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Writer's pictureRenate Matroos

What is your purpose in life?


Ikigai

I’m back with another blog, how time flies. Last blog I wrote was a personal reflection on my first class. It’s safe to say that I had mixed feelings about that day. But this is a new week, a good one.


The two topics we discussed on Monday were finding your Ikigai and reflecting on something that happened last week.

Not sure if you ever heard about the Japanese concept Ikigai, it’s your reason for being. The reason you get up in the morning. An intersection of what you love doing and what you’re good at. The Japanese believe that having a purpose is the secret for having a long and happy life. I wanted all the students to think about their life purpose and how that could be implemented in their future business. I truly hope that some students have found their Ikigai or at least started thinking about their life purpose. I’m a firm believer in having a life purpose, matter a fact, when I was looking for my Ikigai it led me to figuring out what I was really passionate about and what I wanted to do. So my Ikigai is: “Working from any place or space in the world and helping others achieve their dreams, one company and one country at the time”.


What is your Ikigai? Have you ever thought about what gets you up in the morning? What your purpose is in life? Are you stilling looking or have you found yours already? Please feel free to email me, I would love to read your thoughts or help you find your Ikigai!


The second part of the class was about reflection. The students were asked to reflect on something that affected them last week. They were also asked to share this with their classmates. Reflection is so powerful and people tend to forget what it can do. It’s true you do learn by doing (new) things, but have you ever reflected on a specific event in your life? Try reflecting on something that happened and find out how much can you learn from those insights.


After being a bit disappointed last week, I decided to put my own learnings to test. I must say it really helped me! I wrote down questions I could ask the students during class. This would give me a direct insight on what they were going through at that moment. Also, I decided to share the feelings I had during my last class with them. Being open and honest means so much too me, that makes me who I am. And I’m so happy that I was able to share these feelings with my students. I told them that it was very hard to feel what they were thinking or feeling at that moment. I just couldn't grasp them and I wasn’t sure if they thought it was valuable information or something they could use in the future (or now). During the check-out I told them what I expected for our last class: “I would love to see even more pro-activeness, even-though it has improved so much more than the class before.”


I’m so happy that everything is working out so far. I got some feedback from students saying that they love this way of working. They love being active, instead of having to listen to a teacher all the time. And this is exactly what I’m trying to achieve, empowering students become more proactive and start learning by doing.


That’s it for this week folks!


If you have any recommendations or questions, please feel free to email me at renate@twenty6consultancy.com .


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