Do you know the Okinawan secret for finding a meaningful career, without being broke?

Let me share with you a very practical method for finding one's life purpose, but also for validating a sustainable business idea. It's a simple framework that I've used for myself as well as for many of my Productive Heroes who were unsure about their future.

This method originates from Okinawa, a fascinating island in Japan with the world's highest number of people living over 100 years old. While much of their longevity can be attributed to a healthy diet and active lifestyle, Okinawans also report higher levels of life satisfaction and happiness compared to other parts of Japan and the world.

For over a thousand years, the Okinawans created the concept of the "Ikigai", which can be translated as "reason for being, or life purpose". This might be another massively contributing factor to their happiness and, consequently, their longevity.

In a nutshell, Ikigai is best visualized as a Venn diagram showcasing the intersection of four key questions:

• 1)What do you love?

• 2)What are you good at?

• 3)What can you be paid for?

• 4)What does the world need?

Answering these questions can help you identify the intersection of your passions, abilities, and opportunities to make a meaningful impact on the world while making a sustainable living. Before giving you practical prompts to try it out yourself, let me give you my own example:

In 2020, my international trade company took a big hit with Covid 19. This served as a major wake-up call, as I realized how fragile my business model was. As a result, I became determined to establish a more resilient, fully online business, that would also enable me to travel more between Europe and Asia.

Back then, I already overcame my chronic procrastination, but I wasn't really happy. My first business didn't bring much meaning nor excitement to me. When hit by the pandemic, I saw this as a perfect opportunity to engage in self-reflection and determine what my dream career would be. That's when the Ikigai became really helpful. Over several weeks, I meditated, journaled, and filled pages of handwritten notes in pursuit of identifying my personal Ikigai. Here is the exact process I went through:

The fourth quadrant (what does the world need) is always the hardest. It can be discovered later on, by adding non-profit elements, partnerships, etc. But if you already manage to nail down the first three quadrants, you'll already be happier and wealthier than 99% of people!

In my case, After writing everything down, I was able to nail it down to one specific career that excites me more than anything else in the world: Productivity Coaching.

I've been obsessed with self-development, productivity and optimizing the human potential, in a healthy way. I thrive at analyzing people, active listening, motivating, public speaking.

My journey has taken me from being a chronic procrastinator to a workaholic and, eventually, developing a more sustainable approach to productivity. And most importantly, I'm passionate about making productivity fun and self-discipline easy.

After doing a quick market research to validate this idea, it became obvious that I had found my calling, ticking all 4 quadrants of the Ikigai. Every time I was faced with a Productive Hero confused about their ideal career, I applied the Ikigai method with them again, with extreme success. A couple of examples are Christophe here or Nils here.

Keep in mind that your Ikigai may evolve over time, and that's OK. But for now, it's my mission to help you reclaim a more balanced life and productive life, by working smart, playing hard and being heroic. So if you have any productivity challenges this week, don't hesitate to reply and share them with me, I'll be happy to help you. 🙂

📕 This week's quick resource is perfect for those who, like me, aspire to make their online freelancing dreams a reality—enabling them to work from anywhere, at any time—but aren't certain about their Ikigai just yet.

A fantastic starting point for a smooth transition to a more meaningful Ikigai could be learning to become an online recruiter for the tech industry. The demand for these professionals is on the rise, and my friend Michal Juhas has created a handy guide for beginners looking to break into this field. He interviewed 30 top recruiters and compiled their insights in this eBook here.