At the time of writing this I will have posted 25 podcast episodes under the ‘Volumes’ brand that can be watched on YouTube and listened to on either Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And there are currently 4 scheduled to upload over the next few weeks.
But now that I’ve gotten my plug out the way, I want to answer the question that every guest has asked me. Why did you start podcasting? I seems like a straight forward question to answer although I never felt like the answer I would give ever truly represented why I started podcasting.
I want to learn about the world. I enjoy talking to people. I think it will help me discover myself. These answers, although true in many respects, aren’t the reason. And in retrospect, I can’t recall a specific moment in which I started podcasting. The majority of the equipment I used when I started I already owned from previous creative endeavours so I didn’t have go out and get anything new. My first guest was my girlfriend so I didn’t have to scout out people to find someone to talk to. I just took the deep dive and did it. And then I did another, then another, and another.
It was only a few days ago when I came across Japanese philosophy of Ikigai did I start thinking about the question of why I started podcasting. What’s odd is that I’ve been preaching Ikigai for majority of my life, without knowing of the practice itself, and that people should go out their way to find those special things that make us feel alive. Looking at the night sky and knowing that what I’m looking at never ends. Breathing in the cold air or being drenched in sweat from the hot sun. Listening to that one bit in your favourite song or reading that one line in your favourite book. These are some of mine. What are also some of mine are the previous three I mentioned, learning about the world, talking to people, and growing as a person.
I feel like we can group people into three categories. People searching for those things that make them feel alive. Those who have found it. And those who don’t care to search at all. I have little to say about those who aren’t searching for those things they love to do and for those who have found it I applaud you but I encourage everyone to be searchers. I think as soon as we become comfortable and content we lose the sensation of being alive. We are of course alive but are we living? Do we feel alive when we live in comfort? Life itself is a high risk, high reward situation and the less risk we take the less reward we get. The less genuine reward we get. The reward of love, happiness, laugher, and sometimes even pain.
Life is incredible yet it seems apparent to me that the society we live in does not seek life but rather, seeks comfort. We are all inherently seeking a life in which we don’t have to strive or work hard. I myself am unfortunately included in this. We would rather cut the potential of pain, hurt, hard work, and struggle out of our lives than to endure them but doesn’t that too cut out the highs? This brings me back to the concept of Ikigai.
Ikigai; a reason for being. It’s most commonly depicted as four overlapping cycles each symbolising it’s own incremental part of the centre point which is Ikigai. I think that podcasting is my Ikigai. And if it’s not then I’m not going to stop until I find it. And neither should you.
For more information of Ikigai click here!