Sarah - Your writing nails so many of my own reflections. I'm truly excited to have stumbled onto your Substack.
What would be your gateway drug of choice for getting started on the path to figuring out one's Ikigai? Particularly for rather rational, data-driven people like myself?
This one does distill and act as a reasonble entry point both to ikigai, values, and to ways to try and find value/side project ideas as unique intersections.
Thank you so much for your lovely comment Raphael! It really makes my heart sing when something I've written resonates with others 💕
In thinking about how best to answer your awesome question, its made me realise quite how scattered my current thinking is right across the 56 essays I've written to date, and how overdue I am in trying to do an up to date guide to getting started... you've inpsired me to give that a try over the coming weeks so thank you!
I guess for me, aside from doing lots of brainstorms against the three 'hatarakigai' buckets of WHAT I LOVE, WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS and WHAT I AM GOOD AT .. then upload a picture of the brainstorm from my journal page into ChatGPT Plus and/or Claude and asking my AI helpers to show me patterns and ideas for THINGS I COULD BE PAID FOR that I may not have thought of...
Before bullet journaling, I often struggled with setting and achieving personal goals. I now record results from self assessment tools and refer back to them. I mindmap on lots of different topics and projects, it helps me ideate and keep track of what I have tried, and what is left to try.
If you love data, you might particularly enjoy creating spreads to track your energy levels, activities, and what truly lights you up. I've found that looking for patterns in what energises vs drains you can be incredibly revealing.
The intersections of my journaling data points often reveal surprising insights about my potential ikigai path.
I hope this helps and makes sense, I'll look out for your stuff and hope to talk again soon 🌸
Sarah - Thank you so much for taking the time and going into that kind of detail for me 🙏.
I'll dive right into the two posts you recommended ... then I'm going to chase them with the other gems you wrote. It's fascinating how so many of the things I dwell on seem to be addressed in your posts.
"then upload a picture of the brainstorm from my journal page into ChatGPT Plus and/or Claude and asking my AI helpers to show me patterns and ideas for THINGS I COULD BE PAID FOR that I may not have thought of..." <- what a great use of AI 🤩
"creating spreads to track your energy levels, activities, and what truly lights you up. I've found that looking for patterns in what energises vs drains you can be incredibly revealing." <- Love the suggestion. It is close to what I'm doing right now while working with the book "Designing Your Life" by Burnett and Evans 😊
Thanks again! I'll definitely be a regular in your comment section, Sarah.
Sarah - Your writing nails so many of my own reflections. I'm truly excited to have stumbled onto your Substack.
What would be your gateway drug of choice for getting started on the path to figuring out one's Ikigai? Particularly for rather rational, data-driven people like myself?
Oooh no, actually I've just remembered a post I would want to direct you to now I've read your substack posts! > https://sarahseekingikigai.substack.com/p/navigating-emptiness
This one does distill and act as a reasonble entry point both to ikigai, values, and to ways to try and find value/side project ideas as unique intersections.
Thank you so much for your lovely comment Raphael! It really makes my heart sing when something I've written resonates with others 💕
In thinking about how best to answer your awesome question, its made me realise quite how scattered my current thinking is right across the 56 essays I've written to date, and how overdue I am in trying to do an up to date guide to getting started... you've inpsired me to give that a try over the coming weeks so thank you!
I guess for me, aside from doing lots of brainstorms against the three 'hatarakigai' buckets of WHAT I LOVE, WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS and WHAT I AM GOOD AT .. then upload a picture of the brainstorm from my journal page into ChatGPT Plus and/or Claude and asking my AI helpers to show me patterns and ideas for THINGS I COULD BE PAID FOR that I may not have thought of...
... the really key thing that has been my biggest compass to move towards ikigai, is having done a lot of reflection about my values; https://sarahseekingikigai.substack.com/p/know-your-values-a-practical-guide
Before bullet journaling, I often struggled with setting and achieving personal goals. I now record results from self assessment tools and refer back to them. I mindmap on lots of different topics and projects, it helps me ideate and keep track of what I have tried, and what is left to try.
If you love data, you might particularly enjoy creating spreads to track your energy levels, activities, and what truly lights you up. I've found that looking for patterns in what energises vs drains you can be incredibly revealing.
The intersections of my journaling data points often reveal surprising insights about my potential ikigai path.
I hope this helps and makes sense, I'll look out for your stuff and hope to talk again soon 🌸
Sarah - Thank you so much for taking the time and going into that kind of detail for me 🙏.
I'll dive right into the two posts you recommended ... then I'm going to chase them with the other gems you wrote. It's fascinating how so many of the things I dwell on seem to be addressed in your posts.
"then upload a picture of the brainstorm from my journal page into ChatGPT Plus and/or Claude and asking my AI helpers to show me patterns and ideas for THINGS I COULD BE PAID FOR that I may not have thought of..." <- what a great use of AI 🤩
"creating spreads to track your energy levels, activities, and what truly lights you up. I've found that looking for patterns in what energises vs drains you can be incredibly revealing." <- Love the suggestion. It is close to what I'm doing right now while working with the book "Designing Your Life" by Burnett and Evans 😊
Thanks again! I'll definitely be a regular in your comment section, Sarah.
Interesting that so many of my "free" 8 hours are spent prepping the house and the family for my working hours 🤔