Girl mediating over mountains
Finding your Ikigai

Read time: 3 min

One thing I am learning about

Ikigai diagram a Japanese concept meaning a reason for being

Ikigai is seen as the convergence of four primary elements:

  • What you love (your passion)
  • What the world needs (your mission)
  • What you are good at (your vocation)
  • What you can get paid for (your profession)

Discovering your own ikigai is said to bring fulfilment, happiness and make you live longer.

Want to find your Ikigai? One thing I have been journaling on each morning is asking myself these four questions:

1. What do I love?
2. What am I good at?
3. What can I be paid for now — or something that could transform into my future hustle?
4. What does the world need?

One thing about our logo...

An early drawing of the No Ordinary Moments logo

 

" Empty your mind, be formless. shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water my friend." Bruce Lee

When setting up No Ordinary Moments, I wanted the company to really originate around being fully present and aware of everything that you do. Mainly because - I was leading a life, that was doing everything but that. I was so distracted and unfocused all the time and saw my friends going down the same path. I had to do something about it. 

When choosing a logo, I wanted it to visualise the experience of being here and now.

Vertical forms represent time - past and future. Horizontal forms represent space - 360 degrees. And the one is always in the center - being here and now - perfect equanimity. The symbol is presented as a physical representation of the present moment.

Secondly, you can see a symbol of a water drop. This is the most often used metaphor to represent the idea of Mindfulness. But in this symbol, the water drop is presented in a kind of mirrored way, which symbolises time - past and future - both are illusions, so stay centred in the present.

Mindfulness is the experience of being here and now. There is only one present moment that can be experienced as it is always now.

The above picture is one of the first drawings of our logo. 

One thing which I am grateful for...

Mindful Luna carrying out a sound bath

The live sound baths! This week we brought you a live sound bath with Luna all the way in California. Incase you missed it - the live recording can be found - here.  (The above link will be live for 7 days then it will expire). If you are enjoying these, let me know, and I will keep bringing them to you :)

Two quotes to ponder on...

“All problems are illusions of the mind.”

“The moment that judgement stops through acceptance of what it is, you are free of the mind. You have made room for love, for joy, for peace.”

Both from - Eckhart Tolle :)

One person who pushed me to be better...

Chris Baker meeting Tim Ferriss in San Fransisco

was lucky enough to meet one of my idols, not Derren Brown but Tim Ferriss :) Author of several books - Tools of Titans and The 4 Hour Body being some of my favourites and podcast host to a show with more than 500 million downloads. I meet him in San Fransisco on a winters eve..

Although It was a long time ago. I managed to dig up my journal from the evening, and here are some of the best things I learned from meeting one of my heroes.  

  1. Never ignore the person right or to the left of you at a dinner table. 

  2. You are the average of the five people you surround yourself with the most. 

  3. Work really hard on the things you deeply care about and ignore the rest. 

  4. Understand energy management – define what are the top priorities – if everything is a priority nothing is a priority - Learn how to say no and focus on the vital few that really move the needle. 

  5. Go after big ideas – because hardly anybody does it. 

  6. Conditions are never perfect. ‘Someday’ is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you. If it's important to you and you want to do it ‘eventually,’ just do it and correct course along the way.

  7. Become really good at asking questions, forget asking people normal questions be weird and different. 

Who is your hero? How could you reach out to meet them? Let me know I may be able to help :) 

NoOrdinaryMoments.co

* Incase you missed above - the live recording from the Soundbath with Luna can be found - here. 

** Great Tim Ferriss interview you may like - #94: Tara Brach on Meditation and Overcoming FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out)