strengthen the individual. A more secure sense of self supports rolefulness, empathy and tolerance. These relational powers, in turn, help us identify better questions, learn from experience and make thoughtful decisions in society.
Beyond Myself 8 offers readers a way to recognise this complete ecology of psychological strengths. Daiki and his colleagues also plan to bring the framework to life through workshops and programs, creating spaces where participants can practise the exercises, connect with others and integrate the eight powers into their daily routines.