tl:dr – KAIZEN – The Japanese concept of doing something every single day to make yourself a little better than the previous day. Over time, it yields life changing results.
Kaizen was born as a factory & corporate organizational practice in Japan. Companies like Toyota sought to make daily little improvements to their processes’ and practices, resulting in large positive changes. I first read about the idea in an Org Theory class in Grad School, but quickly realized that its profound simplicity can be even more effective in my own life.
In the four years since then, the idea has embedded itself deep into my mind. It was a driving principle and now a daily practice.
It can be anything from reading a useful blog post to practicing a skill for five minutes. Here are some super basic Kaizen ideas:
- working out
- meditation
- prayer
- reading
- writing (this blog post is my own Kaizen snack for the day)
- practicing a skill (play guitar, knit, learn a language, try a new recipe, etc, etc, etc)
It’s so simple that it may seem trivial to write about, but try it for a few days and you’ll see these little droplets rippling massively through your life.