Kaizen is the Japanese philosophy and practice of continuous improvement. This concept of continuous improvement was first conceived in the USA during WW2.
日本人提出了一种名为改善法学说来不断改进自我生活质量。在第二次世界大战时，美国第一次提出关于不断提高生活质量的概念。
To maintain the production levels and meet demand, the industry had to come up with a system that would allow for incremental progress in production rather than no progress at all – which was very much the reality the industry was facing.
为了保持较高的生产水平和满足人民的日益增长的需求，企业必须想出一种提高生产效率的体系而不是坐以待毙。
This concept of consistent incremental improvement proved to be a huge success and saved the US manufacturing industry from a rapid decline.
持续改进生产概念获得了巨大的成功，拯救了美国衰落的制造业。
After WW2, as part of the rebuild programme for Japan, the Japanese were invited to visit manufacturing plants through out the USA. The Japanese took this successful concept of continuous improvement and adapted into Kaizen.
在第二次世界大战后，日本作为战后重建国家之一，日本接受邀请去往美国制造工厂进行学习。日本人将持续改进生产概念成功的带到了美国，并改写成为了如今的改善法。
This philosophy formed the base from which the Japanese have built a manufacturing industry that dominates the world today.
这种学说造就了日本如今所拥有在世界上处于主导地位的制造行业的基础。
In this article, I’ll look into what continuous improvement is and how you can make use of this concept to enhance your life.
在这篇文章，我会讲清楚什么是持续改进概念以及你应该如何利用这种理念来提高自己的生活质量。
What does Kaizen (continuous improvement) have to do with you?
改善法和你有什么关系呢？
So what does Kaizen have to do with us? How can it help us enhance our personal lives?
所以改善法和我们有什么关系呢？如何才能利用改善法来提高我们的生活质量呢？
“Persistence, perseverance, and continuous improvement are the ingredients for forming a successful person.” — Debasish Mridha
“坚持，毅力，持续改进自我是成功三要素。”——大巴西 梦里达
While Kaizen was originally developed to help businesses improve and thrive, it’s just as applicable to our personal lives.
原先改善法只是为了帮助提高公司业务水平而发展出来的，而改善法同样可以适用于我们的个人生活。
The Kaizen philosophy of continuous improvement I believe is a failure proof system
that enables us to achieve and sustain our personal goals and dreams in life.
我相信持续改进的改善法理念是一种更正错误并且可以让我们达到和支撑着我们生活的个人目标和理想的系统。
The concept of continuous improvement offers us a way where we can live our lives to the fullest by continuously learning, growing and thriving.
我们可以使用持续改进这种理念通过不断的学习成长来帮助我们活成我们想要成为的样子。
We live in a world of never ending disruption and change. By adopting the philosophy of Kaizen, we become more adaptable, flexible and resilient to dealing with the constant demands and disruptions we face in our lives.
我们生活在一个永无止境的颠覆和变革的世界里。我们吸收利用改善法学说理念，可以使得我们变得更加的灵活适应社会并且对处理不断的需求和现实中的挫折能有着更好的能力去应对。
What continuous improvement is exactly
究竟持续改进理念到底是什么
The philosophy of Kaizen is based on the concept that instead of making big changes at once, the continuous improvement approach focuses on making small improvement over time.
改善法学说基于聚集于细小的提升随着时间增加而获得的巨大的质量提高而不是针对于马上见成效的目标而建立的。
Kaizen is often referred to as the “strategy for 1% gains”. It is these 1% gains that athletes focus on to improve their performance. The 1% gains are incremental and if you keep building on the 1% gains the rewards are phenomenal.
改善法经常被叫作是“1%收益的战略“。运动员专注于提高他们的表现，这便是1%收益的具体表现。如果你保持持续提升自己，你会获得不止1%收益的超值收获。
Continuous improvement is perpetual and so to maintain gains and improvement, you need to work on them continuously.
持续改进自我是一直都需要做的，所以为了保证你的收益和丰富你的人生，你应当要不断努力工作。
Your personal improvement journey is never finished! What this means is, if you are truly committed to philosophy of continuous improvement, you are less likely to quit because you are always in search of the next goal.
个人改进之旅永远不会完成。换句话来说，如果你真正的信仰这个持续改进理论的话，你是不太可能放弃个人改进的，因为你总是在寻找下一个追求的目标。
How continuous improvement empowers you
持续改进怎么能应用到你的身上呢
How many New Year resolutions have you made and never achieved over the years?
你曾在过年时对着万家灯火许下自己的愿望，而你又何曾为你的愿望奋斗过呢
Unless you are one of the small minority who are goal orientated high achievers, maintaining motivation and the commitment to achieving your goals is hard work and dare I say it – with not much success – one big FAILURE after another.
除非你是少数的目标导向成就人之一，不然一直保持奋斗的信念，记住目标然后为之奋斗是非常艰苦的。我敢说如果你不这样做，你不会有太大的成功，只会有一个又一个的失败。
Hence, these are the reasons why New Years’ resolutions are never achieved.
因此，这也是为什么新年愿望从未实现过的原因。
Continuous improvement can help you to achieve any goals you set. If you commit to the practice of continuous improvement, your motivation to achieve your goals and aspirations in life will never die.
持续改进可以帮助你实现你所立下的目标。如果你保证有意识的练习持续提高自己，你的意志将会促使你实现自己的目标，所有许下的愿望都有绽放自己的那一天。
“Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.” — Benjamin Franklin
“如果没有持续的增长和进步，改善、成就和成功等词语就毫无意义。”——本杰明·富兰克林
You will never have to struggle with the dilemma of giving up or giving in because it all became too hard.
你永远不会为放弃或屈服的困境而抗争，因为这一切都变得太难了。
Your achievements and success in life will be as a result of you taking continuous incremental steps toward your goals.
你不断朝着你目标前行的脚步都将成为你生活中人生中的成就与成功。
Continuous improvement is not about reaching the big goals in life but about taking small steps and improving and refining along the way.
持续改进不是想要一步实现人生当中大目标，而是要采取小步骤完成小目标，从而改进和完善自我人生。
How to commit to continuous improvement
如何致力于持续改进
If you truly desire a successful life where you are thriving, the first thing you must do is embrace and accept that your journey of self improvement and growth will never end. It is a lifelong journey of learning.
如果你真的渴望一个成功的人生的话，你一定要做的第一件事就是拥抱并接受你的永远不会结束自我改善和成长之旅。人生无处不学习。
Once you have accepted that your journey to improving your life is life long, you then follow these steps:
如果你接受了改善生活是终生旅程这个说法，你就应当按照以下步骤来终生改进自我：
1. Set your goals based on the philosophy of 1% incremental achievements
1.根据1％增量成就理念来设定目标
Remember that setting the goal is the easy bit. Keeping motivated, focused and on track to achieving any goal is the hardest part.
请记住随便立个目标是非常简单的事。但从头到尾保持积极性，专注性以及养成一种向目标进发的习惯是最难的部分。
The concept of continuous improvement provides you with a system or a process that if you commit to following will enable you to confidently achieve any goal you set- you are guaranteed to win.
持续改进的概念为您提供了一个如果你保证遵循以下步骤，将会使你的所有目标实现的系统或流程。
“Instead of trying to make radical changes in a short amount of time, just make small improvements every day that will gradually lead to the change you want. Each day, just focus on getting 1% better in whatever it is you’re trying to improve. That’s it. Just 1%.” — Brett and Kate McKay of The Art of Manliness
“持续改进并不是试图在短时间内做出根本性的改变，只要每天做一些小的改进，慢慢的就会达到你想要的改变。 每一天，无论你想要改进什么，只要你专注于提高1％， 只要有1％就好。“——来自男人气概的艺术的布雷特和凯特
It might not seem like much but continuous 1% improvement/achievements every day will gradually add up to 100% and the goal is achieved!
1%看起来不多但是每天持续的1%的提高或成就都会慢慢达到100%的地步，然后你的目标就轻松达到了。
In their book The Art Of Manliness, Brett and Kate McKay talk about how the journey of self improvement and personal growth is a lot like a rollercoaster ride – scary, exciting and with lots of ups and downs.
在《男子气概的艺术》这本书当中，布雷特和凯特麦凯谈论了自我改善和个人成长的旅程就好像过山车一样，有着可怕，刺激，也会有很多起伏。
They believe that by following the concept of Kaizen (the 1% improvement) every day enables you to get off the roller coaster ride of feeling like a failure and being angry with yourself because you keep giving up.
他们相信，通过遵循改善法的概念（1％的改善），每天都可以让你在像在过山车般的自我改进之旅中感受到失败，你还会因不断放弃而对自己生气。
2. Break down the system into small actions
将每个大目标分解成一个个的小目标
Continuous improvement is a journey of personal growth where you are making long-term steady progress. It is not about random bursts of improvement with fits and starts of activity. This approach to self-improvement will not give you the sustainable long-term changes you seek to improve your life or achieve your goals.
持续改进是个人成长的旅程，你凭此来取得长期稳定的进步。而它并不是随着开始朝着目标前行而突然的获得极大的成果。而且这种自我改善的方法不会为你提供以改善你的生活或实现目标为目的的可持续的长期变化。
For example, if you have huge debt and you want to pay it back but it is all too much, so you hide away from taking any action. To put the concept of continuous improvement into action, the first thing you need to do is not focus on how much you owe, instead focus on creating a system or process that enables you to pay back an incremental amount each week.
例如，如果你有巨额债务并且想要偿还它，但欠下的债实在是太多了，那么你就根本不会去想还债。如果要将持续改进的理念付诸行动，你第一步就应当做的不是关注欠多少的债，而是专注于创建一个能够每周偿还的债务量的系统或流程。
Once you have created the system, you must break down the system into small actions or behaviours with the least resistance and effort. Commit to these actions on a daily basis until your original system is habit.
你创建了一个这样的系统后，必须将系统合理的分解为小目标和小习惯。保证自己每天都可以做这些小事，直到你形成了这样的习惯。
Commit to paying back a realistic amount each week and then increase the amount you pay back by 1% plus every week after that. Keep going until the debt is paid off.
保证每周能偿还一笔现实金额，然后之后一周增加上周的1％的金额。这样保持下去，所有的债务都将被偿还。
3. Keep track of your 1% success
记录下你的1%的成功
The other important factor about incremental achievement is that you must measure and keep track of your 1% successes.
慢慢增加成就的另一个重要因素是你必须衡量并记录下你的1％的成功。
Evaluating and measuring your improvements are important for your own motivation and commitment to the journey. If you are not measuring your progress, your subconscious brain will kick in and sabotage your progress by convincing you that it is all too hard and you are not making any progress at all.
评估和衡量你的改进对于保持自己的动力和促使继续自我改进旅程是非常重要。如果你没有衡量你的进步，那么你的潜意识里就会开始说你根本没有取得任何进展来破坏你想要进步的心。
Your subconsious brain only believes what you tell it. Unfortunately you have told your brain a lot of untruthful things over a long period of time about how you are a failure, not motivated and never really achieved anything in life. Your subconscious brain as a result believes all these “facts” that you have told it to be true.
你可以对你自己进行催眠，让潜意识相信你在进步。不幸的是，在很长一段时间里，你已经告诉你的潜意识很多不实的事情，比如你是如何失败，没有动力做事，以及从来没有真正实现过生活中的任何想要做成的事情，诸如此类的事。也正是因如此，你的潜意识相信了你告诉它的所有这些“事实”都是真实的。
Measuring and evaluating your 1% successes is key to you retraining your subconscious to believe that Yes – you can achieve your goals and succeed in life!
相信衡量和评估你的1％成功是你重新训练潜意识的关键，让潜意识觉得你可以实现你的目标并能在生活中取得成功！
Focus on the progress, always
请告诉你自己，你每天都在进步。
Continuous Improvement does not focus on making huge gains or big improvements all at once. Instead it focuses on long-term steady progress.
持续改进并不能在短时间内取得巨大的收获或者提高。而是专注于每天一点点的小进步。
When you follow the philosophy of Continuous Improvement, you won’t radically change your life but over time with consistent and constant improvement and change, you will find that you are living your life to the fullest – empowered, resilient and thriving.
当你相信并将持续改进理念应用于自己的生活时，你不会马上改变你的生活，但随着时间的推移，你会不断改进和改变，最终你会发现你过着你曾经梦想过的生活。
Why would you not want to embrace this philosophy of incremental improvement and growth into your personal life?
还有什么理由你不想接受这种渐进式改进和成长来成为个人生活的理念呢？
“Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will be a stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.” – Sir Winston Churchill
每天你都在进步。每一步都可能富有成效。你会不断的提高自己，提升自己，提升自己。你知道改进自我旅程是没有尽头的。在这旅程中倍受挫折，只会增加最后攀登的喜悦和荣耀。———温斯顿丘吉尔爵士