How to Ikigai | Tim Tamashiro | TEDxYYC

[Music] everybody how enthusiastic are we today [Music] yeah no indifference in this crowd that's for sure that's what I like to see today I want to tell you about an amazing word and it's that word right there that word first thing you have to learn is how to pronounce it it's pronounced iki guy you lift your cheeks like you're smiling it's iki guys say it with me iki guy you got it that's right it's not pronounced iki guy if I was wearing a lime green four-speed oh that would be an achy guy this is iki guy and the most wonderful thing about this word is that first off it's a good-looking word but secondly this word is really like a treasure map and this treasure map can help you find your way to finding wonderful things about yourself that you can share with the world and the world will say thank you for it so let me tell you all about it but first they have to warn you it takes work now I had a job once upon a time about this time last year had a radio host job at CBC Radio 2 was wonderful I enjoyed it thoroughly it was so good however I quit my job I quit my job so I could focus on my work instead so let's just clarify that a job in this context is something that you do as a regular form of employment it's what you get you know money to do so you can pay for your house and for your food and things like that work on the other hand work is something that you do in order to achieve a result something like a product or maybe even something like a purpose like maybe like a more meaningful you sounds good doesn't that so this last year my work focused on anything that I could do that was exciting that was interesting to me I went on a trip to Oregon and I saw the full Eclipse with my full eyes I also went on a icebreaker and I traveled across the Northwest Passage I went to Canada's north coast I also traveled with my family and some dear friends we went to Dominican Republic we helped build houses for people and I filmed a documentary and I also did all sorts of little projects as well and I had a podcast for a while I did I wrote a play that was a musical I also did a Facebook live talk but probably more precious than anything is that I finally got to go on a family trip to Okinawa Japan now Okinawa is very precious to me because it's a place where my grandparents were born it's also the place where a key guy comes from I've always felt something urging me to get out and to do special things in my life and I think it was a key guy that did it Okinawa by the way is a place that the most 100 year olds in the world live per capita 100 year olds are revered and respected but Okinawa was very very special to me because of the connections to my family and a key guy and I was thinking boy why couldn't this whole Ikki guy thing spread around the world well it is possible and there is another idea that came from Okinawa that you've heard of its karate karate kid' Danielsson karate is actually two words in Japanese Cara which means empty and Tay which means hand so it literally translates to empty hand now in 1609 the Japanese forces invaded Okinawa it was called real cool islands back then Oh basically they won the battle and they said to the Okinawan okay you can't have weapons anymore give us your weapons and the Okinawan said okay here you go our hands will be our weapons they had already invented karate they didn't call it karate yet but they knew that they had a special form of self-defense then in the Second World War there was another terrible battle that happened in Okinawa and it was the American forces this time fighting the Japanese forces history shows that the American forces won the Battle of Okinawa and they have been stationed there ever since and since then the American soldiers have witnessed karate for the first time and they said hey this is pretty cool I want to learn karate too so they learned it and eventually they will take it back to the United States and it started to spread and spread and spread now everybody knows about karate right daniel-san that other concept becomes from Okinawa is iki guy iki guy is two words as well iki means life guy purpose iki guy is life's purpose isn't that a beautiful word it's a lovely word thank you for your indifference this is what it means this is the treasure map a key guy has four directions do what you love do what you're good at do what the world needs and do what you can be rewarded for it seems simple but it's difficult now I would estimate that a key guy similar to karate in that you can earn degrees or belts in it as well you have to start someplace and I think that I got my yellow belt when I was 20 years old sexy time I was 20 years old and I was living at my parents house and I remember laying in bed one day thinking to myself what am I gonna do for the rest of my life that would be interesting and fun I didn't want to just go get a job I wanted to focus on my work and like a bolt of lightning it hit me and I sat up in bed and I said I am going to go to music school so that's what I did I went to music school for two years and then from that moment on I focused on nothing but music aspects in my life I've done all sorts of amazing things in my life I work for a record company called MCA records I also made six jazz albums I've performed all over the country I had that 10 year career at CBC Radio - six nights a week writing 70 stories every week it was such an amazing career but then they came to realize something that I enjoyed myself but I didn't really know why I was doing it I didn't I knew what I wanted to do or what I love to do and what I was good at but they didn't understand why I was doing it and why the world needed that so I spent this last year figuring out what my ikki guy is and I boil it down into a two-word phrase my ikki guy is to delight to delight that's what I go out for every day the world where that I'm talking with a clerk at the grocery store or if I'm singing a song on stage or if I'm on the radio or if I'm giving a TED talk to you wildly attractive people right now my iki guy is two delight I throw it out into the world and I get it back in return it's the full cycle now you're probably wondering to yourself well that's great Tim well now we know what Eureka guy is what is my iki guy let me give you some directions on how you might be able to start figuring that out I suggest the start part-time part-time icky guy is within reach right it is very within reach and I'll tell you something when you look at there and you see on the screen that there are two sections of the day where you don't really do anything that adds up to eight hours you can focus your work on the five to nine hours of the day okay start part time figure out what you love to do and what you're good at spend time on that for as long as you like and there's a couple of ways you can do that you can start a side hustle or you can do a side helpful a side hustle by the way there's a lot of Millennials that have side hustles up to fifty percent of Millennials have side hustles according to studies 50 percent and why do they have those side hustles it's because it gives them the opportunity to be able to do what they're good at and do what they love and it opens up the opportunity to be able to transfer that part-time Niki guy into maybe full-time a key guy down the road and it doesn't hurt that you can make a little bit of money off it either right but what if money isn't necessarily behind you're a key guy maybe you want to just broaden your heart well you can do a side helpful instead at Yale University professor Laurie Santos teaches a course that is called the science of well-being and this course she takes time to be able to explain that we are really really bad at figuring out what it is that we are going to make us happy so things like and job and your good looks and your big house they really have no impact on your base level of happiness what does have an impact are things like kindness and meditation time affluence in other words doing with your time what you want to do with your time and spending time with friends and family a key guy is an action it's a verb to serve to create to delight to nourish to provide to teach to heal to connect to build is there any verb on that list that resonates with somebody in the crowd nod your head if there is yes yeah there's some nodding happening down here yes so we put up your hand if you see something up there that's accept I have some yellow belt this is good go over your words your hand there we go here's a yellow belt for you we've got a yellow belt in the front row over there and there's got to be somebody over there there's a yellow belt right there you have earned your yellow belt and a key guy you know what you're good at you know what you love to do looks good on you a key guy is as reliable as a mathematical equation a key guy equals time affluence plus your gifts plus rewards in return and you can do it over and over and over again and you're going to be so much richer because of it your meaningful life is not a destination you have to get to your meaningful life is something you can enjoy right now and anytime you want to okay a little bit of joy every day is going to add up to a lifetime of joy isn't it and when you finally get the chance to spend time getting to know what you do or what you love and what you're good at you're a key guy will start to come into light and eventually over time you will earn your black belt your meaningful life is going to be a lot of work but I think you really already know this that you are worth the work and now you have the guy map to show you how so I invite you to try iki guy thank you [Applause] by

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 653,090

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Life, Life Hack, Love, Passion, Play, Travel, Work

Id: pk-PcJS2QaU

Length: 12min 42sec (762 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 08 2018