We had MudLOVE bands made for our recent Small Cities, Big Futures Summit that contain a unique Japanese word “Ikigai.”
Ikigai is a concept that basically means “reason for being.” It’s something I heard on a TED Radio Hour interview with Dan Buettner, whose TED Talk How to live to be 100 focused on Blue Zones such as Okinawa, Japan in which people on average live longer than anyone else on the planet.
In the Okinawan language, there isn’t a word for “retirement,” because Ikigai is a word that “infuses your entire life,” which roughly translated is “why you get out of bed in the morning.”
We are fortunate in economic development to be able to bring people together, help them build companies and communities, and share their stories broadly. What a great reason to get out of bed in the morning.
This is National Customer Service Week (thanks to our friends at HeroCx for the reminder!). With the importance of employee and customer engagement, it seems like a fantastic opportunity for each of us to consider our Ikigai.
– Alan Tio
PS. You can find a helpful illustration of Ikigai at the link HERE.
