Three days ago I reached my sixty second birthday.
I am over half a century old.
And what have I learnt?
Mostly that I know nothing and that the older I get, the less I know.
It isn’t that I am developing dementia. Just that I am throwing out all my old knowledge and notions and making room for new ones.
I came to TED talks late in life. (https://www.ted.com/talks)
and am so excited by them.
You see I have discovered hundreds of talks on all aspects of things, which I can listen to and learn from (or disagree with) at the press of a button.
It was from one of these talks that I learnt about ‘Ikigai’. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikigai
I became aware that I have being living my Ikigai all along.
I just never gave it a label.
In fact I had been living it for over for forty years.
But things are changing and small discontents are creeping in.
I love my job as a nurse. (A job I get paid to do) but I am also a writer and an artist, for which I don’t. (Any one want to buy a ‘hen’ painting?)
And these latter attributions are beginning to cause me anxiety when I’m at my paid job.
Let me explain.
Because of the above mentioned, I see, in each hospital bed, not just an ill person but a portrait, a story.
And so, although my manager thinks I am just uselessly chatting to my patient and in doing so am wasting valuable task time, I see it differently.
But recently times have changed, staff shortages have occurred due to cutbacks.
And now even if I seal my lips tightly I have hardly enough time to carry out those regular tasks, much less the ones I deem also important.
Luckily, so far I still don’t dread going into work.
And each time I go I do so with an optimistic anticipation of a good day ahead.
and I haven’t been fired for talking too much.
So my Ikigai is still at work.
But maybe as will I retire in three years I need to look for it elsewhere?
What could I do instead that I love?
that I am good at.
that the world needs.
that I can earn a living from.
It needn’t be something too immense.
I don’t need too much or two little to survive, but just the right amount.
and on that note I believe that in Sweden they have a special word for the above!
Now if you’ll excuse me I am just going to see if there is a TED talk on ‘Lagom’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagom
Anyone want to by a hen painting?