“A Journey Of A Thousand Miles Must Begin With The First Step.” – Lao Tsu
If you have ever had problems losing weight, flossing your teeth daily, or keeping New Year’s resolutions Kaizen may be for you.
You have been told all your life to think big and to have big dreams but the key to success may be through small steps.
According to Robert Maurer, Ph.D. author of One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way
The techniques used in Kaizen are to ask small questions, think small thoughts, take small repeated actions, and solve small problems that are so simple that it will literally be impossible for you to fail.
Maurer believes that by taking small steps you will circumvent the brain’s built in resistance to new behavior.
Maurer gives many real life examples of people who despite being resistant to change for years were able to form new healthful habits.
For example dentists always warn their patients to floss their teeth or they will lose them to gum disease and gingivitis.
But do people usually listen?
The answer more often than not is “no”.
But when dentists asked their patients to floss just one tooth per day the compliance rate was much higher.
With time it was found that patients on their own began flossing more than one tooth voluntarily.
Why? By asking patients to do something where they could not fail resistance was lowered and a healthy habit was formed in the process.
In another example Dr. Maurer recounts a patient who was stressed, overweight, in poor health on top of this she had a very busy work schedule. (sound familiar)
The traditional approach would have been for the doctor to tell this lady to
exercise a minimum of thirty minutes a day for five days a week.
The result probably would have been for this lady to be overwhelmed and then feel guilty about not complying and she probably would have attempted to avoid her doctor in the future to avoid discussing the fact that she did not comply with the doctors’ orders.
Instead the lady’s doctor told her to march in front of her TV for 1 minute per day.
Surprisingly after 30 days the lady complied with this seemingly ridiculous request and she felt so good about having succeeded at this simple request that she decided on her own to walk one mile per day.
As silly and simple as Kaizen may seem. I decided to put it to the test.
For years my dentists have told me to floss my teeth daily. Although I have made attempts to form the flossing habit I have never made it for more than three days despite being warned that I will lose all my teeth at an early age.
I told myself that I would floss one tooth per day. As it turns out I have now flossed daily for the past thirty days. This is the first time in my life that have flossed this many days in a row!
If you are having trouble beginning an exercise program Maurer says to consider standing on your treadmill for one minute per day for thirty days.
That’s right …just stand on your treadmill and read the paper or watch TV.
That’s all you need to do!
Or if you can not even move yourself off of the couch in the evenings try squeezing two tennis balls for one minute while you are lying there watching TV.
Hey I know this sounds crazy but try it … Kaizen may sound silly and the small steps may seem ridiculous but the science is irrefutable you will create new habit forming brain connections with Kaizen that may benefit you for a lifetime.
Please let me know if Kaizen works as well for you as it has worked form me.
Click on the following link to check out Kaizen for yourself One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way
To Your Success,
Paul A. Shope
SuccessCurent.com
