Exploring Your Direction with the Alignment Diagnostic

You may enjoy an activity without earning from it, perform a job well without enjoying your days, or find the work useful without wanting to continue in the same way. The Alignment Diagnostic explores these gaps through situations you describe.

This page's address recalls the former "Ikigai" content. The current Cartographie has a different name: it uses four exploratory axes, not an ikigai test or a clinical measure. The diagram's attribution is provided on its page.

What the Interview Looks For

Four questions organize the exploration: what you enjoy doing, what you do well, the needs you want to contribute to, and what you are or could be paid for.

The answers are not a verdict on your personality. A useful interpretation should connect to a specific episode, remain open to your corrections, and acknowledge missing evidence. You can say that the proposed reading does not fit.

Start with What You Already Know

No document needs preparing. Answer the opening question with a real situation. During the interview, prefer an observable event to a general definition of yourself: what you did, with whom, and what happened.

For example, "I enjoy teaching" provides little to examine. "I spent an afternoon explaining this problem to a colleague and wanted to do it again" gives a situation to explore. One episode alone does not establish a vocation.

Start the Alignment Diagnostic

Read the Card and Report

The Card returns a statement, the gap identified and one next step. The Report develops that reading using interview evidence and its blind spots. You do not need to ask the AI for another summary or a list of actions.

While reading, check three things:

• Do the facts and quotations match what you actually said?
• Is an interpretation presented as certain when other explanations remain possible?
• Does the next step fit your constraints and help test the interpretation?

A displayed score organizes the output; it does not prove an aptitude or a professional direction.

Test the Next Step

Keep one action, doable within 48 hours, with an observable result. For example: ask a colleague about a situation in which you helped them, then record what supports and what contradicts your interpretation. The action must fit your interview, not an example imposed on your life.

The aim is not to confirm the Card at all costs. If the experience contradicts it, you have learned something. It does not by itself justify a hard-to-reverse decision such as leaving a job.

The Cartographie supports reflection on professional direction. If distress exceeds that scope, the interview does not replace appropriate professional support.