I recently received an email from a friend and colleague that piqued my curiosity. A retired oncologist, he has long cared for his wife with early onset Alzheimer’s. He now faces advancing liver cancer with a liver transplant his only hope for a cure. My friend is grateful that things are stable at home, and while still “hanging on,” he has been embracing the Japanese concept of Ikigai.
Ikigai—translated in English as a “reason to live”—refers to what gives a person a sense of purpose and joy. It has gained popularity recently, having been linked to the exceptional longevity of native Japanese, especially those living in Okinawa. Okinawans have the longest life expectancy in the world. Most remain functional late into life and continue working into old age until they are simply unable to work.
Ikigai recalls the ideas of Victor Frankl, whose famous book, Man’s Search for Meaning, describes what helped him survive his Holocaust concentration camp experience. Inspired by the Danish existential philosopher and theologian Soren Kierkegaard, Frankl believed that the primary motivational force of individuals is to find meaning in life. Kierkegaard believed that in the face of existential angst, a person needs to make an existential leap, reaching for a “will to meaning.” Based on this he established a new school of psychotherapy known as logotherapy. For Frankl, logotherapy was very different from ideas of other famous founders of the psychoanalytic movement such as Alfred Adler’s “will to power,” which maintains the drive is to dominate and strive for superiority, or Freud’s “will to pleasure,” which posits that people are primarily motivated by the desire to avoid pain and satisfy their needs. Frankl believed that in finding meaning or purpose in their desperate situations, persons were able to survive the horrors and deprivation of holocaust concentration camps.
Ikigai is Japan’s age-old philosophy for a fulfilling life, which consists of aiming to find and do what you love; find what you are good at; find what the world needs; and find what you can get paid for. Other key ideas are to stay busy, start small, celebrate little achievements and pleasures, and avoid grandiose ideas. Ikigai also stresses the importance of strong family and community relationships.
So, what’s the connection to aging Boomers like me and my wise colleague thinking about Ikigai? Many Boomers reveled in the huge effects we had as the then-largest generation ever in America. Idealism and acceptance of wide ranging and profound cultural changes were the coin of our realm. We believed we were a special generation, committed to building a more just, free, peaceful, and harmonious society. This gave us a generational sense of meaning and purpose.
There can be little doubt that throughout life, having a purpose and a reason for living is important. This can be more challenging and important as we experience the changes of aging. With retirement, we are typically not as busy and our lives are not structured by the sense of purpose gained from work and the drive to succeed and advance. In later life we often realize the need to temper some of our grandiose, loftier Boomer ambitions. As we age, we find ourselves needing to accept aging changes in our person along with the societal changes we experience within our diverse communities and accepting these changes with equanimity. Can we keep an even mind while accepting certain changes we don’t like, including disappointments, but still carry on with purpose and not giving up or becoming frazzled?
We can use the ideas of Ikigai—finding what we like and love to do, what we can do, and what we can do for others, our family, friends, and community. We can set simpler and attainable goals, celebrate smaller pleasures and accomplishments, and above all keep in mind the importance of finding meaning through purpose.
Eric B. Larson, MD, MPH, is a Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington. He was Co-Principal Investigator of the SMARRT trial and formerly Vice President for Research and Healthcare Innovation at Group Health and Kaiser-Permanente Washington. With colleagues he co-founded the long running Adult Changes in Thought (ACT) study in 1986. He continues research through the UW Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and other projects. He has participated in The Lancet Commission on Dementia since its inception. With co-author Joan DeClaire he wrote the well-received book, Enlightened Aging: Building Resilience for a Long Active Life.