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
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