Kaizen - Make Massive Changes With Small Steps
Image via WikipediaSometimes we find ourself unwilling to develop new habits because the changes are frightening. If you think you can do it all in one go by all means go for it, but if you’ve tried that and failed there is another way.
Mary Jaksch of Goodlife Zen writes in her Zen Habit guest post How To Establish New Habits The No Sweat Way
“How do we create pathways of change so gently that we don’t take fright?
There is a very interesting Japanese philosophy called Kaizen which can help us do just that. Kaizen focuses on continuous but small change.”
The key with applying the principles of Kaizen is the continuous part, you have to keep at it. Most people will need a way to remind themselves of the changes they are trying to make. I use a combination of computer based reminders and a white board to achieve this, just make sure it’s somewhere you will see it - preferably every day. Often having a calendar or something similar to check off your progress can be useful, there’s something satisfying about ticking a box every day to show you’re still on track.
Beware of taking the concept of Kaizen too far though. You may find yourself losing interest in your new habit if the changes are too small … you need to make enough progress to motivate yourself.
Kaizen In Practice
Kaizen can be applied in many areas of your life. Relationships, fitness, emotional control, breaking addictions … significant progress can be made in all of these areas by make small improvements often.
Exercise is an easy place to apply these principles. Every week you could add an extra 5 minutes , an extra kg of weights or a few extra reps. This will give your body a mind plenty of time to get used to each new challenge.
Breaking an addiction such as smoking or internet usage. You can set a time each day and make the decision not to engage in the activity before that time. Then just move the time by a manageable amount each day. Try somewhere between 10 and 30 minutes. You should be able to stick with it fairly easily each day, after all it wont be very different from what you did the day before.
Writing a book is a great goal. To achieve it you’ll need to get into the habit of writing on a regular basis. Let’s say you want to work on your book 5 days a week. You can start by just setting aside 5 minutes a day, then add five minutes a week - within 6 months you’ll be spending an hour a day writing. This should be plenty of time to make some great progress.
Try It Yourself
So choose a goal to achieve or a habit you’d like to have then find a way to achieve it small steps. How are you going to apply the principles of Kaizen? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
I cannot agree more. After studying kaizen for several years and even writing two books on the subject I can say with 100% certainty that kaizen is the best way to change your life for the better.
The word itself is Japanese and means “improvement.” Kai means change and zen, in this context, means better - hence change for the better. However the concept behind the word indicates “continuous improvement.”
Kaizen is about developing patience within ourselves and having the will-power to defer gratification until a later date. Unfortunately people in the West tend to prefer instant gratification and that’s why the kaizen business guru Masaaki Imai wrote that kaizen is first of all a “mindset” rather than a set of techniques.
Unless we have the mindset to wait patiently for the realization our goals and to plan the small steps to get us there, we are more likely to fail.