Kaizen
The Japanese have a single word that is the key to a lifetime of personal and professional success. Kaizen is the word. Kaizen translates to “constant and never-ending improvement.” Kaizen, in my vernacular, means never to stop learning, never stop reading, and always seeking every resource available to learn.
The single tool every human has to free them of oppression, stupidity, poverty, or lack of education is the ability to live a life dedicated to the way of Kaizen. Learning is available to every human on earth. We need to commit to it. We must learn to embrace learning as a habit right up to the day we die. It is a conscious skill and a concerted discipline.
If you do not learn, you are lost. Trust me; you have no idea what’s coming. Our world offers incredible advancements in learning options available to you.
A significant element of my business coaching practice involves a dynamic course in all aspects of GOALs. In this program, we work on establishing goal clarity, goal setting, and a goal achievement process. One element that makes this process so powerful is a segment called BE, DO and HAVE. I ask my clients one question, and it’s a mindblower to some. I ask them to BE who they want to be, to DO what they want to do, and to HAVE the things they want to have; what skills or knowledge do you need to acquire to make those dreams happen?
Most cannot answer the question without considerable thought. And they can’t answer because most have not been in a learning mode for years. They went to one seminar or read one book on a subject, and suddenly they were experts. The average person reads as little as four books a year; comic books don’t count.
Make learning a discipline now. Continue to read books about skills you need to know and knowledge you want to acquire. Continue to seek people who have already achieved incredible things, learn how they did it, and then model their behavior. Go to more seminars and workshops. Listen to more audio courses. Read everything you can get your hands on. I’ve made it a habit to read for an hour every night. Just start this process now. Clinical trials have proven that the human brain can continue to acquire knowledge and learn no matter your age. I looked it up. I Googled, Is there a limit to how much a person can learn? The answer was what I thought it might be. Google said, “the amount of information the brain can store in its many trillions of synapses is not infinite, but it is large enough that the amount we can learn is not limited by the brain’s storage capacity.” In other words, there’s always room for more knowledge. So, other than laziness, we should never stop learning.
Make Kaizen an integral part of your life plan. Get it in place as soon as you can. It has been said that the most significant attribute of man is the ability to think and continuously learn.
School is never out for the achiever.