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remember to hold on to its essence: an optimistic belief in our potential for continuous improvement.
I hope I’ve convinced you that kaizen is a powerful method for achieving clear, stand-alone goals or
fixing troublesome behaviors. The beauty and the challenge of kaizen is that it requires faith. Not
necessarily religious faith, or a rigid and unthinking commitment, but a belief in the power of your body
and brain to carry you where you need to go. By taking small steps, you set your mental compass in a new
direction, allowing your mind to do the rest.
This faith often takes the form of a gentle, patient attitude in the face of challenges. It doesn’t matter
whether those challenges are seemingly insurmountable or tediously mundane. If you are having trouble
committing to a rigorous health-improvement plan, begin by flossing a tooth or two, or washing your
hands carefully before one meal. If you want to feel happier and more peaceful, start in your car, giving
the drivers in front of you plenty of space and consideration. If you want to have more love in your life,
perform a small, loving act each day for a friend, acquaintance, or stranger. If your desire is to unleash
your creative potential, try asking a new question of yourself each day. Await the answers with both
anticipation and trust.
Instead of aggressively forcing yourself into a boot-camp mentality about change, give your mind
permission to make the leaps on its own schedule, in its own time.
Although kaizen is a potent force for career advancement, weight loss, improved health, and other
goals, it is more profound than simply a tool for crossing the finish line. Try to see kaizen as a process
that is never done. Don’t put it in a drawer, forgotten, once your goal has been reached. Kaizen invites us
to see life as an opportunity for continuous improvement, for ever-higher standards and expanding
potential. When kaizen was first adopted on the eve of America’s entry into World War II, the intent was
to enhance manufacturing quality. At that time in the U.S., manufacturing wasn’t a broken industry; it
successfully turned out high-quality goods at a very respectable speed. Kaizen was used when the
impending war made it necessary for this system—which already worked—to work even better.
Just as a record-setting marathon runner will continue to search out ways to shave another second off
his or her best time, you can seek out strategies to constantly sharpen your life’s game. If you take an extra
moment to show excitement about a young person’s artistic or intellectual efforts, you may help that child
discover the joy of learning. If you spend a minute or two each day writing a kind note to tuck into a loved
one’s briefcase or a child’s lunchbox, you may save yourself the heartache that comes when relationships
grow cool from a lack of nurturance and daily care. If you wish to maintain standards of physical health
that are already high, have fun with the small opportunities to take one more set of stairs or eliminate a
few more junk calories.
If you
really
want to play, consider how the world might be different if more of us conducted our
social, business, and romantic lives with the belief that small steps matter, that even the shortest contact
with another person is inherently important. Kaizen offers the possibility that through small acts of
kindness, and even small moments of compassion and curiosity, we can change ourselves—and,
eventually, humanity. We can focus on being generous in daily thoughts and actions, so that we don’t hoard
our kindness for some important person or event, but spend it freely when our children anger us or when
an employee deserves a small compliment. We can respect ourselves by taking small steps toward
improving our health and relationships; we can respect others by asking them small questions. This is not
easy to do, and only you can determine the place of kaizen in your world. But as you incorporate kaizen
into your routines and discover its power, you will have begun to answer a profound question:
What more important task does this life hold than to draw out the possibility in each moment?
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