Well I thought I’d do my first book review. My dad pointed me to this book and I admit I was skeptical at first. Usually tiny books like Who Moved My Cheese and FISH! tend to be a blend of BS and “well duh” common sense. After all, the truth is complex and really hard to put in a 100 page book. The Kaizen Way is actually an excellent book and I’ve managed to create pockets of change in my own life by adopting the philosophy of small almost microscopic life changes. I find it’s a good complement to GTD. Often people are overwhelmed by the amount of change GTD requires. Kaizen can help you on the path of GTD without a mental breakdown. I heartily recommend this book, it won’t take you more than a day to read it, or you can read it Kaizen style like I did over a two month period.
Everyone knows that the secret to doing a big insurmountable task is to break it into smaller tasks. It’s amazing though that so few of us do that. It’s also amazing how rephrasing a problem can make a huge difference. Replacing “I wish I weren’t so messy,” with, “What’s the smallest thing I can do to make my space less messy.” can totally change a moment from failure to success. Just getting rid of one piece of clutter can turn that whole moment into a positive success instead of looking at the rest of the mess and thinking only of the negative. I think the other important lesson learned is that life shouldn’t be about trying to obtain that brass ring. What if you woke up and all your goals were acheived? Would you be transported to a state of instant happiness? Probably not. The real point is to find joy and success in every small moment and action.