Blueprint >> Kaizen

Disclaimer: This document is in raw form as I process and distill 4 years-worth of my personal development notes. Expect some typos and cryptic language for now. I will be updating frequently and polishing up.

Prescription: Understand Kaizen. Implement gradual, daily improvements.
Related Concepts: Mastery, Perfectionism, Deliberate Practice, Failure is Good

What is Kaizen?

The idea that the biggest changes happen when you commit to incremental, gradual, daily, life-long improvement as opposed to big, one-off efforts.

Why is it Important?

Life is a marathon, not a sprint. The most successful, biggest changes are made with baby steps, taken daily. By crunch and not following Kaizen you increases your odds of quitting.

Kaizen Videos

[coming soon...]

Kaizen: Key Points

We falsely tend to assume that success or change will come from some big initiative, when in fact many of the greatest successes were built by making small, incremental improvements, consistently over a long period of time. It's not as exciting as a one-day transformation, but this is a more realistic view of how progress is made. It's really a form of mastery. Kaizen is the Japanese philosophy of constant, never-ending improvement. Why not apply that to your life. Improve yourself every single day.

Constant minor improvements rather than perfectionism.

It's about shifting your focus from create that "big hit" to always looking for minor improvements you could make. What if your daily habits were designed to give you daily incremental improvements? Wouldn't that be nice? How about implementing a habit like reading a new book every week, so you're automatically improving.

Sometimes we chase transformational change too directly. Sometimes it's hard to get a massive transformation in behavior, in which case you want to baby-step the change. For example, instead of cleaning up your entire diet in one day, remove one unhealthy item from your diet every month. In two years you will have totally transformed your diet, and it wouldn't be nearly as painful.

The ideal way to do personal development is through a combination of baby-steps and the occasional massive transformation — when you can find the opportunity.

Get excited about improving yourself every day. It's gratifying to know that you are growing stronger and wiser every day. Design your life so that this isn't an empty sentient, but backed up with your actions.

References

1. Anthony Robbins
2. The Toyota Way, Jeffery Liker
3. The Kaizen Way, Robert Maurer