This article has no solutions. This article has no formula for you to implement to improve a certain aspect of your life.
This article’s purpose is to simply remind you that we are all hot messes.
I will never forget an interview I conducted with my local police chief on her views on leadership. She said, “Leadership is about people, and people are messy.”
I was recently reminded of her quote when we had a brief discussion about Ikigai in one of the coaching groups I belong to.
For those who don’t know, Ikigai is a Japanese concept referring to something that gives a person a sense of purpose, a reason for living.
I’ve been familiar with this concept for many years and the beautifully balanced Zen visual image of Ikigai is shown below.
Isn’t it pretty?
Yes, I do believe taking the time to really get clear on who you are, what you believe in, what you’re good at, and what you can make money doing is important for everybody.
At the same time, I saw this image recently in my coaching group.
I call this image the “real Ikigai”.
While the Ikigai concept is important and certainly something we can all strive for, what we should do, what we need to do, what we want to do, and what we actually do are usually not as aligned as we’d like them to be.
And like I said, this article is not to teach you how to create alignment between them.
It’s a simple reminder that all of us share the experience of feeling like a hot mess sometimes, no matter if you’re the CEO of a multi-billion company or the solo-preneur coach racking their brains to create their next client (and I’ve coached both).
Not only does the police chief’s message about people being messy resonate with me because I too can be messy at times, she said it’s a reminder for herself to have more empathy, not take herself too seriously, and to remember that we are all much more similar than we are different.
So, as we already wrap up 1/12th of the year, let’s all remember that we are all hot messes, nobody really knows what they’re doing, we’re all kind of making it up as we go along, and perhaps remembering that this is the secret to achieving true Ikigai.
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