Improve or die

Lately I’ve been thinking about small changes I can make today that will positively effect my future.

I’m reminded of the Japanese business practice of kaizen which is to continuously improve.

In a world filled with change and uncertainty the most we can do is evaluate what’s working and not and try to improve it little by little.

If you just improve 1% per week, you’ll have ~70% improvement over an entire year.

Imagine you’re trying to lose weight or trying to make your business better. Instead of thinking you have to run a marathon the moment you step outside, try to just improve a little each week. Evaluate it every week, think about what could have worked and contributed to it not working.

Make an assertion (“I will do X and Y will happen”). Test it and then evaluate the next week.

If you keep your expectations low and do this week by week, you might be pleasantly surprised to find how much you’ve improved.

The alternative is doing nothing or falling on bad habits and you already know what that’s getting you.