CYNERGY THOUGHTS: What are you waiting for?

Isn’t it funny that we often find excuses to do things like start a healthy eating regime, join the gym, or look for a new job? We tell ourselves, “I will start eating better on Monday”, or “I can’t possibly join the gym this month because I am going away for a week.” We make up endless excuses of why the timing isn’t right to make a change even when we know the only person we are hurting is ourselves. 

A few days ago, I asked my guy if he was interested in starting a clean eating program with me and of course the dance began. “We are going away for a weekend; it’s probably not a good time to start.” He stated. I looked him straight in the eye and replied, “If we wait for our schedules to clear up completely for two weeks, we will never begin this program.” He had a few more reasons why we should wait, but quickly decided to go along with me. 

I wanted to make this new program as easy as possible for us to stick to, so offered to prepare all of the food we would need for his first day. When he came over to pick up his meals, he seemed worried. He was concerned that eliminating coffee might give him a headache. “Drink green tea,“ I suggested. He felt certain that going “cold turkey” and not easing into this health plan wasn’t a good idea. While I talked him into giving it a try I remembered the practice of Kaizen. 

Kaizen was created in Japan following World War II. The word Kaizen means “continuous improvement”. It comes from the Japanese words 改 (“kai”) which means “change” or “to correct” and 善 (“zen”) which means “good”. 

Traditionall,y Kaizen was a used in business and involves every employee from upper management to the cleaning staff. Every employee is encouraged to come up with small improvement suggestions on a regular basis. This is not a once a month or once a year activity. It is continuous. In Japanese companies, such as Toyota and Canon, a total of 60 to 70 suggestions per employee per year are written down, shared and implemented. 

In most cases these are not ideas for major changes. Kaizen is based on making little changes on a regular basis: always improving productivity, safety and effectiveness. 

If Kaizen can be applied to business, couldn’t we use the same method for self improvement? Why not set tiny measurable goals that are easy to achieve. Don’t promise to walk every day for thirty minutes, but instead commit to walking everyday for five minutes. Anyone can walk for five minutes and when you have accomplished this for a couple weeks increase your goal to walk seven minutes a day. Focus on the short term goals only. Don’t worry about five months from now. 

If you want to eat better, commit to incorporating one small change into your daily routine. Drink one additional glass of water, skip dessert one day a week. Accomplishing these small, yet important goals will have you feeling better about yourself and encourage you to commit to continuous improvement.