Building Your Personal Brand Through "Ikigai"
Finding your life compass
How To Define Your Brand?
This is one of the most common questions people face when they want to start building their personal brand.
Itās the hardest one because you probably have multiple areas of interest and passions, but the sooner you figure it out, the faster you will grow, as it acts as a life and creative compass that will help you be consistent and stay on track.
Itās only recently I learned about the Japanese concept, āIkigai,ā which stands for your reason for being (āIkiā means life, and āGaiā means worth or value in Japanese).
Ikigai is the intersection between:
- Passions: What you love doing
- Skills: What you are good at
- Monetization: What you can be paid for
- Altruism: What is good for the world & others
Finding that optimal space is challenging because our society tends to condition us to focus on the skills and the monetization areas, but that approach can easily lead to emptiness and a lack of sense of worth and purpose that the dollars in the bank wonāt fill.
My story
When I was unemployed in 2022 and I wasnāt able to find a job, I asked myself the scary question,
āWhat do I want to do with my life?ā
Itās not something people are expected to ask in their early 40s. I should have everything figured out by now! Well, guess whatā¦I didnāt, and it was a blessing: it meant I was a blank canvas ready to be filled. I just had to find the right brushes.
I didnāt know about Ikigai then, but subconsciously, I took a similar approach following these steps:
What am I passionate about?
Iāve always loved cultures and languages as well as developing people. I was brutally honest with myself: after 2 decades of leading people, I realized Iām passionate about their development and helping them be their best but not everything else that comes in the leadership package (performance management, HR-related stuff, appraisal, adminā¦).
My passion lies in giving people and organizations tools that help them thrive, and I love to do so through communication (writing, speaking, facilitating workshops, etc.).
What am I good at?
Iām still working on it, but I have always received positive feedback about my ability to communicate effectively and positively to motivate others (hence this newsletter :)
Because of my upbringing in different countries, I understand cultures and the challenges of working with people from different backgrounds, nationalities, and perspectives.
What can I get paid for?
Putting 1 and 2 together solved the monetization question fairly quickly: I could do anything that helps people and organizations improve, from coaching to delivering events, doing speeches and presentations, teaching, etc.
Whatās good for the world?
To be 100% transparent, I didnāt ask myself that question. I donāt have Mother Theresaās DNA, but I do have a strong sense of purpose, and I asked myself a different question:
What would give me a sense of purpose and fulfillment?
The answer was to help people who feel excluded and marginalized, like I was, unleash their potential by helping companies become more inclusive. That became my mission.
So what was the result?
I decided to specialize in an area called DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) and create strategies, workshops, and presentations for companies to develop inclusive environments with diverse teams. It didnāt just happen, and I had to repurpose some of my old skills and develop new ones, but once I found my intersection point, my life compass was recalibrated, and now I know exactly where Iām headed.
Your Turn
Itās hard to grasp an abstract concept without visualizing its practical implementation, so I hope my story can give you some hints on how you can go about it.
Itās your turn to put Ikagai into practice and find your life compass.
I would love to hear your thoughts. Feel free to comment below or send me an email.
If you are ready to start your reinvention journey, The Lemon Tree Mindset will show you the 19 lessons I applied myself.
I salute you for your fine writing. Never have I found IKIGAI translated so well.
Defining concepts is a skill, even a TALENT, few writers have. Well done.