Image: The IKIGAI Map
After you answer these, you’ll make better decisions
As I was reading Michael Thompson’s excellent piece on 22 questions self-aware people ask themselves, I began thinking about the most important questions I’ve asked myself to be more self-aware. The obvious answer for me came from Ikigai.
If you’re not familiar with it, it looks something like this:
Image: Toronto Star
The questions are simple, but not always easy to answer. If you ask yourself the following questions, you’ll raise your self-awareness and start making better decisions.
1. What do I love?
This is probably the easiest of the four questions to answer. What and who brings you joy and happiness? List everything you can think of from these categories:
Friends and family
Romance
Personal growth
Fun and leisure
Environment
Career
Finances
Health
2. What am I good at?
This is probably the second easiest question to answer. What do you do that makes you confident and/or other people have told you you’re good at? List everything you can think of and ask people who know you well too.
Think of things like:
Hobbies
Work-related activities
Anything from this list of 400+ skills, provided by SkillUp Academy
3. What can I be paid for?
It gets harder here. What services can you give other people so that they pay you for it? Here are some ideas to guide your thinking:
List things you’ve been paid for in the past.
List things you’re currently being paid for.
Look at job sites to see what people are paying for and where you fit in those positions.
Look at available gigs on Fiverr or Upwork to see what others are getting paid for. Are there any of those that would apply to you?
4. What does the world need?
This is a question not enough people spend time answering, myself included. What are people struggling with? What could help them struggle less? This is the basis of every good business: they solve a problem real people have. What problems are people having?
Here are a few ideas to help you figure out what the world needs:
Google: “How can I [do]…” and get inspired by the most popular results.
Use Ubersuggest and enter keywords to see what other similar topics people are searching for.
Use answerthepublic.com using a similar approach as with Ubersuggest.
Google “most popular startups” and see what’s trending in your country or around the world.
Summary
Ikigai revolves around four questions only, but they’re the basis of everything. If you answer these four questions now — and regularly — you’ll raise your self-awareness and make better decisions:
What do I love?
What am I good at?
What can I be paid for?
What does the world need?
Try it out and let me know how it went for you.
You can do this!
For a more complete guide on becoming more self-aware, check this article out:
Appendix A. The Ikigai Map
To help you organize your thoughts, feel free to use the Ikigai Map template I create on Mindmeister:
Click the image to open the template and fill it out.