One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way

low-key change helps the human mind circumnavigate the fear that blocks success and creativity.

“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.” —Mark Twain

Why Kaizen Works All changes, even positive ones, are scary. Attempts to reach goals through radical or revolutionary means often fail because they heighten fear. But the small steps of kaizen disarm the brain’s fear response, stimulating rational thought and creative play.

large goal ➞ fear ➞ access to cortex restricted ➞ failure small goal ➞ fear bypassed ➞ cortex engaged ➞ success

“The true creator may be recognized by his ability to always find about him, in the commonest and humblest thing, items worthy of note.” —Igor Stravinsky

“You can’t live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you.”

Kaizen Tip You want to do something creative: write a story or a song, paint a picture, dream up your perfect career, or come up with a zinger of a solution to an office problem. But you have no idea where to start. Your mind keeps coming up empty. During times like these, kaizen can help you summon your powers of inspiration. Although you can’t fo

“When you improve a little each day, eventually big things occur. When you improve conditioning a little each day, eventually you have a big improvement in conditioning. Not tomorrow, not the next day, but eventually a big gain is made. Don’t look for the big, quick improvement. Seek the small improvement one day at a time. That’s the only way it h

Kaizen has two definitions: using very small steps to improve a habit, a process, or product using very small moments to inspire new products and inventions

“What shapes our lives are the questions we ask, refuse to ask, or never think to ask.” —Sam Keen