'One Small Step Can Change Your Life' By Robert Maurer
'One small step can change your life' may just be the perfect tool for accomplishing anything
If you have ever felt fed up with your own life as you know it and have decided to make a drastic change, you know it's not as easy as you see it in your head.
"Right, enough, from tomorrow I start a new diet/stop smoking/exercise daily/___" (fill in the gap).
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'.
What is the kaizen technique?
The kaizen technique, or the kaizen way, is a real good tool to make progress in anything - including 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. Here a person's belief systems come into play; each person will actually 'notice' the fear or not to a different degree.
When the fear is actually "active" (this is, when we 'notice' the fear), 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 - in a nutshell.
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 over time.
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 after having read 'One small step can change your life' to use the kaizen way to create your own good life:
- You could say one affirmation out loud before you go to sleep.
- You could choose to express gratitude for one thing when you leave your house.
- You could choose one positive thought about one person when you are about to have lunch.
- You could picture one good thing happening in one area of your life when you look into the mirror.
- The easiest way to go about it is to choose to perform just one small action upon a trigger.
Choose daily actions as triggers, such as brushing your teeth or closing the front door of your house; or set a reminder for every day, or post sticky notes in the mirror and around your desk.
The kaizen technique has meant a revolution in my own life; I wish that it brings you as many interesting possibilities and advancements as it has brought me! Follow this link to purchase the book.
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"Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step."
Lao Tzu
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