Get Started 2: Intro to Kaizen, Your Personal Reset
Take the first steps to becoming a bigger citizen and a more effective person.
The Process of Continuous Improvement
Just as culture is a series of habits writ large, building a successful life as a big citizen requires good habits, and implementing the best tools and best practices into effective, repeatable processes.
If you’ve ever learned to swim, cook a meal, drive a car or potty train a child, you already know what I mean. Everyone starts small. No one gets it perfect the first time.
Change is a long process of experimentation, making incremental changes that add up. With persistence and practice, some things become second nature and other things, like recipes, require handy checklists and reminders.
There will be setbacks. Just reset, and return to the process.
This is the essence of the Kaizen (continuous improvement) movement. After WWII, American management consultant Dr. W. Edward Deming and others helped Japan’s industries improve through systemic processes that have influenced some of the greatest minds in the personal improvement space, including Steven Covey (7 Habits of Highly Effective People), Tony Robbins (Awaken the Giant Within), and many others.
I hope RESETCULTURE can be part of your process.
Reset Your Personal Spheres
Recently, those helpful race-bating Marxists on the left began their youth indoctrination programs in school with a scientific “Identity chart” to allow kids to add up their privileges based on their personal and social attributes. You know, because there’s nothing better to support a healthy self-concept.
As you can see, some cis white female has a lot to answer for. But I fail to understand how she will live up to her heroic responsibilities of righting all social injustices if she is hobbled by unwarranted guilt and identity shame, and continually humiliated by her “betters” with fewer privileges of birth.
Instead, I choose to believe (because I’m right) that she (or anyone else) can be anything she wants, irrespective of this chart, based on her ability to learn, her habits, aspirations, determination, and faith. She will undoubtedly need mentors and friends in her corner, but the future is not fixed. You can become what you want, or what the times need you to become.
But it’s not by looking inward…
The RESETCULTURE Spheres
You can’t Kaizen (continuously improve) your characteristics. You certainly can’t while calling them “privileges.” As I mentioned in my “White Privilege” article, the opposite of privilege is duty or responsibility. We should consider it a civic duty and a sacred responsibility to better ourselves and the social spheres in which we engage:
The inner circle is your personal sphere, your primary aspirations to become happy, healthy, wealthy, and wise.
The outer circle contains the social spheres, the activities of your life that you share with others. And to be clear:
- Government includes politics, law, and all our civic responsibilities
- Economy includes science, medicine, technology & business
- Media includes news, internet, social networks - all those connections not covered by direct relationships
- Recreation includes arts, entertainment, leisure and sports - all the things for self-expression and "re-creating" ourselves
One Caveat: Integrity
On the subject of things not working, while developing the above chart, I wanted to add integrity to the personal sphere. After all, integrity is a fundamental personal attribute, right? Who wants to be around anyone without it?
But then I realized: you can’t work on integrity. You can build trust but can’t build integrity. You have integrity by being a fully integrated person and relating to others honestly (unlike progressives; looking at you, Hillary Clinton).
Without integrity, your social spheres will more clearly resemble what Mahatma Gandhi called the “Seven Social Sins“:
Politics without principle
Wealth without work
Commerce without morality
Science without humanity
Worship without sacrifice
Education without character
Pleasure without conscience
“In order to form a more perfect union,” we should look with integrity at each of our social spheres with the opportunity to make continual improvement.
How? We use the strategies of Kaizen…
The Six Strategies of Kaizen
- Ask small questions to inspire creativity and dispel fear
- Think small thoughts to build skills, strategies and habits before you act
- Take small actions that carve pathways to your success
- Solve small problems that create leverage against large issues
- Bestow small rewards to yourself and others to produce the best results
- Recognize the small yet crucial moments that everyone often overlooks
Each of these strategies can be used in your personal life and in the cultural conversation. Forget “comprehensive” solutions and “omnibus” bills; those not only lack integrity – which is why all the money goes missing – but they also lack the specificity necessary to make lasting change.
As we mentioned, RESETCULTURE begins with you.
Your Kaizen Journey
We’re just getting started and a lot is going to come onboard.
Recreation
As mentioned above, the Recreation sphere includes arts, entertain, leisure and sports, the things that lift your spirits and help you “recreate” your humanity. Enjoy…
Stay in Touch
Reducing the impact of leftism, statism, and other negative influences can be difficult. Let’s do it together.
If you have suggestions for resetting our cultural conversation, or just want to be kept up-to-date, send me a question or comment.
Reset Culture
communicate with each other."
