Use Your Words - IKIGAI 🍀

Today’s post is a writing challenge. This is how it works: participating bloggers picked 4 – 6 words or short phrases for someone else to craft into a post. All words must be used at least once, and all the posts will be unique as each writer has received their own set of words. That’s the challenge, here’s a fun twist; no one who’s participating knows who got their words and in what direction the writer will take them. Until now.

My words are:

locket ~ sandwich ~ closer ~ tamarind ~ salacious ~ hammer

They were submitted by: Climaxed - Thank you, Jenniy!

Even though my plate is full -  I do, however, follow my own tips on how to be more productive - I decided to participate in a "photo a day" challenge. 

And I said to myself if I am lucky, I may be able to combine the words I need to use here with the photo prompts for September.

Like on day two we needed to photograph something round. Unfortunately my attempt at catching the full moon that looked absolutely stunning in nature,  failed miserably: it turned out very blurry. 

So maybe a locket? That's round, right?

I ended up snapping a puck at Colin's first Wednesday home game of the season. They hammered the opponent 9:2.

Usually they would assign a bunch of people to bring cake and sandwiches and to man the hotdog stand. 

Due to Covid safety measures the only chore is to hand out face masks. 

I won't complain though. I'm happy the kids get to play, and us parents get to watch.

These days I have been looking into IKIGAI. Iki-what, you ask?

It's a Japanese concept that means "a reason for being", and it tries to find the essence of the following:

• What you love
• What the world needs
• What you can get paid for
• What you're good at

So think about it for a moment: 

If you do what you love, what you're good at, and what the world needs, you're probably a Mom, a teacher or a nurse: you're a wonderful human being who's not making any money.

If you do what you're good at, what the world needs and what you can get paid for, you have a great career, but if you're honest, you probably feel a bit selfish and lonely at times. 

How do you find the perfect combination of the four?

Go back in time, when you were a kid, regardless if you were any good at it, what did you love to do, what were you excited about?

For me it was to play house, play office (my girlfriend had an old typewriter we were allowed to use), cook, bake, play with dolls, cut their hair, go to the mall with Grandma, draw pictures, especially of people, houses, gardens and animals, read books, listen to music, do crafts, talk to grown ups, write. 


Now, try to remember what were you good at?

From an early age on, I liked languages, I enjoyed to "teach" others, to organize social events (play dates in kindergarten and elementary school, parties later), I became pretty good at writing, be it fiction, summaries or taking minutes. I built up a mental inventory of the people I met. Their names, their dates of birth, their address, their siblings, their favorite music... Ask me today, I can still tell you these facts about my school mates I had from age 7. I guess this qualifies as networking.

Isn't it amazing? That's almost my life today!
Of course it wasn't always that way. My first job out of college was to assist an asset manager. It was in an all French environment, though, so even if I wasn't all too great with numbers, for everything I did, I used my languages. Plus I brought in my baking skills. How? I made pies. Using excel. Hahahaha!

Working for a private bank did not bring out my Ikigai, though. 

As soon as I got a chance to work in Human Resources though, I had arrived. I did something I loved, I was good at, the world needed, and I got paid for. 

Thinking about the future, like when Colin is allowed to drive to and from practice alone, I may look into being a life coach or an event planner. 

So on the eve before publishing, I am no closer to having used the word tamarind or salacious, oh, wait, now I've just used it, boom. Plus I ordered Thai food the other day when I didn't feel like cooking. Who knows, maybe the sauce was made of tamarind? Is it an ingredient of a regular curry?

Anyway. 

I treated myself to a day off and visited my happy place, the pumpkin patch. This year's theme is "under water". Let me share my joy:

Have you found your Ikigai in life? What is it? 

Let me know in the comments below.

And please don't leave before checking out my blogger friends' posts:   

                                                                                                                                                                                  

Baking In A Tornado
Wandering Web Designer
On the Border 

The Crazy Mama Llama

Part-time Working Hockey Mom
Climaxed