Self-fulfillment

How much do you enjoy your job? According to the latest Gallup World survey (State of the Global Workplace 2022 Report), only 17% of employees in Australia are “engaged” or actually enjoying and actively contributing to their work. That means that 83% of staff are not engaged which implies anything from just turning up and doing what has to be done right through to actively working against the best interests of the employer!

Since around 794 to 1185 (the so-called ‘Heian’ period), the Japanese have been aware of a concept known as ‘ikigai’. The word ikigai is made up of two Japanese words: ‘iki’ which means ‘life” and gai which means value or worth, so a loose translation might be ‘reason for living’. The concept became popular through Japanese psychiatrist and academic Mieko Kamiya’s 1966 book "On the Meaning of Life”. It is useful because it describes the four key elements necessary for personal self-fulfillment and I use this simple model in my own work to understand business leaders’ current level of satisfaction.

In order to be fulfilled in your work, you need to be doing something you love. This is very different from just enjoying or liking what you do, it is what gets you out of the bed in the morning excited to come to work. When you are doing something you love, you never work another day in your life.

Being great at it means that you know you have a skill for something and others recognise this in you as well. The opportunity to effectively apply what you know is very satisfying and hence an integral part of ikigai.

Being well paid for what you do is a very subjective part of the model. There is no absolute threshold here and it very much depends upon the nature of the work that you do, but it is essential that you feel adequately rewarded otherwise this can impact self-confidence and even self-esteem.

Doing something that you know is required by others is a tremendously satisfying feeling. You will often hear that teachers and paramedics are underpaid but what tends to keep people in such jobs is that they know just how important and valuable their work is.

If you are not feeling self-fulfilled in what you do, which of the four areas are the primary reasons?

Ian Ash ACC, AInstIB Managing Director
OrgMent Business Solutions - www.ombs.com.au