UNSCRIPTED: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Entrepreneurship

by M.J. DeMarco

The Kaizen Principle is to endeavor to create tiny incremental improvements in your daily life with an aim for mastery over performance, while forsaking external comparisons, unless such comparisons inspire. The three key operands here are: 1) Tiny incremental improvements 2) mastery over performance and 3) external comparison. First, the only concerning metric is YOU. Have you done something today, no matter how small, to improve whatever needs improving? Are you moving the needle or action-faking? You are your only competition, and the process-principle will drive that change. Second, aim for mastery over performance: be the best at something YOU can be. It is 100 percent YOU-oriented and not centered on performance or competitive rankings. Mastery doesn’t care about how you are judged by others. It’s only about “getting better” (you) over “being better” (others). And third, refrain from comparing yourself to others, especially rock stars in your field. If you’re aiming to improve your fitness and finished your first month of training, it’s probably not a good idea to compare your bikini body to some Instagram fitness model with three million followers. Comparison is the path to perpetual misery.