Ikigai Four-Window Worksheet
This sheet sets out four separate lists: what you love, what you are good at, what others need, and what someone would pay for. Answering each list on its own, without forcing them to overlap, gives you more to work from than a single question about purpose.
How to use this sheet
- Write freely under each of the four headings: what you love, what you are good at, what others need, what someone would pay for.
- Let each list be honest and uneven, and do not try to make the four lists overlap.
- Circle any item that appears, even loosely, under two headings, and start your next thinking there.
- Keep the answers that sit under only one heading, since they can still be useful.
Part 1: What I love
Write freely: activities, subjects and people you enjoy, without judging whether they are useful.
Part 2: What I am good at
Write freely: skills, things people come to you for, and things that come easily to you.
Part 3: What others need
Write freely: problems you notice around you, and what the people you know seem to need.
Part 4: What someone would pay for
Write freely: things people have paid you for, or might, even in a small way.
Part 5: Where the lists touch
Write up to three items that appear under two or more headings, and the headings each one sits under.
| Item | Headings it appears under |
|---|---|
Questions to think about
- Which single-heading answer felt true, even though it did not overlap with the others?
- Did any heading feel like a test you had to pass, and did you drop a rich answer because of it?
For group use
Some people treat the four headings as a pass or fail test and drop good answers that sit under only one. In a group, ask each person to share one single-heading answer they nearly left out.
Watch out for
Using the four headings as a pass or fail test, and discarding answers that do not land in the middle. Single-heading answers are still material.
Scan to continue this practice with Io
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Based on Ikigai (Japanese concept; popularized in the West). Evidence: Mechanistic reasoning.
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