A Japanese Technique to Overcome Laziness: Kaizen

in philosophy •  7 years ago  (edited)

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Here's a Japanese Technique To Overcome Laziness:From time to time all of us set ourselves a new goal, or challenge and just as often in the endWe fail to achieve them. You end up telling yourself that you are not ready yet, that you will do it next week,next month, or even next year.Why do we give up so easily?The answer is fairly obvious.We try to achieve our goals too much and too fast. We get sick of the new responsibility,And it's tough to change old habits and try something new. As a result, you get tired and bored very quickly.


How To Stop Procrastinating?This is a great solution to overcome laziness and achieve anything you wish.This method takes less than a minute and results are quite impressive.The technique is called Kaizen, or the 1-minute principle.Kaizen originated in Japan, and it is something that anyone can attempt in any sphere of their life.In Japan, for instance, it's often applied to improve management techniques. The word itself contains two roots:Kai (change) and Zen (wisdom). It means you shouldn't change your life spontaneously, but slowly and wisely.The new habit should occur as a result of your reflection and life experience.This method was invented by Masaaki Imai who believes this philosophy can be appliedjust as successfully to the world of business as it can be to one's personal life.


How does this method work?In Japanese culture, the practice of Kaizenincludes the concepts of the 1-minute principle for self-improvement.At the heart of this method is the idea that you should practice doing something for a single minuteevery day at the same time just for a minute no more.It shouldn't be any trouble for absolutely anyone, right?Even the laziest person can carry out a given task for such a small amount of time.We usually find an excuse not to do something when faced with carrying the task out for 30 minutes or an hour a day.However, you should be able to do it for at least 60 seconds without any misgivings.


Why does the method work?At first glance this practice might seem doubtful and ineffective for people who have grown up inWestern culture that claims the idea that you can only achieve your goals by undertaking enormous efforts. However,it's not true at all.Challenging programs of self-improvement that deprive you of vast amounts of energy can end up exhausting you and leave no tangible results.Whether it's doing push-ups or studying a foreign language the task won't seem like something unpleasant that you have to get through.Instead it will become an activity that brings you joy and satisfaction Take one little step at a time and you will move on the path of self perfection.The one minute principle lets you see the progress you're making and it's a critical part of forming new habits.It's important to overcome that lack of confidence You might have in your abilities as well as free yourself from guilt and helplessness.You need to experience a sense of victory and success to move forward.The moment those feelings inspire you you will gradually begin to increase the amount of time you spend on the goal that you have set for yourself.Maybe at first just for five minutes more, but this will soon turn into half an hour and then even longer.All you have to do is understand what it is you want to achieve and start doing it for just a minute every single day.Have you already tried this technique?How did it work for you? Share your experiences in the comments below. It will help others improve their lives, and....Finally, stop procrastinating!.


Also, Kaizen refers to small procedural changes and efficiency gains in general management theory. It applies perfectly to day to day life. Example: you want to exercise but you are too lazy to start. Make an extremely easy goal of 5 push ups per day. It requires no effort but it makes you want to do more exercise in a long run since there is no way to procrastinate it, it's not some hard task or anything, 5 push ups can be done in 10 seconds.  Other example would be preparing for exams early one. If you say that you will spend at least 10 minutes per day it really helps, even if the step is very small.   People just think " oh what can such small step do" but in the long run it really does a lot, it can help you transform your habits.  The "kaizen" concept was created by the Japanese, then applied to the automobile industry by Toyoda Kiichiro, founder of Toyota.the concept of Kaizen itself was introduced to the mass production system and the modern theory of management so successfully that it would look invalid in a personal space.It depends on whether one is thinking it in a 'Western way' or rather an 'Eastern (here inclined to ancient) way'.
If 'Westernly' speaking, Kaizen is most possibly referring to the business management theory, which, as a loanword, almost tantamount to a Proper Noun, and thus without sufficient explanation, the video could sound like one approaching complete farce.


However, thinking in the Eastern way, a character/word/phrase could be used more flexibly in actual practice, where the word 改善 itself could generally mean 'improve' or 'correct from mistakes' (depending on situation, it could be a verb or a noun :D) and is widely used in the 'Kanji Circle'; so besides かいぜん(Kaizen) in Japanese, 개선 (Gae-Seon) in Korean, 改善 in Chinese-related languages (Gai shan in Mandarin; Goi sin in Cantonese, etc.) also give rough equivalents.
Here, the management theory 'Kaizen' is, rather, coined because of Toyota adopted it to name its world-known production strategy, which is a derivative usage.  In this case, there exists no problem at all to apply 'Kaizen' in anyone's personal life.
If you want to stop smoking, the first step is the take one wheeze less. That you'll do until it's a habit. Then you try maybe 5 wheezes less, 25% less, half a cig, only a little, 5 per day, 3 per day, etc. This technique has helped many people, that were too lazy to just cold turkey. Humans are by nature creatures of habit. A lot of people don't have enough will power to continuously overwrite a habit until not doing it (or doing something else preferably) becomes the habit, so this approach could be better for them. Kaizen is the idea of continuous improvement. It's about devoting resources to making small incremental improvements to a process that will really add-up to big efficiency gains and better quality over the long run.  That requires companies to invest in their capital, processes, and people. People generally focus on cutting costs, pushing costs onto suppliers, and squeezing more work from their employees. Investing profits back into the company can result in huge returns, but it takes a while.

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