New Years Resolutions – Some New Ideas

What do you think of a resolution to do the things that make all your goals more achievable? Ask yourself: Can you make a lot of money if you don’t have the habits that lead to that? Can you have better physical conditioning if you just start yet another exercise program and then quit?
You have to change your mind before the rest will change. Here are two ideas for that interior self improvement.

Kaizen For The New Year

What is Kaizen: “Japanese for continuous and incremental improvement, a business philosophy about working practices and efficiency.” You may ask yourself – what does this have to do with self improvement and new years resolutions?

First came the “continuous improvement” theories of efficiency expert W. Edwards Deming in the 30s and 40s. After the war his ideas were picked up by the Japanese who developed it into “Kaizen,” a method for efficiently creating quality products through small and continuous changes. Guess what? This is perfect for accomplishing your personal goals, too.

Kaizen is part of Lean Six Sigma (LSS), something that I have successfully used in my professional career in the past.

Here is an example: Want to quit smoking? The Kaizen way might be to stop smoking in your car, as the first small step. Then you could switch to a brand with less nicotine, stop smoking in the house, and so on.

How does Kaizen works:
Kaizen uses “small questions.” In factories this meant no more questions like “What are you going to do to improve the company profits this year?” That normally creates more fear than creative ideas. A better question is, “What small change could we make in your department to reduce expenses or improve quality?” In thousands of occasions this approach was found to be far more productive.

For purposes of improving your life, this means asking small suggestive questions, like, “What could I do to free up five minutes for my meditation practice?” or “What small change could I make if I wanted to improve my relationships today?” Small questions drive out the fear, pressure, and procrastination that come with facing the issue head-on.

Small questions, small comfortable changes, and continual progress – that’s kaizen.
Imagine where you’d be if you had consciously made one small change in your life each week for the last few years. Better yet and more importantly, imagine where you will be next year, if you start this process today.

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.” – Lao Tzu

Forget The Affirmations

Here is a little exercise for you: Stand in front of that mirror if you want, repeating to yourself “Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better.”

If it doesn’t do what you hope, though, here’s a new idea (okay, an old idea renewed): Evidence is more convincing than affirmation – what you look for, you find, and it changes your mind.

Prove this theory to yourself by watching out for nice people for a few days and then making a mental note each time you see one. It will change your experience of people in a positive way.
Then, to test the idea further, watch out for rude people for a few days, and you’ll see them all over.
Do this exercise, and you’ll quickly understand that you experience the world not only according to what is there, but even more according to what you pay attention to.

Use both option to motivate yourself towards positive change and find your successes. If your New Years resolution is to exercise more, notice when you remember to park farther away from the store so you have to walk. Write it down even. Point out your successes to yourself, and you’ll start to have more of them. If you want to lose weight, note every time you walk past the refrigerator without opening it. Focus on and remember any success. You can start doing this right now.

Rome was built in many small steps and so can your success!

First things first though. Resolve to change the habits in your mind. Isn’t that better than the typical new years resolutions?

Happy New Year!

Related articles

• Prepping for the New Year: Resolutions, Big Bang, Kaizen (txcowboydancer.wordpress.com)
• The Focus Of 2012 (stevengradidge.com)
• Do you practice ‘Kaizen’? [Dean 'Warrior Coach' Grimshawe] (ecademy.com)