What is Your Purpose in Life?

By:  Marc Winn

(This is from his original article entitledWhat is your Ikigai originally appeared at theviewinside.me)

According to the Japanese, everyone has an ikigai. An ikigai is essentially ‘a reason to get up in the morning’. A reason to enjoy life.

Having spent most of the last few years helping dozens and dozens of entrepreneurs find their ikigai, whilst also searching for my own, I can now visualise where it belongs.

Your ikigai lies at the centre of  those interconnecting circles. If you are lacking in one area, you are missing out on your life’s potential. Not only that, but you are missing out on your chance to live a long and happy life.

I have had a long time obsession with outliers, and interestingly enough, there are some outlier communities in the world that live far longer than average. If you are interested in learning more about this, watch Dan Buettner’s TED talk on How to Live to 100+. There are some surprising conclusions about the factors that create a long and healthy life. One of the most significant factors is ikigai.

These days, my reason for getting out of bed is to work on projects that reimagine society and education. For someone who spent decades struggling to find a reason to get out of bed, it is now a refreshing change to have this deep sense of purpose. My health and wellbeing have radically improved during recent years, too. The primary reason for this has not been the healthy choices I have made or the diets I have followed, but because I now live with a sense of purpose – and that is the platform for all the other decisions I make.

In The Dandelion Project, we are looking to make Guernsey the best place to live on earth by 2020. Part of that mission is discovering how we can all live a long and healthy life. One of our moonshot goals is for Guernsey to become the first country on earth to have a life expectancy of 100.

We have created this goal to challenge our community to look at healthcare in a radically different way. Living a long life has very little to do with medicine and surgery, which is where most of our health care spending goes. It has everything to do with moving, eating and meaning. All of which can be achieved at no cost to the community.

If we can come together with a collective sense of belief and purpose and take action on this, our population of 65,000 will live longer and be in better health. All without a single doctor’s appointment or pill!

The secret to a long and happy life is not to live in the hope of a great life tomorrow. It is to live with intention today. What I love is that this is possible not only at the individual level, but entire communities can learn from it, as well.

Have you found your ikigai?

– Are you doing something that you love?

– That the world needs?

– That you are good at?

– And that you can be paid for?

How can you live with purpose today, to live a longer and healthier life?

As ever, I am interested to hear your thoughts, comments, and experiences. Please share them in the comments section below.

Marc

5 Surest Way to Finish and Graduate from College

By:  Gilbert M. Forbes
DepEd QUEZON, CALABARZON

Most are studying college for the belief that it is the best thing to do so that one can find and land a good paying job in the future.  A good paying job that will improve the family's standard of living. However, for the most poor college student, there is a great uncertainty even if one is full scholar.  Even those already receiving enough monthly stipend as part of their scholarship may still find a hard time.  What can be done:

Images courtesy of google search

1.  Focus on your studies. Avoid all negative influences and don't get into serious romantic relationship as much as possible. Remember, you are studying to graduate and have a college degree and ultimately a good job once graduated and not settle.

2.  Don't be shy just because you couldn't go along with the fashion trend, gizmos, events, parties etc of your classmates, friends and barkada's particularly the financially well-off because they already know and would have actually understood your situation from the very beginning that they got to know you.  Prove your worth in everything that you do with excellence but with humility and love for the glory of  God

3.  Be truthful to yourself and don't pretend that you belong to the well-off or middle class families just to get along with the real ones.  It will not do any good but harm.  Be proud instead of your situation and be the best that you can be.  Remember, you are there to study and ultimately finish not impress the social caste by becoming a social butterfly.

4.  Be extra-productive.  While, in college, studying, you could apply as student assistant in your school or a part time job outside which will help you earn while you learn and improve and enrich your resume' as well. It will put you step ahead once you graduate and start looking for a job. If having a part time job is not feasible, you can try 'direct selling' even multi- level marketing during your idle time.  You could also engage into seasonal business during semestral breaks or help in family income generating jobs.

5.  Leave all your worries to God in prayer and trust Him.  He will surely make a way when there seems to be no way by using other people whom at the least you are not expecting that they will.  Be surrounded by positive and religiously active people.  You could join the parish choir or the youth organization or even offer yourself to minister.

Surely, with diligence, patience and trust in God, you will achieve your dreams.