According to Japanese philosophy, we should all strive to find what they call Ikigai. It is our reason for being. It is the reason we get up every morning. There are four key elements that define Ikigai. These include something we love to do and something we’re good at. It also includes something we can be paid for and something the world needs. When we discover all four, we’ve found our purpose and the meaning of our existence.

Finding these four elements in life can be incredibly difficult—or, conversely, incredibly easy—if we approach things with the right mindset.

When we break down this concept, we see that these elements can be merged to form more familiar terms in our daily lives:

• Profession: Something we’re paid for and good at.
• Vocation: Something we’re paid for and the world needs.
• Passion: Something we love and are good at.
• Mission: Something we love and the world needs.

The paradox of today’s question is that most of us have found a profession or a vocation. We have stable jobs that pay the bills. Yet, the lifestyle we’ve adopted leaves little room for what we truly enjoy. In other words, we have little time for pursuing our passion or our mission. This is simply because it’s not profitable.

Within passion and mission lie the familiar cliches. These include cooking, crafts, music, and painting. Others dream of childhood roles like being firefighters, superheroes, pilots, or astronauts. Today, some aspire to be social media influencer, bloggers, or world travelers.

To me, the deeper meaning of the question is realizing that we’ve got it backwards. We focus first on paying the bills. Then, we try to be happy with what we do. In fact, we should first pursue our passion and mission. At the same time, we should dedicate ourselves to the profession and vocation that sustains us.

We can’t have everything at once, but we can set priorities—and place our happiness above all. The worst thing that happen on our deathbed is to regret missed opportunities. We won’t want say to ourselves: “I should have done it when I had the chance.”