Kaizen (改善), Japanese for "improvement" or "change for the better", refers to philosophy or practices that focus upon continuous improvement of processes in manufacturing, engineering, supporting business processes, and management. By improving standardized activities and processes , kaizen aims to eliminate waste.
In the book The Kaizen Way one is encouraged to begin with something almost too easy. Like marching in place if the goal is to run a mile. Then incrementally changing the activity in comfortable degrees of difficulty over time like walking a block a day, then fast walking 10 blocks and so on until you were running the mile. A great task is less daunting when broken down into baby steps. I also find myself eager to move forward when something feels easy. I guess thats the idea.
My challenge is to hit a few of these a day for now with the intent of transforming an average or negative activity into a positive one in an effort to be the stalwart and raise my own morale:
- judge daddy one less time a day because he's only human after all.
- organize one small neglected area for instance, the top of the fridge because my home is my sanctuary.
- take a deep breath and remember something funny if I can't find humor in a stressful situation.
- on my way to the car, don't rush but look around and feel the air, the sun, be present.
- as i fold clothes/pay bills/make dinner drink something ice water, cup o tea, glass of juice - hydrate.
- as i do the dishes, visualize my new body.
- do anything physical, for me it's hiking with baby boy - just once a week no matter how short the session is as long as i go.
this is a great reminder for me. My days fill up so quickly, and sometimes by the time I am putting my kids to bed, I find myself berating myself for not doing enough, or not doing it correctly. (Will I ever measure up to my own expectations?--what IS the balance between family, work, fun?) But then I remind myself that I need to look at my progression as a mom the same way I look at the growth of my children. Little things for our kids are monumental (first steps, going potty in the toilet) and there is excitement regarding accomplishments. So often I look at what I don't feel like I am accomplishing when I need to focus on what I am doing right. Motherhood (and fatherhood) is a learning process, and when I can see my kids laughing, witness their excitement at something as simple as seeing airplanes in the sky...I know I am doing something right. So when I hear someone compliment me on my children's manners, it is not just that my kids are so smart and polite, but that I have strived to show them how to conduct themselves as members of this community that is our world, and something is sticking. I just read an interview in Marie Claire with Michelle Williams that stuck with me. She says, "I had a moment six months ago; I looked at my daughter, and she's a very happy little girl, and that has something to do with me--and that was a real breakthrough, because I can be so hard on myself. I think there's a way of being hard on yourself that's productive, and there's a way of being hard on yourself that's just self-flagellating". Slowing down to take stock of life on a daily basis will only enhance the things I want to accomplish in this life.
ReplyDeleteOn a similar note, I have never made a New Year's resolution but this year I decided that I would make a point to learn something new every day. Something so simple, but it really makes me look at things around me, and seek information that I otherwise would not take heed of.