Now despite being a popular tourist destination and the setting for the much underrated Karate Kid (part II)  you may not have heard much about Okinawa.

However the thing that fascinates me most about the Okinawa Islands is it’s status as one of a hand full of global ‘blue zones’.

You see ‘Blue Zones’ are the places in the world peoples have been shown to live longer than any other place in the world and despite dotted being around the globe (others are in Greece, Italy and Costa Rica) the one which stands out for me is the selection of little islands in Japan…the Okinawa Islands.

You see the Okinawa Islands share many of the traits of other blue zones in the world. They have plant based diets, they walk a lot, they spend loads of time with family and friends, they have a positive outlook and they feel a connection with their community.

However one thing they share with many blue zones but are incredibly clear about is they have a ‘vocabulary for a sense of purpose’

You see in Okinawa there is no word for ‘retirement’…

Instead they have one word which describes a very specific approach to their lives…

Ikigai

Now it’s meaning is translatable…

For the French it’s ‘raison d’etre’

In Portuguese it’s  ‘Razão de ser’

Ancient latin speaking languages even had a version – ratio exsistendi

For me the translation of ‘Ikigai’ I use most is clear…

It’s the reason you get out of bed in the morning.

You see for me it’s a subject that I think about quite a lot (I wrote about it recently here) however for the residents of the Okinawa Islands Ikigai means focusing on a combination of four things…

Doing the things you love

Doing the things the world (or your community) needs

Doing the things which can be rewarded for

and

Doing the things you are good at

You know, the more I think about this the more I believe we can learn a lot from this approach to life.

An approach where, regardless of your age, you focus on spending time doing things you’d do for free (because you love doing them some much), which are useful to the world, where you are rewarded (either financially, morally or in other ways) and where you have a skill set which allows you to excel.

It’s also clear to me that ‘Ikigai’ doesn’t need to be achieved in one specific way.

We’ll all have parts of our day which we’re spending our time doing stuff which meets the definition of ‘Ikigai’ and others parts which won’t. However I suppose the secret is to try to spend more time doing more of the stuff which gets out of bed and less of the stuff you’d actually stay in bed to avoid. However like much in life it’s simple but often not easy.

Often one of the conversations we have with our personal financial planning clients is helping them understand a bit more about how to spend their time more meaningfully, especially if they’re in a position where they now have a lot more time than they previously expected. However sometimes they’ve been so busy pursuing a particular aspirational goal that they’d never taken the time to think about what truly makes them happy.

So, I sat here wondering, whether all of us at any age from 18 to 88, man and women, and regardless of where you live in the world would benefit from spending some time thinking about what their true purpose is…and whether the concept which helps the residents of the Okinawa islands live so long would also help us lead happier, healthier and longer lives?

What do you think?