Hi friends, welcome back to our exploration of Ikigai, the essence of a life well-lived.
Today, let’s explore how to maintain your Ikigai.
If you’ve discovered yours, that’s fantastic. If not, check out my previous article.
Once you’ve found your Ikigai, the next step is crucial: sustaining it.
This requires adaptation, balance, resilience, and community support.
In this piece, we’ll examine a worldwide phenomenon observed in those who have retired from full-time work called Retirement Depression, review Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, and, finally, I will share practical tips for adapting Ikigai to evolving circumstances.
Let’s get started.
1. Coping with Retirement Depression
Have you ever heard of “retirement depression”?
“Retirement depression” refers to when someone who has been solely focused on their job reaches retirement age and suddenly loses things to do, leading to depression as they live in isolation at home.
With few hobbies and most relationships revolving around work, losing connection with society after leaving work can drastically decrease opportunities to talk with anyone outside the immediate family.
This leads to frequent feelings of depression and mental instability.
In Japan, many companies implement “mandatory retirement,” where employment contracts end based on the age stipulated in company regulations.
There, the percentage of people under 65 with depression is reportedly about 3%, but it increases to 5% after reaching retirement age.
Upon retiring, so many people become lose their Ikigai:
- With fewer chances to socialize, my daily life lacks the energy and excitement it once had.
- The roles I held within my family have disappeared, leaving me feeling displaced in my own home.
- Even if I find work elsewhere after retiring, I struggle to find positions that align with my preferences.
- Even though I was dependable at work, I now feel less needed after retiring, which makes me lonely.
- The absence of commuting to work disrupts my daily routine, causing me to feel sluggish in my body.
This can create one of the worst scenarios for mental health.
Moreover, retirement depression tends to affect more men, as during their working years, their job is often their primary source of fulfillment.
Whether we can find new sources of fulfillment, such as hobbies after retiring, often correlates with their subsequent level of fulfillment.
2. Maslow’s Hierarchy and Ikigai
To comprehend human motivation and fulfillment, let’s look at the theory of five stages of human needs Abraham Maslow, an American psychologist (1908–1970), proposed, famously known as Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
According to Maslow:
- The first stage of desire pertains to physiological needs such as hunger and sleep, which are essential for survival.
- The second stage involves the desire for safety and security.
- The third stage revolves around the need for social connections and belongingness, as a lack of fulfillment in this area leads to loneliness and social anxiety.
- The fourth stage encompasses the desire for recognition, respect, and admiration from others, including aspirations for career advancement.
- The fifth stage involves the desire for self-actualization, aspiring to become the best version of oneself through personal growth.
Maslow classified physiological needs and safety needs as physical desires, while social needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization needs as psychological desires.
In this framework, Ikigai is believed to align with the third and higher stage of human needs, emphasizing social connections and belongingness.
Relationships with friends, family, and society contribute to a sense of fulfillment.
Having relationships with friends and family and belonging to the workplace and society is believed to contribute to the possession of Ikigai.
After retiring from work, finding new places of belonging, such as friends, family, community, and society becomes necessary.
Fulfilling the “social needs (belongingness needs)” is thought to lead to a sense of fulfillment in life.
3. How to Sustain Ikigai Through Life’s Changes
Now, let’s discuss specifically what we can do to maintain Ikigai across different stages of life.
In essence, balancing “work” with “family,” “friends,” “hobbies,” and “community activities” over the long term is linked to a fulfilling life.
Oftentimes, this concept is called “work-life balance,” and it has gained increasing traction in Japanese society today.
The objects of Ikigai and where we find them vary by age.
In youth, the focus may be on “work,” with opportunities for fulfillment in “hobbies” or “sports,” and in building a “family” with a spouse or children.
However, as individuals age, shifting emphasis towards “community engagement” or “health promotion” may help maintain Ikigai.
We can map Ikigai like a portfolio for each stage of life and adjust the distribution to fit the specific needs and desires of that stage.
For instance, in my case, I could create a portfolio of my Ikigai as follows:
My Ikigai Portfolio
Today:
The source of my Ikigai lies half in my work, one-third of the other half in my family and friends, and the remainder in hobbies and learning.
When I have a partner and children, my focus shifts to family and friends, so balancing work, family and friends becomes crucial. Until my children become independent, Family and friends take up a significant portion of my life.
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, I realized the importance of enriching interactions with my family, friends, and hobbies in providing me with vitality. Looking back, I recall a period of temporary loss of purpose when I had to refrain from hobbies, outings, and contact with friends and peers due to the pandemic’s restrictions, starting around the time of my university graduation.
Drawing from this past experience, I now ensure to include time for my family and friends, and hobbies in my portfolio, regardless of how fulfilling and enjoyable my work may be.
Later Life:
In the latter half of my life, much of my fulfillment comes from hobbies and social activities. As you can see, my portfolio has become more diversified compared to youth.
With aging comes the gradual loss of health and the inevitable contemplation of losing family members over time. As I age, it’s essential for me to explore sources of Ikigai that are renewable, not just tangible assets like health and family.
Around me, the everlasting source of Ikigai lies in connections with people, not just family and friends but also enduring ties with the community and society.
By maintaining relationships through activities like community engagement, I can fulfill my social and recognition needs, gain satisfaction, and achieve self-actualization by working towards my Ikigai goals.
To achieve this, it’s vital for me to continue to seek out new sources of Ikigai, which also leads to discovering new aspects of myself. The learning aspect is designed to explore the outside world for this purpose.
Closing this article on sustaining Ikigai, envision yourself at the age of 65.
It could be a decade, two, three, four, or more away.
But when you picture yourself at that age, are you smiling? Do you have a reason to wake up every morning?
You’re on the right path if the image behind your closed eyes is a smile.
If not, don’t fret.
You need to revisit your Ikigai portfolio and adjust the pie by resizing activities or adding new ones.
Close your eyes again, journey forward, and meet your 65-year-old self. Ask, are you happy? Repeat until you see their smile.
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See you in my next piece!