Ikigai & Kaizen: The Japanese Strategy to Achieve Personal Happiness and Professional Success (How to set goals, stop procrastinating, be more productive, build good habits, focus, & thrive)

by Anthony Raymond

Lingchi can teach us to recognize the pernicious effects of each tiny life transgression. But without Hansei, we might not know the best way to interpret this information, nor how to devise a plan to improve our situation. Hansei enables us to look back and thoroughly evaluate our personal shortcomings. But without Kaizen and without our Ikigai, we might have trouble determining how to make our future journey more profitable and spiritually fulfilling. Ikigai will teach us to find our true calling. But without the guidance of Kaizen, we may falter in our commitments and fail to execute the many steps that are required to become a master of our craft. Kaizen will turn us into more efficient and productive workers. But if we have a misaligned Ikigai (i.e., if we hate our meaningless job), then we’re just another wage slave — pushing papers across a desk instead of gifting the planet with our true talents.