{"id":7083,"date":"2023-06-07T16:23:31","date_gmt":"2023-06-07T15:23:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/?p=7083"},"modified":"2023-06-07T16:23:31","modified_gmt":"2023-06-07T15:23:31","slug":"ikigai-st-jamess-place-academy-shares-learnings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/?p=7083","title":{"rendered":"Ikigai \u2013 St. James\u2019s Place Academy shares learnings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/opportunityhub.open.ac.uk\/students\/organisations\/detail\/2765575\/st-james-s-place-financial-adv\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">St. James\u2019s Place Financial Adviser Academy <\/a>is one of the inclusive employers working with the OU who welcomes applications from OU students and alumni. Marketing specialist Hannah Steiner from St. James\u2019s Place shares her thoughts about <em>Ikigai<\/em>, the Japanese secret to a long and happy career.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/infographic.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-7085\" src=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/infographic-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"Ikigai infographic\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/infographic-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/infographic-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/infographic.jpg 644w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a>The Japanese believe everyone has an Ikigai, or a reason for being.<br \/>\nEach person\u2019s Ikigai can look different but discovering it can guide us on how to make the most of the world around us. Here are some of the lessons Ikigai can teach us.<\/p>\n<h3>Lesson 1: try something new<\/h3>\n<p>Humans are creatures of habit but discovering the new can be very beneficial and invigorates the brain. Whilst you might make minor adjustments to your lifestyle \u2013 like learning a new musical instrument \u2013 it might be time to consider a more significant change in your life or career. It often takes a crisis for us to rethink our lifestyle, but don\u2019t wait to try something new and be proactive in finding your Ikigai. Try <a href=\"https:\/\/help.open.ac.uk\/identify-careers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">generating new career ideas<\/a> matched to your skills, values and interests. Ask yourself:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Are you being challenged?<\/li>\n<li>How long have you been doing the same thing?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Lesson 2: Stress is more?<\/h3>\n<p>Too much stress is detrimental to our physical and mental wellbeing. However, a reasonable level of stress can be beneficial in developing healthy habits &#8211; a sweet spot. If you are strained by your job, reflect on whether it\u2019s truly worth it. Equally, if you are coasting, it might be time to <a href=\"https:\/\/help.open.ac.uk\/build-your-future-with-career-confidence\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">build your confidence<\/a> and move on to bigger challenges. Ask yourself:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Does your work make you stressed?<\/li>\n<li>Do you have a good work\/life balance?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Lesson 3: The Power of Flow<\/h3>\n<p>A key element to Ikigai is finding \u2018flow\u2019, the pleasure of being completely immersed in what we are doing. Finding flow often goes hand in hand with finding your \u2018why\u2019. Our work becomes more meaningful when we put this \u2018why\u2019 at the centre of our <a href=\"https:\/\/help.open.ac.uk\/career-decision-making\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">decision-making<\/a>. Ask yourself:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What do I genuinely enjoy doing?<\/li>\n<li>What tasks can I lose myself in?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Lesson 4: The need for antifragility<\/h3>\n<p>\u201cAntifragility is beyond resilience. The resilient resists shocks and stays the same; the antifragile gets better.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/help.open.ac.uk\/build-your-future-with-career-confidence\/successfully-dealing-with-career-challenges\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Successfully deal with career challenges<\/a> and make yourself antifragile:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Create more options for yourself.<\/li>\n<li>Bet conservatively in certain areas and take small risks in others.<\/li>\n<li>Get rid of things that make you fragile.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h3>What is your Ikigai?<\/h3>\n<p>Ikigai is linked to your career path. If you haven\u2019t figured it out yet, that\u2019s okay. It doesn\u2019t have to be complicated, but the closer you get to feeling Ikigai, the longer \u2013 and happier \u2013 your career will be.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ou-box ou-box--info\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Hannah-Steiner.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-7087 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Hannah-Steiner-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"A photograph of Hannah Steiner\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>Hannah Steiner is a marketing specialist for the St. James\u2019s Place Financial Adviser Academy, which supports and trains people who are looking to change careers and become financial advisers \u2013 regardless of experience or background. Hannah is experienced in digital marketing with a focus on campaign development and social media marketing, crafting engaging content that connects with people thinking about changing careers.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>St. James\u2019s Place Financial Adviser Academy is one of the inclusive employers working with the OU who welcomes applications from OU students and alumni. Marketing specialist Hannah Steiner from St. James\u2019s Place shares her thoughts about Ikigai, the Japanese secret to a long and happy career. The Japanese believe everyone has an Ikigai, or a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-career-planning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7083"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7094,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7083\/revisions\/7094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}