The Way of Nagomi, The Japanese Philosophy of Finding Balance and Peace in Everything You Do By: Ken Mogi
Wow, this is so great I want more and more of it, until I don’t! For me I could be talking about Ice Cream or Process Improvement, or Lean or organization and structure, and for all of them I learned, often the hard way, that you need balance. The word balance has been extremely important to me as I have learned and evolved. This book scratched the right itch at the exactly the right time.
Short Video (2 m): (1) The importance of nagomi (harmony) in Japanese culture - YouTube
Detailed Video (21 m): (1) The Way of Nagomi: The Japanese Philosophy of… by Ken Mogi · Audiobook preview - YouTube
Key Take Aways:
*The book is structured in a way that each chapter has a different focus for balance. The topics are Food, Self, Relationships, Health, Learning, Creativity, Life, Society and Nature.
*There is a nice conclusion that wraps up with a numbered checklist of the 5 pillars of Nagomi, I Love a great checklist.
Self, Most times we want silver bullet solutions and they are great when they work, but we are more likely to need a magic carpet, observing from a higher level and recognizing that there are many elements and factors involved in finding balanced solutions
Relationships, Getting your way, winning, whatever you want to call it is not as important as the relationship with the person. We all crave fulfilling relationships with others.
Health, in this section Mogi shares thoughts on ikigai, another topic that really hits home with me. He wrote an entire book about it (I did review a couple of years ago on that book)
Learning, in this section there are two things that really jump out to me, you can be transformed even with a very short experience it the right person. Also, be curious.
Creativity, remain young at heart. Most were far more creative before the stress of life.
Life, the Japanese are very intentional and committed to honoring the life of those that are passed.
Society, it is not all about profit and getting things done. Something may appear inefficient on the surface, but is actuality a sophisticated balancing act.
