Proficiency and Passion: Piecing Together Your Personal Ikigai Puzzle

Embark on a quest to connect your capabilities with your passions, find your unique puzzle pieces and uncover the picture for your fulfilling life direction.

ikigai (a reason for being) - the intersection of; what you love, what you are good at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for.

I don’t know about you, but at times I struggle with clearly identifying and confidently stating what I am GOOD AT.  And yes, I’m fully aware this is a blocker on many levels.  I am working on getting under the skin of why this is still something that runs the risk of disrupting my otherwise hugely strong forward momentum!

There’s a part of me that hates to brag for sure and shies away from even the tiniest risk of sounding arrogant. On bad days though (and oh how they seem to be happening too often at the moment, thank you perimenopause, NOT!) I’m also a little too battered and bruised to be able to speak kindly and positively to myself about anything, never mind my strengths.  When I’ve been surrounded by positivity I am able to more easily see and state what I enjoy the most, and am more open to listening to the positive words others use to describe me.

This reminds me of the importance of spending time with good people, those on your side and those that want to see you succeed.  How amazing it feels to have a conversation with someone where you both keep saying YES AND, where you often pipe up with ME TOO.  I love meeting people and sharing ideas to make our corner of the world better, that’s definitely my most happy place and where I come up with my best ideas and work.

I’ve already talked a little about a method for you to identify your own list of what the WORLD NEEDS in my 12 favourite problems piece.  I’ve also rambled on the notion of how even the quirkiest intersection of the things we LOVE can be combined into products that people like us, are happy to PAY FOR.

So I am definitely overdue talking about tactics for completing that vital quadrant of the Venn diagram “what you are good at”.  Knowing this is a struggle for me, I asked ChatGPT4 for some help with this, to give me some prompts to get me properly reflecting on this in earnest;

Certainly, Sarah. Here are the three most impactful prompts to help unearth what you are good at, focusing on self-reflection, feedback analysis, and joy in skillful work:

1. Reflection on Past Successes:

"Recall the moments of your greatest successes. What skills were you utilising during these times? Reflect on how these successes made you feel and what they reveal about your natural abilities."

2. Feedback Analysis:

"Consider the most common compliments and positive feedback you receive. What skills or talents do others consistently recognise in you? This external perspective can provide valuable insights into your innate strengths."

3. Joy in Skilled Work:

"Identify activities where you lose track of time and feel deeply engaged. What skills are you using during these moments? These are likely areas where you excel naturally and find intrinsic satisfaction."

These prompts are designed to be deeply introspective and revealing, guiding you towards a clearer understanding of your innate strengths and talents, essential for discovering the 'what you are good at' quadrant of your Ikigai.

I’m so grateful for the ability now to always have a helper to hand, to have a starting point to any blank page.  Even when ChatGPT messes up, at least it gives you a direction in that you know for sure what you don’t want to write!

So I did think these prompts sounded really helpful.  I’d recommend you give them a try, grab yourself a nice notebook and light a candle and see where they take you.  I find that this exercise can work really well when you are able to properly switch off and relax to get into the right frame of mind to tap into this level of insight. For those times when we aren’t feeling it, then it’s easier to get started if you have a trusted someone who knows you well and has worked with you, so you can ask them instead.

If you don’t have a mentor or coach to hand, what could you do instead to identify your strengths?

Tests! So I’ve been more than a bit of a girly swot in this sphere of life.  I’ve been in organisations that have invested in programs and tests that help pinpoint your strengths and areas for improvement.  I always embraced these initiatives even as others around me groaned hehe.  Now that I'm a little older I can see why people have mixed feelings, especially when suggested changes aren’t actually enacted or embedded.

I still rate them though, I love the promise of anything that may help me make sense of my weirdness.  I’ve long been a fan of self improvement tests.  I’ll take any free quiz I find and I’ve even paid for the occasional one too.

I’m going to cover a few that aim to delve into the intricate process of understanding one's core strengths and innate abilities. Thinking about the efficacy of tools like the Insights Colour Test, Gallup Strengths Test, and Myers-Briggs Personality Types in revealing layers of one's professional and personal prowess. This isn’t an in-depth analysis of the science behind whether these methods work or not, more how they made me feel and were they useful in my quest for self improvement?

The Insights “Colour” Discovery Model

The beauty of this method is that it is easy to understand, very memorable and typically done in a team environment so you start to have a common language to describe each other’s dominant styles.  Insights describe their mission as;

“We want to create a world where people truly understand themselves and others, and are inspired to make a positive difference in everything they do.”

You answer a series of online questions where there are several options presented, and you have to pick the ones that sound most like you and the ones that sound least like you.  As I said, it is typically done via an organisation who can pay to become practitioners of the system, but I have seen some training and coaching organisations offer it on an individual level for under £100.

I was given a 17 page report, and it’s striking how many of the words ring true.  It’s not perfect but there is a significant percentage that does make me say “yes that’s me” both in the sections talking about positive attributes and the areas for improvement, or blindspots as they call some of them.

My dominant colour energy is earth green, and while I am at work I am consciously striving to deliver more yellow energy which is my secondary trait, with blue not too far behind that, with only a small amount of red.

Interestingly it pegs my at home persona having even more green energy and a LOT less yellow and blue, but with slightly more red.  Interesting to reflect about having to put a bit of a mask on at work to adapt.  I hope as I get older that those two different scores get closer together.  They aren’t hugely far apart though which makes me feel better, because I know I pride myself on trying to be as honest and transparent as possible.  I guess at home because I have a strong marriage I don’t have to watch my words as much as I might have to at work hehe

You get plotted onto a larger wheel that identifies you as one of 72 types, mine is called Helping Supporter and it falls in the INTROVERTED and FEELING quadrant:

I recommend the process hugely, it definitely makes you think and having dug my report back out I’m struck by the themes and key strengths it identified me as having, typically those around caring about people issues, being diplomatic and liking to work for the common good.

Gallup’s CliftonStrengths

I purchased this one myself relatively recently, it cost just under £60.  I found it valuable, especially in the context of reinvesting the money I am saving from not vaping or drinking into my own development.  So comparing it as being the cost of two boxes of wine, I definitely know the test was a good investment!

There is a 30-minute assessment where you'll see paired statements and you have to choose which one you feel best describes you.

I have access to an online dashboard with lots of resources and different report formats, but the main report is 26 pages long and goes through each of the 34 different categories your DNA is made up from, this is mine which says that overall I lead with strategic thinking, but I love the fact that there are lots of blues for relationship building too;

I love the strap-line they have on their website;

You Are Unique. You Are Powerful. Be Confident With Who You Are.

It also puts me in mind of it being another tool to help in finding your niche/personal brand/authentic voice!

The founder of this tool, Don Clifton, wrote;

Talents are your "naturally recurring patterns of thought, feeling or behavior." They're the innate, natural abilities you can productively apply.

When Clifton studied human behavior, he noted hundreds of positive characteristics and saw that many of those characteristics had commonalities so he distilled them down into 34 talent themes.

Astonishingly they claim that the combinations of talents are so unique that the chance that two people share the same top five CliftonStrengths themes in the same order is one in 33 million.

So for my apparently very unique top 5 that I should be focusing on, the following descriptions apply;

Input

People exceptionally talented in the Input theme have a need to collect and archive. They may accumulate information, ideas, artefacts or even relationships.

Learner

People exceptionally talented in the Learner theme have a great desire to learn and want to continuously improve. The process of learning, rather than the outcome, excites them.

Intellection

People exceptionally talented in the Intellection theme are characterised by their intellectual activity. They are introspective and appreciate intellectual discussions.

Connectedness

People exceptionally talented in the Connectedness theme have faith in the links among all things. They believe there are few coincidences and that almost every event has meaning.

Ideation

People exceptionally talented in the Ideation theme are fascinated by ideas. They are able to find connections between seemingly disparate phenomena. 

This is fascinating to me, and definitely explains why I am so excited and committed to this journey I am on in my personal life.  My exploration of finding my voice, thinking through what matters most and sharing that with you all here, is for sure something I am passionate about and enjoying hugely.

Myers-Briggs Personality Type

I’ve been doing free online quizzes for many years, and long before I knew what the assessment was called, I had found out that my personality type is INFJ. Described as;

“Idealistic and principled, people with the INFJ personality type (Advocates) aren’t content to coast through life – they want to stand up and make a difference. For these compassionate personalities, success doesn’t come from money or status but from seeking fulfilment, helping others, and being a force for good in the world”.

I remember reading that it was the rarest type and that made me feel special, ahem, hehe!

I now know that this comes from the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator instrument to measure the 16 personality types in C. G. Jung's theory of psychological types.

The letters are made up from four sets of typically opposing positions;

Extraversion (E) or Introversion (I)

Opposite ways to direct and receive energy
Do you prefer to focus on the outer world or your own inner world?

Sensing (S) or Intuition (N)

Opposite ways to take in information
Do you prefer to focus on the facts or the big picture?

Thinking (T) or Feeling (F)

Opposite ways to decide and come to conclusions
Do you prefer to take an objective or an empathetic approach for deciding?

Judging (J) or Perceiving (P)

Opposite ways to approach the outside world
Do you prefer to seek closure or stay open to new information?

I see value in identifying where your natural state or style lies, and like in the Insights Colours, I always come up as being more introverted than extraverted and more feeling than thinking.

It isn’t bad or good, it’s more about being aware of your preferences and striving wherever possible to play to your own strengths and being aware of potential blindspots.

Ultimately I strive for a holistic approach in most things in life. I take the learning from all of these tools and try to blend them in with other techniques, like journaling reflection and coaching, to paint a picture of my individual potential.

Next time I do the 4 step ikigai Venn diagram exercise I have lots of ideas for what to put in my WHAT I AM GOOD AT box, which in turn will spark more intersections where there are clear paths forward for me to make little changes to nudge me in the right direction.

I hope this has given you some ideas, at the minimum doing a free test like the one at ​​16 personalities will give you a good starting point to think about your own preferences and under what conditions you most flourish!

What is your personality type and do you agree with it?

What other methods or tests have you used to help you quantify what you are GOOD AT?

Sarah, Seeking ikigai xxx