How to implement the small things for big results. In my last blog post I talked about how we used a game of Fitness Bingo to encourage (I called it a trick, but it’s all the same) members of our gym to apply positive habits to their daily routine. We did this slowly over a 21 day period. However, you may see more success if you spread it out even longer.
In a recent staff meeting, I educated our team on the Japanese business philosophy called Kaizen. Pronounced Ki-zen.
The concept is to focus on the small, almost trivial things, in your life or business that when compounded will make a large effect. Steven Bartlett of Diary of a CEO explains this as “Small things that are easy to do, are also easy not to do. Saving $1 is easy to do, so it’s also easy not to do. When things are easy not to do, that’s usually the path we take. In this case we’d spend the $1.”
By focusing on doing the small things that are easy to do, we likely won’t notice the positive effects immediately, or maybe even anytime soon. Though over time, the culmination of all of these small things will become visible. Think, brushing your teeth every day for a year versus not brushing your teeth every day for a year.
We can use our game of Fitness Bingo (from my last blog post) and all of the daily habits associated paired with the Kaizen philosophy to create a simple way to attack these daily habits and make them stick. The result: more energy, better mental clarity, strength gain, possible weight loss, better friendships, and reduced stress.
To use one of our Bingo Tasks as an example:
Every morning when you wake up, you can either drink water before coffee, or you can not drink water before coffee. The coffee is likely more appealing, and you’re going to drink it anyway, so why not just drink the coffee first?
When you make the small choice to drink the water first, it’s easier to do it again tomorrow. And the next day. And the next. Do this for a week, then once you don’t have to think about that decision any more you can move onto another small habit. Maybe the next habit is getting 8,000 steps a day. Did you know, that researches proved there wasn’t much benefit between 8,000 and 10,000 steps per day, but 10,000 just sounded better and more appealing so that’s the number that because more associated with goal # of steps per day!
Maybe this habit takes a week, maybe it takes a month. Doesn’t matter. As long as you’re still targeting small, incremental improvements over time, you’ll be much better off, 5, 10, 20 years from now, than if you chose the opposite of the habit. Sit on the couch every day for 30 minutes versus get your 8,000 steps and multiply that times 10 years. You can imagine the difference in outcomes here.
So when you’re faced with a list of “10 new habits” or “6 Life Hacks” etc, etc,.. don’t try to implement them all at once. Spread them out over a long enough timeline so that you can implement each one slow enough to let it stick, then move on to the next one. Embrace the Kaizen philosophy.