Transcript

Lisa Virtue:

Welcome to HerCareer Studio. I'm your host and career coach Lisa Virtue. Here we live by the mantra Thrive at work so you can thrive in life because we know you are more than your day job. Each episode includes actionable tips and often mentor stories to not only boost your professional success, but also enhance your personal well being. Join me as we explore ways to ensure your career uplifts your life as you strive to achieve work life harmony. Head to HerCareeStudio for free resources and coaching services to help support you during career transitions and challenges such as when you are looking to find and land that next ideal job or promotion or are leading a new team. We're here to support you. Don't forget to hit that subscribe button and please hit the thumbs up or leave a five star review if you are finding the content useful.

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Lisa Virtue:

Hi there and welcome back to HerCareer Studio. I'm Lisa Virtue and I'm so excited you're here for episode three of Season two's Focus to help you in your job search. Right now we're talking still about clarity. If you've been feeling stuck or unsure about what kind of job truly aligns with who you are, today's episode is just for you. We're exploring the concept of Ikigai, a Japanese philosophy that helps you discover your purpose and how you can apply it to gain clarity in your job search. You may have heard of ikigai. There has been a lot of research done and documentaries that have been highlighting this concept. At the end of this episode, I'll guide you through a short meditation to help you reflect and journal about your own ikigai.

So make sure you have a notebook or journal handy. Before we begin, don't Forget to visit HerCareer Studio for free resources to support your job search, including tools to craft your resume and refine your career story. These resources are there to make your job search process as seamless as possible, so check them out after the episode. This week we will post the Ikigai Worksheet to accompany your clarity work. Alright, let's delve into the beautiful concept of Ikigai. First of all, what is ikigai? Ikigai translates to reason for being in Japanese. It's about finding the sweet spot where your passion, mission, vocation and profession overlap. Imagine a Venn diagram with four different circles, each one representing the following.

The first circle is what you love to do. This is your passion. The Second one is what are you good at? These are your skills. The third circle is what the world needs. This is the mission and purpose of your work. And the fourth circle is what you can be paid for. So these are the vocations or professional jobs. At the center of those four circles, where they overlap, is your ikigai.

This is your unique purpose or calling that aligns with who you are and what you bring to the world. Applying ikigai principles to your job search isn't about finding the perfect job. Instead, it's about aligning your work with your values, skills and passions so that your career feels meaningful and fulfilling and also relevant to what the world needs right now. That's why you can get paid for it. When we get paid, we're solving problems, so that's what we're trying to find. Where is the overlap and everything that comes together to find you those ideal jobs? Now, when you're clear about your ikigai, it becomes easier to filter through job opportunities and focus on the ones that truly align with your purpose. Instead of chasing rules that sound good on paper or applying to everything out of desperation, you can make intentional choices based upon what feels right for you. This, in effect, simplifies your job search and it makes it more efficient.

So, just to remind you, the more work you do now on finding that clarity versus going and throwing your name in the hat for just about everything, the more it's going to pay off in the long run. Now let's break down how each of these four circles of ikigai can guide your career. Clarity. First of all, the circle of what you love. Start by thinking about the tasks, projects or challenges that light you up. What do you enjoy doing so much that time seems to fly by? For instance, do you love a good Excel data cleanup task? Or maybe you enjoy meeting new people and learning about them. You might like teaching others and seeing those light bulb moments when they start to get it and understand the material. So really dig into the things in your day that make the time fly by.

Now, the second part of ikigai, what you're good at. These are your skills and strengths. The things people come to you for or that you excel at naturally, or skills that you've built up in your career to date. For instance, a certification that built out your project management skills so that you understand the theory and the language when you're speaking with project management professionals. This can also be technical skills. Let's say you're a software engineer and you are good at Python or Java. These are Those skills. The third part of ikigai is what the world needs.

So now let's pull back a little bit and and consider the broader impact you want to make. What problems do you care about solving? What kind of contribution feels meaningful to you? What are you seeing within the industry that you practice in where there's a big need or there's large problems that need to be solved? For instance, right now, while recording this episode, we see that AI and machine learning is taking the stage within the tech world. So figuring out where your place within that could be can be really impactful here. Now, the fourth part of ikigai is what you can be paid for. Finally, this is about practical alignment. So identify the roles or industries where you can earn a living while staying true to the other three areas. When you combine all four of these elements, you create a framework for evaluating opportunities and crafting a career path that feels purposeful and sustainable. Some of my clients like to use Excel to help filter through job opportunities, really boil it down to what they're looking for.

So that's another step here that you can take is to create an Excel document with filters that are based on these four different areas. Now let me share a quick story about one of my clients, Stephanie, who applied ikigai principles to her job search. When Stephanie started her career transition, she was stuck in roles that paid the bills, but left her feeling drained and unfulfilled. Not sustainable. After working through her ikigai, she realized she loved storytelling, which is the what you love circle. She also had a knack for writing and strategy, that's the what you're good at circle. She cared deeply about empowering women entrepreneurs, so this showed up in her what the world needs circle. There was a mission to her work and a certain audience that she knew she could unblock by focusing on roles that brought these elements together.

Stephanie landed a content marketing position at a company that supports female owned businesses. Not only did it align with her skills and passions, but it also allowed her to make a meaningful impact her ikigai in action. This approach can work for you too, so let's move on to helping you discover and find your own ikigai. This next part of the podcast is going to be a guided meditation and journaling exercise. So make a note here at the timestamp to come back later. Or if you can right now, go grab a journal to follow this guided meditation. Okay, let's take a moment to reflect on your own ikigai. If you're somewhere quiet and can sit comfortably, feel free to close your eyes for this next part.

If you're on the go, no worries. You can listen along and come back to this later when you have some time to journal. Make a note of the time stamp right now in this episode. I will also include it in the description below. Let's begin with the guided meditation. First, close your eyes and imagine the answers to these questions. Then journal them. At the end.

Feel free to come back to this time and again as needed to gain clarity and visualize your future.

Take a deep breath in and let it out. One more time. Deep breath in and let it out. As you settle into your breath, I want you to visualize your ideal workday. Imagine waking up in the morning, excited for the day ahead. What are you doing? Where are you? Who are you working with? Now, think about what you love. What tasks or projects bring you joy? What do you naturally gravitate toward? Which tasks do you automatically want to do first on a regular basis? I'll pause here for reflection.

Next, think about what you're good at. What strengths or skills come easily to you? What do others often praise you for? Let's pause here so you can reflect on that and imagine it. Now, let's shift your focus to what the world needs. What problems do you feel drawn to solve? What kind of impact feels meaningful to you? What types of problems do you see are common in the world, Your community and your industry? Here, you can also focus on the types of audience or clients or businesses that have problems that you can solve. Let's pause for reflection. Finally, consider what you can be paid for. What roles, industries, or opportunities that you know of align with your skills and provide financial sustainability. I'll pause here.

Okay, now come back and take another deep breath in and let it out. When you're ready, open your eyes and grab your journal. Now let's go back to journaling prompts. What did you visualize during this exercise? Write it down. Where were you? Who were you with? What work were you doing? What kinds of job titles did you imagine? What themes or ideas stood out as important to you? Where were your aha moments? How can you start aligning your job search with the elements of your ikigai? Where are you feeling motivated right now? Write it down. Now take some time to write freely. There's no right or wrong. Just let your thoughts flow.

That's the end of the guided meditation. Thank you so much for joining me for this reflective episode of HerCareer Studio. I hope the Ikigai principles and meditation helped you uncover new insights about what kind of career feels meaningful to you. Remember, we're not looking for a dream job or an end all be all. We're looking for meaningful and purposeful work that you can get paid for. And you are unique. Someone else's meaningful job may not be yours. So really do yourself a service and be authentic about this work and really think about what you have uniquely to include.

If you're ready to take the next step, visit hercareerstudio.com for free tools to help you refine your resume, tell your career story and align your job search with your purpose. Like I mentioned at the beginning, there's also an Ikigai worksheet. So if you are lacking a journal or you just want to have a little more structured guidance into this meditation and this work, go download that now. In our next episode, we'll dive into some of the secrets of an efficient and effective job search. So do this clarity work now and and then join me for the next episode and we'll get moving and take action. Until next time. Remember, you've got this and I'm cheering you on every step of the way. I'll see you in the next episode of HerCareer Studio.

Thank you so much for joining.

Lisa Virtue:

Are you currently in the job search or looking to make a career transition? HerCareer Studio has you covered. Hi, this is Lisa Virtue, the career coach and the founder of HerCareer Studio that is dedicated to bringing you free resources. So head to hercareerstudio.com and get your free cover letter template, the guide to how to write it and your free resume template. Keep it simple and use these tried and true resume templates that are also ATS friendly and in Google Docs so they're easy to edit and keep track of. This will build out your career story in writing so that you can get those interviews and ultimately land that ideal job. You got this. Good luck and best wishes.