Ikigai : the Japanese secret to a long and happy life pdfdrive com

Step 3: Get rid of the things that make you fragile

We’re taking the negative route for this exercise. Ask yourself: What makes me fragile? Certain people, things, and habits generate losses for us and make us vulnerable. Who and what are they?
When we make our New Y ear’s resolutions, we tend to emphasize adding new challenges to our lives. It’s great to have this kind of objective, but setting “good riddance” goals can have an even bigger impact. For example:

Stop snacking between meals
Eat sweets only once a week
Gradually pay off all debt
Avoid spending time with toxic people
Avoid spending time doing things we don’t enjoy, simply because we feel obligated to do them
Spend no more than twenty minutes on Facebook per day
To build resilience into our lives, we shouldn’t fear adversity, because each setback is an opportunity for growth. If we adopt an antifragile attitude, we’ll find a way to get stronger with every blow, refining our lifestyle and staying focused on our ikigai.
Taking a hit or two can be viewed as either a misfortune or an experience that we can apply to all areas of our lives, as we continually make corrections and set new and better goals. As Taleb writes in Antifragile, “We need randomness, mess, adventures, uncertainty, self-discovery, hear traumatic episodes, all these things that make life worth living.” We encourage those interested in the concept of antifragility to read Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s Antifragile.
L ife is pure imperfection, as the philosophy of wabi-sabi teaches us, and the passage of time shows us that everything is fleeting, but if you have a clear sense of your ikigai, each moment will hold so many possibilities that it will seem almost like an eternity.
EPILOGUE

Ikigai: The art of living

Mitsuo Aida was one of the most important calligraphers and haikuists of the twentieth century. He is yet another example of a Japanese person who dedicated his life to a very specific ikigai: communicating emotions with seventeen-syllable poems, using a shodo calligraphy brush.
Many of Aida’s haikus philosophize about the importance of the present moment, and the passage of time. The poem reproduced below could be translated as “In the here and now, the only thing in my life is your life.”
いまここにしかないわたし
のいのちあなたのいのち
In another poem, Aida writes simply, “Here, now.” It is an artwork that seeks to evoke feelings of mono no aware (a melancholy appreciation of the ephemeral).
いまここ
The following poem touches on one of the secrets of bringing ikigai into our lives: “Happiness is always determined by your heart.”
しあわせはいつも自分の心がきめる
This last one, also by Aida, means “K eep going; don’t change your path.”
This last one, also by Aida, means “K eep going; don’t change your path.”
そのままでいいがな
Once you discover your ikigai, pursuing it and nurturing it every day will bring meaning to your life. The moment your life has this purpose, you will achieve a happy state of flow in all you do, like the calligrapher at his canvas or the chef who, after half a century, still prepares sushi for his patrons with love.