"One Small Step
Can Change Your Life"
By Robert Maurer

Before you realize, you have drifted back into an old behaviour; you've had a couple of pieces of cake, about seven cigarettes, are sitting on the couch watching TV, or ___ (fill in the gap).

So giving up is just the easiest thing to do, given the obvious lack of results. Don't give up, though - I'm jumping up and down in excitement at sharing the kaizen technique with you as explained in "One small step can change your life".

So what is the kaizen technique?

The kaizen technique, or the kaizen way, is a real good tool to make progress in self-improvement and positive thinking.

Simply put, it consists in taking the smallest action towards a goal.

There is a scientific base for why the kaizen technique does work. Part of our brain is responsible for the mechanism of fear; another part of our brain is responsible for the creative process.

When we deal with anything new, the mechanism of fear is naturally triggered. Now, the new thing may be something so small that we automatically bypass our fear without even realizing.

However, when the new thing is large or important enough for our brain to notice, the mechanism of fear is triggered and the creative process is inhibited.

Thus we may want to exercise daily, but the fear about the change in routine is so overwhelming for our brain to handle that the creative process shuts down and we just don't get to exercise.

The kaizen way consists of getting to do something towards achieving a goal in a way that the mechanism of fear is not even triggered, and the creative process is engaged: this is achieved by taking one tiny step, perhaps the smallest step possible, towards achieving a goal.

I'll give you a couple of examples. If you wanted to exercise, rather than boldly going from zero exercise to thirty minutes of yoga daily, using the kaizen technique you could just stretch your legs during one minute every day, for instance while you're watching TV.

If you had a messy desk which needs sorting, applying the kaizen technique you would just put one paperclip away, for example.

You may think that these steps are so tiny that they are simply ridiculous - and that's the point, that your brain understands the steps as being so small that no fear can possibly be triggered.

What happens though, when you use the kaizen way to do anything, is that you achieve impressive results overtime.

As you choose to take the tiniest step possible every day, in two weeks time you have actually cleared out part of your desk or are actually exercising without effort.

Some of the contents of "One small step can change your life"

"One small step can change your life" gives you multiple ideas and suggestions to put the kaizen way in to practice in a variety of areas. Some of the chapters of this book are:

• Ask small questions

• Think small thoughts

• Take small actions

• Solve small problems

• Identify small moments

Besides, "One small step can change your life" is very easy to read, and it's full of practical actions you can take straight away to start improving your life the way you want to.

Practical ideas

Here are some of my suggestions to use the kaizen way to create your own good life: