June 5, 2025

MM#414--More Japanese MOJO

FAN MAIL--We would love YOUR feedback--Send us a Text Message Ever find yourself stuck in the cycle of trying to make massive life changes overnight, only to fail and feel frustrated? You're not alone. Today's episode explores a powerful alternative approach to personal transformation that's been hiding in plain sight for centuries. We begin with the remarkable story of Harriet, a 176-year-old tortoise collected by Charles Darwin himself, whose species adapted gradually over millions of year...

FAN MAIL--We would love YOUR feedback--Send us a Text Message

Ever find yourself stuck in the cycle of trying to make massive life changes overnight, only to fail and feel frustrated? You're not alone. Today's episode explores a powerful alternative approach to personal transformation that's been hiding in plain sight for centuries.

We begin with the remarkable story of Harriet, a 176-year-old tortoise collected by Charles Darwin himself, whose species adapted gradually over millions of years to thrive in specific environments. This natural example of incremental change serves as our gateway to understanding how real, lasting transformation works in human lives.

Drawing wisdom from both Eastern and Western traditions, we dive into the Japanese concept of "kaizen"—the philosophy of continuous improvement through small, consistent changes. We examine how this approach aligns perfectly with insights from modern personal development experts like Darren Hardy and Jeff Olson, who emphasize that success comes not through dramatic gestures but through "mundane, unsexy, unexcited, sometimes difficult daily disciplines, compounded over time."

Ready to break free from the cycle of dramatic starts and disappointing finishes? This episode offers a refreshing alternative that aligns with how lasting change actually happens. What small improvement will you commit to today? Listen now and discover how tiny steps can lead to your flourishing life.

Key Points from the Episode:

• Harriet the tortoise lived to 176 years old and was one of the tortoises Charles Darwin collected from the Galapagos
• Different tortoise species evolved gradually over millions of years to adapt to their environments
• The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy emphasizes "mundane, unsexy, unexcited, sometimes difficult, daily disciplines, compounded over time"
• The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson focuses on "simple productive actions, repeatedly, consistently, over time"
• Kaizen is the Japanese concept for small, consistent improvements that lead to significant change
• Small virtues or daily disciplines may seem insignificant but yield powerful results when practiced consistently

What small step will you take today to improve? One small, insignificant step at a time will put you on the road to a flourishing life.

Other resources:

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00:00 - Introduction and Opening Quote

01:46 - Darwin's Tortoises and Gradual Change

03:19 - The Compound Effect of Daily Disciplines

05:46 - Understanding Kaizen and Small Improvements

09:32 - Call to Action for Personal Growth

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Welcome to the Theory to Action podcast, where we examine the timeless treasures of wisdom from the great books in less time, to help you take action immediately and ultimately to create and lead a flourishing life.

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Now here's your host, david Kaiser.

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Hello, I am David, and welcome back to another Mojo Minute.

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Flourishing life.

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Now here's your host, david Kaiser.

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Hello, I am David, and welcome back to another Mojo Minute.

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As always, let's kick it off with the opening quote.

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In June of 2006, harriet, a giant tortoise, died at the ripe old age of 176.

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She was reportedly on one of Doge's list for still receiving Social Security.

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Sorry, that's not it.

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That is not what we're talking about today.

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Let's go back and start over Hold on.

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Let's go back and start over Hold on.

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In June of 2006, harriet, a giant tortoise, died at the ripe old age of 176.

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She was reportedly one of several giant tortoises that Charles Darwin collected on his visit to the Galapagos Islands.

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Harriet was a domed tortoise.

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She lived on an island that was fairly wet, where a domed tortoise had an easy time finding and munching on local grasses.

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Harriet had cousins called Saddleback Tortoises.

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The shells of these tortoises evolved in such a way that the tortoises could stretch their necks upwards and graze on above ground cactus plants.

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This was necessary because the climate on the islands where they live is much drier, so ground grasses are not readily available.

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This adaptation didn't happen instantly.

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It happened over millions of years.

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That's a time frame that probably isn't well suited to most of us when it comes to making changes in our lives.

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We want to lose 20 pounds, not over the next year, but over the next month.

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We want to meet someone and fall in love with him or her and have a wonderful romantic relationship, not sometime in the next 25 years, but during the next few weeks.

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We want to become proficient at a martial art or a foreign language or watercolor painting, but that proficiency must happen quickly, for our minds have little patience for gradual learning and gradual change.

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Yet the general principle of what Darwin called gradualism incremental changes over time may give hope to those of us who have consistently tried and failed to make colossal changes in our habits or lifestyle.

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Tried and failed to make colossal changes in our habits or lifestyle.

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And that, my friends, comes to us from a great book, the Art of Taking Action, by Greg Kretsch, specialist in Japanese psychology for over 25 years, and this book is fascinating.

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Now we know, going back to the quote, that Darwin did get a lot of things wrong, especially on his natural selection theory.

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Here's four books to check out that explain his faulty thinking Evolution, a theory in action, by Michael Denton in 1985.

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Darwin's Black Box, the biochemical Challenge to Evolution, by Michael Behe in 1996.

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Two more Icons of Evolution, science or Myth, why Much of what we Teach About Evolution is Wrong, by Jonathan Wells in 2000.

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In the Signature in the Cell DNA and the evidence for intelligent design by Stephen C Meyer, 2009.

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Those are just some things to go against the theory of natural selection that came out of all times in 1859.

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In case you didn't know, but gradualism by Darwin.

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He was mostly correct.

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Incremental changes over time in the species does seem to happen in biology.

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And guess what?

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It happens with human beings too.

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Not so much in biology but in psychology, which then begs the question how do you change your life?

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Snap your fingers, like Harriet the giant tortoise, and your life is changed.

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Nope, harriet didn't have any fingers to snap.

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Nope.

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We know from our history together that Darren Hardy taught us in the compound effect this basic principle where he says, by the end of this book or even before I want you to know in your bones that the only path to success is through a continuum of mundane, unsexy, unexcited, sometimes difficult, daily disciplines, compounded over time.

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And know that too, the results, the life and the lifestyle of your dreams can be yours when you put the compound effect to work for you and if you use the principles outlined in the compound effect, you will create a fairy tale ending.

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So, going back to what we have to do mundane, unsexy, unexciting, sometimes difficult, daily disciplines.

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We do that day by day, moment by moment, and it's compounded over time.

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That gets us going in the right direction.

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That is the mojo that we want.

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We also know if we buttress that up against another great book that we've talked about here, the Slight Edge by Jeff Olson.

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The things here's what Jeff says, here's what he says the things that you take out of failure and upward towards survival and success are simple, so simple, in fact, that it's easy to overlook them, extremely easy to overlook them.

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It's so easy to overlook them because when you look at them they seem what Insignificant.

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They are not big, sweeping things that take huge effort.

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They're not heroic or dramatic.

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Mostly they're just little things you do every day that nobody else even notices.

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They are the things that are so simple to do, yet successful people actually do them, while unsuccessful people only look at them and don't take action.

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Things like taking a few dollars out of your paycheck and putting it into savings and leaving it there and doing a few minutes of exercise every day and not skipping it.

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Or reading 10 pages of an inspiring, educational, life-changing book every day.

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Side note try the Bible every day.

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Or taking a moment going back to the quote, or taking a moment to tell someone how much you appreciate them, and doing that consistently every day for months and years.

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Little things seem insignificant in the doing yet, when compounded over time, yield very big results.

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You could call these little virtues or success habits.

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I call them simple daily disciplines, simple productive actions, repeatedly, consistently, over time.

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That, in a nutshell, is the slight edge.

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I just love both those books.

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It warms my heart when I go back to them.

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So what Olson calls daily disciplines, some have called them little virtues or success habits.

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I like little virtues myself, but for today we will learn.

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In Japanese the word is kaizen Kaizen.

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Greg Kretsch teaches us this in the Art of Taking Action.

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The word literally means improvement, but the small, consistent changes over time type of improvement, not the snap your fingers, one big jump type of improvement.

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Or if you remember the good old days in the NBA in the 1990s, when Michael Jordan developed a killer jumper, literally in the offseason.

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That was more of a I guess that was a snap of the fingers and the world of basketball was like whoa, that dude just developed a killer jump shot.

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And that is when the world of the NBA basketball was actually watched.

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Who watches NBA basketball now?

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Ah, I'm not sure.

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Not me, said the fleet.

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That, my friends, is a different podcast for a different time.

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So, getting back on task in today's Mojo Minute, how about you?

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What are you going to do today to improve?

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Small, incremental style, in the little virtues style, or the success habits style, or, as we just learned today, kazan, whatever name you want to put on it.

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What are you going to put on it?

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What are you going to do today to get better?

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One small, insignificant step at a time.

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If you take the small step, I promise you one thing you will be on the road to a flourishing life.

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Now keep fighting the good.

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Fight resources.

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Until next time, keep getting your mojo on.

MM#414--More Japanese MOJO

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