The Concept That Helped Shape Something I Was Already Building

The Concept That Helped Shape Something I Was Already Building

How discovering Ikigai, both versions of it, gave language to what I was trying to create.

When I sat down to build the Authentic Alignment Blueprint™, I knew what I wanted to create. I just hadn't found the right language for it yet.

I knew I wanted something practical. A real framework with structure and progression that would help people actually move, from reflection to clarity to action. That part of my brain, the strategist, the project manager, the person who has spent 25 years turning complex ideas into workable plans, needed the Blueprint to have structure.

But I also knew it needed something more than that.

Because what I was really trying to help people do wasn't just set goals, but to reconnect. With themselves. With what matters. With the version of who they are that tends to get buried under years of responsibility, expectation and just... getting on with life.

So I went looking. And somewhere in that research, I found Ikigai.

The version I found first was the Western one.

You may have come across this version yourself. Four overlapping circles representing what you love, what you're good at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for. Find the centre where all four meet, and there's your purpose.

The strategist in me connected with it immediately.

Here was a way of thinking about purpose that was something you could actually think through. You could look at your values, your strengths, your sense of contribution and the practical reality of building a sustainable life and find where all of that converges.

As I was building the Blueprint, I could see how naturally those ideas aligned with the work I was already designing. Understanding your strengths and what you're naturally good at. Getting honest about what the world needs and whether your aspiration has real relevance. Thinking through whether what you're building can support the life you want. Those questions were already in the framework. The Western interpretation of ikigai gave me a shared language for what I was exploring.

When I found it, it felt like a conversation I was already in the middle of.

And then I kept reading. And I found the original.

The word ikigai itself comes from two Japanese words — iki, meaning life, and kai, meaning worth or value — combined to form a concept that translates roughly as "a reason for being." And from what I found in my research, the traditional concept looks quite different from the diagram I discovered.

It isn't about finding the perfect intersection of passion and profession. It's an everyday philosophy. Ordinary, accessible, and deeply personal. Not tied to career or status. Not something you arrive at once and keep forever. Traditional Ikigai is more fluid than that, it shifts and evolves alongside you, shaped by wherever you are in life.

Just the things that make you want to show up for another day. A morning ritual. A garden. A craft practiced for years.

That landed for me in a different way than the diagram did.

Two very different interpretations. Both meaningful, each in their own way.

I want to be clear that I am not suggesting one is better or that they need each other to be complete. The traditional concept of ikigai stands on its own, with its own history, its own cultural roots, and its own profound relevance. The Western framework is a different thing entirely, a practical tool that took inspiration from a Japanese word and built something new around it.

What I can speak to is my own experience of encountering both.

The Western interpretation connected with the part of me that builds things. The traditional concept connected with the part of me that believes you have to know yourself, really know yourself, before any of the building can mean anything.

I am both practical and creative. A realistic dreamer, as I think of myself. And both interpretations, each on their own terms, spoke to something real in how I think about meaningful work and a meaningful life.

That informed the Blueprint, alongside two other foundations that matter just as much. A coaching approach, reflective and future-focused, that helps people clarify what matters and unlock what they already know. And a project management mindset that takes the big, sometimes overwhelming dream and breaks it down into real, achievable steps. Together, these three things shape how the Blueprint works. The philosophical grounding of Ikigai. The depth and human focus of coaching. The practical approach of project management. Each one purposeful. All three working together.

If you are building something of your own right now, or trying to figure out what that something might be, it might be worth sitting with the same questions I did.

What does meaningful work actually feel like to you, on your own terms?

What are you already good at, and does it energize you or just keep you busy?

And underneath all the planning and the strategy and the next steps, what is it that makes your life feel worth showing up for?

Simple questions that, when you really sit with them, act as a strong starting point for where you need to go, and worth coming back to at every new chapter.

The Authentic Alignment Blueprint™ is a five-step self-coaching framework that brings together Ikigai philosophy, a coaching approach and project management principles to help you move from reflection to aligned action. Start with Unlocking the Authentic You — the guided self-coaching exercise that begins the whole journey.