Discovering the Ikigai Method

On March 29th and April 19th 2022, the SMARTS-UP team gathered thirty graduate students for the “Ikigai” educational workshop. Led by Pascal Kolbe and Andrea Giraldo Sevilla, the workshop was based on the Japanese concept “Ikigai” of finding one’s purpose. It was the opportunity for students to explore the four key qualities of their reason for being by bringing coherence to both their academic studies and life projects.

At the Learning Planet Institute, the students build their Ikigai circles through meditation exercises and discussions amongst themselves. This method provides the opportunity to design a framework for guiding and reflecting on one’s life and professional goals by creating their own Ikigai circle.

An Introspective Approach Based on 4 Questions

1. What are you good at? Analyzing the main activities of daily life to identify your strengths.
2. What do you love?  Brainstorming exercise through a “Crazy 8”, discover what you like by answering some questions. This exercise enables you to focus on quantity rather than quality, by defining the context that will help you find your values.
3. What does the world need?  Determining one’s life purpose considering the issues of the world today. By taking an honest and deep look at ourselves, this exercise identifies the issues that interest us according to our skills and values by combining strengths and capabilities with the common good and societal issues.
4. What are the resources you need? Through discussion and role-playing, identify the internal and external resources we have available from our previous experiences in preparation for developing them further.

… Overcoming challenges

Through interactive and stimulating sessions led by Pascal Kolbe and Andrea Giraldo Sevilla, participants were able to identify their capabilities and visualize large-scale projects that will guide their life and career goals.

Would you like to create your own Ikigai too?

Discover the application online !