Tuesday, January 20, 2009

The KAIZEN Approach

I have recently learned a new process for goal achievement: the Kaizen approach.
Apparently the word-for-word translation for it is: good change; while the more accurate translation is improvement.

What is your daily life about?
I was first happy for having found passion for a subject. Then I found myself adding up issues and goals to achieve. I drained myself in too many ambitions and spread myself so thin that I ended up tired for having thought about them all; and still stood in the same place, looking up, as the goals I had set were too high and seemed almost impossible to reach.
Now I need to move forward. I took a break from bumping my head against a wall and feeling guilty of being unproductive. It seems that waking up early and sleeping late are not enough in order to get things done. Something else needed to be changed.

Solution? moving backwards with the process:
So this is where I need to go. How do I reach it? by creating small steps and turning them into a ladder. I had not invented the wheel.

This step by step approach to getting things done have been around for ages: "The seven step approach to financial success", "a 5 step approach to behavioral change"... everything seems possible when it is taken one thing at a time. Apparently this has a name in the Japanese culture. It is called the Kaizen approach: setting small goals to reach the big one. Too bad, I had to learn it the hard way.

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