I recently attended a roundtable luncheon attended by women from different professional backgrounds and business endeavors. Our speaker for the luncheon, Kim Davis from Synovus Bank, gave an inspiring talk about our “one thing,” and distributed a lovely illustration by Ellie Tew of the Japanese concept, Ikigai. The Ikigai lies at the heart of the intersection of some objective “whats” and some subjective “whys.” It takes into account not only what we want, but what the world, our community, and our families need. It’s a beautiful expression of the necessity of interdependence, and I loved the chance to think about my purple dot at the center of all of those overlapping circles. Each of us at the table had the opportunity to speak a little about what their “one thing” might be, or what they saw as their Ikigai. It was a powerful conversation, and I consider myself lucky to have been able to participate.
But the dot at the center is only possible because of the intersection of all those circles around it. So while I’m sitting at my desk today, thinking about preparations for next week’s Thanksgiving holiday, I’m also looking at that illustration and thinking about how grateful I am for all of the things I can sort into that dot’s surrounding circles: the people I love, colleagues with good advice and better jokes, the opportunity to help folks out by doing something I enjoy, a growing business with great new people and services, and extraordinary clients who have become dear friends. And more and more, that purple dot at the center starts to look like a heart.
Happy Thanksgiving. We are really lucky here at TPD, and we are really thankful.
Illustration: Ellie Tew