Ikigai – What you can be paid for?

Congratulations on reaching this fourth and last question on the Ikigai framework! Lest you think that this article would be about salaries and all kinds of different jobs and remuneration, it isn’t. I just have one word of advice on this:

Don’t be lazy. Go do your own research.

Kevin Low, 2020

Go through the worksheet that you’ve filled in. What worksheet? I developed a simple worksheet for you to fill up and the first 3 questions would have allowed you to identify activities/jobs/roles that satisfies all 3 of those other elements. Now you can identify those areas where you can actually get paid for, and fill them into this section of the worksheet! As for the exact remuneration, you’ll really have to do your own research because there are a lot of local variations on the remuneration for different jobs and everyone has access to different opportunities as well. This is where you have to pull your weight and do more work.

The reason I’ve put the lists on the sides of the venn diagram is to allow you to try listing possibilities in each categories first and then find common ones which you can fit into parts of the venn diagram that is overlapping. You may not find you are filling every single portion of the diagram and that’s completely fine. Because you will then be able to get into the ‘troubleshooting’ mode of identifying what are the gaps in terms of reaching the sweeter spot. Mapping out those possibilities also gives you a sense of which direction you need to shift your focus in life: have you been too obsessed with making money? Or bankrupting yourself with your passion? Or losing your soul in trying to fit your strength with getting paid?

But more importantly, you can prioritise your energies with this. You can consider new combination of activities that unlock a sweeter spot. Or you can pick up a hobby to plug the gap. And if there’s a hobby that plays to a little of your strength and in due course you could be paid for it; you might use this to encourage yourself to make it more of a jobby (get paid for it!) rather than just a hobby.

This is the the actual final part of the multi-part series of writing on Ikigai. The cover article explains why I’m writing this. Read part two, three and four. But this will not be the last time I’m writing on Ikigai; we will explore how this framework helps with many other aspects of life as well!