Finding Ikigai in the Practice of Medicine

Foreign words without exact counterparts in the English language can illuminate aspects of our life that we haven’t considered or fully explored. Scandinavian examples include the Swedish/Norwegian LAGOM and the and Danish/Norwegian HYGGE.

Lagom is the muted, contented expectation of many Swedes, who want to be good enough, happy enough, rich enough, but don’t strive to be world champion in anything.

Hygge is the Danish contentedness of cozy homes and simple pleasures.

The Japanese word IKIGAI is made up of two simple words: Iki, meaning life and gai, meaning purpose. It can range from a passion that earns you money and status to a more privately held pleasure and pride doing what you do best, either in your work or in your hobbies or personal life.

Being a doctor used to be a calling for many more of its practitioners than it is today. Now it is more often a job. Worse still, it is often an unsatisfying employment. In this era of burnout, you hear about burnout from having to do clerical things that don’t matter and even of moral injury having to do what doesn’t help our patients.

When our Ikigai falls outside our day job, it can still give meaning and fulfillment to our existence and ease the suffering we might otherwise experience in our jobs. Taking stock in small pleasures, being present in the moment, cultivating a hobby or passion outside our work can center us and make us more content. But the more demanding our jobs are, the better off we will be if we can, in spite of the frustrations in today’s healthcare climate, find our passion, our Ikigai, in medicine.

The opportunities for fulfillment in medicine still exist, in our relationships with the patients we serve, in the beauty and complexity of biology and the human body, and also in the ancient, apostolic Art of delivering care to those who are unwell.

Thinking about the word IKIGAI reminds me of my 2014 post Recapturing Abundance. I just didn’t know the Japanese word back then.