Finding Your Purpose Through Ikigai

As 2018 goes on and we steadily grow apart from those gutsy but sometimes not so down-to-earth “new year, new me” resolutions, what a better time than now to reflect and redirect our energy towards new wishes, hopes and goals for the future. Japan’s Ikigai ideology might offer just the right solution for that.

According to Japanese wisdom, everyone has an Ikigai, ideology that has long been associated with the nation’s long life expectancy and the antitheses of short-sighted resolutions. A combination of the Japanese words ‘iki’ (生き), which translates to ‘life,’ and ‘gai’ (甲斐), which is used to describe value or worth, embodies the idea that life is all about finding joy through purpose. In other words, your Ikigai is the “thing that you live for” or “the reason for which you get up in the morning”, what a French philosopher would call your raison d’être. Ikigai encompasses the idea that happiness in life is about more than money or a fancy job title.

On Tuesday, September 4 we will be exploring this topic through two presentations and a workshop. During this session, you will not only get the chance to listen to our two speakers’ inspiring stories about how they found their life purpose, but also discover why and how they made that dream a reality.

Afterwards you will participate a hands-on interactive workshop through which you map out and find your way to your Ikigai, as well as define strategies for exploring and make the best out of it. The session will end with some drinks and snacks during which you can mingle with your fellow creatives, the speakers and the organization team!

TIMELINE:

18:15 – Doors open
18:30 – Welcome by Jimena Garcia Mateo
18:40 – Running away with the circus, by Harm van der Laan
19:00 – Building the Time-Traveling Experience, by Cesar Coll
19:20 – Break
19:30 – Ikigai workshop
20:30 – Drinks and networking
+/- 21:30 – End

SPEAKERS:

Harm van der Laan: Ten years ago Harm van der Laan realised it was time to do what he loved the most: circus. After joining circus school, he now travels the world as an acrobat and juggler. Together with his partner, Maartje Bonarius he founded Tall Tales Company, with the purpose of getting circus accepted as an art form in the Netherlands. Together, through contemporary circus shows about love, loneliness and ambition, they found and perform their Ikigai, making their dream a reality every day.

Cesar Coll: From the moment he learned about the two hemispheres of the brain, Cesar decided that he was not going to settle for developing just one of them. He taught himself how to program when he was twelve and fell in love with piano improvisation by the next year. Since then he has explored things like painting murals, organizing flash mobs, creating a couple of companies, inventing a pet tag machine, working as a UX Designer, a project manager, and most recently designing and building a time-traveling escape room.

LOCATION: Rotterdam Collective (RoCo)

"RoCo is a group of creatives, writers, and thinkers from all over the world nestled in the heart of Rotterdam on the Stadhuisplein. Our collective is built on principles of sustainability, social responsibility, and voluntary engagement. We believe that people, when given free reign over their time, their energy, and their choices, can create deeply satisfying lives for themselves while contributing to a richer and better world for everyone around them. Find out a little more about us here: www.ro-co.nl"