Kaizen: Six Months of Showing Up

February 04, 2026 · in Meta, Learning
Kaizen: Six Months of Showing Up

Six months ago I decided to run an experiment:
What happens if I show up every day, even when I don’t feel like it?

This post is the first checkpoint of that experiment.

Not a victory lap.
Not a motivational speech.
Just a clear look at what actually happened.

The numbers

Here is what six months of daily work produced:

  • 5 freeCodeCamp certifications
    • Responsive Web Design
    • JavaScript Algorithms & Data Structures
    • Front End Development Libraries
    • Data Visualization
    • Back End Development & APIs

  • 55 freeCodeCamp projects

  • 3 personal sites
  • 3 additional personal projects built outside FCC

All of the FCC work is live here:
👉 https://codepen.io/Mike-MacDonagh

This wasn’t a bootcamp.
There was no deadline except the one I set for myself.

What Kaizen actually meant

“Kaizen” gets thrown around as a productivity slogan.
For me it meant something simpler:

Do something today that keeps tomorrow possible.

Some days that was:

  • a full project
  • a refactor
  • writing documentation

Other days it was:

  • fixing one bug
  • pushing one commit
  • making sure nothing broke

What mattered was not the size.
What mattered was continuity.

Momentum is fragile.
Consistency protects it.

What changed under the hood

During this six-month window I also:

  • Bought a new development machine
  • Started migrating my workflow to Linux
  • Built out a full Obsidian vault system
  • Began formalising an offline-first AI assistant called Walter

Those weren’t side quests.
They were part of the same system:
reduce friction so work keeps flowing.

The part no one sees

Most of this work was not glamorous.

It was:

  • opening the editor when I was tired
  • fixing things that weren’t broken yesterday
  • continuing when progress was invisible

The skill I was really training was not JavaScript.
It was showing up without negotiation.

Why six months mattered

Six months was the original challenge.

Not because it’s impressive.
Because it’s long enough for excuses to run out.

By the end of six months:

  • habits form
  • systems exist
  • momentum becomes real

This is now something I can point to and say:

“This is what I do.”

The next target

The next goal is simple:

Turn this into a full year.

Not by going faster.
Not by burning out.
Just by continuing.

Same rule.
Same experiment.
Longer horizon.

If you’re following along or building something similar, you don’t need better tools.
You need fewer places to quit.

Six months down.
Let’s see what twelve does.