This week I stumbled upon a contest I absolutely did not want to miss! To learn more about the rules of participating, check this out. The Hive Book Club has given us 3 writing prompts from which we only pick one. Here are the given prompts:
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1. What self-book that you didn't expect you would enjoy reading?
2. How has a self-help book impacted you positively?
3. Do you ever have a disagreement with the author's advice from your favorite self-help book? Explain your disagreement.
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I have chosen to answer the second question. I was recently recommended to read the book Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life by a friend who has been very supportive towards my initiative of branching out with new skills and hobbies. Coincidentally, the key takeaway from this book significantly impacted a series of artistic conflicts and doubts I experienced this week.
Ikigai has multiple translations present in the book which is written by a Japanese citizen and a Spanish writer: Hector Garcia and Francesc Miralles. Ikigai stands for a motivating force in a persons life which gives them a sense of purpose to live and continue forward (Garcia and Miralles, 2016, p.11).
How has this book impacted me positively?
At the start of this week, I took upon a sudden project to make pixelated animals for someone very dear to me. We will call this person the client. I created a series of pixelated sketches of cats and kittens for the client and received their approval to go forward with the coloring and shading process. It was at this stage where I ran into a series of dilemmas. The client wanted a variety of different color schemes along with shading and dithering effects.
Due to time zone differences and different perspectives about color and shading choices, I felt defeated, discouraged and weary when I had to make 24 edits to multiple pixelated cat drawings as the client kept changing last minute details to the pixelated cat design. It was at this point, I began to question and doubt my skills, understanding and creative appeal around what I had created.
I took this moment to take reading breaks and evening walks to clear my mind off. It was at this moment, the concept of Ikigai flooded my mind. I realized that my main motivation to stick to this project until the client is satisfied was because I enjoyed the challenge it put me through. It was a mental workout for me and it kept my brain active. After every edit, I would look at my screen with a fresh perspective and turn on my critical thinking skills to pin point a clear image of the final product the client wants.
In a rural town of Japan called Ogimi, there is a population of 3000 people with the highest life expectancy in the world. It is called The Village of Longevity (Garcia and Miralles, 2016, p.30). A series of interviews about the people's lifestyles are present in this book. One of the members of the village connected Ikigai with mental training and developing an insatiable thirst for resilience and creating a robust character.
This addition to the Ikigai perspective was refreshing and very much needed for me. After my brief moment of existential frustration, I decided to develop a stoic attitude. I chose to adapt to meet the clients demands instead of wasting my emotional reserves.
I want to leave you with two final quotes from this book: " Every person has an essence or a mabui". Mabui is our spirit and the source of our life force (Garcia and Miralles, 2016, p.75). I believe that there is a little gear inside all of us. We only need to find it and drive it towards the direction of our self-actualization process where self discovery is born.
"Keep your heart young, don’t let it grow old"
Source: Japaese Proverb (p.80)
Now I want to hear from you, what is your Ikigai or driving force in life?