The Inner Development Goals (IDG) offer a framework designed to support personal growth and contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). With pillars focusing on Being, Thinking, Relating, Collaborating, and Acting, the IDG framework emphasizes essential skills and mindsets for individual development and positive societal impact. Aligned with the seven dimensions of Ikigai, such as life satisfaction, change and growth, a bright future, resonance and relationships, freedom, self-actualization, and meaning and value, the IDG framework provides a path to unlocking one's potential while making a meaningful difference. Explore the 23 skills and qualities within the IDG framework and their connection to the SDGs, and embark on a journey of personal growth and global progress.

1. Worth Life

2. Move what matters
What makes my life worth living?
Being
Knowing my lifeʼs purpose
Acting
Acting in alignment to my values
Collaborating
Ikigai in Resonance with others
Relating
Caring for others
Thinking
Critical Thinking & Long-term
orientation and visioning – Ikigai
forsters a constructive view of the
future

3. Life satisfaction
Change and growth
Constructive view of the future
Resonance
Freedom
Self-actualization
Meaning and value
Ikigai Dimensions
Being - Relationship to Self
Thinking - Cognitive Skills
Constructive view of the future
Acting - Enabling Change
Relating - Caring for Others and
the World
Collaborating - Social Skills
Being - Relationship to Self
Inner Development Goal

4. Life worth living 01 Being — Relationship to Self
● Ikigai as a Compass
● Narrative: Meaning in life
● Live a life worth living
● Finding meaning even in challenges,
trauma
● Transitioning from “why” to “what for”
● Learning from setbacks
● Aligning life with existential values
● Constructive perspective on the future
● Living in the “here & now”
Cultivating our inner life and developing and
deepening our relationship to our thoughts,
feelings and body help us be present, intentional
and non-reactive when we face complexity.
● Inner Compass
● Having a deeply felt sense of responsibility
and commitment to values and purposes
relating to the good of the whole.
● Openness and Learning Mindset
● Self-awareness
● Presence

5. Life worth living 02 Thinking — Cognitive Skills
Ikigai & Values and emotional awareness as a
foundation for decision making and perspective
● Ikigai supports mental well-being and
cognitive skills*
● Ikigai fosters perspective taking
● Ikigai narratives promote sense-making
*Fido, D., Kotera, Y., & Asano, K. (2019). English translation and validation
of the Ikigai-9 in a UK Sample. International Journal of Mental Health and
Addiction)
Developing our cognitive skills by taking
different perspectives, evaluating information
and making sense of the world as an
interconnected whole, is essential for wise
decision-making.
● Critical Thinking
● Complexity Awareness
● Perspective Skills
● Sense-making
● Long-term Orientation and Visioning

6. 03 Relating: Caring for others & World
Ikigai & Values and emotional awareness as a
foundation for decision making and perspective
● Ikigai supports engagement
● Ikigai fosters empathy + prosocial action
● Ikigai, values and engagement lead to
sense-making
Caring for Others and the World
Appreciating, caring for and feeling connected
to others, such as neighbors, future generations
or the biosphere, helps us create more just and
sustainable systems and societies for everyone.
Appreciation
Connectedness & Humility
Empathy and Compassion
Ability to relate to others, oneself and nature
with kindness, empathy and compassion and
address related suffering
Life worth living

7. 04 Collaborating: Social Skills
Ikigai fosters
● Ikigai supports engagement
● Ikigai fosters empathy + prosocial action
● Ikigai, values and engagement lead to
sense-making
Communication Skills
Ability to really listen to others, to foster
genuine dialogue, to advocate own views
skillfully, to manage conflicts constructively and
to adapt communication to diverse groups.
Co-creation Skills
Inclusive Mindset + Intercultural Competence
Trust
Mobilization Skills
Life worth living

8. 05 Acting — Enabling change
Ikigai supports
● Self-actualization (Mieko Kamiya)
● Creativity & flow
○ Ken Mogi, Little Book on Ikigai,
○ Study on Tai-Chi practitioners
Iida, Kenji & Oguma, Yuko. (2013).
Relationships Between Flow
Experience, IKIGAI, and Sense of
Coherence in Tai Chi Practitioners.
Holistic nursing practice.
● Constructive mindset
Communication Skills
Qualities such as courage and optimism help us
acquire true agency, break old patterns,
generate original ideas and act with persistence
in uncertain times.
Courage
Creativity
Optimism
Perseverance
Life worth living

9. There are two ways to use the word "ikigai." It can refer to the
source or object of life's value, as in "This child is my ikigai,"
or it can refer to the mental state of feeling ikigai.
The latter is what Viktor Frankl calls the "sense of
meaning." I will call it "Ikigai-Kan" to distinguish it from the
former "Ikigai" itself.
– MIEKO KAMIYA