kaizen

zen I know, but kaizen??

Definition of kaizen:
“Japanese management term referring to continuous improvement. A philosophy that sees improvement in productivity as a gradual and methodical process. Kaizen is a Japanese term meaning "change for the better".” (answers.com).

Where I ran across it:
5/4/08 NYT article, “Can You Become a Creature of New Habits,” by Janet Rae-Dupree.

“…She recommends practicing a Japanese technique called kaizen, which calls for tiny, continuous improvements.…”

My two cents:
This is your brain: stuck in a habit-rut. This is your brain on kaizen: free from the pithy bonds of rutdom, and given wings and permission to change for the better.

Eureka, what a find.

Is kaizen a miracle drug? Nope, it’s a philosophical technique, and the insanely successful business model for Toyota. (Calling all Dilberts. There’s hope. Who knew?) Apparently, it’s also a technique that can be employed on a personal level by any miserable schlub like me who feels hopelessly enslaved by a bad habit – or two, or three.

According to M.J. Ryan, who wrote the book, “This Year I Will,” kaizen’s secret to successfully changing habits is in not scaring your brain into overload so that it drops what it’s doing and runs away like a cat in a thunderstorm. “Whenever we initiate change, even a positive one, we activate fear in our emotional brain,” Ms. Ryan notes in her book. “If the fear is big enough, the fight-or-flight response will go off and we’ll run from what we’re trying to do. The small steps in kaizen don’t set off fight or flight, but rather keep us in the thinking brain, where we have access to our creativity and playfulness.”

Don’t worry. Be happy. Embrace kaizen.

OK, here I go. I think I’ll make tiny, continuous improvements in my weight. I will lose a pound – just one tiny little pound.

Fifty times.