I often wonder about those people who have gotten into such a perfect routine that life takes care of itself.

Those people who are happy in the 9-5 groove, fish and chips on a Friday, EastEnders on Tuesday night, Bundoran / Portrush for the fortnight in July, rinse and repeat and then death.

It’s not a life that I would envy one bit.

Getting out of a routine can become difficult when that routine offers safety, structure and a little bit of certainty in a world full of chaos.

Changing employer is very different to changing career, and until there is a sufficient level of discomfort for the employee in the status quo, most people will simply tolerate the devil they know.

I was working with a coachee recently who had come to a crossroads in their career — sure that they needed to leave but unsure of what to leave for.

In the coaching session we talked about what was important to them and looked at the Japanese concept of ikigai, presented as a Venn diagram for finding purpose, including career direction, which looks at the point of convergence of four things:
– What you love
– What you’re good at
– What the world needs
– What you can be paid for

The sweet spot in the middle, where all four overlap, is your ikigai.

It shouldn’t be a surprise to know that, as with much of what gets flushed through the wringer of social media, the neat four-circle diagram is actually a Western adaptation — attributed to a 2014 marketing chart — rather than a traditional Japanese framework.

The original Japanese concept of ikigai is broader and less career-focused — it’s about a general sense of purpose or “reason for being,” which could come from relationships, hobbies, or daily routines, not just work.

A model that offers greater utility is the 12 Pleasure Points of Work, taken from The School of Life.

Making Money
Not greed, but the pleasure of grasping value before others do: spotting an inefficiency, understanding a client’s need better than they understand it themselves, and having your insight validated in the most concrete way possible, by being paid. It’s the satisfaction of the eBay reseller who saw worth in what others called junk.

Beauty
Noticing when a room, a font, or a table setting is off, and taking real joy in fixing it. Often traces back to childhood — carefully wrapping a present, decorating homework — and shows up later as heightened sensitivity to design and aesthetic detail that most people walk past without registering.

Creativity
The pleasure of the blank slate: all the pieces spread out before you build. It’s less about “wanting something new” for its own sake and more about compulsively imagining how a song, a process, or an explanation could be better than the version currently in front of you.

Understanding
Pinning down what’s actually going on, whether that’s a plumber tracing pipes behind a wall or a writer finding the exact word for a feeling. It gives a sense of power over randomness — reflecting or writing things out to make chaos make sense reduces anxiety rather than just satisfying curiosity.

Self-Expression
Wanting to be properly heard, going back to childhood moments of being asked your opinion and finally having something to say. At its peak it’s not just talking — it’s the feeling of having genuinely reached someone through your words, art, or ideas.

Technology
Fascination with how things work at the level of mechanism — not just computers, it be a well-designed chair. The underlying belief is that most human problems are still only partially solved, and better tools are how you close the gap.

Helping Others
Feeling useful in a direct, visible way — the childhood pull toward “let me help with that,” carried into work where you can see the concrete effect of what you did on someone else’s day or life, not just in the abstract.

Leading
Wanting responsibility not for status but to actually implement your ideas — getting clearer, not more panicked, when things go wrong, and having people trust your judgment because you’ve earned it through competence rather than title.

Teaching
The pleasure of watching confusion turn into mastery in someone else. It’s distinct from understanding and knowing — the joy that comes from watching someone else grow and flourish from knowledge-sharing.

Independence
Comfort with your own company is becoming more and more common – people who left conventional structures to set their own terms. Working alone can be a great way to recharge rather than feeling isolated. (Clearly not for everyone.)

Order
Discomfort with clutter and out-of-sequence stories, paired with real satisfaction in sorting complexity into clean categories. This is the pleasure behind everything from a well-run spreadsheet to Japan’s meticulously run train system — creating “an ordered island within a muddled sea.

Nature
Needing windows that open, finding outdoor challenges energising rather than just relaxing, and wanting to be in nature rather than watch a documentary about it.  Having worked in London and Belfast, the joy I get from being close to nature is immeasurable — it doesn’t mean baling hay, although I did try that once… and once only…

The idea is to pick 5 or 6 and give them a scoring that determines what your true motivators are — it’s certainly a good way of getting the conversation started, pointing you in the right direction.

It’s definitely not the way most of us were taught.

How many of us followed the career suggested by our parents?

Careers teachers?

How many just followed the money or followed the safety net that the public sector can offer?

The 12 points are a good tool to use with children / young adults to guide them at the start of their journey, but also for their parents who might just need a little re-directing and re-imagining.

If you find yourself stuck in a career and you need help to become unstuck, drop me an email at info@shift-control.co.uk.

Thanks for reading