My days in quarantine have given me ample time to do things I always wanted to do, but hardly found any time for. The fast-paced life that I lived hardly gave me time to indulge in things I loved to do, like reading. So after a few days into quarantine, I finally piled up all the TBR books that were hiding in my cupboard, safe and sound. I decided to finish reading half the books before I stepped out again, chasing life.
The first book I picked up was the one I received as a gift, Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a long and happy life. At first, I thought it must be like any other self-help book that would shape your mind to think in a certain way (just a passing thought, I don’t judge a book by its cover). But as I began reading it, I got to know that the book was not just a self-help book, but it had more to offer.
The book tales about a village in Japan where the oldest people on earth reside. The group of authors lived with them for a few days adapting and learning about their lifestyle and researching how they live for so long. The oldest person living on earth was from the same village known as Jiroemon Kimura who lived for 116 years and 54 days. The secret behind his longevity remains happiness. The authors living there on their research found out that the villagers follow 4 basic rules and thus managed to live longer.
The book further explains how one needs to find one passion that they live for, something that makes their worth living. That will simply make you good at it since it’s your passion. Now the next thing you need to do is to find a job that makes you happy and also pays you decently. All these four things combined together will help you find your ‘Ikigai‘. A passion, a hobby, a job that helps you find your passion and something that pays you well. In this way, you would never go to work for a single day, which will lead to eternal peace and happiness.
I’d like to share a story about why I could relate to this and connect to it in a different way. Ever since my childhood, I had been someone who was obsessed with reading comics and other children’s books. These books were soon replaced by romantic, thriller, and classic novels and along with reading, I also began writing. But because of family pressure, I was forced into choosing a different field and was forced to make a different career choice. However, I never let the reader and writer in me die. Eventually, a series of events took place in my life and that pulled me down in the worst way possible. I would spend sleepless nights thinking about my future and worrying about how things would turn out to be, for a failure like me.
Then came an internship at a news company and that was my wake-up call. I loved going to the office, taking interviews, writing about it and even though I wasn’t paid a single penny, I enjoyed that internship to bits. I knew one thing for sure, that this opportunity had opened several doors for me and that I wished to become a journalist, I wanted people to read what I write.
My reason for being was to broaden my mind by reading a zillion books and write about everything that came to my mind. I wanted a platform that would give my opinions a voice. There were sleepless nights even then, but those were for shaping and planning about my future. I don’t mean to boast or anything, but I can say I was able to tick off a few things from my bucket list and this time there’s no stopping till all the wishes have been ticked off. In a way, you could say, ‘I did find my Ikigai’.