I ran across the Japanese concept of ikigai today. There was a Venn diagram associated with ikigai that I found fascinating. I remember when I was younger and trying to figure out what to do with my life I seemed to run across the advice along the lines of “follow your passion” and “do what you enjoy”. But this didn’t seem to be practical. Most of the things I liked to do didn’t pay very well, if at all. I figured you had to find some balance between doing what you like and what pays the bills. I’m probably lucky that I did find something I really liked to do, that also paid the bills. The Diagram below (taken from the World Economic Forum article “Is this Japanese concept the secret to a long, happy, meaningful life?“) lays it out in more detail. Wish I had seen this when I was a young man.