Monday, August 31, 2026

The Ones Who Break Through, and the Leaders People Naturally Gather Around, Are Without Exception Geniuses at "Focusing on the Good"

Check out Takumi’s NEW English youtube channel 🎵
↓↓↓
https://www.youtube.com/@takuway

 

Focusing on the good points

focusing on the flaws

 

Words I heard from Morita-kun today!

 

Focusing on the good points and focusing on the flaws.

 

In this world, there are only these “two ways of seeing.”

Everything comes down to where you put your focus.

 

 

  • Focusing on the good points (biten-gyoushi): looking at the other person’s strengths, the places where they shine, their talent.

  • Focusing on the flaws (oten-gyoushi): looking only at the other person’s shortcomings, their weak spots, their failures.

Depending on which pair of glasses you put on, the reality in front of you flips 180 degrees.

 

When our relationships aren’t going well, we’ve unconsciously put on the “focus on the flaws” glasses.

 

“That’s what’s wrong with that guy.”

“Why can’t he do this?”

 

Once you start hunting for faults like that, your brain starts gathering the evidence, one piece after another.

 

It’s a strange thing — the more you look, the more flaws you find.

Fault-finding takes no talent at all; anyone can do it.

 

But that only wears down the energy on both sides.

 

On the other hand, people who break through in an overwhelming way — the leaders that others naturally gather around — are, without exception, geniuses at focusing on the good.

 

“Oh, this part is so good!”

“I really respect this about you!”

 

They find the other person’s light, and they keep shining a light on it.

And what happens then?

The person hearing it feels good, gets more into it, and starts growing all on their own.

 

The strongest magic for drawing out someone’s potential has always been focusing on the good.

 

Start with yourself, and then with the precious people right in front of you.

 

Which glasses will you put on today?

It all depends on your choice.

 

↓↓↓

 

Five exercises for installing “focusing on the good” into your daily life

 

1. The 30-second respect shower

An exercise where you find the “shining points” in the person in front of you and put them into words, all within a 30-second time limit. Not praise — say out loud everything you see in their talent and their way of being, from the viewpoint of respect.

 

2. The flaw-filter detox journal

Before bed, look back on whether you got caught up in someone’s “bad points” that day. If something snagged you, rewrite it from the good-point perspective: “How could I support them here?”

 

3. My reframing notebook

An exercise where you convert every one of your “complexes” and “failures” into good points — the flip side of a talent. Just as “I get bored easily” can be rephrased as “I’m endlessly curious and light on my feet,” you change the way you see yourself.

 

4. Making an “owner’s manual” for your teammates

Write out three things you respect most about the people you work with or your family, then put into words “what kind of praise motivates me most” and share it. You come to understand each other’s triggers.

 

5. The cheerleader in the mirror

In the morning, when you look in the mirror, declare out loud to yourself “the best thing about me today.” Once you can put the good-point glasses on for yourself, that perspective naturally settles in toward other people too.

 

_______________________________

 

The strength-development method

The weakness-correction method

 

Which one is better?!

That’s the question.

 

Yukio Funai sensei said…

 

↓↓↓

The strength-development method.

 

The ultimate logic left behind by Yukio Funai, the god of management, for dramatically leaping forward in life and business.

Whether you know it or not completely changes your results.

 

Most people in the world tend to run toward “fixing their weaknesses.”

“This is where I’m bad.”

“I have to fix this weak point.”

And so they burn enormous energy and time trying to bring their minuses back up to zero.

 

But think about it.

A person’s flaws, turned over, are that person’s intense individuality and the source of their energy.

Force-correct that, and at best you produce an “average person” — you will absolutely never break through.

 

The basics of the “strength-development method” Funai sensei advocated are simple.

  • Grow your strengths; leave your weaknesses alone (or hand them to someone else).

  • Put all your resources into your strengths, what you love, and what you’re good at.

Everyone has strengths. When you shine a light on them and grow them thoroughly, that person’s energy explodes.

And oddly enough, once your strengths are fully grown, the weaknesses that used to bother you either stop bothering you or get covered for on their own.

 

It’s exactly the same in business and in team building.

A meeting about how to maximize “what we can do” is overwhelmingly more exciting — and more productive — than a meeting about how to fix “what we can’t.”

 

Where does your greatest strength lie?

Are you concentrating all your energy there?

 

If you have time to fix your weak points, use it to push your strengths straight through the ceiling.

Everything starts moving from there.

 

 

 

 

 

“The Ballerina’s Midnight Snack”

 

“The Ballerina’s Midnight Snack” is a healthy sweet (dessert) made by combining strained yogurt with grapefruit, and it’s been getting a lot of attention on social media.

 

Characteristics and the basic recipe

  • Ingredients: unsweetened plain yogurt (or Greek yogurt), and pink grapefruit.
  • How to make it: drain the yogurt overnight (or for a few hours) to remove the whey, then mix in the peeled grapefruit segments.
  • Taste: because the yogurt has been strained, the texture becomes chewy and rich, almost like a no-bake cheesecake, and the tartness and slight bitterness of the grapefruit keep it refreshing. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Variations that change the flavor with honey or a pinch of salt are popular too. You can get a feel for the detailed method and the actual texture in this video (I tried making the ballerina’s midnight snack #asmr) as well. [1, 2]

If you’d like to see it actually being made and get a sense of the texture, take a look at this video:

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Nagaoka — good friends!!!

 

 

 

In Osaka since morning!

 

 

Thank you so much for today!

 

 

 

The van crew!

 

 

 

Thank you!

 

 

Ito-san, thank you for the talk about resolve!

 

 

 

So happy you made the time!

 

 

Wouldn’t Kawachi ondo go incredibly well with EDM?!

 

 

Volleyball — too bad about that one!

 

 

A photo of friends that arrived from India!

 

 

Memories of Hamamatsu!

 

 

I’ve got high hopes~~~

 

 

So many things are a miracle!

 

Link to Takumi Yamazaki’s ENGLISH Book “SHIFT”
https://amzn.to/2DYcFkG

Translated from the original post by Takumi Yamazaki: https://ameblo.jp/takumi-yamazaki/entry-12977283949.html

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Sunday, August 30, 2026

Feel Joy From a State of Nothing, and Let It Well Up

Check out Takumi’s NEW English youtube channel 🎵
↓↓↓
https://www.youtube.com/@takuway

 

Yayoi Kusama has passed away.

That’s sad.

 

 

When I go abroad, I always want to visit the museums.

I start picking up things I never felt in the flow of everyday time back in Japan.

 

And there, I encounter the work of Japanese artists.

Yoshitomo Nara,

everyone at Kaikai Kiki,

Tatsuo Miyajima,

Hidetsugu Fujita,

 

And in the middle of all that,

I encountered Yayoi Kusama’s work.

 

Infinity.

 

Winding and wriggling,

a white net across a white canvas.

 

And

about 30 years ago,

I stayed at the Benesse House hotel on Naoshima.

 

The yellow pumpkin.

The black dots.

 

 

It gave me a strange feeling.

Ever since then, Kusama-san has had my heart.

 

Twenty-something years ago,

I opened a cafe in Nakameguro,

at the spot where you come down Hibari-zaka and hit the Meguro River.

 

I asked graf, in Kansai, to do the interior.

I wanted the coolest thing that 36-year-old me knew of.

 

At the time, graf was making work together with Yayoi Kusama.

 

 

 

And

I got to hear stories about how Kusama-san created her work, too.

 

After that,

my accountant’s father turned out to have been in charge of Kusama-san’s affairs,

and one exciting connection after another started gathering.

 

Ah —

when I think, “so she’s gone now,” somehow it makes me lonely.

 

 

 

Mikari-san, thank you for the morning session!

 

 

The main message was “resolve.”

 

 

The awards ceremony was heartwarming and moving too.

 

 

Shiba-chan and Misa,

Maeno-san,

Ishikawa-sensei,

and Jessica —

you were all the best!

The fermentation and the koji were the best too!

 

Thank you so much!

 

 

 

The after-party was at Bistro Jinnan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The two of them talking like old friends warmed up the whole room.

And it fired everyone up!

Thailand — looking forward to working with you there!

 

 

 

Sugar-free anko.

 

 

 

The postcards were cute, weren’t they~

 

 

 

“HAPPY Authors Festival,” hosted by Ken Honda

2026/9/10-13 20:00-23:00

 

Takumi Yamazaki’s slot is here:

Friday, September 11, 22:00-

 

Apply here:

 

https://www.aiueoffice.com/authorfes2026/vision.html

 

 

Star-studded.

Free.

The writing life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Congratulations on the publication~~~

 

 

Yesterday I had tea with Shinkai-kun.

Going back and forth over this and that,

talking about nothing in particular,

I was moved by how much he has changed and grown all at once.

 

There was so much to learn

that I took notes.

 

↓↓↓

 

Loneliness

↓↓↓

A wall

 

Joy out of nothing

 

Try talking for 15 minutes,

like friends do

↓↓↓

Don’t judge

 

↓↓↓ Here’s how I understood it

 

You who are lonely

aren’t actually lonely —

you’re building the wall yourself.

 

Feel joy from a state of nothing, and let it well up.

 

Talk with your partner the way you’d talk with a friend.

Try it for 15 minutes first.

 

What a deep lesson.

Especially…

 

Feel joy from a state of nothing, and let it well up.

 
↓↓↓
 

The secret of people who somehow can’t stop grinning, even with nothing going on

 

There are two kinds of joy in this world.

 

The first is the joy of “I’m happy because I got it.” You bought the watch you wanted, you hit your goal, someone praised you. Of course this is fantastic too — it’s stimulating and it lifts you up.

But there’s a small trap in it: you become “someone who can’t feel joy unless they get something.” You end up chasing bait on the outside forever, having to keep running.

 

And then there’s the other joy. That’s “the joy that wells up from the inside, all on its own, with nothing there at all.”.

 

The moment you wake up in the morning and simply draw a breath. The moment you notice the light slanting into the corner of the room. That feeling of grinning for no reason at all — “ah, just being alive is the best.”

 

This really isn’t anything special. Joy isn’t “something you bring in from outside” — it’s already inside you, filled to the brim, and all you do is turn the tap.

 

Rejoice first, before anything happens. The reasons can come later. Once you can generate “joy without a reason” under your own power, the steering wheel of your life comes completely back into your hands.

 

Because no matter what’s going on around you, you can create your own mood however you like.

Start by rejoicing with everything you’ve got, as the “you with nothing, at zero.”

 

Five exercises for generating joy without a reason

  • Exercise 1: The zero-second deep breath — a survival check. Close your eyes, breathe in until you can’t anymore, and let it out slowly. For ten seconds, focus only on the fact that “right now, my heart is beating on its own and I’m alive,” and feel the warmth inside your body.

     

  • Exercise 2: The reasonless flying high-five. Alone in an empty room, with no lead-up at all, throw both hands in the air and strike a victory pose or a high-five pose while shouting “yesss!” Set the emotion first, through the movement of the body.

     

  • Exercise 3: Wildly exaggerated gratitude for the ordinary. Pick one everyday object you normally overlook — a glass of water, your socks, the hot water from the tap — and rave about it in your head: “Isn’t it kind of miraculous that this is here?”

     

  • Exercise 4: Three minutes of lifting the corners of your mouth 5 millimeters. Set a timer for three minutes and spend it with the corners of your mouth raised just 5mm, for no reason. Trick your brain into thinking “right now I’m enjoying myself,” and observe how the feeling inside changes.

     

  • Exercise 5: Celebrate-in-advance daydream time. Picture just one best-possible future that might come, and savor the emotion of the moment it comes true — fully, in advance, right here where you are.

Link to Takumi Yamazaki’s ENGLISH Book “SHIFT”
https://amzn.to/2DYcFkG

Translated from the original post by Takumi Yamazaki: https://ameblo.jp/takumi-yamazaki/entry-12977193349.html

Posted by at
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