Ikigai. And The Art Of Not Finding It.

Listen... everyone's walking around these days with this weight on their shoulders, right? This question that won't let them sleep: What's my ikigai? What's my purpose?

And I get it. I do. We've turned the search for meaning into another thing we need to optimize, another box to check.

Find your passion.

Discover your why.

Figure out your reason for being.

It's exhausting just thinking about it.

Here's what I've learned, though - and it took me years of stumbling around to understand this - sometimes the art isn't in the finding. It's in the not finding.

Stay with me here.

See, when you're obsessed with finding your ikigai, you're basically standing at a crossroads with a map, trying to figure out which road leads to "Purpose Boulevard." But life doesn't work like that. Life is more like... you're already walking.

You've been walking this whole time. And somewhere along the way, without announcing itself, meaning just shows up.

I remember this phase where I was tearing myself apart trying to figure out what I was supposed to be doing. Reading all the books, taking all the courses, asking everyone for answers. And you know what happened? Nothing.

Because I was so busy searching, I forgot to live.

The Japanese have this concept down, but here's the thing nobody tells you - ikigai isn't some grand revelation that hits you like lightning. It's quieter than that. It's in the ordinary moments. The conversation that changes someone's day. The small thing you do that makes you lose track of time. The way you show up when nobody's watching.

Maybe your ikigai isn't waiting to be found at all. Maybe it's being built, brick by brick, in the choices you make every Tuesday morning.

And here's the really beautiful part - when you stop forcing it, when you give yourself permission to just... be, to wander, to try things without needing them to be the answer - that's when life gets interesting. That's when you're actually free to discover what matters.

So if you haven't found your ikigai yet? Good.

You're right where you need to be.

Keep living.

Keep showing up.

Keep being curious about what makes you come alive, even in small ways.

The art of not finding it is really the art of letting it find you.