The Humble Square
The art of living a harmonised life.
Success is not something that is defined by possessions or experiences but rather it’s something that should be defined by you, your values and your purpose.
This golden adage is inspired by four carefully defined actions that conveniently create the ‘Humble Square’.
What is the Humble Square?
A square derives its strength and form from four simple right angles, which we will call cornerstones, as well as four sides of equal length and proportion, which we will call pillars.
Without these cornerstones and pillars of equal proportion, a square has no definition or purpose, which is what we need to develop in our own lives. The cornerstones are the attributes we need to move us towards a fulfilling and purposeful life.
You need to devote equal amounts of time and effort to each area to keep your life defined and balanced.
What are your values and why define them?
Values and your own internal value system represent the first cornerstone and pillar of the humble square and journey towards a brighter personal future.
Values often arise from conscious or unconscious voids, which are the things you perceive as most missing in your life. Values are those things which provide you joy, ambition and help guide you when the goings get tough. Ikigai is a Japanese formula for discovering a fantastic set of values.
This Japanese ethos of life is made up of four key principles; Passion, Mission, Profession and Vocation.
When you get synergy and balance between these, we are able to live a fulfilled and happy life.
Why define your own version of life success?
Success is not measured by how many cars, houses or watches you own.
It’s important to define your own version of success first rather than seeing success as an achievement in one area. What’s even more important is that you look at your life holistically and divide it into multiple balanced facets.
Known as Life Key Result Areas (LKRA), they form the second cornerstone and pillar of ‘Humble Square’. Harnessing the four key principles of Ikigai, you can attain a harmonized life and positively influence personal areas of your own life. You can base your version of success around categories like business, relationships, finance, health or career.
The goal is to choose what matters to you. By making sure that your values and life key result areas are aligned you will constantly be working on those areas most important to you.
Why define your life’s vision?
The next cornerstone and pillar serve to create a bigger picture concerning your personal vision and legacy.
Just like a Victorian sailor would have used a sextant and the stars to guide them on their own voyages, we too need our own vision and purpose to help navigate our lives in the right direction.
You should already start to see the commonalities between your values and your life key result areas. The first piece of advice is to go back to the dreams you had as a child.
Make sure to look at both the happy and painful memories, as it is often out of pain, we find the motivations to change ourselves. These are ‘Life Crystallisation’ moments and it’s these points which help define what our vision should be right now.
Be your authentic self.
This final cornerstone and pillar of the humble square is the single most important feature and without it, the square lacks stability and, more importantly, its unique identity.
This is a direct analogy to our own lives and even if you manage to master all 3 other areas, if you are not your authentic self then there is no meaning. But who and what is your authentic self?
Remember that, we alone, do not know what life will bring and what other defining events are yet to occur.
The humble square which you create in your your life now will not be the same in 10 or 20 years.
However, if you live your life in accordance with the cornerstones and pillars at each stage of life you will get continual fulfillment and happiness at each passing phase.
This is the beauty of life and why, as individuals, we need to constantly monitor and complete correction on our life journey.