Kaizen!

I stumbled, or rather, restumbled on this word the other day. The word is Kaizen, and in Japanese it means continuous improvement. The first time I heard this was on the trading floor at Nomura, but, that being a Japanese bank, I heard many Japanese words and this one did not stand out amongst the swearing.

I’ve been mulling it over, and I really like the concept.  The way I see it, every day is an opportunity to improve yourself.  And so I shall.  It can be anything, as long as at the end of the day you can look back and say ‘I did [x] and am now a better person for it’. 

It doesn’t have to be big, the idea is that the sum of lots of little things will eventually make you a more complete, well-rounded person. And the beauty of it is, it never stops! Nobody is perfect, and thus there is always room to improve some aspect of your life. 

Just today, this has motivated me to clean my room, go to church, workout and write down this blog post. I could very easily have just sat on the couch and watched TV or some other slothful activity, but now I can look back on the day and know that I’m happy with the choices I’ve made. And in the long run, isn’t that the exact feeling we all want on our deathbed? To be satisfied with the choices you’ve made in your life, and not to regret a thing. I think that starts with the little, day-to-day activities, and there’s no time like the present to acknowledge that.

I leave you with some food for though: are you happy with what you’ve done today? If so, great! If not, why? What can you change?

Goodnight and enjoy!

Ian