Ikigai Coaching

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Ikigai is the Japanese idea of "a reason for being."  As a certified Ikigai Life Coach based in Tokyo, I help ambitious professionals and business leaders reconnect what they do with why they do it, and build a career and business that's worth the effort.

You've built a track record. You know how to deliver. But somewhere along the way, the goals stopped feeling like yours. If you're asking "what's next?" or "is this still right for me?", Ikigai gives you a practical way to find the answer.

Ikigai (生きがい, pronounced ee-kee-guy) combines two Japanese words: iki, meaning

"life, " and gai, meaning "worth" or "value."  Together they describe what makes your life feel worth living.

In Japan, Ikigai isn't a grand mission or a single life purpose you must discover. People find

it in ordinary things: a craft they take pride in, a role others depend on, a morning routine,

a community they belong to. You can have more than one, and it can change as your life

changes.

The four questions.

Outside Japan, Ikigai is usually shown as a diagram of four overlapping circles. It's a

Western adaptation, but a genuinely useful one. It asks:

1. What do you love? The work and activities that energise you.

2. What are you good at? Your skills, strengths and hard-won experience.

3. What does the world need? The problems you care about solving and the people you

want to serve.

4. What can you be paid for? Where your value meets a real market.

Where all four overlap is where work feels both meaningful and sustainable. Most of us

are strong in two or three circles and missing one. Finding the gap is often where the real

progress starts.

• It's not about quitting your job to follow your passion. Ikigai often means reshaping the work you already do, not walking away from it.
• It's not one big answer. You won't leave with a single sentence that defines your life. You'll leave with clarity on what to protect, what to grow and what to let go.
• It's not soft. Purpose is a performance tool. People who know why their work matters tend to decide faster, bounce back sooner and lead with more conviction.
• It's not only for retirement. Ikigai is just as relevant at 35 as at 65, whenever you're facing a promotion, a plateau or a reinvention.

It might be, if any of these sound familiar:

• You're successful on paper, but the work no longer energises you the way it did.
• You've hit a plateau and more effort isn't moving the needle.
• You've just been promoted, restructured or handed a bigger remit, and you're not sure what kind of leader you want to be.
• You're weighing a career change, a new venture or the "second half" question.
• You're saying yes to too much and struggling to decide what really matters.
• Your team looks to you for direction, and you're not sure you could explain why the work matters.

If you're nodding along, the next section is for you.

You could read a book on Ikigai. Many people do, sketch the four circles once and file it away. A coach turns the idea into decisions and action.

• An outside perspective. It's hard to see your own patterns. I'll reflect back what I see, candidly, including the things you'd rather not hear.
• Clarity you can act on. We move from "what do I want?" to specific choices about your role, your clients, your time and your next move.
• Better decisions under pressure. With your priorities clear, saying no to the wrong opportunities gets much easier.
• Renewed energy. We identify what drains you and what fuels you, then redesign your week around it.
• Confident reinvention. Whether it's a promotion, a new business or a career pivot, you'll have a structured way to design what comes next.
• Purpose-led leadership. Leaders who can say why the work matters build teams that commit, stay and step up.
• Accountability. Insight fades fast. Regular sessions keep you moving between conversations.

I've lived three career chapters: senior leadership in London financial services, luxury real estate in the USA with Sotheby's International Realty, and now coaching from Tokyo. I know what it's like to be successful and still ask "is this it?", and I've rebuilt my own working life around the answer.

Living in Japan means I don't just teach Ikigai. I see it every day, in the care people bring to their craft and the pride they take in small things done well.

Ikigai is built into The Killingback 90, my six-session, 90-day private programme. It sits

alongside a practical business diagnosis, so you leave with both a clear direction and a

concrete plan.

1. Discover. We map your four circles: what you love, what you're good at, what the world needs from you and what you can be paid for. 
2. Diagnose. We find the gap, and the single constraint that's holding you back from closing it.
3. Design. We build a plan that aligns your role, business or career with what matters most to you.
4. Do. You act between sessions. I hold you to it, adjust with you and help you keep momentum.

The result: work that's both meaningful and commercially sound, and a way of making

decisions you can use long after our 90 days end.

Do I need to know anything about Japanese culture? No. I'll explain everything you need.

The principles work wherever you live and whatever you do.

Is this life coaching or business coaching? Both. Ikigai looks at the whole picture,

because your career, business and life don't run in separate boxes.

I'm not unhappy. Is this still for me? Yes. Ikigai works best for people who are already

doing well and want to make sure the next chapter is a deliberate choice, not a default.

Can sessions be done remotely? Yes. I work with clients internationally by video call.

How do I get started? Book a free discovery call. We'll talk about where you are, where

you want to be and whether we're a good fit.

Find Your Reason. Then Build Around It.

If you've achieved a lot but you're asking "what's next?", let's talk.