It’s More Than A Job: Step 5. Align Your Passions, Design Your Career

The Japanese concept of ikigai roughly translates to a passion that gives value and joy to life or something that provides a person with a sense of purpose. Imagine a Venn diagram with four overlapping circles: 1) what you love doing, 2) what you are good at, 3) what the world needs, and 4) what you can get paid for. Ikigai is at the center where all four things overlap. There are also various points when two or three of the circles overlap. Because there are so many diverse people analytics careers, skills, and applications, there are numerous ways to tailor your career path allowing you to find ikigai along the way.

This concept also gives us a nice framework to use for our last self-discovery and exploration activities. We will use this concept in our final step, Step 5, to help you bring together the things you enjoy and are good at with the things that are needed and can be part of a paid career. With those ideas in mind, you can design a personalized career and development plan that will maximize the possibility for ikigai moments in your future.

_{Image Attribution: “Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life” by Hector Garcia and Francesc Miralles.}