“Don’t look for the big, quick improvement. Seek the small improvement one day at a time.” – John Wooden
I’ve talked about Kaizen in a previous post, but I thought it would be beneficial to you if I explain how it can be used to continuously improve your life.
Kaizen [改善] is Japanese for “improvement” or “change for the best”. It’s about making small, incremental changes over a period of time. When these small changes are compounded, the results can lead to a more efficient, healthier lifestyle. .
Small efforts go a long way when practiced regularly. Incorporating these ideas into a sustainable lifestyle will make it easy over time because you won’t be overwhelmed about making drastic changes immediately.
I will teach you how to use kaizen tools and techniques in your life; how to put systems in place for small continuous improvements that are sustainable. Once a month I’ll send you a post in a series called Kaizen Your Life, in which I will present a tool that you can incorporate into your life to become more efficient, freeing time up for the things that you love. I will cover things like biohacks to improve performance and time management tricks to make you more efficient. I use these same techniques to balance 3 blogs, a full-time job, a supplement company, 2 toddlers and a full-time wife :-), all while maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
Here are the basics to kaizen your life:
1. Dream Big but… – Break that big dream of yours into small parts and determine what you can do every month, every week and every day to get closer to achieving that dream. Focus on actions that are easier to complete and/or yield the greatest rewards first.
For example, if you want to get in better shape, start off by eliminating all sugary drinks in your diet. Doing this small step can have an enormous impact on your health and figure.
It’s important to do the small stuff — clipping coupons, eating a healthy meal — because doing so builds good habits and contributes to the bigger picture.
It’s better to take small, manageable changes every day, than to take on a giant change and fail at it. Create a checklist of all the things needed to achieve your dream and mark off the items as you complete them. Seeing progress can be very motivational. So celebrate those small wins.
2. Prioritize what you truly want – Make those small actions a priority. Aim for long-term changes that will compound over the years.
The change has to happen within you. You can’t have someone force a change upon you. You have to truly want something to change in order for that change to occur.
Do you really want to get lean or do you just like the idea of it? If you just like the idea, it’s not a priority and you’re not committed to doing what needs to be done to be successful.
3. Understand that things take time – greatness is things done well, day after day. All those success stories you hear about are most likely not overnight successes; they’re years of hard work and many failures.
Realize that you’re not going to have a lean body after a week of eliminating sugar. It may be simple but not necessarily quick and easy.
4. Test and repeat – Try something new, see if it works and if it does, make it a habit. If it doesn’t, get rid of it and try something else. This was the whole vision behind My21DayX.
5. Be intentional with everything you do – For each decision you make, determine how your life will be different –and better (because that’s the point, isn’t it?). When your decisions become intentional, they are thought out and you have a clear idea of where you’re going.
The purpose behind this blog is to provide you the tools to make small, incremental and intentional changes over time to continuously improve life.
QUESTION: One is one small step you can do today to get one step closer to achieving a dream?
7 DAY CHALLENGE: Write out 7 steps that will help you get closer to your dream and do one every day.
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