Ikigai Thought for Today: Metaphor for Life
Embracing your passions and interests to live life to the fullest
Audio narration by David Marlow
Author Haruki Murakami is, like me, an avid, if not a fast runner.
“Most runners run not because they want to live longer, but because they want to live life to the fullest.
If you're going to while away the years, it's far better to live them with clear goals and fully alive then in a fog, and I believe running helps you to do that.
Exerting yourself to the fullest within your individual limits: that's the essence of running, and a metaphor for life — and for me, for writing as a whole. I believe many runners would agree”
Haruki Murakami
Running is a passion I developed in the past decade, and realized, like Haruki, it is a metaphor for life.
I can tell the difference in my mood and thinking when I don't run. Much like when we aren't living out our Ikigai, we are not ourselves.
Stresses build, and frustrations increase. Running releases that for me. My wife will sometimes say, "You need to go run."
And she is always right.
🌀Do you have a release?
🌱 Is it connected to your ikigai, or is it a part of the real you expressed another way?
🌱 If you don't have one, I'd recommend using your Ikigai reflection to find one.
🌱 It might even be running.
Quest well
I used to run daily. I loved it.
My MD was a 50 mile type runner, and incredibly healthy. Whenever he would say to me “our goal is to get you back to running” I would smile and feel very understood.
I walk or I play the piano. Walking in nature is the best. At one time, I was practicing Tae Kwon Do, and that was a great release too, but I hurt my hip and couldn’t do it anymore. So, now I get my release in a calmer way.