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What is Kaizen ?
Kaizen is basically a Japanese term which consists of two words ‘Kai’ –means ‘change’ and ‘Zen’ –means ‘Good’
Kaizen is a theory which focusses on continuous improvement and hence increase productivity .
The other definitions of KAIZEN are :
a Japanese set of ideas about business that encourages people to continue improve their personal and professional life —McMillan dictionary
KAIZEN means improvement. Moreover, it means continuing improvement in personal life, home life, social life, and working life.–Kaizen.com
Japanese feel that many small continuous changes in the systems and policies bring effective results than few major changes.
How to KAIZEN UP your Life?
We all want to make improvements in our life – kick away all negativity , be always optimistic , happy , and there should be no bumpy tracks . The Kaizen approach ‘Change for the better’ can be implemented to have a mindset of continuous improvement and thus lead a better life .
First let’s understand the 5 S principles of Kaizen :
Five S of Kaizen
SEIRI –
It’s a Japanese word which means – Sort Out.
Start by sorting out your life . You should organize your life by sorting out all work , things and relationships . They need to be set prioritywise .
How can you start to Sort out your life?
Sit down , think well and start by analyzing:
- What is most important in your life ?
- Is it your happiness ?
- What is that one thing which you want to improve in life ?
- Is earning money your topmost priority? How much money you think is enough for your future needs ?
- Are you investing in your family relationships ?
- Are you investing in your health ?
- Is health the utmost important or not ?
- Which are the things or relations which are stressing you ?
- Can you try to stay away from them? Will that help ?
- Are you wasting some time on the things which are useless ? (It may include unnecessary buying , unnecessary arguing with others , or may be some other .)
Sorting is the first step towards change -‘change for good’
2. SEITION – Seition means to Organize.
After sorting , there’s a need to organize yourself . If you have labeled ‘ Family’ as most important , start investing in those relationships by more caring , love , forgiveness . If you have labeled ‘Money’ as most important , start looking for more ways to earn and save . But at the same time your happiness should not be lost ,because that was what you sorted out at first step.
3. SEISO -The word “SEISO” means Shine or cleanliness
Seiso consists of cleaning up the place and giving it a ‘shine’. Your room , bed , kitchen , balcony , car , workplace , everything should be clean enough . Clutter or uncleanliness is a sign of inefficiency . As the manager of the family , you can allot the task of cleaning to everyone in the family . It would be a good idea to have every area of the home assigned to a person . No area should be left uncleaned. Every corner should be well organized and look beautiful .
4. SEIKETSU-The word SEIKETSU refers to Standardized cleanup .
It’s a deep cleaning part of KAIZEN . It’s not just about cleaning and dusting the place where you live or work . It should be taken broadly as cleaning your minds of any grievances or repairing the misunderstandings you had with your family or friends . You should also deep clean of all the bad habits you have .
How you can deep clean your life ?
You can analyze like :
- If you had a heated argument with somebody ?
- Was it your fault ? Be honest while thinking
- Is that incident disturbing you ?
- Shouldn’t you say sorry ?
- Is life meant to live with hatred or love ?
- What are your habits that you think you shouldn’t have ?
- Did you working on those ?
- Do you make excuses ?
Such an analysis would help bring back the lost happiness . You’ll become calmer .
5. SHITSUKE – Shitsuke means Self Discipline .
You should be self-disciplined and determined to make some changes for the better . Work on eliminating bad habits , practice good ones .
Discipline yourself for making improvements you want in your life – be it health , money , relations ,or whatever you want in your life . Work every day with a discipline and you will definitely achieve it . Remember ‘every day’ , self-discipline is in being consistent .
Kaizen can be broken down into 8 major principles.
Strive for continuous improvement.
Always strive to make improvements in your life . Things can always get better no matter how good or bad they may be now. . Life may pose you problems but don’t worry . Keep struggling with a discipline along with a faith in the supreme power . Nature and time have their own healing methods .
start making small improvements and rise high in life
2. Acquire wisdom by knowing facts , consulting with many people rather than relying on one expert.
It’s always better to learn from other’s mistakes . Whenever in a fix , take opinions from the ones who have already gone through those problems . Ask your elder ones . Benefit from their life experience . In taking advice from others , you earn better relationships too .
3. Don’t waste time making excuses but focus on small changes to start with .
If you want to see a change in your life one day , start by changing something you do daily .
Focus on small changes that you can start with . If you want good health , start small by drinking more water. Then move on slowly towards a fitness routine . If you remain consistent , things will definitely improve. If you improve by just 1% every day for a year, you’ll be 37 times better than when you started.
4. Get to the root cause of a situation or problem by asking “Why?” at least 5 times.
“Why” often simplifies the way we look at a particular situation . Suppose you are stressed because of a family relation . Ask yourself ‘Why’ ? If answer comes that the other person misbehaved , again ask ‘Why’ . Did i initially made some mistake or was he already tensed because of something else ? The series of ‘Why’ can help find a solution.
5. Simplify your life .
Simplify your life by deep cleaning , as the fourth S ‘Seiketsu’ of Kaizen says . Often you are stressed not because of work but because of relations . Your body can do as much work but mind gets tired soon if it has to face jealousy or hatred of others . Do a deep cleaning of your mind by clearing off any misunderstandings ,and still if things don’t get sorted , stay away from those .
6. DeClutter your life . Try to adopt minimalism
The focus should be on increasing productivity and avoiding the ‘useless’ in life . Declutter your wardrobe , give away the clothes you have not worn for years . Declutter your kitchen, you don’t need to buy every new variety of crockery . Try adopting minimalistic attitude in life . As nowadays the lockdown period is teaching you to live with only the necessary things .
7. Start making improvements right away, even if you don’t yet have all the answers.
Don’t just keep thinking . Go and take the first step for improving yourself . Grab the first book if you want to develop reading habit . Take the pen-paper if you want to start writing . Start with just 5 minutes of daily meditation if you want to be calm and happier in life . So start making small improvements to KAIZEN up your life . Good habits deliver good results
8. Make an attempt that everyone around you improves .
Another definition of Kaizen goes like this :
Kaizen is everyday improvement , everybody improvement , everywhere improvement
Strive for habit improvements in your children and other family members . Together we improve more .
pc: Google
Here are the 3 key areas of life that you can very well improve by KAIZEN principles:
- Decluttered Life –
Our home , phone , laptop, workplace ,relationships , minds , all are cluttered with time . They need cleaning time to time . As you clean your phone to create memory , so should you clean the place where you live or work so that it is airy , looks beautiful and doesn’t stress you out . Minds also need decluttering – there’s so much garbage that gets accumulated there . Clean your mind of the unhappy past and make a room for joyful present .
- Good Habits and Time management –
As KAIZEN focuses on small changes , just a 5 minute of daily meditation or 15 minute of daily exercise can bring you very good results . Just analyze that 5 minute daily meditation means you have become calmer for 2.5 hours in a month and 30 hours in a year . Small changes done with consistency can yield big results .
- Happiness –
Do you know what’s happiness paradox ? There are 3 pillars of Happiness . A life which is free of clutter and full of good habits , what else do i need for happiness?
KAIZEN in a nut shell
Start to make small improvements in your day to day life. Don’t overthink it and just start with it. These small improvements can become base of good habits that you can develop for your whole life .
KAIZEN MEANS CONTINUOS IMPROVEMENT IN LIFE
Sources :
https://ardas-it.com/kaizen-5-principles-to-ensure-the-success-of-the-japanese-management-model
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