In Japan, Ikigai is a popular concept that makes millions of people want to get out of bed in the morning. It translates simply as the ‘reason for being’. The term ikigai is composed of two Japanese words: ‘iki’ referring to life, and ‘kai’, which roughly means “the realisation of what one expects and hopes for”.

So, what is Ikigai?

Ikigai is seen as the convergence of four basic elements:

•          What you love (your passion and mission)

•          What the world needs (your mission and vocation)

•          What you are good at (your passion and profession)

•          What you can get paid for (your profession and vocation)

As a coach and mentor, I use a solution-focused approach to identify how their lives would look if they ‘allowed’ themselves to live a life, which converges on these four elements.

There are ten rules to find Ikigai

• Stay active and don’t retire
• Leave urgency behind and adopt a slower pace of life
• Only eat until you are 80 per cent full
• Surround yourself with good friends
• Get in shape through daily, gentle exercise
• Smile and acknowledge people around you
• Reconnect with nature
• Give thanks to anything that brightens our day and makes us feel alive
• Live in the moment
• Follow your igigai

By combining coaching with a walk in the hills, mountains, forests, or beaches, it can become a powerful, transformational nature-based coaching experience. As a Nature Therapy Guide as well as an experienced coach and mentor, I facilitate half day walks in the Wicklow Mountains at Glendalough on the east coast of Ireland where I live. If this is something you would like to experience or perhaps just a coaching ramble in the woods or beach, why not take the first step and contact me for chat about it.