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5 Keys To A Kaizen Mindset

“Productivity is not about how to get more things done; it's about how to get the right things done. It doesn't mean just doing less for the sake of less. (It's] about making the wisest possible investment of your time and energy in order to operate at [your] highest point of contribution.” - Anthony Raymond 
 
Key 1 - Have making improvements towards your life and projects the foundation of your everyday tasks. 
 
Key 2 - Act on the small ideas for lasting change. Let nothing be too small and adjust accordingly. (Think of a plane’s flight from L.A. to Atlanta)
 
Key 3 - Know that when you do act, you are making a difference. 
 
Key 4 - Streamline what you are doing. Use a Hansei time to reflect and see how you can make your time more efficient. 
 
Key 5 - Focus on your focus. This means to pay attention to your project and stop being so distracted. Sometimes you may have to say no to things that do not fit in with what you are trying to do. 

Kaizen and the Compound Effect

The main focus of kaizen is to accomplish small tasks that lead up to big results. Many fail to see how this works, or think it will take too long to see the results. So let’s change the focus shall we? Let’s change the definition a little. 
 
Kaizen is the successful result from consistent and compounded daily output towards the goal. 
 
Let’s look at a 30 period. If I gave you a choice,  would you take either $20 bill now, or let me pay you today like this: $.01 day one, .02 on day two, .03 on day three… for thirty days? Thinking it would take forever the lower intelligence says give me the money now! But in the long run, the amount given is actually $21.45. May not seem to be a very big difference, but if you took it over a twelve month period the $20 a month is $240. The penny a day method is $667.95. From a Penny day one, to $3.65 on the last day of the year. If you did this with a dollar: $66,795.00. 
 
The point is, the little things add up. Do not make the small efforts meaningless in any way. Remember lingchi? Chipping away at something will destroy it completely. Death by a thousand cuts. 

Small Visual Rewards

Having a system that can show progress visually is like having a reward system to satisfy both upper and lower intelligences. The Upper is satisfied by seeing long term marks toward accomplishing the habit to be formed, or to the goal itself.
 
The Lower is satisfied by accomplishing an immediate task and having the reward of marking it off. This may get old to the lower, so it may become uninterested after a while. What you may need to do is incrementally put a different or bigger reward to have it work towards. 
 
For Example: 
After a week of marking off the calendar, the lower may not feel that this is a reward any longer. If you add in that there is a weekly reward along with the daily, then it may be more enthusiastic about getting things done.
Some apps offer badges for accomplishments to show on social media, some people may take a picture, get ice cream, do a giveaway, whatever entices the lower to do better and stay on track.
 
The thing is, this is a part of the planning process to your success. It is hard to do things successfully making stuff up as you go. It very hard to hit a target you cannot see.

Mastery through Consistency: Don’t break the chain!

Kaizen is the improvement through making small changes. To form habits, we have to repeat things over and over until it becomes automatic. This is why so many apps have streaks and notifications, to form habits. Fed habits have long lasting consequences, good or bad. Since the actions we are taking become automatic, they are hard to break because we do things without thinking about it. 
 
A few years ago Jerry Seinfeld gave some advice to take a calendar, and have one goal to do something of your choice, and daily mark off the day when the task was done. After a few days, there would be a satisfying chain forming. He said, “whatever you do, don’t break the chain, never break the chain!” 
 
Ultimately what he was getting at was this: doing things habitually leads to a certain arrival, and mastery of something comes through consistency… If you want to do this, don’t break the chain, if you want to do that, don’t break the chain!

Small Beginnings Can Lead To A Big Finish

A journey of 1,000 miles starts with a single step… We all have to start somewhere. First things first, we have to have our mind set to “I am going here.” If you are like me, when we set out on a long quest we tell Siri, or google, or the GPS system where we want to go, and trust it will plot the best course to get there. 
 
We need to do this in life too, we find we want to go here and trust God will guide us there. Constant communication can keep us on track. Please don’t turn on the GPS, get a start, and then switch it off. That makes it easy to get lost.
 
Second, every step forward IS a step forward. Do what you can handle, and challenge yourself, but know that no matter how small your step is, it must be a step forward. Do not compare yourself to everyone else because there is only one you, and you are going to make it. 
 
Kaizen is about small changes for the better, so don’t focus so much on big moves and spectacular results. I heard one person say, “it took me 17 years to become an overnight success…”
 
With the mindset of “I will do this”, and knowing its perfectly fine to take small steps, we will be well on our way to the life that fulfills us.

Accomplishing Things Through Kaizen

Review:
Lingchi - death by a thousand cuts: to slowly be overwhelmed by things we let into our lives through open doors. 
 
To combat that, we use hansei:
Han - Look upon and turn over
Sei - Look back and review the past
Hansei - Self Reflection:
Be aware of short-comings and flaws
Know what tempts you
Take responsibility for safe guarding against falling
Avoid blaming everyone else 
Learn from past mistakes
 
Then we looked our ikigai (our reason for being) and it’s 4 areas:
What you love
What you’re good at
What you can be paid for
What the world needs
 
When this is unbalanced, we slow down, become unproductive, unsatisfied, and procrastinate often. This leads to: 
Distractions
Tired mentally
Anxiety
Negative emotion as attached to the task
Lack of motivation or Not seeing the value of a task. 
 
A common reason we get like this is because what think our ikigai is does not satisfy our upper and lower intelligences, and when they do not work together we find ourselves off course. 
 
They seem to be in conflict most of the time because:
Your Upper intelligence is logical and methodical, and sees the long term benefits of things. 
Your Lower Intelligence does not think at all, it pleases itself and survives. It will go along with anything that will bring it immediate pleasure or reward. 
Since one is long term, and the other is short, they do not work together unless you have a way to satisfy both. 
 
Which brings us to today:
Kaizen (/ky,zen/):
Continuous, incremental improvement is called kaizen. It originated in Japan and the word translates to mean change (kai) for the good (zen).
 
When set out to do a task, set a goal, or plan out something, we often make it way too big, which overloads our reality, or overwhelms the lower intelligence to where it is paralyzed with fear. Fear of not immediate gratification so it fights off this long term thinking. 
 
Kaizen breaks down goals and steps into bite size pieces to where you are working towards the long term, but so small that the lower intelligence is satisfied and sees the rewards through small accomplishments it can celebrate in. 

The Upper and Lower Intelligence Conflict

They seem to be in conflict most of the time because:
Your Upper intelligence is logical and methodical, and sees the long term benefits of things. 
Your Lower Intelligence does not think at all, it pleases itself and survives. It will go along with anything that will bring it immediate pleasure or reward. 
Since one is long term, and the other is short, they do not work together unless you have a way to satisfy both. 
 
When the two are working together in you will seem unstoppable!
 
If ever watch children, they don’t use their upper intelligence so much because it hasn’t developed through experiences to make long term decisions. Since the upper isn’t making long term decisions the lower has more power to do what it thinks is right, which is to satisfy its needs, curiosity, and desires. This is why you’ll see kids eating off the floor, walking off from parents in crowds, just doing stuff…
 
Think about how a 5 year old and a 15 year old does with Halloween candy. They both get a huge haul, but:
One will eat as much as they can right a away, one will try to be systematic in the distribution to make it last as long as it can. 
One will give some away and trade with friends, the other will try to sell what they could do without so they can have money to more, or something else. 
 
Bringing it back to your life, the four areas of ikigai are:
What we love to do
What we are good at doing
What we can be paid for doing
What the world needs from what we are doing. 
 
Can you see how the upper and lower can be addressed when the 4 areas are balanced?
 
Your ikigai is a way of life, giving the reason for you now, and into the future so that both levels can agree that things you set out to do will be to the benefit of all. 
 
 
 

Unbalanced Ikigai and Procrastination 2

Procrastination - to voluntarily delay an intended course of action, despite expecting to be worse off for the delay. 
 
Why do we delay? 
Distractions
Tired mentally
Anxiety
Negative emotion as attached to the task
Lack of motivation or Not seeing the value of a task. 
 
Not having an ikigai will not necessarily cause the delays or procrastination, but when you think about your four areas, it can help energize you to get things done. 
 
Visualization:
Upper and lower intelligence working together in you will help you accomplish most any task. 
BUT. 
They seem to be in conflict most of the time:
Your Upper intelligence is logical and methodical, and sees the long term benefits of things. 
Your Lower Intelligence does not think at all, it pleases itself and survives. It will go along with anything that will bring it immediate pleasure or reward. 
Since one is long term, and the other is short, they do not work together unless you have a way to satisfy both. 
Your ikigai is a way of life, giving the reason for you now, and into the future so that both levels can agree that things you set out to do will be to the benefit of all.