The Kaizen method was developed in Japan as an effective way of achieving huge improvements in business. In it's simplest form, it just means implementing small improvements one after the other. Each tiny step in the right direction builds to a significant improvement over time but without the business having to handle the chaos of a massive transformation.

The method works, because businesses are run by people and it is in the nature of people, in general, to feel uncomfortable with sudden massive change.

And what works for the transformation of a business works for the transformation of a person too!

Diets fail, exercise programs fail for most people - we know that. They fail because they demand you take huge steps to transform your life.

Nevertheless you give it your best shot, because you want the end result. You go from eating fast food and fries with everything to wall-to-wall lettuce and cucumber. You give up spending your evenings on the couch in front of the TV and work out on the equipment at the gym 5 nights a week instead.

You're highly motivated when you start. But soon your enthusiasm wanes and you slide back to how things were. Making huge changes overnight is just too difficult.

The "kaizen" way of losing weight, on the other hand, means making a single small change at a time. You just keep going with it until it feels quite natural. Then you add another and another and another. Don't you think it would be easier to transform your body and your life permanently like that?

If the "make-sudden-mega-changes-in-your-lifestyle" diet and exercise programs you've tried in the past have never actually worked for you on a permanent basis, then why not try a different approach?

This time write down a whole list of all the changes you want to make. Break those changes down into tiny achievable pieces then put them in place one step at a time - the "kaizen" way. It just has to be the easiest way of achieving a new shape.

Copyright 2005, Janice Elizabeth Small