Living with "Work + α"
Part 2: What you can do with "plus" and balance

Hello. This is Sugie from the Production Department.

As I mentioned in my last post, apart from my work at Monosas, I am also involved in a few other things on my own. One of them is helping with the activities of the Ibaraki Migration Project . In the first part , I wrote about how I got involved.

I had the opportunity to think about my hometown and visit Mito, and the sense of alienation I felt there led me to take some casual action, which led to my connection with the Ibaraki relocation plan, and gave me the opportunity to get involved as a helper.

In the second part, I would like to introduce what we do specifically and how you can get involved while working.

What I'm Involved in, Part 1: "Stand"

The Ibaraki Migration Project holds an event called "Stand" every other Thursday. It is a place where local players active in various fields in Ibaraki Prefecture take the stage and let people know that there are people and places doing interesting things. I am mainly in charge of reception and supporting the progress of the event.

Here are some of the events we have held in the past. The following were held in Tokyo, but sometimes they are held in Ibaraki Prefecture.

The first stand. Since it was the first time, the organizers were feeling their way around.

Since becoming involved with Stand, I have felt three things.

1. There are lots of local players!

Although this is only a partial list, I was surprised at the number of people trying out various things. As you can see from the event title, the possibilities of challenges do not depend on the location. The fun comes from deliberately choosing a non-urban area as the field to realize what you want to achieve. In addition, there is the benefit of being able to utilize local resources. In particular, the " Yui Project " that I learned about at " Multi-Location Work and Sound Festival - Noguchi Junichi " has many attractive projects that I would personally like to participate in, and I am itching to get involved.

2. The trigger was "Someone was talking about something I was interested in."

I think that the people who come to stand are not too caught up in the word "migration," so it is a very flat place. For example, in the " U-turn business with coffee - Takanori Wada " event, some people came because they "like coffee" or "want to start a coffee shop/cafe." I think that the first step is to find out what you like and whether it touches your heartstrings.

3. There are also encounters (or reunions)

On a more personal note, I felt like I was reconnecting with the people I met in Mito.
I met up with a junior from my junior high school days for the first time in over 10 years. I met a woman who was the daughter of my junior high school teacher, and learned about her recent situation (I learned that she is now the vice principal).
Since graduating from junior high school, I have lost contact with many of them or even kept in touch with them about their current situations, so I never expected to have a reunion like this, and I find this connection fascinating once again.

Involvement, Part 2: "if design project"

Another project we are involved in is the " If Design Project ." It is a three-month project that began in September 2018, and aims to plan and design what we would do and what we could do in Ibaraki and Tokyo if we were in the same place. We are split into three themes related to Ibaraki: "food," "mountains," and "sports," and we are thinking about "what if" from various angles.

I am in charge of the "Sports x Community" area, and I support a team of 10 people who are working on two major themes at the request of Mito Hollyhock .

The program involves researching these two themes in the first fieldwork session, discussing them in the second and third lectures and workshops, and making proposals in a final presentation in the fourth session.

As I write this article, the second installment has just finished.
For the first fieldwork session, we visited the health promotion facility " Hororu no Yu" and the comprehensive outdoor activity center " Fureainosato " in Shirosato Town, where Mito Hollyhock's base of operations, " Atsumare ," is located.

A photo from a tour of Atsumare's facilities, overlooking the ground, which is said to be one of the best in the J.League.

It was a very valuable experience to accompany the process of actually visiting and inputting the information necessary to solve the problem. In particular, there were many things I learned for the first time about sports team management, and the fact that the J.League is promoting community contribution activities was a new learning experience for me.

Information is also posted on the J.League website as part of hometown activities .

https://www.jleague.jp/aboutj/hometown/

I don't think there are many opportunities to look at sports from this perspective. Incidentally, Mito Hollyhock is said to be the third most active in community service among all 54 J-League teams.

The second session was a lecture + workshop. After fieldwork, we brainstormed ideas and created the framework for the project.

A discussion. The large number of sticky notes indicates the amount of ideas. It may be difficult to produce ideas, but it looks like a lot of fun.

The theme was so grand, and the members who chose this theme each had their own thoughts, so it was hard to decide on the direction. I watched the heated discussion from nearby, and it was like smoke was coming out of my head. I would like to fully support the team until the final presentation so that their thoughts can come to fruition.

The choice between life work and rice work

My involvement with the Ibaraki relocation project started from an impulse that was driven by the sense of alienation I felt when I visited the Mito Art Tower. It was at a time when I started to feel that I wanted to not only help out but also get fully involved in the planning and running of the project, that I met Manabe , my current boss, and learned about Monosas.

The Food Hub Project led by Manabe. The work I can be involved in by joining Monosasu. There are more things I want to be involved in, and for me, who only knew how to work as a full-time employee, the options of "contract work" and "freelance" have been presented, which has made me even more troubled. Should I narrow it down to one of them, or should I get involved in both so that I can get a good balance? Or should I put more weight on one...?

In the end, we decided to "do everything we can, rather than choosing and discarding."

・Weekdays: Working as a ruler (=rice job: work that is the basis of life)
・Holidays and weekday nights: Ibaraki migration plan (=life work: activities I want to undertake)

I settled on the above-mentioned way of involvement and time usage, and have come to this point. I didn't do everything 100%, but since Monosassu became the main focus, the Ibaraki relocation plan was just a "plus alpha" to it.

Why did I choose +α? It's because when I read Manabe's article " Let's start my own project, " I had the following thoughts:

1. When I read the sentence, "My project is when I incorporate my personal thoughts into my work," I thought it would be better to clearly separate the two.
2. I was struck by the sentence, "Isn't the essence of my project to discover the 'talent' that has been given to me through the project and then give it back to society free of charge?"
   

The desire I mentioned in the first part , "I want to be a part of the process until the things/things I think are wonderful are properly recognized to the extent that they should be," corresponds to the above 1. The things/things I think are wonderful = the charm of Ibaraki, but I wanted to commit to it purely, without any commercial interest. I felt that if I thought of it as a business, the balance would not be right.

Also, because I'm not fully committed, I think I have another advantage in that I can see the events I manage from the participants' perspective and provide support from the participants' perspective. In addition, I have recently noticed a change in myself, and I feel that I have started to find more joy in situations where I can be there for someone at the turning point when they take a step forward, or give them a push. These are things I discovered through the activities of the Ibaraki Migration Plan, so I wanted to take them a step further and use them to give back to society, which overlaps with point 2.

I've written a lengthy post over two parts, but the "+α" part overlaps with many keywords, such as diversity, work style reform, multiple jobs, etc. And because it's a hot topic these days, there's a lot of information flying around, and to be honest, it can be a bit confusing.

However, I think the important thing is to think about what you should do to fill your heart with positive feelings. It doesn't necessarily have to be work, and there should be options to add something extra.

I started by trying to do as much as I could, and sometimes I feel like I don't have enough time, but I still have room for trial and error, so I'd like to do my best to make my life more fulfilling with my work.