Master habits -The kaizen way

Six months ago, I read an amazing book called One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way, by Robert Maurer. This book talks about Kaizen which literally means small but constant improvements. The whole book gives insight on how when people decided to make a change in their life they feel a feeling of fear and resistance. That is why people procrastinate when they think about excercise because we are so use to living in our comfortable life that when we think about all that discomfort that follows exercise we feel fear and put it off.
This is the case for people who plan on changing their habits maybe by eating more healthy, going to sleep early, saving money, or be a more gentle person.
Sometimes in the beginning we are excited by the benefits we will get but soon after we will start thinking about how uncomfortable it will be as well. Robert Maurer reveals that they key is to make the change small enough that it is almost impossible to fail. The reason for this to sneak past our fight or flight mechanism to slowly build comfort and momentum for us to eventually reach the goals we want. Using kaizen you could master any habits you want even those that once seemed impossible. Here is a little 3 step process that i used to install all the habits I have so far.





Step one-start small






The whole esscence of kaizen is to take small steps. You need to pick level of intensity that is so small that it is impossible to fail.






Examples:






cardio-Spend at least one minute a day doing some sort of cardiovascular excercise.






Meditate-Meditate for a minute Before starting your day or as you go to bed.






Dieting-Eat a spoonful of green veggies with every meal.






Weight lifting-start with a weight you can lift comfortably.






Blogging- write at least a sentence a day.






You are not trying to make any lifestyle changes yet. You are gently moving in the direction of where you want to go.

Step two-do it for 30-60 days






A minute a day of cardio isn't going to make you slimmer but your goal is is to make it a habit. If there is no way you can fail then it is impossible for you not to make it past 30-60 days. (Certain habits taking longer to ingrain then other. There has also been research that states that after 66 days the habit is ingrained and any days after that won't make it anymore automatic.).










Step 3-gradually increase amount of action done




Ok now you have the habit of exercising or whatever. However you don't want to be walking for one minute or eating just one spoon of vegetables for life. Now is where you gently start adding more to what your doing. Increase the duration or intensity of exercise, add more vegetables, meditate 30 seconds more , and do it every week.










Sure you may think that this is a very slow but within a year or so you would be eating healthier , meditating more, exercising more, or whatever goal you wanted to achieve. When you could have tried to make a drastic change only to burn out. Usually that results in you giving up for months then you repeat the process.




You don't have to mimic my process but its what works for me and with kaizen's simplicity everyone can use it in a way that works for them. Just grow one small step at a time.


Cheers

Why hypnosis fail.... for most people.

Today the internet is filled with many hypnosis programs. Just try typing hypnosis into a google search engine and see how many of them pop up. A lot of people go public with their experience and talk about how its works so well for them. On the other hand a lot other people claim that hypnosis is just hoax, and that it nothing more then a waste of money. A lot of people spend thousands of dollars on hypnosis mp3s, subliminal, affirmations, and other personal development tools yet most of them fail.. or do they?

You see all the things I have listed above were all created and produced on a basic assumption. That the user is already taking action or is going to take action after using the material. The irony is that mostly lazy and apathetic couch potatoes are the ones that purchase these products. For example, a lonely male in his 20's goes home after work and sits in front his computer all day and sees an add for a new hypnosis CD called "Attract hot women with ease" or something generic like that. This person who never leaves his house gets all excited and spends about 27 dollars on this CD. He finally gets the CD and he starts playing the cd as instructed every single day. However after a few months or so (assuming he has some level of discipline) he will start to get frustrated because he will get zero results. He will then spend his Friday night blogging about what a bad product this is when he should be going out and meet some people.

Then we have another person across town who is working hard on his business trying to make it more successful. This person is putting in 14 hours a day trying to make it prosper but it just isn't going the way he wants it to. However one night this person discovers the same website as the guy in the previous example, and buys the "Extreme wealth" CD (or something like that). In a single month he starts to notice that his motivation went up and that for some reason his business is starting to grow at a rapid pace. After a few months (around the time the previous guy quit) this business owner finds that he is making more money even though he worked less than before. This guy becomes the next success story posted in the testimonial section of that hypnosis website.

The reason hypnosis worked for the second guy because he was congruent with the CD. He was working hard to develop wealth so the hypnosis simply rewrote his beliefs and inner fears that blocked him from seeing the opportunities that were present every day. Now for the first guy the CD he listened to was trying to rewrite his belief to let him see the plenty of opportunities that he had with women and that he was an attractive person. Here is where things get messy. His subconscious mind is being told repeatedly that he is a stud and that he has many success with women. However since the guy spends most of his time at home not even trying to attract women, his subconscious mind can't find find any evidence that he is a successful with women. That is like having a pizza delievered to your doorstep but you refuse to open the door and now your calling to complain that your pizza isn't here after hours of waiting.

What I am getting at is that hypnosis does work but only for people who were already trying to achieve their goals. The next time your considering trying out some hypnosis programs you need to ask yourself if your praying for a miracle or if you just wanted a tool to help you a achieve your goals faster. That question will make the world of difference.

Cheers

How I made working out a habit

I use to be extremely lazy when it came to exercise. I'm sure a lot of people can relate. Every year when it was summer my past schools gave out a flyer to each kid motivating them to exercise. I always felt empty and neutral because I knew it wasn't happening. When I was in middle school all my class mates were showing off their biceps. I would feel like crap since I had sticks for arms. Sure I bought weights and tried different workout routines, but i would give up within a week. It wasn't until the summer of my junior year when I started working out for reals that I stumbled onto a technique that I now use to form all the habits I want.

When I started I wasn't aware of how strong I was, so I lifted very light weights. I would start at a weight i would lift comfortably for eight reps, and add one rep a week until I could do 12 reps. When I could do 12 reps I would five more pounds to the bar. However after doing it for six weeks my ego got in the way I started adding weights every workout. I was adding like 5-10 pounds a week. I got so motivated by my progress that I looked forward to going to the gym . After 12 weeks and on working out became something normal to me. In fact if I missed a workout I would feel quite weird about it.

Now what exactly did I do?

-I started out small.

Though it was an accident I started out lifting really light weights about 20 pounds for my dead lift for example. Since I increased the intensity at small pace I didn't burn out. Therefore I was able to keep going long enough for it to be a habit.

-I kept at it for 12 weeks.

12 weeks is a perfect number because it is long enough for you to know that the routine you did have become a habit. Why do you think the p90X is so successful? Even if the participants didn't get the exact looks they wanted in those 90 days they developed a workout/healthy diet habit.

It was actually that simple. I also refined what I learned from this into a habit installing technique that I had a lot of success with. I will eventually make a post about that.

Cheers

intermittent fasting failiure

Yes, I confess that after trying intermittent fasting I just didn't think it was right for me. Sure it was a great way to cut out a lot of calories without sacrificing social outings it just wasn't manageable for me. It just isn't my cup of tea. I would much rather go low carb since it is black and white what i can or cannot eat. I would much rather eat something not on my list or none at all for hours. plus when i don't eat anything and go for a car ride I get dizzy super easy so I would much rather have something in my stomach.

Another thing was after my fast I would eat way too much so that little binge canceled out the effect of the fast. my weight did not drop what so ever. I knew what I did wrong but I just like eating too much to go for a 24 hour fast even if it was just twice a week. There we have it this experiment was a failure but I did learn something.

-no matter what diet it is you will reach the point where you want to pig out

-unless you plan out a moment to pig out you will fail due to temptation. unless you have god like discipline.

-Keep yourself busy. I didn't keep myself busy at all so the whole time all I could thing about was eating.

I honestly don't think I will go back to intermittent fasting ever again but if it is something anyone finds interesting then I recommend the book "Eat stop eat" by Brad Pilon

Cheers