What is Kaizen
In Japanese, there are two symbols, kai and zen, which mean change for the good. In Japanese business, kaizen is the principle of gradual and continuous improvement. For example, The Toyota Motor Corporation uses kaizen by teaching everyone within that organization to find something every day that improves the function of the company. Kaizenetics is based on this Japanese business principle.
Small Achievable Changes
The best part of applying the principle of kaizen is that it doesn’t involve huge dramatic changes, but small achievable changes. For example, simply moving a phone to the left side of a desk from the right-hand side, would save time whenever the phone is answered because the majority of people are right-handed. Clearly, that is not a big change. However, when this practice is applied to thousands of employees, it results in thousands of seconds saved each day, adding up to a lot of time saved over the course of several years.
Another change may be as simple as moving a pencil sharpener to a more central, accessible location for the employees. The changes are not big changes, but this principle is the heart of kaizenetics.
In the following articles, we will look at seven critical steps to accomplishing anything that you want in your life. This is what kaizenetics is all about.
Step 1: What Do You Want?
The first step in kaizenetics is for you to decide exactly what you want. Before you can get to your destination, you need to know what that destination is. You cannot plot a course or Google a map without knowing where you want to end your journey. Clearly, you know where you are right now, but where do you want to be in the future?
Taking Inventory
So firstly, you need to consider this: are you qualified to get there? Perhaps right now you are not qualified, so that indicates some areas where you need to get training and knowledge. Next ask, “do I have the necessary skills to fulfill my vision?. What skills and knowledge do I have? Where am I heading? What skills and knowledge do I need to get there? What skills and knowledge do I need to have by the end of the journey in order to fulfill my goals?”
Clarifying Your Desires
It is also important to ask yourself what you really want. At the end of your journey, at the end of this ride, what is the end result you want to see? What results are you hoping for for yourself and for your family? Are your goals financial, business, or relationship related?
Lastly, but most importantly, is to ask yourself, why do you want it? Jim Rohn says, “The bigger the why, the smaller the how.” What that means is that if you really want something badly enough, and if you know clearly why you want it, then how you are going to do it and how you are going to get there becomes significantly less important.
A coaching session can help you get more clear on what you really want.
Minimizing The Fear
Any change in life usually involves some fear and some resistance to the changes you need to make. The bigger the changes you want to make in your life, the bigger the resistance you will encounter. However, when you can pinpoint your why, when your reason is big enough, your fear becomes small. If you want to reach your goal more than anything, the chances are you will be willing to do everything you need to do to get it.
If your goal is too small or your desire is not white hot, the effort needed and the resistance you will encounter to reach that goal will make it all seem like too much effort. The fear of the journey and of facing that change will seem too huge to take on. In that case, you will not even try. You will not even start on the journey because of your fear and lack of desire to reach that goal.
However, when you really want something, and you know why it is so important, you will be willing to do whatever you need to get there. In fact you will be willing to go above and beyond and to do more than you originally calculated to reach that goal because it will be such a driving force within you- such a consuming fire. You will not want to sleep or eat until you reach that goal.
Can you see how essential this first step is? You need to decide what it is you really want and to stir that desire into a blazing fire within your heart.
