Kaizen – Daily Incremental Change for Better

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Always learning. Continuous improvement…get 1% better everyday.

Lifelong learning, the ongoing, deliberate, and self-motivated pursuit of knowledge can enrich your life and make you a better person every day. When lifelong learning is fused with the practice of Kaizen, or continuous improvement, they form a powerful approach for improving yourself. Kaizen is the practice of improving yourself or a process by taking small, incremental, daily actions, which then forms habits that stick and, ultimately, makes you succeed. The word kaizen simply means “change for better.” In the context of people, it refers to continuous self-improvement.

Kaizen was developed by American businessmen.

The U.S. didn’t have a multi-trillion dollar defense budget and was not financially able to efficiently build new armament factories to fight World War II. A plan was devised to support the war effort to have industries make small, continuous improvements to existing plants and retrofit their factories to build the new weaponry.

This system grew into a business philosophy. Factory floor supervisors were challenged to look for hundreds of small things to improve upon, as there was not enough time or resources to make sudden big changes to their equipment.

America introduced the concept to Japan after World War II in an effort to help rebuild their war devastated economy. The Japanese took this idea and enhanced it. The idea of small, continual, incremental improvements became known as Kaizen.

“When you improve a little each day, eventually big things occur. When you improve conditioning a little each day, eventually you have a big improvement in conditioning. Not tomorrow, not the next day, but eventually a big gain is made. Don’t look for the big, quick improvement. Seek the small improvement one day at a time. That’s the only way it happens — and when it happens, it lasts.”— John Robert Wooden, the “Wizard of Westwood”

The philosophy of Kaizen can be incredibly helpful in your personal and professional lives. Instead of trying to make radical life changes overnight, you should start with small, daily improvements.  

Focus on getting 1% better each and every day.

Small-scale incremental improvements start compounding on the previous day’s accomplishment. At first, the changes will seem inconsequential. Gradually, you’ll start to notice improvements. Over time, there will be profound positive changes. One percent compounds each day and doubles every 72 days.

Find something that you’d like to improve upon and try to do 1% better than the day before. Don’t get tempted or become impatient and rush headfirst into everything all at once. Your mantra should be to take it slow, steady, consistent and focus on doing things a little bit better than you did the day before.

Just like you shower, floss and brush your teeth, and comb your hair every day, incorporate Kaizen self-improvement techniques into your daily routine, and you will be amazed at the long-term and lasting results.

Most people want one big quick fix, but these attempts frequently fail. Instead, small improvements produce results that you can see overtime, and this will be gratifying and encouraging.

Lifelong learning combined with becoming 1% better everyday are simple, practical ways to achieve continuous growth and big goals. They’re easy. They’re doable. And they’re applicable to most things you want to learn, do or accomplish in your life.

References:

  1. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2019/01/17/the-practice-of-kaizen-will-help-you-improve-1-per-day-and-lead-to-amazing-long-term-success/?sh=4a01467259a1
  2. https://thriveglobal.com/stories/the-kaizen-approach-to-achieving-your-biggest-goal-the-philosophy-of-constant-improvement/?utm_medium=Twitter&utm_source=Arianna
  3. https://www.inc.com/minda-zetlin/kaizen-continuous-improvement-self-improvement-1-percent-goals-thomas-oppong.html?cid=sf01001
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