How to adapt the Japanese secret to a long happy life in your career

New year, new professional you?

Can you find that sweet spot in the Venn diagram including these four categories?

• What you love
• What you are good at
• What the world needs
• What you can be paid for

This existential question is presented by Hector Garcia and Francesc Miralles in their book, Ikigai, The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life. Ikigai in Japanese is a combination of the words for life and purpose or value. Their book also includes the usual admonitions to eat right and exercise (Happy New Year to you, too).

I’m fresh back from my first visit to Japan and I’m enthralled by the natural beauty of the people and the country and with the beauty they create. From what I observed, the Japanese put a stunning amount of thought into their building and landscape architecture. They meticulously plan where and how to place every feature to generate the most unfolding beauty. They maximize the benefits of “borrowed scenery,” that is, the natural elements that surround them.

Do it yourself

Can you do this with your life? Nearly seven years into my second career as a diplomat-turned-public-speaking coach, I continue to greet each day feeling thankful that I found a calling for work that is both meaningful and profitable. It’s my sweet spot in the Venn diagram of the Japanese secret for happiness.

As you look ahead to maximizing the beauty of your life in 2025, ask yourself some meaningful questions. If it’s hard to answer the questions at the top of this article, start with something easier. What have people told you you’re good at doing? What activities garner the most genuine compliments from others?

While you consider the answers to these questions, ask yourself more: Which of those things that you’re good at do you enjoy doing? What activities make you feel good about yourself at the end of the day?

For me, nothing in my career feels better than the thank-you notes clients send me when I’ve helped them prep for a public speaking opportunity—whether that’s a formal speech or an important meeting—in a way that made a powerful difference for them.

Finding the cross-section of the answers to these immediate questions and (let’s keep things real here) the question of what people will pay you to do is often a sticking point. Can you try it out on the side? I road tested my new career while I was on unpaid family leave from my diplomatic career. I volunteered a few hours of my time to coach employees of a think tank—and left there walking on air. When I decided to bring my diplomatic career to a close, this think tank became the first client of my new business.

Plan your way forward

A ritual I’ve followed for years now, on the recommendation of a business development program I undertook, is a semiannual retreat with myself. Every six months, I set aside one hour (it’s not a lavish visit to a resort, but it gets the job done) to ask myself what I want my lifestyle to look like, how I want to prioritize the relationships in my life, and how I want to earn money.

For each area, I review what I wrote six months ago. Then I write my current analysis of what I want and how I’m doing at achieving it. The last step is a bulleted list of action items for each area. Once I’m done, I print out my action items (one page only!) and keep them in front of me on my desk where I can see them every day.

Try this out for yourself. Block out an hour on your calendar. Let no disturbances distract you. Think through how you can make the most of the natural architecture of your life to maximize the beauty you can create. What are you good at? What do people thank you for doing? Which of these will pay you money? Freshly decked out with this new outlook on your life, you can plan how to use 2025 to set you on your way to finding your Japanese secret to happiness.