Days Past and the Year Ahead

Like most people, I find that the end of the year and beginning of a new one is a moment to reflect, but also to look ahead. In doing so, I like to keep in mind the concept of Kaizen; literally it means “good change,” but loosely translated stands for “continuous improvement.”

“Be Not Afraid of Going Slowly; Be Afraid Only of Standing Still.” - Chinese proverb

When everything always remains the same in your life, you’re actually at risk. This might sound counter-intuitive; isn’t change supposed to be scary and risky? In reality, the world is in a state of constant flux. It is nature’s way for things to grow, adapt, evolve, be born and, eventually, also to die.

When you’re not learning anything new, not trying out a different way of doing things, not willing to take any risks, one day you will wake up and find the world has moved on. Your skills have become obsolete, somebody (or something) else has taken over your job, or, in the personal realm, life has suddenly become mundane, boring, maybe it even feels like a gilded cage or a nightmare.

Part of the solution lies in embracing change, the way of the world. This doesn’t mean you need to completely overhaul your life every other day, nor that every new thing you try out should be a success and last forever. But come New Year’s, you want to be able to look back and realize you’ve learned something. For that, you’ll have to make some changes, big or small, and try out a few new things.

I’m a bit radical in this regard. My ideal year is one that unfolds completely different from the year before, even better if I have no idea what my life will look like one year from now. So far, I’ve mostly succeeded at this, and 2015 was no different…

When I wrote my Kaizen review of 2014, I had no clue we were going to launch Saent into a full-blown product company; the idea for “the button” was just a side-project. I also never thought I would pick up cooking, nor that I would double down on my reading and devour over fifty books.

This doesn’t mean you too should quit your job to launch a company, nor that you should make every year completely unpredictable. But while new year’s resolutions are a bit of a cliché and usually doomed to fail, it doesn’t hurt to reflect on the year past and the one ahead. To think about what you might want to do, change and achieve.

As for me? Here are four things I want to do in 2016:

1. Validate the potential of Saent by building a user-base and creating a Teal-based, purpose-driven organization around our product(s).
2. Write a nonfiction book (likely on productivity and work-life balance) .
3. Up my cooking game.
4. Learn one new Chinese word (character) per day.

Have plans for changes in this new year? Share them by hitting recommend and adding yours!