Am I perfect?

We all tend to think we are perfect, however in reality there is no such thing as perfection. Why? Because there are endless opportunities for improvement in whatever we do. If you make an improvement you feel happy as things are functioning well, look good, and work effectively. What happens after a while? Maybe a week later you will have another idea for further improvement. The old mentality that “we’ve always done things this way and it works” is completely out of date. Stability is important as well as improvements. Nowadays if you are not fast enough or don’t realize opportunities in everything you see or do, this is a big disadvantage. Don’t think that if you stagnate you are stable – you actually go backwards without realizing it. A Japanese manufacturing worker doing the same job for 20 years might still make improvements every day as he knows that the work is still not perfect. Continuous improvement is part of his life and makes him strive to be better every day.

Lean is an endless journey towards improvement, as perfection can’t be achieved. Then why should you get on this journey? Because the journey to perfection gives you inspiration, motivation, success, satisfaction, happiness and a reason to wake up every day. Try to make small improvements at home or in your office. Just try to make your coffee in 2 min instead of 3 min.  How can you do this? Maybe you can put all the ingredients in the same place or change the order you do it in.  Practice with small things. You won’t realize after a while that you’re doing it with everything and you will start to question others as to “why do you do it this way?” There is a more effective Lean way to do it. You will save time, effort and money at the same time. I am sure if you look around you now you’ll see an opportunity immediately. Take action now and make a small change for good.