Kaizen
It is not as simple as, “becoming one percent better every day”… let me share with you why
Kaizen is a concept that was refined in Japan. It is centered around the idea of continuous improvement, or perhaps more accurately, small incremental progress over time. It is not about making big, sweeping changes today. It is about continual refinement every day. It is about growth over the course of a lifetime.
When I opened my second gym, friends and family would often ask, “Why Kaizen?” I sometimes forget that I tend to live in a world that is just a little out of sync with much of modern America, and perhaps a little more out of sync with many of the people around me.
On the surface, Kaizen is a concept that applies equally to both of the disciplines that I coach. It applies to the barbell, and it applies to the blade—or, in less romantic terms, it applies to both our training in the martial arts and our training in athletic performance.
However, continuous improvement is not just about the training we do in the dojo, nor is it limited to the effort we put forth in the gym. The idea of Kaizen shapes how we choose to live our lives. It influences how we approach our hobbies, our work, our relationships, and every small task we perform throughout the day. When we live in accordance with this principle, it is reflected in every action we take. Eventually, it becomes part of who we are.
The idea of continual refinement is important because big, sweeping changes often do not last. When we try to overhaul our lives by adding and removing dozens of things all at once, everything tends to fall apart. If we add one hundred pounds to the bar today, we cannot lift it. But if we add five pounds every week, we eventually find ourselves lifting that extra hundred pounds—and often much more. Small improvements made consistently produce extraordinary results. Just as importantly, they allow us to recognize mistakes and make subtle adjustments along the way that we would likely have missed had we rushed toward a dramatic change from the beginning.
When we look a little deeper, we recognize that this principle applies to much more than our chosen art, whether that art is martial, musical, or expressed with brush and ink. Mastery does not arrive quickly. It is earned through hours upon hours of deliberate practice. The same is true of our work, our relationships, and our domestic lives. As the saying goes, “How we do one thing is often how we do all things.” In many ways, Kaizen is a natural byproduct of mindfulness, intention, and ownership.
It is not about simply getting the job done. It is about how we get the job done. It is not about solving today’s problem and immediately moving on to tomorrow’s. It is about finding a solution that moves us in the right direction, then refining that solution a little more each day—not because we have to, but because we have the opportunity to do so.
Today, Kaizen is often summarized by the phrase, “Become one percent better every day.” While that captures part of its spirit, it also misses something important. That one percent is not just about becoming stronger in the gym or more skilled in the dojo. It is not limited to our careers or the hobbies we are passionate about. Kaizen is a way of approaching life. It is about becoming a little more capable, a little more patient, a little more disciplined, and a little more compassionate each day—not because we have to, but because we choose to.
The goal is not perfection for perfection’s sake. The goal is to live in pursuit of perfection, knowing that we will never fully arrive. Because, in the end, the process of who we are becoming is at least as important as the destination itself.
But that is another conversation.