Beginning to Build a Life of Purpose

Take a minute to think about what you do professionally. Have you found your passion? Do you know what your mission in life is? If you answered yes, you have achieved ikigai –the Japanese word for having a "reason to live."  It is a great place to be as an adult, but very challenging for the youth that we support to understand.

We want to assist our young people by helping them to connect their current sparks to a career and to what a life of purpose may mean. We can do this by asking them to consider their spark in relation to 4 questions:

• What do you love?
• What are you good at?
• What does the world need from you?
• What can you get paid for?

Continue this conversation by completing a petal exercise like this one to see where your sparks intersect to maximize ikigai.