In this video, Nick Kemp dives into the personal and varied nature of ikigai—why it means different things to different people. He shares a conversation with a friend who doesn’t actively think about ikigai and another with someone who found meaning in something as simple as camping with friends.
Having different sources of ikigai
Nick: One of my good friends said he doesn't have it and he doesn't think about it. And then the last person I spoke to, very briefly, who wasn't a friend, and I sort of said, ‘Hey, can I ask you? It might be a strange question, but what's your ikigai?’
And he kind of thought, ‘Oh, camping camping with my friends.’ So some very humble. I do think work can be a source of ikigai, and that makes sense for people who are perhaps young and working, maybe they don't have the responsibility of family yet. And yeah, their workplace can also be an ibasho.
So yeah, ikigai means different things to different people, and we kind of know most Japanese don't really talk about it, and they certainly don't use a Venn diagram. And it sounds like from your Google Trends search, with the most popular term being no ikigai, or lack of ikigai. Yeah, it's really interesting how it's become this buzzword and misunderstood. But that's often the case, many words get misunderstood outside of Japan: wabi-sabi and kintsugi, the list could go on and on.