There is one question that the longest living people on Earth can all answer without hesitating. Today, we talk about whether you can answer it too and why it matters more than you think. Welcome to the Midlife Reinvention Podcast, a podcast helping women in career and life transitions achieve clarity on their next steps so they can transform uncertainty into an energizing next chapter. I'm your host, Kavita Ahuja, and the founder of It's My Time Now Coaching. If you're wondering what's next in your career or life, you are in the right place. Through solo and guest episodes, you'll gain practical tips, tools, and inspiration to help you uncover blocks, gain confidence, and be, do, and have what you want. I rediscovered myself after the age of 50, and I know you can too. It's my time now to help you do just that. I'm so excited you're here. Let's dive in. Hello and welcome back to the Midlife Reinvention Podcast. It's your coach Kavita with your Thursday check-in. On Monday, in episode 324, we talked about why our reason for being was never out there waiting to be discovered. It has always been inside you all along, in four dimensions you already have within you. I introduced you to my modified version of the popular Ikigai Venn diagram. And I also told you about the older people of Okinawa, Japan, where the idea of Ikigai has been woven into daily life for generations. And there was one detail in that episode that I would like to sit with a little bit longer with you today because I think it's really important. When researchers travel to Japan and ask those older Okinawans what it was that got them up in the morning, almost every single one of them could answer that question without hesitation, without pausing to think about it immediately. That is what Ikigai means, by the way, if this is your first time here. It is a Japanese concept and it is often translated as your reason for being, or quite simply, your reason to get up in the morning. So here's a question I want to ask you today. And I want you to answer it as honestly as you can. What is your reason to get up in the morning? Now, do not answer too quickly because most of us have an answer ready, and I want you to notice what kind of answer it is. Because when I ask this of the women I work with, what usually comes back first is a list. The children need to go to school, there is a meeting at nine, the dog needs walking, my mother is expecting a call, someone has to do the groceries. And every one of those things is real and needed, and every one of them matters. I'm not diminishing them at all. But do you hear what they all have in common? They are all reasons you have to get up. There are obligations and duties and people relying on you, and they are the reason your feet hit the floor whether you want them to or not. That is not the same question. The question is what your reason to get up is, not what pulls you out of bed by the collar, but what makes you want to be awake. What is yours and yours alone that has nothing to do with anybody else needing anything from you? And I know that is a much harder question to answer. And I know because I have sat with many women in this exact place who, when asked that question, had very little idea what would help them jump out of bed in the morning with excitement. They were able to list 20 obligations without pausing for a breath, but the more difficult question is the one I want to focus on today. If that is you today, I want you to know that this is not a failure of imagination, and it is certainly not a character flaw. It is what happens when a woman spends twenty or thirty years being available to everybody around her, and the obligations expand until they fill the whole morning, and the thing that was hers quietly gets edged out of the day altogether. Here's the part I really love, and the reason I really keep coming back to those Okinawans, as well as other people in other blue zones around the world. Their answers were much simpler, like tending a garden or teaching a craft to someone younger or caring for a grandchild, taking part in a community group circle. Not one of them said they were building something enormous or changing the world or reinventing themselves at 90. Their reasons to rise were small and ordinary and completely theirs. So if part of you has been quietly assuming that a reason for being has to be some grand, impressive capital P purpose that justifies all the years you've been waiting for it, please let that go today. It does not. It can be an hour with your hands in the soil, it can be the pot of tea you drink alone at six in the morning before the house wakes up, or the book that you actually read for yourself. It can be the sourdough or the sketchbook or the piano you have not touched since your twenties, or the Saturday you spend with a group of people who are working on the same thing that you are. Small is allowed, small is where it starts, and it can grow from there. And that is often where it starts. Because when we start doing things that give us joy, even little things, we gain positive momentum. Other ideas and people and circumstances come our way, which allow us to grow those seeds of ideas which are planted when we give ourselves the permission to give that time to ourselves. So here is your check-in for this week, and it's a gentle one. Sometime today, ask yourself that question again. And this time, do not accept an obligation as an answer. Keep going until you find something that is actually yours. And if nothing comes, if you sit with it and there is genuine silence there, then that silence is information too. And it is worth listening to rather than rushing past it. When you find the answer about what makes you get up in the morning, spend time actually doing that thing. And notice. Notice what happens to your energy levels? Did more ideas come your way? Were you more excited to wake up and explore other things? This is the power of positive or anabolic energy that gets created when we do the things that bring us joy. Just like those centurions did. And don't be stressed about finding the perfect answer. Journal about it if it helps. And if you want further help finding your way to the answer, this is exactly why I've built the Ikigai Clarity Assessment for. And I mentioned it that it went alive on Monday. It is a tool that walks you through your four dimensions of your Ikigai. And it shows you honestly which one of them is alive in your life right now and which one has gone quiet. It takes a few minutes and it's free. And for a great many women, it is the first time they've seen a clear picture of themselves. And when you have your results, bring them to a clarity and next chapter call with me, and we will look at them together properly. Both links are waiting for you in the show notes. And do come back on Monday, because something rather significant is happening in my own life. I'm turning 60 this weekend. And I'm going to sit down with you and walk you through my own four dimensions of my Ikigai out loud and show you exactly how my own reason for being is still changing, even now. I will tell you what has been shifting in my own contribution lately, and about a passion I set down years ago that I am not willing to leave buried for another decade. It surprised me when I saw it, and I have a feeling it might surprise you too. Thank you so much for being here, and remember, you get to decide what comes next. So say it with me, and say it with confidence. It's my time now.