The Kaizen Moment of Happiness

Given the circumstances, the year 2020 encouraged us to ask ourselves what is most important to us in life. As if by chance, at the end of the year I stumbled across the word happiness once more. The word has crossed my path many times in life. So now seems to be the right moment to hold on to it. But how do I reach the state of happiness? Where do I start? Can I do it at all?

Two things have helped me to get started. The first one I adopted from a dear colleague. She told me a year ago that every year she chooses a word that accompanies her throughout the year as well as the meaning and diversity of the word. So happiness has now become my word of the year 2021.

The second thing I had already parked on my to-do list for about half a year anyway. Kaizen – The One Minute Pricipal was featured in a blog post by the Random Acts Of Kindness Foundation in May 2020. Kaizen is not a new term for me as an Agile coach at this point. Nevertheless, the article opened up a new perspective on it.

Kaizen – Change for the better

Kaizen is the striving towards constant change for the better. I have always strived within myself for continuous improvement. I also have this expectation towards other people. I hope that everyone has this striving more or less clearly within them. The Random Acts Of Kindness Foundation’s article is about the idea of establishing a daily routine of 60 seconds that leads to more joy and satisfaction in life. It also lists some examples of how this minute could be used. One of these is to reflect on what you are grateful for today, despite all the circumstances.

My daily striving for happiness

I have now started reflecting on the day gone by for five minutes every night before I go to bed, looking for my personal moment of happiness and capturing it in a sentence within my notebook. Some days this is easy for me, other days it is challenging. I am particularly happy about the small or unexpected moments. Reflecting on and writing down a moment of happiness creates yet another one for me: The joy of having been blessed with a moment of happiness again today!