21st July 2015

Glassagh Consulting: How much time do you invest in Kaizen?

If I was to ask you how much time you invest in Kaizen, most of you would look at me blankly but some of you would know that Kaizen is the Japanese word for "improvement" or "change for the best".

Traditionally Kaizen has been the philosophy of continuous improvement of processes in manufacturing, engineering, business management. However Kaizen to me is much more powerful for the continuous improvement that we apply to our own lives and careers.

How much time have you invested in your own development in the last six months?

Jim Rohn the motivational writer best sums up our failure to devout time to improvement with his phrase ‘Failures most dangerous attribute is its subtly’.

What he meant was that failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. People do not fail overnight. Failure is the inevitable result of an accumulation of poor thinking and poor choices. To put it more simply, failure is nothing more than a few errors in judgment repeated every day.

If we repeat these errors then how can we ever attain Kaizen? However, all is not lost, just as failure is not one single event success can be achieved by practicing a few disciplines every day.

Success is having the discipline to apply the right choices and adopt the right habits which allow you to perform actions that give you the edge in life and in business.

How many of us have wanted to get fit, purchased the expensive trainers and running gear and after the initial few runs they end up in your drawer with your learn French handbooks!

Achieving Kaizen is about five things:

Desire

No one can make you change or want to change. Improving your life or skill set can only begin when you decide you want to change and have a desire to stay the path

Motivation

Don’t do it all alone surround yourself with positive people and in time your energy levels will increase. They can also help you in your desire to change and improve. Their help can be essential as we all face hurdles that are difficult to overcome

Choices

What habits will you adopt for self-improvement? What little steps will you take every day to ensure that success happens? Conversely what habits will you choose to change?

Disciple

If failure does not happen overnight then Kaizen is a long term process so discipline is key. The ability to stick to the positive choices and habits you have adopted is fundamental to improvement. Failures will happen along the way, the key is to accept that and just keep on going

Action

Nothing can happen without action. Day dreams without a plan will always remain day dreams so ensure you act on the ideas you have for improvement and move fast before someone else has the same idea and moves before you!

Every one of us controls our own destiny I would ask you all what choices will you make to ensure you invest in your kaizen?

What Kaizen Improvements can you think of to implement now?

For more information download the free guide  ‘Preparing for the future of advice’ http://www.panaceaadviser.com/futureofadvice

John Joe McGinley Glassagh Consulting

Follow me on Twitter @glassaghconsult I always follow back

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