I’ve been working incrementally on me.
And without realizing it, I was doing something that has a cool name like Kaizen.
What is Kaizen? The best explanation comes out of an episode by the Art of Manliness hosted by Brett Baxter and his guest, Robert Maurer called “The Kaizen Method — Get 1% Better Each Day”
Basically Kaizen is a form of continuous improvement in an incremental fashion. Originally brought to public attention through corporate culture to improve Japanese manufacturing after World War II, the podcast discusses how it can be applied individually.
How does it relate to my situation? Because all of the personal changes small and large, have come about in a very incremental way. I would identify one thing that I didn’t like and set about to address that one thing.
Given that the most monumental thing that I’ve changed is giving up alcohol, even that I went about in an incremental way. First reducing my intake and working my way through the intelligent rationalization before quitting altogether.
Were there some significant ‘tipping points’ that were critical to the decision making process? Heck yeh. But were the changes I made incredibly radical? No, not at all. Were there set backs and miss steps along the way. Sure.
Even my return to jogging and running in 5K’s was incremental. First my goal was being able to run a mile with no pain. Then I made small adjustments over time to support running a 5K regularly.
But rather than belabor the subject in a very selfish way, let me strongly recommend that you check out Art of Manliness hosted by Brett Baxter and his guest, Robert Maurer called “The Kaizen Method — Get 1% Better Each Day”. And, although the podcast is generally geared toward men, the subject is universal to everyone.
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