Kaizen Mentality - 2nd Edition

I am grateful for 348 of you joining the Kaizen Mentality community after one edition. Welcome to the second edition! If you are new here you can check out the first one here. If not, welcome back.

I'm going to teach you in 5 minutes what I learned in the past week and provide input on implementing strategies in the workplace and in life.

Hope you are having a wonderful day. I strive to be kind and make at least 1 person's day better daily.

Kaizen Challenge 1: Make someone smile or laugh TODAY.

Mental health should always be a priority. ALWAYS.

If you notice a relative, friend, or colleague is feeling down, approach them and strike up a conversation. Be supportive and willing to listen without passing judgment. Show them you care. A small gesture, like allowing them to talk about their feelings with someone they trust, could make a big difference in their lives.

Negativity can be destructive. It must be rooted out, before its poison can spread. A simple and effective method to deal with negative emotion is to come up with a word to reset your mindset (a "safe word" of sorts).

Tara Scott spoke about psychological safety (listen here) and gave an example of a team using pineapple as their reset. When someone started thinking negatively a team member would say "pineapple!" and they would get back on track. She also recommended making a social contract and holding each other responsible for what you do.

I'm an optimist, but I'm also not immune from negative thoughts. I use this method daily with little adaptation. When a negative thought enters my head, I tell myself it's not mine, and throw it in a virtual trashcan.

Ask yourself this question, will you be remembering that thought a year from now? No, it will not affect you. If you are persistent with positivity, it will almost become second nature, and will make it easier to keep negative emotions away.

When you are persistent good things happen. David Heath and Randy Goldberg are the founders of Bombas . Today, I only wear Bombas, they're the most comfortable socks I have worn in my life. In homeless shelters, socks are the most sought-after item, and they donate a pair with every purchase. I'm not surprised how successful they are after hearing their story on How I Built This with Guy Raz . It took 137 tries to get the calf tension level right, sending samples to their supplier in China. Building a community with a strong mission and consistency pays off.

Similarly, with the customer's experience in mind, Brian Chesky created the concept of the 11-star experience at Airbnb .

Jason Shah shared this on Lenny Rachitsky 's podcast (listen here). At Airbnb , they work backward from the ideal highest quality standard. Creating the perfect scenario that would blow the customer's mind, build, and iterate.

Create your 11-star life

Envision where you want your life's trajectory to go. Write it down. Create a vision board and work backward. Go after the extreme, because you deserve it. Identify what skill sets you need to learn to get where you want to go. Get started! Make those moves, life is short. Gary Vaynerchuk says

The odds of becoming a human are 400 trillion to 1 - Gary Vee

I don't know about you but I am grateful to be here and to be able to create the life I deserve.

Every episode of Lenny's podcast provides tremendous value, check it out. Another concept that stood out for me that is currently helping me write this is the Creativity Faucet. Julian Shapiro identified that Ed Sheeran, John Mayer, and Neil Gaiman all use the same process to create hits. He said to

"Visualize your creativity as a backed-up pipe of water. The first mile is packed with wastewater. This wastewater has to be empty before the clear water behind it can arrive."

Once you write out all your thoughts you can gain clarity and the faucet will start flowing. In life, journaling is a relaxing process because it allows you to express yourself, gain clarity, and reflect on your experiences.

Have a fantastic day! Don't hesitate to reach out. I look forward to hearing all of your progress. Please let me know if there is any way I could help you out. Thanks for reading, if you found value please give it a like and share it with a friend.