Ikigai

Living life wholly, searching purpose and secret to longevity - ⭐⭐

• Book written by Hector Garcia and Francesc Miralles.
• Started : 07th March, 2025 - Finished : 27th March, 2025

Notable lines

Pg.64 Even those who claim to be good at multitasking are not very productive. In fact, they are some of the least productive people.

Pg.64 When we say we're multitasking, what we're really doing is switching back and forth between tasks very quickly. Unfortunately, we are not computers adept at parallel processing. We end up spending all our energy alternating between tasks, instead of focusing on doing one of them well.

Pg.65 It has been scientifically shown that if we continually ask our brains to switch back and forth between tasks, we waste time, make more mistakes, and remember less of what we've done.

Pg.81 Even Bill Gates washes the dishes every night. He says he enjoys it- that it helps him relax and clear his mind, and that he tries to do it a little better each day, following an established or set of rules he's made for himself: plates first, forks second, and so on.

Pg.92 One of her secrets may have been her sense of humor. As she said on her 120th birthday, "I see badly, I hear badly, and I feel bad, but everything's fine."

Pg.94 When asked about his secret to living long, his answer was "I don't know. I just haven't died yet."

Pg.96 Carmen Herrera, a painter who just entered her one hundredth year, sold her first canvas at age eight-nine.

Pg.111 Washington Burnap stated two hundred years ago: "The grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to live, and something to hope for."

Pg.183 Life is not a problem to be solved. Just remember to have something that keeps you busy doing what you love while being surrounded by the people who love you.

Notes

• Ikigai is a Japanese concept, which means, "The happiness of always being busy". Ikigai refers to the sense of purpose in our life.
• The author talks about an Island in Japan called Okinawa, the island with the most centenarians in the world.
• Blue zones refers to Geographic regions where people live longest. Five Blue zones are-
  • Okinawa, Japan
  • Sardinia, Italy
  • Loma Linda, California
  • The Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica
  • Ikaria, Greece
• 80% Rule - Fill your belly to 80 percent. Okinawans stop eating when when they feel their stomachs reach 80 percent of their capacity, rather than overeating and wearing down their bodies with long digestive processes that accelerate cellular oxidation.
• Moai - It is an informal group of people with common interests who look out for one another. For many, serving the community becomes part of their ikigai. Members of a Moai make a set monthly contribution to the group. This payment allows them to participate in meetings, dinners, games of go and shogi (Japanese chess), or whatever hobby they have in common. The funds collected by the group are used for activites but if there is money left over, one member(decided on rotating basis) receives a set amount from the surplus. Also if a member is in financial trouble, he or she can get an advance from the group.
• Stress and longevity have very important relationship. Intense stress is enemy of longevity whereas Low stress have been shown to be beneficial.
• Next, Chapter-III, authors talk about Logotherapy created by Viktor Frankl which deals with asking patient "reasons to live". Once case study is talked about where a grief stricken elderly doctor who lost his beloved wife two years back.Frankl asks doctor what would have happened to his wife if he had died earlier. The doctor replies that it would have been very terrible for his wife. She would have suffered tremendously. Then Frankl says him that the doctor has spared her wife all that suffering, but the price to pay for this is to survive and mourn her.

• Finding flow in everything

• According to Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the state "flow" is described as the pleasure and delight when we are completely immersed in life. There are serveral strategy to achieve flow.
  • Strategy-1: Choose a difficult task (Neither too easy nor too hard) - ex. If you are a programmer, try a new programming language.
  • Strategy-2: Have a clear, concrete objective. Most of us have map but no destination. We are busy doing and preparing without having clear objective in our mind about what we want to achieve. It is much more important to have a compass pointing to a concrete objective than to have a map.

• Having clear objective is important in achieving flow, but we also have to know how to leave it behind when we get down to business. Once the journey has begun, we should keep this objective in mind without obsessing over it.

• Vague objective leads to confusion and time and energy wasted on meaningless tasks, whereas obsessive desire to achieve a goal while ignoring process leads to fixation on the objective rather than getting down to business. But clearly defined objective and focus on process leads "Flow".
  • Strategy-3: Concentrate on a single task. It has been scientifically shown that if we continually ask our brain to switch back and forth between tasks, we waste time, make more mistakes, and remember less of what we've done.
• Important lines from interviews of Centenarians in Ogimi regarding life philosophy and secret to longevity-
  • The secret to a long life is not to worry.
  • The best way to avoid anxiety is to go out in the street and say hello to people.
  • Spending time together and having fun is the only thing that matters.
  • I feel joy every morning waking up at six and opening the curtains to look out at my garden, where I grow my own vegetables.
  • I wake up at five every morning, leave the house, and walk to the sea. Then I go to a friend's house and we have tea together.
  • Doing many different things every day. Always staying busy but doing one thing at a time, without getting overwhelmed.
  • Dancing and singing with your grandchildren is the best thing in life. They have an ikigai, but they don't take it too seriously. They are relaxed and enjoy all that they do.

Resilience

• Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha) was born a prince of Kapilavastu, Nepal. He got married at 16.At 29, he decided to try a different lifestyle and ran away from the palace to live as ascetic. But it wasn't asceticism that he was looking for. It didn't offer the happiness and well-being he sought. Neither wealth nor extreme asceticism worked for him. He realized that a wise person should not ignore life's pleasure, rather he can live with these pleasures but should always remain conscious of how easy it is to be enslaved by them.
  • We should never forget that everything we have and all the people we love will disappear at some point. This is something we should keep in mind, but without giving in to pessimism. Being aware of the impermanence of things doesn't have to make us sad; it should help us love the present moment and those who surround us.
  • The temprary, ephemeral, and impremanent nature of the world is central to every Buddhist discipline. Keeping this always in mind helps us avoid excessive pain in times of loss.
• Zeno of Citium began his studies with the Cynics. The cynics also led ascetic lives, leaving behind all the earthly pleasures. The only thing they owned was the clothing on their backs. Seeing that this doesn't give him a sense of well being, he abondaned its teachings and founded the school of Stoicism, which centers on the idea that there is nothing wrong with enjoying life's pleasures as long as they do not take control of your life as you enjoy them. You have to be prepared for those pleasure to disappear. The stoics viewed those who were able to control their emotions as virtuous.
  • Desires and ambitions to achieve more and more, are not worth pursuing. The objective of the virtuous person is to reach a state of tranquility: absence of negative feelings such as anxiety, fear, shame, vanity, and anger, and the presence of positive feelings such as happiness, love, serenity, and gratitude.
  • In order to keep their minds virtuous, the stoics practiced negative visualisation. ie. Imagining the worst thing that could happen but without worrying about them, in order to be prepared if certain privileges and pleasures were taken from them.

Wabi-sabi

Its a Japanese concept that shows us the beauty of the fleeting, changeable, and imperfect nature of the world around us. It teaches us to appreciate the beauty of imperfection as an opportunity for growth. This is why Japanese place such value , for example, on an irregular or cracked teacup. Only things that are imperfect, incomplete, and ephemeral can truly be beautiful, because only those things resemble the natural world.

• In the West we have grown accustomed to the permanence of the stone buildings and cathedrals of Europe, which sometimes gives us the sense that nothing changes, making us forget about the passage of time. Greco-Roman architecture adores symmetry, sharp lines, imposing facades, and building and statues of the gods that outlast the centuries.
• In Japanese architecture is built in the spirit of wabi-sabi. The tradition of making structures out of wood presupposes their impermanence and the need for future generations to rebuild them. Japanese culture accepts the fleeting nature of the human being and everything we create. ex. The Grand Shrine of Ise has been rebuilt every 20 years for centuries. The most important thing is not to keep the building standing for generations, but to preserve customs and traditions-things that can withstand the passage of time better than structures made by human hands.

Ichi-go, ichi-e

Translated from Japanese language, This moment exists only now and won't come again. It is heard most often in social gatherings as a reminder that each encounter whether with friends, family, or strangers- is unique and will never be repeated, meaning that we should enjoy the moment and not lose ourselves in worries about the past or the future. The concept is commonly used in Tea ceremonies, Zen meditation, and Japanese martial arts, all of which place special emphasis on being present in the moment.

How to become Antifragile

Antifragile means becoming stronger when harmed (upto a point). 1. Create more options. ex. Multiple sources of income, multiple friends, etc. 2. Bet conservatively in certain areas and take many small risks in others. ex. If we have $10,000, put $9000 in fixed-term deposit (safe option), and bet remaining $1000 in multiple startups with huge growth potential (risk, but small), say $100 in 10 startups each. 3. Get rid of things that make you fragile. ex. Avoid spending time with toxic people, stop snacking between meals, etc.

The Epilogue

Summarizing the book, the 10 rules of Ikigai are- 1. Stay active, don't retire. 2. Take it slow. Leave behind urgency. 3. Don't fill your stomach. Use 80% rule. 4. Surround yourself with good friends. 5. Get in shape for your next birthday. 6. Smile. 7. Reconnect with nature. 8. Be thankful to nature, ancestors, food we eat, friends, family and to everything 9. Live in the moment. Stop regretting the past and fearing the future. Make your today worth remembering. 10. Follow your ikigai. If you don't know what you ikigai is yet, as Viktor Frankl says, your mission is to discover it.

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