How to reboot your life with the Japanese philosophy of Ikigai | Rob Bell | Big Think
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 13 เม.ย. 2018
- How to reboot your life with the Japanese philosophy of Ikigai
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What gets you out of bed in the morning? If your only answer to that question is: 'My alarm clock,' then firstly, that's detention, and secondly: where is your sense of purpose? Spiritual teacher Rob Bell explains how his discovery of Ikigai-a Japanese life philosophy-crystilized a problem he was seeing too often, in most people he met. In your late teens or early twenties, you typically land on a path that you follow for the rest of your life. You picked a degree and now you're stuck. You made a decision and now it seems too late to choose again. That can lead us to a deeply unsatisfying place, where today is just a repeat of yesterday. Ikigai contains "this really interesting idea, that when you no longer have something that gets you out of bed in the morning, then you’re kind of dead, even if you’re still alive," says Bell. Your reason for being should shift many times over the course of your life, and looking at your life as containing many seasons- rather than one long stretch-can be a better way to frame and find fulfillment. Ikigai asks four key questions, at the center of which you can find your purpose: 1) What do you love? 2) What are you good at? 3) What does the world need from you? 4) What can you get paid for? Rob Bell is the author of What Is the Bible?: How an Ancient Library of Poems, Letters, and Stories Can Transform the Way You Think and Feel About Everything.
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ROB BELL:
Rob Bell is a New York Times bestselling author, speaker, and spiritual teacher. His books include Love Wins, How to Be Here, What We Talk About When We Talk About God, Velvet Elvis, The Zimzum of Love, Sex God, Jesus Wants to Save Christians, and Drops Like Stars. He hosts the weekly podcast The Robcast, which was named by iTunes as one of the best of 2015. He was profiled in The New Yorker and in TIME Magazine as one of 2011’s hundred most influential people. He and his wife, Kristen, have three children and live in Los Angeles.
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TRANSCRIPT:
Rob Bell: I’ve met more people who, essentially, somewhere along the way picked up: 'You go to school, you get trained in something, then you go get a job in that and then you do that job and that’s your career and then you die.' But then they got into this thing and realized they don’t actually want to do this with their life. Or nobody wants this particular trade anymore. You make eight-track players; people aren’t buying eight-tracks anymore.
There’s this weird thing about the market where if you go in with, 'Well, this is a thing that I do,' there may be forces beyond you that like: 'No one wants to pay for that anymore.'
And so over the years, I kept meeting people who had this very single track 'this is what I’m supposed to do' thing and then it disappointed them for reasons out of their control or simply, “I got trained to do this thing that I don’t like to do.”
Then I stumbled on this Japanese word “ikigai” and ikigai essentially is that which gets you out of bed in the morning. Sometimes it’s translated as 'your reason for being'. And in Japanese culture they have this very well thought through idea of ikigai: that you never stop working out your ikigai-what it is that gets you out of bed in the morning. And so in this season of life, this is what you’re doing but that may change. It may shift. Somebody you love may get sick and so you need to care for them. You used to do this and now that industry is sort of dried up but now you need to go back to school because you need to now go do this.
And they had this really interesting idea that when you no longer have something that gets you out of bed in the morning, then you’re kind of dead, even if you’re still alive. And the reason why I find that fascinating is you can be successful, you can have a nice job, you can have a nice house, you can do all the stuff that everybody says, “Hey, you’ve made it,” and yet wake up in the morning with a profound sense of dread like, “Ugh, another day?” And despair is a spiritual disease. Despair is when you believe that tomorrow will simply be a repeat of today.
Despair is when you look ahead...
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Even if you're a doctor, an engineer at Google, a jet pilot, heck even the president. You will have monotonous days. You will have doubts about your choices and path. You will suffer and you will feel angst. However the wisdom comes in accepting your mortality and recognizing that this very moment matters because soon you'll sease to exist. It's realizing that your mere awareness of existing is what gives your life meaning. In the end even Einstein and da Vinci's immortalizing accomplishments will be forgotten and so will your greatest accomplishments. So at the end of the day, you can choose to live forever, or you can choose to live today.
I don't think Einstein ever be forgotten but what's the point? I bet he doesn't care now. After we die everything cease to matter.
We will never forget the people or their accomplishments who/which have created a dent or has helped shape humanity.. I get your point though..
Whut? This sounded very advanced thought at first, and then what? What are you trying to say? Haha
@@FabSia not really. There are many people forgotten like that. Many.... They're just not from "our western empire". They were from previous Chinese, Islamic, Roman or Indian empires. And from other places and Era's as well.
"Death is a delightful hiding place for weary men.
"
-Herodotus
Japan is ranked 54 on the global happiness index. Japan should reboot itself with the Japanese philosophy of Ikigai.
And has third largest economy in the world despite their lower numbers and territory. Happiness was never the goal of life, algae ruled this entire planet for billion of years, you think algae was happy? Happiness is just a positive side effect.
So what is the goal? Being the largest? Ruling the planet? It's better to be like algae than to be happy is it? What's so great about being the third largest economy in the world if your happiness is in the shit? Sacrificing the happiness of yourself and others just so you can view yourself as the biggest (or the third biggest or whatever) is just narcissism.
Lol, narcissism, really? Life is goal in itself. Life is the only configuration of matter which have temporal constancy, it gives itself purpose. It does that through what you might understand as survival and reproduction. And i guess you dont realize that your virtue signalling(that narcissism bullshit...)is also in service of that goal.
Divine Linker So is it better to be algae than human? Would you rather live 100 years in a cage with mostly pain and despair, or 70 years of relative freedom with mostly a feeling of bliss and fulfillment?
"Life is goal in itself."
Why? Just because life reproduces itself doesn't mean that it is some kind of end in itself. Cancerous cells reproduce themselves after all. Some life seeks to destroy itself (i.e. suicide). And why shouldn't it?
"Life is the only configuration of matter which have temporal constancy"
Huh?
"And I guess you don't realize that your virtue signalling ..."
What virtue signalling? Acting as if merely perpetuating your own existence (literally or otherwise through your genes for instance) is more important than absolutley anything else sounds pretty narcissistic to me. As does, hypothetically speaking, bragging about being the third largest economy in the world, and then acting as if the fact that you are the 54th happiest country in the world doesn't matter by comparison. "I'm big! Never mind that it feels relatively like shit to live inside me!" Like a two year-old or some shit. "I'm a big boy!" Yep, pretty typical todler narcissim.
The thing is, just because helpful philosophies exist in cultures does not mean everyone from it automatically lives by it. Many Japanese people even do live lives where they are not really progressing, but just repeating. It is a shame people can forget important life knowledge that has existed for centuries which is timelessly useful
They already abandoned Ikigai many years ago
This is why passion, being in awe, coursity and appreciating the sublime is something you have to protect, nurture and grow. you can do this because your doing this for you. The best present you give to yourself.
I'm so Grateful for this video. I felt like I'm not alone in my search for meaning in life. I get criticized a lot by my family because they don't understand my despair. They think I'm ungrateful because I'm so intelligent and talented and the greatest opportunities to make money always falls straight into my lap, but I'm never satisfied with just making money. There is more to life than paying bills and buying stuff. And I'm tired already of having to explain myself, when this life is my gift to do whatever the fuck I want with it.
Amen. I feel the same way
Learn ISLAM...
Yep.
@@slaveofAllah919 LOL ignore it you mean
Naim Imteaz What makes you think Islam is what gives everyone fulfillment? I swear a lot of people be so ignorant to the point that their religion is the only thing that can make everyone around the world happy. Everyone has a sense of what’s meaningful to them not what’s meaningful to Muslims or some other group.
Reminds me of cognitive behavioral therapy I did years ago, take those thoughts that come against you and rearrange the thoughts and to challenge them. This plus medicinal cannabis has saved my life.
captindo
Medicinal alcohol has changed my life drastically.
StaticDreamsEntert Medicinal meth has changed my life too
Yeah but only a few will understand this and it is sad
You should vacation to the West Coast and try recreational cannabis. It's more effective and it costs less.
Yes!
I love that feeling of waking up excited
This is profound and something I believe we should all be taught in school. This is the one thing where the school system fails people and this is discovering their passion and their hopes and dreams
This just made my day, super helpful in a hard time I’m having at work and home. Thanks you for exposing so clearly too👌
Wow amazing content, loved this talk!! 🙌 Really needed it! 🙏
After years of working in a career that is transitioning out from under me, it finally occurred to me that you shouldn’t wake up in the morning and think “ I HAVE to go to work” you should wake up and think “ I GET to go to work” . If you don’t know the difference, nothing will help you.
I truly really needed this. It gives me back hope for my future. Thank you 🙏
Much love my dude, that was powerful. I've heard of ikigai, but never spelled out from someone with your worldview and profession. Thanks for sharing your thoughts
I love this! It’s how I live my life and didn’t even know about “ikigai”…quit my 9-5 years ago with no plan or contingency no savings and now I’m traveling the world getting be paid to be creative.
This is the best 7 minutes I've seen... I'm going through everything you said here and you gave me huge inspiration
This was truly inspiring, and just what I needed to hear right now, thank you.
wowwwwww. fantastic video! this is one of the best big think videos i have seen yet. good job!
Such an inspiring talk, loved it! It is a pity that there are so few around us who would do it themselves and encourage us, too to exchange success and spotlights for wonder✨
Thank you so much for enlighting me
I wish more and more people would realize their Ikigai soon because I think I found mine. Have a good day!
Thanks for the great advice
Takin that "who am i not to do this" with me. Every successful person is flawed in some way. Didnt stop them. It's actually more inspirational. Thanks.
great video Rob!
Big thanks for this, Brilliant!
Really lovely. Thank you for the uplifting message! "That is interesting ..."
Most people spend too much time looking for a job that pays a little bit more. Think about what kind of job you think actually helps other people, what are you passionate about, and what kind of work/life balance best suits you. Money is one thing, but other considerations should be taken into account if you want to have a happy and long career.
Thank you for this, I needed to hear this today. Very profound, resonated with my experience deeply.
Very helpful video - thanks for posting! :D
Wow, the first time I came across ikigai was listening to tim ferris podcast.
It is indeed a fruitful motivation to leave the world in a better than you found it
Best video in a while!
Mr. Bell this is one of the best video I have ever seen on TH-cam.
Truly you kindled the nerve..
I needed to hear this today.
I needed this!! Thank you!
My true self is the only part of me that wants to grow; I am that which wants to master my self.
Do you truly believe this?
Talk back to fear!
Say I know!!
Really useful tips right now!
Thank you!
Wow. Thank you so much sir Rob Bell and Big Think. Thank you.
I love that Venn Diagram of "ikigai", but that's too idealistic. If ikigai means to find work that is needed in the world, pays well, you love and you're good at, then you might get stuck looking forever.
Its the journey of striving towards Ikigai that has more benefit in life than actually achieving it. notice that his entire discussion is on the path, the striving for. He doesn't say as much about what happens when you get there.
or, you find work that pays well then find why you do that, and love that work
Nothing in life is guaranteed. That is the whole message of the video. So why not keep trying to rediscover the things that challenge you and make you fell complete. That give you both life and purpose. That's a mature process that doesn't take your 20s to find, that is something you glean into when you're in your senior years. It's something you practice and keep doing so.
All people have a profession meaning all people r good at something and get paid for it. There are however jobs that destroy the planet and you will be more ikigai if u find a job that benefits human kind. Everything then comes down to a reflection of whether or not you love what you are good at and if you love your contributions to society. If not then get to work or continue being unfulfilled. The Ikigai diagram simply helps organise ur thoughts to allow u to find a more fulfilled profession. It does not mean u should search for a job that ticks all the ikigai boxes but rather it is an idea that says life is more than just getting paid for what u r good at.
To some degree, we’re all blessed or damned to look forever - I think that’s part of what it means to be human. What I’m taking from this idea of “ikigai” isn’t so much finding your niche as a final, static place as much as it is a way to direct where the meaning and work in your life should point. My take, at least.
I just graduated... I still have a lot of work to do, thank you for the encouragement.
Thanks to this
This is one of the most important videos at any point in history. There is no more to discuss or argue about it. All conclusions will agree with everything said on this video. This is the Universe, which is Oneness, which is You, which is I, speaking.
Thank you
I love you Rob Bell and I love this.. thank you!!
hey I'm wondering
This is one of the best channels on TH-cam
Are you making videos specifically for me, sure seems like it. Thank you I need these kind of videos.
My purpose is lost
Softly ikigai whispers
"Seek, reflect, dear child."
Well said. 👏👏👏
Yep. I definitely did the ikigai thing. It works.
Logotherapy - Victor Frankl. Austro-Jewish Holocaust Survivor who wrote "Man's search for meaning". It is along the lines of Ikigai, yet I found it more helpful when applying to my everyday life and my environment.
Fantastic video, fantastic channel. Very interesting stuff. Keep up the good job, it's really facinating.
its >I< kigai - not i >KI< gai.
oh so relatable.
I’m thankful that I didn’t get brainwashed into this way of thinking/life/society etc. For a long time I thought I was broken or somehow ‘wrong’ for being the way I am. I’m occasionally reminded of why I love who I am and love that I’m NOT that.
This video is very captivating :)
Thaaaank youuuuu!!!!!
Ive been dead for a long time. And yet, I am still here. When will it just end?
Great!
Wow!!!! Absolutely beautiful.
inspiring
I look for wonder all around me and find it when I am in the moment: mindfulness. That is the path, the do. But modern life with all its intrusions, with its modular constructions and denial of "organic" makes it tough.
happiness is not about getting more and more stuff but about needing less and less stuff.
In all honesty i came to watch this video really unassuming. For one I'm familiar with the concept, and then this clearly western guy who come to speak of some deep Japanese concept, what does he know?
Turned out to be one of the introspective & deep motivation speeches I've heard.
Usefulness
Ikigai is exactly where I am @now !
Only get up to support my family. I dread and despair every moment and hate all the pain and suffering I see.
Do you work in the White House?
♥️
Eckhart Tolle might be worth a look - he went thru great mental suffering before finding his way out of it. i don't think i can put a link, but if you Google 'Eckhart Tolle; Transforming Loss And Suffering Into Enlightenment', it works. i noted that talk as "VVG" :)
You sound as jaded and cynical as I am...something brought us here.
Hilarious and probably so true.
Jeez, in the first two minutes this guy just perfectly described my life. I think I might need some Ikigai
The question is how to get out of the despair described in the initial part of the video
im subscribed to ikigai , makes great music
chippz lemonz lol yes
'Wonder' i want that!
good thought starter! although the comment about fear could go deeper, from my POV. asking yourself "why" when you feel fear can allow you to dissect the layers that create that fear, that vulnerability that's catalyzing that fear :D
Camus would be proud. We must imagine Sisyphus happy
"I didn't ask for success,
I asked for wonder" 💫
Everyone love wonder & understand success cannot garrantee the happiness. The question is how to achieve this.
Fear proves were imprisoned..Fear keeps us captive unless it is for survival but fear goes rogue! Dig
So Ikigai can be roughly described as passion? It's a beautiful philosophy mindset and sounds similar to what I already think.
I KNOW!!!
*Unagi
"isn't that a type of fish?"
it's ikigai 生き甲斐
That's why I get out of bed
Tarek Aljawi it's an old "Friends" joke(the TV show)
you should have got the joke. come n!
Interesting ...
I have been doing ikigai, without even knowing my life is was will be ,has been always,ikigai..
For the days I don't have any reason, I simply, Don't get out of bed..
My father once told me.. To be a man is to be a machine. And he was probably right. In the future we will all be machines. It's going to be so great in so many ways!
I think you may have missed your father's point.
P4INKiller I miss my father.
Yeah, the first thing that I thought was: if you narrow yourself to be and act as a specific concept (here: a man) your desisions are prisoned by the borders of the constuct, therefore you're a machine which do what is programmed to do; so you shouldn't completely act as society wants you to because there's nothing that's really you; or smth like that idk
Ding ding ding!
nothing at all I didn't write what was probable, I just wrote the first thing I thought, but of course my version doesn't quite fit what typical father would be willing to say. Also, that's a kinda grim and unsympathetic scenario of yours, but I think you're right.
The shortened version: JUST DO IT
lol
Misses a whole lot dude! That diagram is a guide.
I am coming to realize more and more that the secret to joy in life is filling the measure of your creation.
This is actually great, thanks Rob Bell :)))
Whenever I say that and smile to my fear, it says I'm lunatic lol.
You can have a good paying job that pays well. But if you are around toxic clients or coworkers that is depressing. Even a low paying job that is underappreciated is great if you're with a good team .
I like this video, but what do I do? I don’t know what to do.
And what should one do, if that ikigai-sector never emerges and there is no elements, which can suit all sectors?
what to do if there isn't any perfect solutions? Strive to the best one, as close as you can, of course. That's not that big of a problem. If there is no elements that can suit any one of the sectors, that's when you can start being depressed.
5:48 give em the ole Tom Cruise
Dope
I wish.
If u r truly alive no days will be the same ever ...
I want so bad to share this video with my friends and family, but most of them don't speak english. Can I add spanish subs?
It's not a moovie you know. It's just a talking head. You can tell your family and friends everything you just heard.
The pep talk I really needed after 5 months into a new (meaningless) corporate job that I hate and dread.
🙏
5:48 Joker over here
My problem is I'm not very good at what I love. The world definitely needs it, and is willing to pay for it, but I just can't get to the same level of all the other people getting paid to do it. Therefore I continue to do it (or practice it), but am unemployed and have been for a long time.
It's your mission, then? Give it your best, you'll get better! glhf
My Ikigai is Warframe! :D
Fuck yeah !! 5:50
Those people killed me, and I can't forget it.