IKIGAI - part 3

IKIGAI - part 3

Read about 80% rule, Moai, becoming immortal in part 2 here . Read entire series here .

In chapter 3, book introduces us to Logotherapy.

What is logotherapy?

In logotherapy the patient sits up straight and has to listen to things that are, on occasion, hard to hear.
It helps you find reasons to live. Logotherapy pushes you to consciously discover life’s purpose. The quest to fulfill destiny then motivates to break all the mental chains of the past and overcome whatever obstacles that encounter along the way.

One crazy question can change the way we look at life. Try to ask.

Why should I not commit suicide??

I know this is crazy question to ask but to find ikigai this is necessary.

List down all the point to this question, and those points will become driving force that allows us to achieve our goals.
This question helps us to search for Meaning of life.

Usually frustration arises when our life is without purpose. This frustration when viewed from positive perspective can be catalyst for change. Logotheraphy see frustration as spiritual anguish (spiritual anguish—a natural and beneficial phenomenon that drives those who suffer from it to seek a cure, whether on their own or with the help of others, and in so doing to find greater satisfaction in life.) It helps them change their own destiny. We don’t create the meaning of our life, we discover it. We have capacity to do noble or terrible things. The side of the equation we end up on depends on our decisions, not on the condition in which we find ourselves. If you have a goal to achieve, it will make you persevere towards it.

Naikan's meditation

This meditation centers on three questions the individual must ask himself.

  1. What have I received from person X?
  2. What have I given to person X?
  3. What problems have I caused person X?

Through these reflections, we stop identifying others as the cause of our problems and deepen our own sense of responsibility. Accept that the world is imperfect, but that it is still full of opportunities for growth and achievement.

Next chapter deals with finding flow.

FIND FLOW IN EVERYTHING YOU DO

Imagine you are doing your favorite thing. Lets consider playing shooting games. While playing games your entire focus will be on the game. Where will the enemy come, where to shoot, your entire concentration will be on that moment. There is no future, no past. There is only the present. Your body, and your consciousness united as a single entity. You are completely immersed in the experience, not thinking about or distracted by anything else. Your ego dissolves, and you become part of what you are doing. Before we know it, several hours have passed.

This is the kind of experience Bruce Lee describes as “Be water, my friend.”

The opposite can also happen. When we have to complete a task we don’t want to do, every minute feels like a lifetime and we can’t stop looking at our watch.

That is the power of flow. Experience of being completely immersed in what we are doing and get pleasure, delight, creativity, and process when we are completely immersed in life.

In order to achieve this optimal experience, we have to focus on increasing the time we spend on activities that bring us to this state of flow.
To achieve flow 3 things are important.

  • Knowing what to do
  • Knowing how to do it
  • Knowing how well you are doing

And to make work interesting take on tasks that we have a chance of completing but that are slightly outside our comfort zone.
Activities that are too easy lead to apathy. If a task is too difficult, we won’t have the skills to complete it and will almost certainly give up.
so find ideal middle path, something aligned with our abilities but just a bit of a stretch, so we experience it as a challenge. Add a little something extra, something that takes you out of your comfort zone.

Having a clear objective is important in achieving flow, keep the objective in mind without obsessing over it.
Concentrate on a single task. Concentrating on one thing at a time may be the single most important factor in achieving flow Sophisticated simplicity, Simplicity and attention to detail. It is not a lazy simplicity but a sophisticated one that searches out new frontiers.
When you get down to work, become one with the object you are creating.

Microflow
Enjoying daily boring tasks. if we get bored, we add a layer of complexity to amuse ourselves. Our ability to turn routine tasks into moments of microflow, into something we enjoy, is key to our being happy, since we all have to do such tasks.

The happiest people are not the ones who achieve the most. They are the ones who spend more time than others in a state of flow.

Using flow to find your ikigai.

  • What do the activities that drive you to flow have in common?
  • Why do those activities drive you to flow?

In the answers to these questions one might find the underlying ikigai that drives our life. If you don’t, then keep searching by going deeper into what you like by spending more of your time in the activities that make you flow. Also, try new things that are not on the list of what makes you flow but that are similar and that you are curious about.

In next part we will see about Resilience.