I didn’t pick this book up because some influencer recommended it or because it showed up on a website. I picked it up at my school book fair because I was having one of those days, where everyone around you seems to know exactly what they want, and you’re just quietly wondering if you’re doing life wrong (more often than you think). The title caught me. Ikigai. I didn’t know what it meant, but I thought that was enough of a reason to read it.
Authors Héctor García and Francesc Miralles have written this international bestseller, Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life. This book has gained popularity in 49 different languages and has been read by millions of people worldwide. In other words, this version of their book has been adapted for teens and youngsters (ideal for 14 years+). The book doesn’t dumb down any of the concepts; in fact, it does not make the concept too complicated or too simplistic. It makes the concept a little bit easier but more fun to understand for a teen in the middle of an existential fog.
For a teenager, this idea hits differently. We are the generation that grew up with social media telling us who to be before we figured it out ourselves. We’re expected to have a five-year plan before we’ve finished figuring out who we are right now. Anxiety, burnout, comparison-these aren’t buzzwords for us. And most books that claim to help either give advice so vague it’s useless, or so clinical it feels like being diagnosed. This one does neither.
García and Miralles draw on the ancient wisdom of Japan brilliantly and make it feel relevant without turning it into a crisis or dramatising it. The writing is warm and authentic, as if someone who has pondered all this themselves is giving you directions and telling you, “Take your time.” It’s divided into short chapters. There’s room to breathe on every single page. You could read it in a weekend, and you’d want to.
This book is not trying to give you all the answers. Rather, it is trying to pose deeper questions for you to think about: What is it that you love? What is it that you’re good at? What is it that the world needs from you? And what is it that you can be paid for? These four intersecting circles at the heart of ikigai don’t establish a personality test or some kind of life hack. They are simply something to come back to time and time again.
That is why I believe this book is more relevant than ever at this point in time because we are craving permission. Permission to go slowly, permission not to know, permission to turn our attention inward. Do you know why the book works and succeeds? It is precisely because its authors earned the right to tell us this story that they actually went there and they met those people face to face. The advice in the book comes from experience and from listening.
This book is perfect for any teenage soul who has ever laid awake at night asking himself or herself questions. It won’t solve your problems, but it will teach you how to ask better questions.
It is time to CLOSE THE TAB & OPEN THE BOOK. All main characters read… just saying.
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