A journey of a thousand leagues begins with a single step." - Lao Tzu
Kaizen is a way of upgrading yourself. To practice it, you begin with one tiny step, and go on from there. Kaizen means "improvement" in Japanese, and it can mean self-improvement for you.
The Kaizen concept is uncomplicated:
1. Seiri - being tidy
2. Seiton - being orderly
3. Seiso - being clean
4. Seiketsu - cleaning according to basic standards
5. Shitsuke - being disciplined
Breaking a persistent bad habit or acquiring a positive new one is tough, as all our shattered New Year's resolutions can attest. If you know someone who's tackled a major life change like quitting smoking or losing weight, they would probably agree that it's done not all at once, but one smoke or one calorie at a time. Small changes strung together add up to surprising results. Kaizen is a tool that can help you effect change both in your personal life, and in your career.
People who manage to reach objectives probably will say they did it by effecting minor changes over time. Little changes bring success because new habits are formed. Let's say, for instance, that your objective is to reduce the amount of clutter in your house. You might begin by using just five minutes each day to sort through mail and throw away anything that you do not need without hesitation.
Focused practice leads to results. Making one small change over time makes all the difference. Anyone who has ever made a New Year's resolution and failed knows this: it's hard to make big changes. For example, let's say your goal is to reduce clutter in your home. You could start by spending 5 minutes a day going through your mail and immediately tossing what you don't need.
Try to recall the bad habits you may have gotten into: you began a routine of having donuts in the morning, and now you have have extra weight you need to lose. Immediately beginning a fad diet probably will not help lose the weight, but changing your habits by replacing the donuts with fruit, will, in time, help take off the pounds.
Kaizen is applicable in the office. It can be tedious to always push workers to perform. Kaizen however does that for you. Here is an example, I spotted a list of things that workers of a certain supermarket would do with their free five minute. Cleaning the counters, lining the counters and so on. Then it dawned to me, suppose you have to learn a new program to use in your work. If you just dedicate 10 minutes a day you sure will learn it efficiently. The most efficient way to learn a language is not by dedicating 2 hours a week to it but by giving just 20 minutes per day of your precious time.
Challenge yourself with some problems:
In what way do you wish to become better? What goals do you wish to set for yourself? How will you know when you have completed what you aspired to do?
There is a riddle that goes: Which is the most ideal manner in which to consume a whole elephant? And the answer is very simple, just take one bite at a time. Make up your mind on what you take a bite on in order to reach your destination and achieve your objectives.
