Kaizen Podcast Transcript
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Back, everybody.
I hope you've been having a great new year.
I'm your host, Tom Rountree, and I'm excited about today's episode because we're diving into something that's both deeply practical and incredibly transformative.
It's called Kaian, the Japanese philosophy of continuous improvement.
And we're going to explore how you can apply it to self-help and personal growth.
Personally, I've seen my patients transformed through small habits that they've taken and small changes that they've taken and undergone in order to go from being overweight to a weight that they prefer as well as going from being a diabetic to being someone without diabetes.
If you've been feeling stuck or overwhelmed or honestly, I'm sure how to start making meaningful changes in your life, and this episode is really for you.
Let's get started.
Let's get started with the basics.
What is Kaien?
Kaien is a Japanese term that translates to change for the better or continuous improvement.
It's a philosophy that became popular in Japan after World War II, especially in business and manufacturing.
Companies like Toyota use Kaian to improve their processes incrementally, and many other car manufacturers look to Toyota to copy their process.
And in fact, I remember growing up and there was a whole movie on how Toyota was just far better than other companies around the world.
And so here's the thing, though.
Kisen isn't just for businesses.
It's a philosophy that can be applied to any area of life from your health and relationships to your career and personal goals.
It's all about making small, consistent changes that add up over time.
It's kind of like compound interest.
And you know what?
That's where the magic happens because these big drastic changes can feel intimidating.
And Kaisen takes that pressure off and makes self-improvement feel just a little bit more doable no matter where you're starting from.
So here's a little story for you.
Imagine you're trying to get healthier and you decide to overhaul your entire diet and start working out seven days a week.
Your palms you're motivated, and then two weeks later, you're burned out and back to square one.
This probably sounds familiar to a lot of you, because I know several of my patients have done the same thing.
And in fact, I've seen people in jujitsu do the same thing where they go to jujitsu and they're like, I'm going to go in the morning and then I'm going to go get pumped and work out at night. And their system becomes overstressed and it kind of does a reset without them wanting to.
So it'll just say, okay, we're not doing this anymore.
I'm too overstressed.
So now we're going to go back to square one and start over.
Now, let's look at this from a kisan approach.
Instead of overhauling everything, you start small.
Maybe you add one serving of vegetables to your meals each day where you commit to just like five minutes of exercise.
And these changes feel so small They're almost too easy, but over time they start to build momentum.
One small wind leaves another, and before you know it, you've transformed your habits.
And this is why small steps matter.
They're not overwhelming.
They're sustainable and they build confidence.
Plus, they're easier to stick with.
And then consistency is where the real results come from.
And I'm going to talk about consistency in a later podcast because I think it's really important when setting your New Year's goals, as well as sticking to any other goals.
And I'll talk about how I actually do this and approach it.
Now, how do we actually put kaian into practice?
So let me give you a few examples how you can use kaian to improve different areas of your life.
Let's say you want to read more books.
And what you can do is just start with just one page a day and over time, you'll find yourself naturally reading more.
And I started to do this with my daily trackers.
So in my journal, I write, I want you to read, you know, read one chapter tomorrow, let's say, in tiny habits.
And I read that one chapter.
And over time, I will start to read a lot more books.
The same thing goes with my continuing medical education.
I'll say watch one video on the hippo adult uh medicine boot camp, right?
So I'll watch that one video just that one day and then I'll get to look back because I can see all the videos. And it will show that, oh, you've completed seven videos this week, right?
And that's just a little kind of habit that you can get into.
Now, let's say you've been sedentary.
You can commit to a two minute walk each day and gradually increase it as it becomes part of your routine.
Or, let's say, in your career, don't stress about building the perfect website if you're trying to create a side hustle or creating it like a detailed business plan right away, just dedicate ten minutes a day to brainstorming or researching your idea. And slowly push the business in that direction.
Now, if you're struggling with stress, you can try a one minute breathing exercise.
And over time, you can build up to longer mindfulness or meditation practices.
And this allows you to see that there is time in your day to actually do things.
It kind of reframes your position and you can actually schedule these things or put them on your calendar or write them down to do because they take up significantly less time than you thought they would.
And you have to remember that the goal is in perfection is progress.
And even the smallest step forward is still a step in the right direction.
Let's go over some real live stories.
In the book atomic habits by James Clear, he discusses how a recovery from a baseball bat to the nose, he used small changes in his lifestyle to build back his confidence and little things like tidying up his room and going to bed early, gave him self-appreciation in the sense of control back.
Six years after his accident, he was a voted team captain and a starting role on the pitching staff.
And atomic habits, I'll put a link down below to it in the podcast description, but it's one of the best books you can start with in order to slowly change your habits over time.
Because reading will also reframe your brain and get you out of what I call culture lock, where this culture lock is you've been only exposed to so many things in your life and reading a book allows you to see it from outside your own culture.
Now, one of my patients who has diabetes reminded me that improvement is not just a straight line.
It involves going back and forth from a diet soda to a regular soda several times, then eventually to just drinking flavored fizzy water and maybe finally water with lemon.
And our brain takes a while to come around to what's good for us.
And I apply this concept to myself by writing it down my journal like I talked about before.
In fact, today, like I just said, I wrote read a chapter and again, it allows me to tackle hundred page paper and small segments.
Plus, I can digest each one and write out my relationship to each chapter.
So now I'm relating my own story because I've broken it down to these small increments.
And like I said, the journaling is the only thing that has truly made an impact on sticking to my habits.
So these stories show you that small steps can lead to big results.
And the best part, they're achievable for anyone.
All right.
Here's your action item for today.
Think about one area of your life where you'd like to improve.
What's one tiny step you can take today, not tomorrow, not next week, like literally today.
Maybe it's drinking one extra glass of water or sending a quick thank you text to someone you appreciate, or jotting down one business idea in your notebook.
Whatever it is, keep it small and manageable, then do it again tomorrow and the next day.
Over time, you'll start to see these ripple effects of these small actions.
That's the power of Kaian.
All right, friends.
I hope this introduction to Kaian has inspired you to start taking small consistent steps towards your goals.
Remember, you don't have to wait for the perfect moment or have everything figured out.
Just start where you are with what you have and keep moving forward.
And if you found this episode valuable, just do me a favor and share it with a friend who might need to hear this message and don't forget to subscribe to this podcast, because in the next episode, I'm going to talk about how I actually stick to my habits.
Thanks so much for spending time with me today.
Keep crushing it, keep improving, and I'll see you in the next episode of The Clear Health Podcast.
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