Kaizen book review

Kaizen

Sarah Harvey

Pan Macmillan

For the ones looking for inspiration, there has never been a shortage of wisdom that could be extracted and adopted from the lifestyle and philosophy that forms the foundation and DNA and Japan. The principle of Kaizen, i.e. the idea and methodology to take small steps towards the achievement of grand objectives, is one of them. The beauty of such concepts is that at their core, they are simple, are easy to apply and make a lot of sense, even for the most mundane Westerner.

While Kaizen has been widely applied to improve the processes and mechanisms in companies to create a more efficient and gratifying workplace, having lived in Japan, Sarah Harvey’s partly autobiographical book focuses on how it can be used to improve one’s personal life in aspects such as health, finance and relationships by exemplifying tangible manageable actions the sum and build-up of which pave the way to achieving bigger goals.

For those familiar with Japanese philosophy, the entry level approach of this beautifully illustrated, hardbound book might be too common sensical, but it is certainly a nice resource to have on hand and come back to when one feels stuck in life, has trouble finding a starting point and can serve as a springboard to delve deeper into a theory the application of which only has upsides when it comes to making meaningful changes to one’s life.