Kaizen: One Philosophy To Change Your Life
June 26, 2009 | Comments | Mental Conditioning
Familiar with The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari
The term itself means constant improvement. The Japanese brought it in to the mainstream after WWII, implementing the process to aid in the country’s recovery. Since then, it has gone global (sans The New Hustle movement).
So what is it?
It is a process. It is a daily process. It is effort and awareness of directing our thoughts towards improvement of the self – to never be satisfied with our character (no matter how evolved it is) - and it can be performed by the CEO of any major corporation - or by the bum that lives on the street corner at the bottom of the CEO’s office building.
Still popular and practiced today by many Japanese companies, the philosophy involves a process that enables them to continually improve any aspect of their business by purposeful directed thought at ways to improve. They never settle with just being successful. Makes sense.
The key to kaizen is in the philosophy itself, which Tony Robbins has also coined: ‘constant and never ending improvement’.
How to implement
“We become just by performing just actions, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave actions.”
-Aristotle
I love being able to bring together ancient philosophies from the east and west to root out the common truth they both are getting at. Aristotle also could have added … ‘we become mediocre by performing mediocre actions’. By not striving for improvement and giving our best to everything that we do - we’re settling.
Kaizen, therefore, should be implemented as part of your daily swagger - something that gives you confidence because you know you’re not settling for anything less than the best you can do. And the truth of the matter is not everyone is able to do this – which is why the successful are revered.
If you can purposefully think of ways you can improve your productivity levels, how you treat others or manage your time, etc. - and take action on these things daily – improving little by little – action by action - just think of where you’ll be even just a month from now. Small steps to big dreams.
People get in their routines and feel they’ve done all they can do and these are the cards they are dealt. The ambition and fire that may have once driven them towards pursuing excellence have since been fanned out. The truth is that the culture we live in has handicapped striving for excellence – everything is as good as it’s gonna get. For the millennial generation, we know this is wrong. This is backwards evolution – and every human knows that at the core of their being: each one of us is meant for something great, utilizing every ounce of potential to be the very best we can be in every aspect of our life. This is our birthright, and imagine a nation filled with individuals who refuse to settle for anything less than the best.
By implementing the Japanese philosophy, you are directing your thoughts towards improving the quality of your life. And by improving yourself, you’re becoming a light for everyone else to follow. Embrace kaizen, embrace The New Hustle.
