Ikigai and the concept of holistic happiness

The Japanese notion of "ikigai" incorporates all
facets of one's personal and professional work, and 
translates to "what brings happiness and joy to life."

There is an incredibly robust community of people around the world who work in and explore the breadth of all there is under the sun for data visualization. Far from being an exclusively North American or European discipline, there are new vantage points constantly evolving and developing and new generational voices emerging. It brings a sense of constant discovery and growth to this discipline; a sense of lifelong learning that has attracted me for as long as I can remember.

There are lots of non-Western concepts that are difficult to translate but incredibly rich in meaning. Today I learned of one, the notion of ikigai which is a Japanese expression that means "what brings happiness and joy to life" in work, hobbies, and personal relationships. It's a portmanteau of the words "iki" meaning life or alive, and "kai" meaning, among other things, a result, a fruit, or a benefit. In colloquial American English there are words like "jam," "thing," and similar expressions that convey the notion that one loves doing that particular activity. But the idea of something that brings happiness and joy to one's life -- not focused on economic ideas like benefit or value but focused on what holistically makes one feel happy and fulfilled -- is very attractive. It's in line with work that some economists have done to build personal happiness into our understanding of gross national product.

Annabelle Rincon, a Tableau Visionary and one of the leading advocates for Tableau and data visualization in general introduced me to this idea -- so thanks very much to her for giving voice to it.

This article from the Japanese government explains ikigai in a clear way, including the diagram above, with four overlapping facets:

• What you are good at;
• What you love;
• What the world needs; and
• What you can get paid for.

It also presents the example of Okinawan communities in southern Japan where people have long lives, and often continue in their occupations -- like farming -- for much of their lives after people in Western societies tend to have been long retired.

So how are we to think about ikigai - an artful and beautiful concept? How can we apply it in the context of analytical and visualization work? 

I tend to think of my ikigai in a stream-of-consciousness way. It's learning and absorbing everything that I can from the work that I do; finding and creating new ways of seeing things; creating art that includes insights from analytics and visualization; pushing the envelope; learning new things every day; giving voice to people and perspectives who may otherwise be voiceless; and teaching wherever and whenever I can, even if all that I can teach is how to ask the right questions.

What's attractive to me is that ikigai promotes a holistic view of what drives a person. It's not "motivation"; it's not "joy"; but rather it's a combination of all of those things. What do you give to the world? What do you love to do? How does it feed you, and how does it feed the world?

Having just been introduced to the concept, my experience and thoughts with it right now are in their early stages. I expect that my ikigai will evolve over time. Like with anything else, it's a journey, not a race. That said, it's a useful guide to have on the journey.

What does ikigai mean to you? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, and subscribe to this blog for more musings and pages about data visualization, baseball, and creativity. And happy Father's Day, on this day when we fathers often turn our thoughts to what we bring to the world.