Kaizen: Continuous Small Improvements

This concept was first popularised in Japan as an approach to making continuous small improvements in industry. And it's a great concept to apply to personal development.

The perils of the Brand New Start

Have you ever made a Brand New Start in some way in your life? And discovered that a short while later you'd given up and gone back to the old ways?

Well, that's one argument for making continuous small improvements. Try to change too much, all at once, and a part of you rebels. And quickly gets you back to normal!

Whatever the reasons for this common phenomenon - and there are many - it's a good argument for Kaizen.

Being more positive

If you try to ‘be more positive’ about everything the realistic side of your nature will soon undermine your new start.

But if you decide you'll take a more positive attitude towards, say traffic hold-ups, and you'll find after a few weeks that it's taken hold.

How do you apply the Kaizen approach?

Plan: Prepare the evening before - choose your topic or behaviour. Plan how you will integrate it into your day.
Visualise: Take a few moments in first thing the morning to mentally plan and visualise the day ahead. If you're very rushed in the morning you can do this while washing, shaving, putting on make-up, or preparing your hair.
Set up reminders: the events of the day will soon put all thoughts of your new resolution out of your head - unless your prepare for this. Mentally set up ‘milestones’ that will remind you of your project - such as whenever you turn the ignition key in the car, whenever you replace the phone on the cradle, whenever you visit the toilet, etc. Use these moments to consider and re-visualise your project.
Re-view the day: take a few moments when you are finished your working day and review how things went. If you completely forgot about your project what can you learn from that - and apply to tomorrow's plan? This is the essential ingredient of Kaizen - continually learning from your experience.

Important: please read our caution regarding online advice.

Small improvements every day