The other day I was talking to my nephew about his school options. He’s finishing high school next year and needs to decide which program to choose from in college.
His two main choices are psychology and the audio-visual program and he was leaning towards the former.
When I asked why, he said he likes psychology. While I agreed it’s an interesting topic, I told him liking something isn’t a good enough reason to choose a career in it.
To help him make a decision, I told him about Ikigai. Ikigai is a way of helping you decide which path is best suited for you.
The basic idea is you need 4 things to make your career feel full.
- You need to love it
- You need to be good at it
- The world needs it
- Someone is willing to pay you for it
Any combination of 1, 2, or even 3 of these areas will result in a less-than-optimal choice.
The takeaway
Life is too short to feel incomplete. So do your best at finding something that fufills all 4 areas.