Ikigai & Kaizen Quotes

“In our quest for self-actualization”
― Anthony Raymond, Ikigai & Kaizen: The Japanese Strategy to Achieve Personal Happiness and Professional Success

“Kaizen teaches us how to atomize big obstacles; how to break them down into their more manageable component parts so that we might build up the psychological momentum to overcome each hurdle via consistent daily action.”
― Anthony Raymond, Ikigai & Kaizen: The Japanese Strategy to Achieve Personal Happiness and Professional Success

“Productivity is not about how to get more things done; it’s about how to get the right things done.”
― Anthony Raymond, Ikigai & Kaizen: The Japanese Strategy to Achieve Personal Happiness and Professional Success

“Compare yourself with who you were yesterday, not with who someone else is today.”
― Anthony Raymond, Ikigai & Kaizen: The Japanese Strategy to Achieve Personal Happiness and Professional Success

“The holes in your life are permanent. You have to grow around them, like tree roots around concrete; you mould yourself through the gaps.”
― Anthony Raymond, Ikigai & Kaizen: The Japanese Strategy to Achieve Personal Happiness and Professional Success

“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”
― Anthony Raymond, Ikigai & Kaizen: The Japanese Strategy to Achieve Personal Happiness and Professional Success

“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”
― Anthony Raymond, Ikigai & Kaizen: The Japanese Strategy to Achieve Personal Happiness and Professional Success

“Productivity is not about how to get more things done; it’s about how to get the right things done. It doesn’t mean just doing less for the sake of less... [It’s] about making the wisest possible investment of your time and energy in order to operate at [your] highest point of contribution.”
― Anthony Raymond, Ikigai & Kaizen: The Japanese Strategy to Achieve Personal Happiness and Professional Success

“You must learn to see obstacles as opportunities for learning, rather than as excuses for capitulation.”
― Anthony Raymond, Ikigai & Kaizen: The Japanese Strategy to Achieve Personal Happiness and Professional Success

“The practice of carefully identifying, considering, and taking responsibility for past mistakes or shortcomings, followed by the implementation of changes to ensure that these errors do not reoccur.”
― Anthony Raymond, Ikigai & Kaizen: The Japanese Strategy to Achieve Personal Happiness and Professional Success

“If your work results in some modicum of value to the world (i.e., if you know how to fulfill a need, quench a thirst, alleviate pain, or make people smile) then: You are important. Your product is important. And you provide value to the world.”
― Anthony Raymond, Ikigai & Kaizen: The Japanese Strategy to Achieve Personal Happiness and Professional Success

“yourself”
― Anthony Raymond, Ikigai & Kaizen: The Japanese Strategy to Achieve Personal Happiness and Professional Success

“Lingchi,” is a Chinese term that is commonly translated in the West as “death by a thousand cuts.”
― Anthony Raymond, Ikigai & Kaizen: The Japanese Strategy to Achieve Personal Happiness and Professional Success

“Forgive others, not because they deserve forgiveness, but because you deserve peace.”
― Anthony Raymond, Ikigai & Kaizen: The Japanese Strategy to Achieve Personal Happiness and Professional Success

“is”
― Anthony Raymond, Ikigai & Kaizen: The Japanese Strategy to Achieve Personal Happiness and Professional Success

“[The “flow state” occurs when] people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience is so enjoyable that people will continue to do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it.”
― Anthony Raymond, Ikigai & Kaizen: The Japanese Strategy to Achieve Personal Happiness and Professional Success

“This is how you will awake each morning, caught in this human dilemma.”
― Anthony Raymond, Ikigai & Kaizen: The Japanese Strategy to Achieve Personal Happiness and Professional Success

“with”
― Anthony Raymond, Ikigai & Kaizen: The Japanese Strategy to Achieve Personal Happiness and Professional Success

“Tomorrow”
― Anthony Raymond, Ikigai & Kaizen: The Japanese Strategy to Achieve Personal Happiness and Professional Success

“One day— perhaps a decade from now—you might wake up to realize that your life situation remains unchanged or has even gotten worse. This is the most unfortunate consequence of inactivity, lethargy, procrastination, and sloth. Once your time is gone, it’s gone. Mankind can create many things, but we can’t create time. The amount of time available for the accomplishment of your goals is forever decreasing. With each tick of the clock, the end of your time draws nearer. This is why you must value your time as you value a diamond ring or a gold watch. It’s a precious resource that can never be replenished.”
― Anthony Raymond, Ikigai & Kaizen: The Japanese Strategy to Achieve Personal Happiness and Professional Success

“I remember once imagining what my life would be like; what I’d be like. I pictured having all these qualities—strong positive qualities, that people could pick up on from across a room. But, as time passed, few [of those qualities became any of the] qualities that I actually had. And all the possibilities… all the sorts of people I could be… all of them got reduced every year, to fewer and fewer. Until finally they got reduced to one—to who I am. And that’s who I am.”
― Anthony Raymond, Ikigai & Kaizen: The Japanese Strategy to Achieve Personal Happiness and Professional Success

“In the years following World War II, the Kaizen methodology continued to evolve thanks to the work of both Japanese and American managers—three of which are listed here: The Iowa-born statistician Dr. William Edwards Deming made many consulting trips to Japan during reconstruction efforts and was so influential in turning around Japanese industry that he was awarded the Second Order Medal of the Sacred Treasure by Emperor Hirohito in 1960. (We’ll be referring to Deming’s work many times throughout this book.) The business consultant Masaaki Imai published a management guidebook entitled “Kaizen: The Key to Japan’s Competitive Success.” He also founded the Kaizen Institute Consulting Group (KICG) with the aim of introducing Kaizen techniques to Western companies. Dr. Jeffrey Liker (Professor Emeritus of Industrial and Operations Engineering at the University of Michigan) would bring Kaizen into the mainstream when he published his book of “manufacturing ideals” called “The Toyota Way.” The book showcased many Kaizen-related principles and described the philosophy and values that dictate the modus operandi of the Toyota Motor Corporation.”
― Anthony Raymond, Ikigai & Kaizen: The Japanese Strategy to Achieve Personal Happiness and Professional Success

“In Hansei, we take a rare moment to acknowledge that we are vastly flawed creatures—riddled with contradictions and burdened with whims—most of which we are only sparsely aware of. Pledging to remain cognizant of our shortcomings and to improve upon our future circumstances is the goal of a Hansei practice.”
― Anthony Raymond, Ikigai & Kaizen: The Japanese Strategy to Achieve Personal Happiness and Professional Success

“The War of Art.” Because productive human effort is no “walk in the park.” It’s a war! A war against yourself.”
― Anthony Raymond, Ikigai & Kaizen: The Japanese Strategy to Achieve Personal Happiness and Professional Success

“Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.”
― Anthony Raymond, Ikigai & Kaizen: The Japanese Strategy to Achieve Personal Happiness and Professional Success

“There is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.”
― Anthony Raymond, Ikigai & Kaizen: The Japanese Strategy to Achieve Personal Happiness and Professional Success

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”
― Anthony Raymond, Ikigai & Kaizen: The Japanese Strategy to Achieve Personal Happiness and Professional Success

“Passion - How much do I love this skill? Vocation - How good am I (or could be) at this skill? Mission - How much will this skill benefit the world? Profession - How likely am I to get paid well for this skill?”
― Anthony Raymond, Ikigai & Kaizen: The Japanese Strategy to Achieve Personal Happiness and Professional Success

“Lifehacker.com”
― Anthony Raymond, Ikigai & Kaizen: The Japanese Strategy to Achieve Personal Happiness and Professional Success

“You must set and accomplish new goals (of one form or another) each and every day, until the day you die.”
― Anthony Raymond, Ikigai & Kaizen: The Japanese Strategy to Achieve Personal Happiness and Professional Success