Sam

Kaizen – Improvement One Small Step at a Time

I am sure each of us has goals or tasks we want to do but just can not seem to get to them or complete them. We create lists, set start dates, or make plans only to have them forgotten or pushed aside. I can show you a method to accomplish any goal or task you have regardless of the time or effort involved.

Kaizen is a Japanese word that simply means “improvement”. It is a daily activity commonly used to improve the workplace. Kaizen can also be used daily to improve your life with remarkable results. By using the Kaizen method you can accomplish any goal, any task or improvement you want to make. The key is to use small steps to reach your final goal.

Small Steps

Using the Kaizen method you take small steps towards improvement. Weight loss, home improvements, personal goals, regardless of the goal or task the Kaizen method can help you achieve them. The Kaizen method addresses all the issues that have blocked you in the past. Whether it is time, money or a mental block you will be able to overcome them all and reach your goal.

Let’s use improving your health as an example. People usually take an all out approach to these changes and end up failing to stick with them. The reason is the mind by nature resistant to change. By using the Kaizen method of small, but continuous change you will achieve the results you desire and be able to stick with it.

Perhaps you need to get more exercise so you decide you want to start walking one mile per day. Using the Kaizen method you would break it down into small steps. One mile is equal to 1760 yards. For the first week walk 440 yards or one-quarter of your goal. Each week add 440 yards and in four weeks you will be walking one mile per day. This approach allows you to gradually work your body and your mind up to your goal.

This approach can be used in any area of your life. Maybe you have a room you want to clear out and paint. Since this can be a large project that has many steps break it down into small tasks that can easily be completed.

Clear the room
Purchase the paint and supplies
Paint the room
Place everything back in the room

That is a very basic list that can be broken down into even smaller steps. For instance you may not have time to paint the entire room at one time. Break it down into sections as time permits. The key is to take a large goal and break it down into manageable steps.

Why Kaizen Works

Human beings are by nature creatures of habit and resistant to change. We become comfortable with our way of life and making big changes seem too difficult. We are also busy people who do not have a lot of free time to take on some of the changes or goals we want to accomplish.

Time

Lack of time is often our greatest challenge. But by breaking down tasks into smaller steps that fit the amount of time we can devote to them we can reach out final goal. If you only have 30 minutes per day to devote to a task then shape your plan to this. Even if it takes you a month to accomplish your final goal you will do it instead of giving up because you can not find the time.

Accomplishment

By breaking down a large tasks into smaller more achievable tasks we overcome the mental blocks of a task too large. As we complete each small step we have accomplished a goal. This sense of accomplishment boost our confidence that we really can reach our final goal.

Habit

Since we are creatures of habit and resistant to change by breaking up tasks and goals into smaller steps we are less resistant to them. To truly be successful at any change in life it must become a habit. Only when it becomes a habit and part of your daily life will you be successful at it.

Wrap up

Even if you have tried something in the past and failed at it, try it again using the Kaizen method. Break down the task or goal into small steps that you can achieve. If you have time restraints break it down into steps of 15 minutes or 30 minutes. Kaizen is about small, but continuous improvement.

While writing this article I had many other tasks to complete so I could not sit down and devote my full-time and attention to it. Instead I broke it down into 10 minute sessions. I would write for 10 minutes, go do my other tasks and come back to it when I could for another 10 minutes. Eventually the article was written, edited, proofread and published. My goal was accomplished in small steps.

You can apply the Kaizen method to anything. No task or goal will be too large for you to accomplish. By applying this method to tasks and goals in your life you will be amazed at what you can accomplish.

Be The Best at What You Do

I am sure we can all agree that we want to be happy with our job and our life. But job satisfaction and happiness does not always come easily. For those people I can tell you that your attitude and the passion you bring to bear on everything that you do can change your outlook about your job and your life.

Six months before he was assassinated, Dr. Martin Luther King spoke to a group of students at Barratt Junior High School in Philadelphia on October 26, 1967. Part of his speech was inspiration that regardless of what we do we should always aspire to be the best we can at what we do.

And when you discover what you will be in your life, set out to do it as if God Almighty called you at this particular moment in history to do it. Don’t just set out to do a good job. Set out to do such a good job that the living, the dead or the unborn couldn’t do it any better.

If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, sweep streets like Beethoven composed music, sweep streets like Leontyne Price sings before the Metropolitan Opera. Sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will have to pause and say: Here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well. If you can’t be a pine at the top of the hill, be a shrub in the valley. Be be the best little shrub on the side of the hill.

Be a bush if you can’t be a tree. If you can’t be a highway, just be a trail. If you can’t be a sun, be a star. For it isn’t by size that you win or fail. Be the best of whatever you are.

A Tale of Two Workers

First is the person who has a job they do not like. They roll out of bed each day and don’t want to go to work because they hate your lousy job. They watch the clock waiting for the time to flee their misery. They then go home and complain about how bad work was. They are unhappy at their job and probably in their life.

Now look at Dr. King’s street sweeper. I am sure he had aspirations of a better job, but he understood at this point in his life his job was to be a street sweeper. So each day he shows up for work on time and gives his best. He does not just do a good job, he is so passionate about his work that he wants to be the best street sweeper that ever lived.

When the street sweeper goes home from work he leaves with a sense of satisfaction that not only did he do a good days work, but on this day he was the best there has ever been at his job. This person is happy with their job and happy in life. Even though he is a street sweeper, this person is successful at work and in life.

A Tale of Two Attitudes

This tale of two workers is a tale of two attitudes. The first is the negative. I hate my job, my life sucks, why is life so unfair attitude. The second is the positive attitude. I may not like my job, but I give it my all and nobody does it better than me. For now I am content with my life because I know my hard work will lead to better things.

The negative attitude will likely keep that worker in the job they hate for many years to come. The positive attitude will likely lead the street sweeper to better things. A supervisor or manager will notice his passion for his work. His hard work pays off and he was promoted to a lead position. He maintains his passion in his new job and later was promoted to a supervisor or manager.

Even if the street sweeper never becomes more than the best street sweeper that ever lived, this person is successful and happy throughout their life because of their positive attitude and their passion for whatever they do.

The Power of Positive and Passion

You can apply this principle to everything. In your job, in your family, in your community and in your life. Many times in my life I have seen how a positive attitude and a passion for what you do leads to successful outcomes. Just look at Dr. King for a good example.

His positive “we shall overcome” attitude and his passion for the civil rights movement helped lead to a successful outcome. The struggle was hard and he could have easily given up saying the task can not be done. Yet despite the setbacks and difficulties he maintained his positive attitude and his passion.

So then let me ask you. Do you want to keep walking around complaining about your lousy job or how bad life has treated you and continue to wallow in your misery? If so you are not going to change much. You are not going to win the lottery and someone is not going to walk through the door and hand you your dream job.

Let me offer you an alternative that can lead to a different outcome and a better life. Accept who you are and where you are in life. If you have aspirations for a better job or a better life adopt a positive attitude for change. Develop a passion for everything that you do and regardless of the struggles or adversities, never give up.

Whatever station in life you are at, be the best at whatever you do.