Ikigai. Your Reason for Getting Out of Bed.

The Japanese have a wonderful knack for inventing words that describe feelings the rest of us just point at awkwardly.

A little while ago I wrote about Komorebi, that magical light filtering through the trees. Then there was Niksen, the Dutch art of doing absolutely nothing without feeling guilty.

Today it’s another Japanese favourite.

Ikigai.

If you’ve heard the French phrase raison d’être, you’ll already have a pretty good idea what we’re talking about. Both describe your reason for being. That thing that gets you out of bed in the morning with a little fire in your chest, before the coffee has even kicked in.

It isn’t necessarily your job.

It isn’t necessarily your hobby.

And it certainly isn’t just about making money.

It’s the thing that makes you lose track of time.

That funny place where time disappears

Have you ever looked up at the clock expecting it to be lunchtime only to discover it’s somehow five o’clock?

You were so completely absorbed in what you were doing that the outside world quietly disappeared for a while.

Psychologists call this a flow state. Athletes experience it. Musicians find it. Woodworkers, gardeners, writers, surfers, cooks, beekeepers… almost anyone can stumble into it.

You’re challenged just enough to stay engaged, but not so overwhelmed that you’re stressed.

You’re simply… there.

Present.

Creating.

Doing.

For me, photography has always been that place.

Ikigai isn’t a career.

One of the biggest misconceptions about Ikigai is that it has to become your profession.

It doesn’t.

Sometimes your Ikigai is restoring old motorcycles. Sometimes it’s growing tomatoes that somehow taste better than everyone else’s. Sometimes it’s hiking every weekend, painting tiny Warhammer figures, building guitars, making pottery or spending every spare minute learning Japanese. None of those things have to earn a dollar.

The value isn’t in the income.

The value is that they light something inside you.

They remind you that life isn’t just about calendars, emails and trying to remember why you walked into the kitchen. They reconnect you with curiosity.

And I think we all need a little more of that.

The overlap

The traditional idea of Ikigai is often shown as four overlapping circles.

• What you love.

• What you’re good at.

• What the world needs.

• What you can be paid for.

Where they all intersect is your Ikigai.

I like the diagram.

But I don’t think it tells the whole story.

Because if you remove the money circle entirely, the other three still matter.

Doing something because you love it. Because you’ve spent years getting better at it. Because it brings something positive into the world. That’s still a pretty wonderful way to spend your time.

Mine just happens to involve cameras.

Photography has never really felt like work to me.

I love meeting people I’d never otherwise meet. Hearing how they got to where they are. Discovering the strange little details that make them who they are.

Then comes my favourite part.

Finding a way to tell that story without saying a single word.

Whether it’s a local maker covered in sawdust, a business owner launching something new, an artist surrounded by half-finished ideas, or a family trying to convince their five-year-old that smiling isn’t a form of torture, every person brings something different. Every shoot is a puzzle. Every story deserves its own visual language. And I still get excited and nervous packing my camera bag. I reckon that’s a pretty good sign I’ve found my Ikigai.

What about you?

What makes the hours disappear?

What gets you out of bed with that little fire in your heart?

You don’t have to make a living from it.

Sometimes it’s enough just to make a life with it.