Kaizen - the 1% You Can Own

Kaizen - the 1% You Can Own

Put one more piece
of mail in the Pony
Express bag.

Last week we talked about making the most of where you are...and making small improvements to your lifestyle or status quo.  Kaizen is from Japan and translates roughly to "change for the better" or "continuous improvement."  It's largely been summarized as small, 1% changes.  The adage of "practice or progress over perfection" and the concept of baby steps can help you break down the big, seemingly insurmountable end states into doable actions.  When you're off, even by a little bit, say 1 degree...for each mile you fly, 1 degree off your heading, you get 92 feet off course each mile.  Ninety-two feet isn't all that bad if you only go a mile...if you go cross country or round the world, you can end up completely lost.  

Flowers are
1%.

When we think about how some of this applies to life, say you've been overspending your budget by $100/month...not the end of the world for six months.  For six years, you're now $7,200 off, to say nothing of the lost opportunity cost of missing out on compound growth or the double whammy if you're paying credit card interest in that same time.  We seldom fall off the proverbial wagon in some grand fashion in any facet of our lives.  More likely, we were off course just a little bit...for a long time, and now we look back from an unrecognizable destination.  Over time, our good...or bad habits can have incredibly powerful ramifications... life-changing consequences for better or worse.  

Cocoa is an
improvement.

The good news, if you've been 1 degree off for a while, you can course correct and double down.  In our budgeting example, you can hit the brakes on the spending while getting a second job or picking up overtime to help close the gap that has developed while working on your habits.  Those habits, for staying power, should look more like 1% improvements.  It's not realistic to say that you'll drop 50 pounds this week if you've been disregarding diet and exercise for the last decade.  It's more doable (and consequently more likely to get done), if you do some 1% changes.  In this example, some 1% changes could include shopping with a grocery list, adding more convenient veggies to the counter top, ditching the donuts, walking around the block, and so forth.  String a few 1% changes together, and you start getting progress and momentum.  

1% snow
removal
crew.

Oftentimes, we do the New Year's Resolutions style major change lip service...and our best intentions tend to fade fairly quickly.  Those small pieces add up - just like the 1 degree from 211 to 212 Fahrenheit harnessed and channeled steam power, which revolutionized the world...1% or 1 degree changes in your life can be impactful.  The idea being that properly applied (time, place, force, etc), our small inputs can generate outsized or force multiplier outputs.  Talk to a racecar driver and they'll tell you that they're putting fairly constant tiny inputs into the steering wheel...not jerking the wheel hardcore...because you'll wipe out.  

A strong future starts
with a strong
foundation...especially
in forts.

As you start out with a few 1%/1 degree inputs or course corrections...and hold them/add to them over time, you'll start to notice a certain snowball type effect where the results begin to compound.  Done right, you'll notice that you leave a linear curve for an exponential one.  The Money Guys on social media talk about how a single dollar invested at age 20 can turn into $88 by the time you're 65.  IN another example, mathematically, if you raise 1.00 to the 365th power, you have 1.00.  If, instead, you raise 1.01 to the 365th power, you end up with 37.8.  Translating that into something practical...if you do 10 pushups a day, or a walk around the block, or save a dollar, or complement your spouse, or...fill in the blank - think of the power you're ahead by the end of the year.  

A river cuts...
just a little at 
a time...but it
adds up.

In looking at this concept of 1% improvements, we're not looking for, nor should we expect perfection on day 1...instead, we're aiming for incremental improvement...better than you were this time last month or last year.  This permission to strive for 1% is like climbing a mountain where you set your eye/goal on that boulder, then that tree, then the next mini milestone and before you know it...you're at the top.  Another reason to prioritize the idea of small improvements is that you can balance the effort and impacts across the different facets of your life.  I could maybe sprint in a particular life lane...at some level to the expense of the others.  The price of "best" in any facet of life likely comes at a cost to the others.  That said, being "good" or "better" is a journey where you can keep life more balanced along the way.  I can be better at work...and still get to watch football practice...without 100-hour days and constant work phone in my hand.  

1% usually
involves a "riv."

As we wrap it up we'll share an example of 1% decision making.  A few years back, when our kids were pretty small we seriously considered moving to a couple states away to a city region with children's musuems, great zoo, and other resources that were priorities in that season.  As we crunched the numbers, we knew that long term, where we were was probably the right spot when the kids are this age and older.  Also, in crunching an apples-to-apples financial snapshot with assuming the same job/house/salary...then looking at insurance, cost-of-living, state taxes, and so forth...it'd cost about $12,000 more per year to do the "same exact life."  Translating that...we could stay where we're at...and spend a $1,000 a month on driving to that city...or whatever else and still be financially breakeven.  

Every little
hour adds
up to be a 
big impact.

In the above example, doing the math helped us really reframe our paradigm...what 1% changes could we make on our end to make our current life better so that we wouldn't even consider a major move?  We could invest some of those dollars in weekend travel.  Some in better outdoor gear for the winter to take the sting out of it.  We could build a treehouse.  Some could go to this or that or the other...the point being, the small upgrades or investments by themselves weren't much.  Like synergy, the combination of small 1% changes combined...we've moved our "happiness score" or whatever you want to call it...maybe "contentment score" upwards.  The salient point here, be careful of throwing the baby out with the bathwater when perhaps a targeted set of 1% changes would've sufficed - scalpel, not chainsaw.

...and a
waterfall.

As we wrap it up, sometimes we see the only option as "scorched earth" or the "nuclear option."  This translates to doing the little preventative maintenance things along the way so you're not considering the big crazy outcomes like divorce, bankruptcy, getting fired, and so forth.  Consider the 1% or 1 degree mini-modifications to life that can be the "cake and eat it too."  

With you in the arena, from ours to yours...Happy Trails!

Call to Action: 

• Pick out a couple minor tweaks that you can implement quickly and easily for a win...go do those this week.  It doesn't have to be expensive or extravagant...just intentional and committed action.
• 1 - ___________________ 
• 2 - ___________________
• 3 - ___________________
• Discussion: Consider what you/your family could/would/should (level of commitment) and start/stop/sustain (action) in the facets of life where you're frustrated - what little change might prevent the need for a big change down the road.  

Further Reading, Motivation, and References:

- Jocko Willink and Tim Kennedy 

- Art of Manliness