Running head: LIFE PURPOSE 1

My Purpose in Life

Rina Nishii

Loras College
LIFE PURPOSE 2

My Purpose in Life

If it is inevitable to die in a few days or years, what will I do today? I frequently ask

myself this question when making decisions. In other words, this answer is the guideline of my

behaviors and represents my value or self-concept. In this regard, my thoughts have been shaped

by many discoveries and learning brought by a series of good encounters with various people in

daily lives, volunteer activities or work, and overseas trips. While interacting with them, I have

seen people who are severely debilitated by illness, bony children who suffer from poverty, and

those who are involved in a traffic accident due to harsh road conditions. As a result, I now think

that dying is not an irrational or special event. Every time I consider my death, what comes to

mind is that I want to return the favor from my family and friends who care about me and to

make them happy as much as I can by using my knowledge and skills. The main reason for this

thinking is closely related to my life satisfaction. I feel contented if I could learn what I did not

know before. Interacting with them often generates this process of acquiring knowledge or

values, and so does my happiness. Therefore, I place great emphasis on communication with my

family and friends while being grateful to them.

As implied above, my purpose in life consists of learning something new and

encouraging my loved ones to lead a fulfilling life. I am sure that they will not reject what I do

for them, but my family and friends would receive no pleasure from my contribution to their

happiness and good by sacrificing my own. To perform my ikigai, it seems significant to find an

activity that may improve their daily lives and make me feel satisfied. Over the course of

academic life, fortunately, I could set a goal that meets these conditions: working as a financial

therapist in the future.

LIFE PURPOSE 3

Through active learning at Loras that had encouraged me to look at what happens in this

world, I came to consider pursuing a career as a financial therapist more practical and

meaningful. In finance courses, for instance, I had determined the financial health of clients in

case studies and developed some plans to help them reach their financial goals by analyzing their

history (asset allocation, budget, family members, job, etc.). Besides, in psychology classes, I

had completed many research papers on an association between current growing social issues

and people's emotions by using dozens of peer-reviewed articles in PsycINFO, interviewing

someone, or asking student to answer questionnaire that I made. Those projects allowed me to

realize that many countries have entered an era in which individuals have been able to survive

around the age of hundred with progress in medical technology and the prevalence of advanced

treatments. Consequently, there has been an increasing number of young and middle adults who

are worried about how much money they need to live sufficiently and how to manage their

assets. Supposedly, my family and friends would be no exception to this phenomenon. Hence, I

believe if I become able to provide them financial therapy, this eventually will be likely to

reduce their financial concerns and then lead to better lives.

In addition, financial therapy is interesting to me as well as useful. Since the therapy

involves providing clients several options to increase their profits through investments and

teaching them how to make financially smart decisions, these duties will fit what I want to keep

doing for my fun. I like investing and have a strong motivation to educate others about a matter

that I know well by plainly sharing my perspectives with them. In fact, I have enjoyed

developing and executing strategies to earn some money with a low-risk investment in Forex as a

means of relieving my daily stress for three years. This investing yields a 10 % return each

month, which means higher profitability than depositing money in a bank account with less than
LIFE PURPOSE 4

1 % annual interest on average. Moreover, when I voluntarily taught Japanese to local adults in

Cambodia this past summer, I felt so fulfilled that some who only could say ohayou [good

morning] and arigato [thank you] became able to introduce themselves or answer short, simple

questions in Japanese within two weeks. I believe these hobbies will essentially become my

strengths because financial therapists need clients to understand why their monetary behaviors

and thinking matter from professional viewpoints based on financial data analysis and also to

reach their financial objectives, like paying off debts or saving more money by convincing their

clients not to spend money impulsively. Also, from past experiences, I predict that it will be fun

to play these roles. Hence, my aspiration to provide financial therapy will lead to my life

satisfaction in the future.

As my purpose in life, I hope I will be able to contribute to the happiness of my family

members and friends who face a financial issue by giving appropriate advice to resolve it while

treading the path of being a financial therapist that combines hobbies and profit. To achieve this,

I want to earn master's degrees in mental health counseling in a CACREP accredited university

after graduating from Loras in 2019, complete graduate internship experiences for LMHC

requirements, and then pass counseling exams for licensure. After that, I would like to take

online CFP courses to expand my knowledge about investments, real estate, taxation, insurance,

and retirement planning. Probably, things will not always work out as I expect. In particular,

there is a high possibility that I cannot defray costs to learn CFP and mental health counseling in

the U.S. However, what I learned in psychology, such as nature of brain prioritizing instant

gratification and attentional bias, would help me identify fundamental reasons for clients'

financially unreasonable or unprofitable behaviors and thoughts in the future. Furthermore,

interactions with my loved ones will inspire me to attain my goal.