It’s not a word on the tip of everyone’s tongue. Kaizen. It comes from two Japanese words “kai,” meaning ‘change,’ and “zen,” meaning ‘good’.

Many of us bristle at the very thought of change. Status quo is the word of the day for many.

But change is as natural as the different seasons in nature – morphing almost imperceptibly into something different. In our own lives, each day is unique, and each phase of our journey is new. We’ve never been here before. Change is our normal state.

Kaizen has also come to mean the process of continuous improvement. Since the early days of Toyota, the Japanese manufacturer was one of the first organizations to embrace the idea that perfection is not a fixed destination – as life evolves – our needs, visions, and approaches change – and so must our methods and products.

Therefore, change can be good.

There’s a lesson to be learned by the way nature changes that we can take into our own efforts for self-improvement.

What is that lesson? Sustainable change – or a process of changing that can be sustainable – must happen gradually.

We don’t jump from frozen ground to full-bloom spring, do we?

Taking the smallest, measurable step each day is enough to get us there. When we show up every day to take our efforts and results just a little farther down the road, that’s exactly what we want.

Sustainability is the key.

If we make our steps giant, challenging leaps, there’s a good chance we will not return the next day. Skipping one day makes starting the next time harder, and makes creating excuses to skip again very alluring and justifiable.

In that vein, the five-minute arm workout I shared with you last week is a perfect example of sustainability. There’s not a big commitment, this routine can be done any time of day or night, and I seem to naturally improve and expand what I do with no special effort.

There’s that Kaizen Principle at work in a simple arm routine.

Yesterday, I morphed a few moves to create a half-dozen more. So fun to do, and variation keeps things fresh!

Try taking a hammer curl to a full overhead arm extension and back again. Then extend that combination to a triceps extension: three moves in one loop.

Add another triceps move by standing upright, arms at the side holding weights, then bend elbows slightly while moving arms back. Hold that position and extend arms back straight. Pause. Flex at the elbow and keep pumping back, pausing at full extension 10-15 times.

If you would like to learn more about the Kaizen principle, I’d like to recommend this book: One Small Step Can Change Your Life The Kaizen Way by Robert Maurer.

I like what I read in the sample, so I have ordered a copy for myself.

My weights are moving around the house like Elf-On-The-Shelf! They are right where I can see and use them the most.

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In health –

Deidre