Kaizen Positive Thinking
Revamp your life with kaizen positive thinking
Practising positive thinking may feel a bit overwhelming if you take on too many aspects of it at once - repeating affirmations, taking time to be grateful, being aware of your own thoughts and replacing the negative ones with positive ones...
Introducing the perfect solution to actually change your life one step at a time: kaizen positive thinking. The idea came to me as I was reading 'One small step can change your life', by Robert Maurer.
What is kaizen?
Kaizen is a Japanese word that means "improvement" or "change for the better", and it refers to the continuous improvement of processes in manufacturing.
In "One small step can change your life" the author explains how to use the kaizen technique of continuous improvement to achieve personal goals by taking the smallest step regularly.
For instance, if your goal was to exercise daily for thirty minutes, with the kaizen way you could start by stretching your legs for one minute while you're watching TV.
The following day you could increase it to two minutes, perhaps introducing back stretches; the following day you could extend it to three minutes, and so on.
So you see, even if the steps you take seem so tiny that they border the ridiculous, several good things happen overtime when you use the kaizen way...
- ...you actually stretch/move/exercise your body daily - you actually acquire the habit.
- ...your body gains in resistance and endurance consistently.
- ...getting to exercise becomes effortless, because you started so small that it didn't feel challenging.
Kaizen positive thinking
Just like you could apply the kaizen way to any goal (losing weight, changing your diet, writing a novel, learning a new language...), it occurred to me that I could use it to think positive in small steps.
So I picked a number of positive things that I wanted to do every day, and I created a list ("my kaizen list") to tick each item off each day and keep track.
My list included things like:
- Repeat one affirmation for a few moments
- Laugh
- Think of one thing I love about my life
- Breath slowly and deeply for thirty seconds
- Congratulate myself for something I have done in the day
In a few weeks and with the help of kaizen positive thinking I was effortlessly thinking more positive, and I floated naturally towards more self-appreciation.
Being a bit ambitious, eventually I expanded my kaizen list to all areas of my life, so soon I was also doing chi exercises, drawing, getting rid of clutter - and even paying off my credit card!
Now whether you actually make a list of your own or not doesn't matter; what I would like you to go away with today is the knowledge of how you can use the kaizen way to achieve any goal you want in the field of positive thinking and self-improvement.
It's as simple as this: pick any goal you want. Take one tiny step towards it every day. If you feel like doing more than the tiniest thing possible, then do it; if you don't, that's okay - what matters is that you have done something.
The kaizen technique meant a revolution in my own life; I wish that it brings you as many interesting possibilities and advancements as it has brought me!
"And that is how change happens. One gesture. One person. One moment at a time."
Libba Bray