Me Time ✨ : IKIGAI

Hello, everybody. Happy Sunday. My name is Jean Mitchells. Popping in here to talk about ikigai today. So I'm going to hold on for a short period of time as people start to dial in on this beautiful Sunday. If you are dialing in listening on replay at Love to see you type replay in the chat. You know, you just have that one hair that just flies all over. That was me today. I'm really excited to be here. I love anytime I get to dial in to listen. I love dialing in to learn to hold space and have conversations with you.

Hello, Speak Wonder. Hello, Rickram. How you doing today? So as you are coming into the chat, into this conversation, I'd love for you to hello updae. Type in the chat how you feel right now. And if you want to have a bonus question, you can state where you're calling in from. Hello, Jules. So today, if you saw in the title, today's conversation, me time is about ikigai. It's a Japanese word and it is a concept in Japanese that is a reason for being. Now, I had posted in the chat a while ago and hi mom.

Hello. I love that you're with mom. Speak Wonder. I had come in to the chat here right after returning back from Japan and showed a book called Igai that I was reading and threw it out there to do a little optional book club. But mostly I wanted to make it really intentional that you're feeling blue. Oh, as in blue sky or sadness. I wanted to bring that concept back to life and really dive into that conversation and doing that in me time for two reasons. One, me time is about us exploring ourselves and really taking time for ourselves.

Taking time to recognize all we give to the world, but also recognizing that we need something as well. Speak Wonder. I'm sorry that you're sad and I'm sending you lots of love. So with Igigai, to jump back there into this Japanese concept, if you've heard of this concept before or you have read a book, it has a blue cover. I left it sitting in my bag. So I don't have it right here with me, but I will take a photo of it as well. But if you've read it or you've heard of this concept before, I'd love to have you type in the chat what you appreciate about this concept or what you took away from the book.

Now the book is beautiful. Honestly, Jules, you're tired and crabby today. I love honesty. I love to take it all in. Now, if you think about this concept, there has been some Research and studies done on, on people living to the ripe age of 100 and higher. They're called centurions, this group of people, and there happens to be one city in Japan that has the highest population of centurions, people that are living over the ages of 100. And they did a study around that. And some of the things that they learned is really what this book is about.

But. But also they learned that, you know, this particular group of people, it's about having purpose. So in the book, they talk about purpose, finding purpose in life and the concept or the meaning. I actually did some more research on it. There is a certification. You can become an Iggy Kai coach. So, yes, I'm looking into that to understand more about what that means. But there are a few key questions that it asks of us. First question, what do you love? What do you love? It doesn't say who do you love?

It says, what do you love? So if I'm answering the question myself, I'll give two simple answers. I love creating positive change in people's lives, in businesses and communities. I love teaching spin classes, but not because I love movement. I do love movement, but because I love creating community through movement. I love doing sound bath meditations because again, I'm bringing people together to help them evolve and grow, relax, reset, let go of something that they don't need to carry. So those are a couple of things that I love.

But what that question represents as well is what is your passion and what is your mission? So really thinking about what are the things that you're most passionate about? What is your mission in life, your purpose? So the next big question that they talk about in Iggy Kai is, what does the world need? Wow, that's a really big loaded question, right? What does the world need? And if you think about it from your own personal perspective, because that's what this is, it's a personal lens. I think that the world needs more love and compassion, more community, more connection.

I know the world needs so much more than that right now. It needs leadership, it needs all of these things. But if I can only impact one thing in my life, it can be around community, kindness, love, compassion. So if I think about what do I love, my passion, my mission, and I combine it with what I think the world needs, that then becomes my mission and my vocation. So I think about my. My jobs. I have many. Teaching spin classes or doing sound baths are two that I mentioned. So I'm gonna stay there, speak wonder you said more grace.

I really like that too. Great word. So if I think about what the world needs and I focus it in on the lens of kindness, compassion, community, those would be my three. And love four. I always say that one, how can I do that through spin classes? So it gives me a new sense of my why for when I teach a spin class. Now, whether or not you've taken an indoor cycling class or you like to do group fitness, that is a question for debate on a different day. But in this space, in this conversation, it's part of my why.

And in those classes, I like to curate music that can create an experience with a theme or purpose. And I love to get to know the people in my rooms. I love to find some words that might inspire them in that class to do more than maybe they thought they could. So in that space, I provide kindness, compassion, community, love in that space, so that people can walk out of there feeling more connected. They can feel like they are stronger than maybe what they believed when they walked in that day. And not just stronger with their body, stronger with their heart, their mind, their essence.

So when I do sound baths, I think about it the same way I create a sound bath meditation. I'm a Reiki master, one of the hats that I wear. So I want to put out a lot of kind, loving, healing energy. And so if I think about all the work that I've done in my career and I'm grounded in my passion and purpose of creating positive change and thinking that the world needs more compassion and community and connectedness. New word. I threw that one in there. Did you catch that? Then that helps me to understand my vocation, my job, right?

What things I want to lean into, it understands as a corporate consultant or an executive coach, what's my why and how do I want to approach that? And if a client needs something different, who do I know in my network that maybe has a different purpose, a different why, a different vision on what the world needs? And maybe instead of me just holding on to that work, maybe I give that work to somebody else and create space for more people to come into my sphere that need what I have to offer so that I can be my best self.

What can you be paid? What can you be paid for? Ah, the never ending question, right? We need to feed our families, we need to feed our lifestyles, our homes. We have to have a home, you know, so we need to have work. So how might I create work around what I love and what I think the world needs more of? So really leaning into that as my profession and then the Last question. What am I good at? That's a really hard one. Right? Because we can say we're good at a lot of things, but what if I took that word out and said what do I feel great at?

Not just good, we can be good at a lot. But what do I feel great at? And really thinking about how my passion and my profession can really start to come together that way. That is icky guy. So when I say these things to you, I would love to know the answer to the first two questions in our conversation today. So if you don't mind typing in the chat, what do you love? I would also say I love my dog. What do you love and what do you need? Ah, Luke. Hey, you know what? Fun fact, you know what I need?

I need more Luke time. You know why? Because I pop into the coffee shop and I see the Cadre minivan sitting or van sitting outside and I know somewhere inside is Luke. But the other day I didn't see the van, but I walked inside with my dog and I saw Luke and I so boldly and rudely interrupted his conversation because I just wanted to say hi. So hi Luke. And on his way out he was like, we need to do a sound bath for Cadre. So just know something special is coming your way. But again, speak wonder.

You say you love music and poetry, so how might we give the world what it needs through music and poetry? So igigai again is a concept, a reason for being, a source of purpose or joy in life. And they discovered that in Japan they had the most people that lived the over 100 years. Now think about that in today's society. You know, I'll share a fun fact. My sister in law, she's an executive at a really large publicly held company. And at this company it is required that at the age of 65 they retire.

Now this is a very old rule and it's a very old company. It's been around for a long time. But she will be turning 65 and they will say it's been great. And she has worked there pretty much her entire career. So she has a lot of knowledge, a lot of passion, a lot of experience, a lot that she can still give to the next generations. But their policies say that you can't be an executive over the age of 65 at this really large company. And I say that's too bad because there's still so much richness there.

But here's why I bring it up. When we think about that transition, right from being an executive or being Any position in any job. So much of who we are, our purpose, so much of our identity is wrappered into that work. Rick pushed in here. I love acting on my purpose, bringing it to life. Ooh, thank you for that. Thank you for that. Acting on my purpose and bringing it to life. That is a foundational statement and those words are magic. I appreciate you for sharing that because it says not only am I going to pontificate, big word for today, not only am I going to ponder on my igigai my what is love, what the world needs, what can I be paid for?

What am I great at? My mission, my passion, my vocation, my profession. I'm not just going to think about those things. I am going to put traction behind those things. I am going to take steps forward and make that flower blossom. Thank you Rick for sharing that. So again, when we think about that transition and we think about people living to the age of 100 or older, in their 80s even, and I think about just my sister in law and just the fact that the age of 65 until 85, 105, there's so much more left that if we only attach our identity and our purpose to our work and not as a mission and a passion in life, we might feel lost in that transition.

We might feel our identity has shifted or gone away. So my invitation to all of us, I don't care if you're 16 year olds and mom speak, wonder you're out here, y' all have things to do, right? We have passions, we have purposes, we have missions. So whether you, whatever, whatever point in time you get to, you arrive at, we have between now and then to continue evolving. And when you think about that transition from work, think about it. Transition from career to career. Maybe you go from corporate America to starting your own thing.

Maybe you go from corporate America till a new idea that gets into this beta program and launches like Cadre and your purpose comes to life in a whole new way. That's Iggy Kai. It's identifying not only what will we do but how might we live, how might we experience, how might we take a step forward? Not to just take a step, but to take a step grounded in our own. Why now? Here's the deal team. We can talk about this more and I definitely would love to but there's so many times we get fueled by the outside in.

And I'm going to leave you with this one last thought around igig. The fuel for Igikai Ikigai comes from within. It is not any Fuel that we can get from somebody else's opinion. It's not fuel we can get from someone else's thoughts or perspective on our purpose or our mission. It's not about anybody else's thoughts about what we love or don't love or what we're great at. It really is fuel that needs to come from inside. And I'll be super, super transparent. There are days that I question my purpose.

There are days I question my why. There are days that I question, am I enough, right? It's so emotional on those days that I can feel that emotion right now. And that's why I'm sad. I'm not sad because I'm having that right now. It's because I can feel the intensity of just even making those statements, what that can say or mean. But at the end of the day we know, right? And so sometimes it's the voices outside that get us thinking inside. But how might we go back inside and remember that we know?

And how might we continue to find those people like the Luke's and the Speak Wonders and the Ricks and the Jewels that see us, not just the outside of us, but they see us and all we have to give to the world and they want to help us live out that purpose. Because when I look at this community in Japan, they have a purpose to help out one another as well. Their purpose isn't just only for them, it's a purpose of community. It grounds them in gardening, grounds them in poetry, it grounds them in acting, whatever that is.

So I'm going to plant those seeds today for our spring flowers. If you have comments, if something resonated with you, if something is an action you want to take from this, type it in the chat, share it. I would love to hear it. I'm also going to post the commentary around Igigai and the book again in comments so we can go out and see it. And if you want to type the conversation out there, do that. I'm just going to tell you I end my calls this way sometimes. It might feel corny, but I'm gonna do it anyway.

I want you to know that I'm proud of you. Proud that you showed up today. For you. We told you how to get on the call. You just came. I love you. There's so much love. There's an abundance of love in this world and I am sending some of that love to you today and I can't wait to see you again. So I hope you have the best day. There are some amazing contributors still coming on later today, so check them out, make more time for you, and then go open up the screen on Monday morning. Get inspired by Luke, because he's pretty much magic.

I hope you have the best day. We'll see you all soon.