Kaizen

Hello everyone, as the year and this decade come to an end, I wanted to thank all of you for joining me on this little project of mine and listening in. I also wanted to thank everyone who spoke to me in person or reached out online to give their feedback on the podcast. It started out as just one of my many ideas, but because of you, it has grown into such an incredibly fulfilling thing. I have learned so many great applicable lessons from my guests, and their many achievements have really inspired me and many others to pursue our goals. Last year, as everyone asked me what my new year's resolution would be, I said one word, Kaizen. Kaizen is a Japanese word meaning change for better or continuous improvement. There's a lot of literature on this concept, and how it made the Japanese automakers and tech companies a driving force in their industries. It speaks of always looking for ways to improve even if they are small and incremental. It's a never-ending process or striving towards quality. When I first learned of it, I felt an immediate affinity to the word. I've always found that the times I've been the happiest in my life have been when I was working towards a goal. Things like learning a new skill set for a job, or writing and performing a new song. They required me to be consistently pushing myself to be better times when I would plateau, like say at a job that didn't require much mental bandwidth or room to grow, I will become bored and unhappy. That's what makes this career so fulfilling. If you plateau, you only have to look to someone with more knowledge in a certain aspect of the job like forging, toolmaking, lameness, evaluation, etc. and ask them to teach you more. For me, Kaizen actually meant going through all of the steps to start and maintain the podcast, and then starting the process of attempting my fits ASF and it meant attending more clinics and having more forge nights to improve my skill set. My challenge to you is to embrace the concept for your year 2020. Sign up for a pre-certification course. Heck, sign up for a certification! On a smaller scale instead of merely benefiting from their time savings, use resets as a chance to improve the shape of the feet you work on. Take the time to adjust the shoe, not the foot to the ideal you're aiming for. I know there are a lot of non-farriers tuning into some of these episodes as well. Why don't you sign up for a clinic or an online course you're interested in? I realized the time is always a precious commodity for any of us who work with horses. But I have experienced the energy creating power of doing these things myself. It's counterintuitive, but it works. That concludes my pushy speech... Well, almost… Did I mention you should aim to attend a certification this year? All right, maybe I did. But you should really just do it. You won't regret it. Before I sign off, I want to say a few words of thanks to the folks at Twisted Spur Media, especially Heather. It is safe to say that the podcast wouldn't be half of what it is without Heather's hard work and dedication. She tirelessly edits all of my scripts out of the episodes and ensures that the final product is always top-notch before it gets pushed out of the nest and flies on its own. I've been told she has a wicked blooper reel and I'm hoping she never pushes that one out to you. She is the wizard behind the curtain and I wouldn't be able to do this without her. Until next time, have a safe and Happy New Year. I can't wait to see what all of you are going to accomplish this year. Take care of yourselves and each other out there!