🌸 ikigai 生き甲斐 is a reason for being, your purpose in life - from the Japanese iki 生き meaning life and gai 甲斐 meaning worth 🌸
Dawn breaks and my pen hovers over pristine journal pages.
The world is quiet, and everything feels possible. A new page ready to be filled with to do lists and dreams.
Instead of feeling a rush of clarity, I feel a familiar tug of too many things to do, to plan, to worry about. Overwhelm creeps in, complexity clinging like a shadow.
Why do we make things so complicated?
Complexity often masquerades as sophistication. We layer our lives with tasks, commitments, and distractions, mistaking busyness for worth. Believing more equals better.
ikigai whispers to me to strip away the non-essential and focus on what truly matters.
Doing less so that what remains has more meaning, more impact.
In seeking simplicity, we should be mindful, as Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. said;
"I would not give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity."
True clarity comes not from avoiding complexity, but from knowing a thing and then distilling it.
A bullet journal can help you plot a map to navigate paradox;
Set an Intention: One word to guide your day, a direction rich with meaning. Let this word guide your actions and decisions throughout the day.
Choose Essentials: Two tasks aligned with your ikigai, to move you closer to your purpose. If you can only get two things done from your list, which are the most impactful?
Reflect and Refine: Three minutes to reflect in the evening to distil wisdom from the day’s intricacies. What did you accomplish? How did your intention shape your day? What can you simplify tomorrow?
In thoughtful simplicity, we find space to breathe, to create, to live. It's not really about doing less, but doing what matters most. To cut through life's static and hear your soul's true song.
In our quest for clarity, we mustn't oversimplify the rich tapestry of life. As computer scientist Alan Perlis also noted, 'Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it.' The goal is to understand something complicated deeply enough to find the elegant simplicity at its core.
Embrace the beauty of simplicity. Let clarity be your North Star. In the quiet spaces between crossed-out tasks and carefully chosen words, you might just find your purpose.
So, dear reader, I invite you to have this conversation with yourself, your journal, and your community. Share your thoughts, your challenges, and your triumphs. Let’s explore together how we can move closer to a life of simplicity and clarity, and in doing so, find our true ikigai.
What whispers of simplicity do you hear? How do you navigate the tightrope between complexity and clarity? Share your journey.
Together, let’s write a simpler, more meaningful story.
Sarah, seeking ikigai xxx
PS; I am beta testing a new AI tool called napkin.ai which is pretty interesting, it generated the icons above for me. It’s currently free and you can copy and paste your essay in and then for different sections you can press a button for it to generate different images. Some of them include things like venn diagrams or other model frameworks which you may find a cool way to help visualise your thinking!
PPS; Why'd you have to go and make things so complicated? *grin*