On kaizen
Read time: 6 minutes
What is Kaizen?
Kaizen is comprised of 2 japanese words (Kai and Zen). It roughly translates to “Good change”. It is a philosophy that encourages continuous, gradual, incremental improvments.
It is a life philosophy that may apply in any facet of the things we do, the things we are. More than anything it is a reminder to move forward, however slow, however hard, however badly. To Just. Move. Forward.
It speaks to the core of how real improvement is done in the world. You may sprint, but that will burn you out if you do it for a long time. You may run fast, but it’s pointless if you run around in circles.
If it so happens that before you even start running you choose a destination and you run towards it, whatever your pace would be, however little progress you make, it is simply impossible not to reach your milestone.
“Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up. Discharge your duties faithfully and well. Systematically you get ahead, but not necessarily in fast spurts.” - Charlie Munger
What is it about, really?
Even though the philosophy of Kaizen speaks about improvement, I’d argue it is more about not losing track of the important things in life. It is about the goal, not the method of getting there.
It is about deciding you want to get somewhere and doing absolutely anything to get there, focusing on your tip of the mountain and and the very next step, having faith that one step at the time the whole mountain will be triumphed.
We all know the story of the rabbit and the snail:
A rabbit and a snail go on a race. The rabbit is far far ahead of the snail, but he looses sight of his goal. He starts basking in his own greatness in the face of such an advantage and the rabbit and straight up takes a long nap.
The snail on the other hand could have easily given up. He didn’t have a way of knowing he would ever beat the rabbit, he could not have predicted he would ever actually win the race.
So be the snail! Don’t lose sight of what is important to you. Remember to walk even when it seems impossible and just focus on making progress. However little. However insignificant. Just. Keep. Going.
If you refuse to stray from your path, something great may happen. You may actually get where you want to go.
“If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” ― Martin Luther King Jr.
How do I apply Kaizen to my life?
Kaizen is a promiss. It is a promiss to yourself that you will get 1% closer to where you want to be every day. It is a promiss to yourself that you will refuse to stop in your path towards becoming who you want to be.
Kaizen is a lens with which you can decide if you are successful. Staying on the path that shall (maybe in days, in months or in years time) get you where you have agreed to be is the utmost confirmation that you are doing well, that you are successful in the current moment.
Kaizen is a philosophy of hope. It reminds you that you may do way more than you think you can. Cutting a huge goal in small enough chuncks will make anything do-able.
Whatever your insourmantable challenge, if you devide it in small enough progresses, and you only focus on those small chuncks, it will be hard NOT to accomplish your milestones.
Progression
Due to the law of compound interest, Kaizen speaks to how much more you can accomplish in mearly 1 year.
If you get each day 1% better and you apply simple interest, at the end of the year you are 4 times better than at the beginning of the year.
If you get each day 1% better and you apply compound interest, at the end of the year, with daily focus and work, you are 37 times better than at the beginning of the year.
Kaizen encourages you to just focus on today and in getting a tiny bit better. With time, you will have completely changed, yet you may feel nothing’s changed.
The hard thing about Kaizen
From my experience, the hardest part when applying Kaizen to your own life is finding big enough goals. The hardest part is choosing something enormous enough to really scare you, yet when you divide the work you do each day it is too easy not to accomplish everything you can imagine yourself accomplishing.
You have to be able to see the forest instead of the trees ahead of you, yet only focus on the tree of today. You need to see the whole picture, where you are and where you are going, yet not be bogged down by the amount of work in your future, not over-think where you are right this moment. You need to count each day as a new forest, each chunck of the work towards your goals as a tree that is too hard not to cut down.
Remember:
1. You need to choose big enough goals to scare you, yet each chunck of work each day has to so easy, it is hard not to do.
2. You don’t need to change completely from one day to the next. All you have to do is get 1% better than you were yesterday and in a year, due to the law of compound interest, you will be 37 times better than at the beginning.
3. You don’t need to rush anywhere. All you need to do is stay on the path of daily progress and you shall reap the benefits.
4. Just focus on today. Focus on being a tiny bit better than you were yesterday.