The kaizen approach to answering big questions is to break it down into smaller, even tiny micro questions that can be answered truthfully and quickly.
The amygdala, or Fight or flight:
What’s happens when we try to tackle big questions that we cannot think to answer, there is a safe guard in part of the brain that will trip like a circuit breaker, and cause you to shut down and put it away for later when it feels like it is too big to handle.
The brain loves questions, and tries to answer everyone of them. When there is a overload, it shuts it down. BUT! If you can break the big questions into tiny little questions, you can answer those and piece them together like a puzzle. This will bypass the safety switch in the brain and allows you to answer with info you can use.
When you think of ikigai, if you ask yourself, “what is my reason for being alive right now?”
Most people who haven’t figured it out will shut down and won’t even try to answer. But if you broke it into tiny questions like, “right now what is my absolute most favorite thing to do?” You should be able to answer that with not very much thought. Pair that with “what kind of unique talent do I think I have?” And the. You start to see an ikigai pattern emerge.