"Change"
Does this word make you cringe or does it excite you?
In my professional life I've coached many people through organizational changes, professional growth changes and personal growth changes. I've read many books on the subject and tried many personal and professional experiments.
In this post I want to talk about the personal side of change and offer up a simple formula for a complex topic.
One of the best resources on this subject is a book written by Robert Maurer, Ph.D. Here is a link to the book: One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way
.
The conventional wisdom says: "Just stop. You can do it!" This may last a week perhaps a month.
The Kaizen wisdom says: "Start small then move forward."
Here is how you might proceed:
- Step 1: Visualize eating a cookie. Recognize the desire to change. Eat the whole cookie. End of first session. (Did you recognize where the change is starting? In the mind. That is where our relationship to the cookie exists.)
- Step 2: Connect to the desire to change. Break off a tiny piece of cookie and throw it away. Eat the rest of the cookie. Congratulations, you have made progress. The brain recognizes this as keeping an agreement with yourself.
- Step 3: Connect to your desire to change. Break of a quarter of the cookie and throw it away. Eat the rest of the cookie. You have decreased your cookie intake by 25%!
- Step 4: Break half of the cookie off and throw it away. Eat the rest of the cookie. You have decreased your cookie intake by 50%!
-Step 5: Break off a small piece of cookie and eat it. Throw the rest of the cookie away.
-Step 6: Pick up the cookie and throw it away.
-Step 7: If you want to eat a cookie in the future, break off a piece and determine which piece you want to eat. The breaking of the cookie forms a ritual that connects you to your goal.
You have shifted from eating habitually to eating mindfully. The journey started with really small steps.
This is a story about eliminating something in your life. You can also use this method to incorporate new things into your life by following the same steps.
The book is loaded with wisdom. I highly recommend it. I suggest trying it with a personal change in your life.
PS: This post reminded me to practice eating only a pieces of cookies during the holiday season. :)
Does this word make you cringe or does it excite you?
In my professional life I've coached many people through organizational changes, professional growth changes and personal growth changes. I've read many books on the subject and tried many personal and professional experiments.
In this post I want to talk about the personal side of change and offer up a simple formula for a complex topic.
The formula is this: Start small. Really small. If needed,
really, really, really small.
One of the best resources on this subject is a book written by Robert Maurer, Ph.D. Here is a link to the book: One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way
.The book has many examples but the one that sticks with me is a story about setting a goal to improve your eating habits. Let's call this the Cookie story. The Cookie represents a habit that you have formed but want to stop."A journey of a thousand miles must begin with the first step." Lao
Tzu
The conventional wisdom says: "Just stop. You can do it!" This may last a week perhaps a month.
The Kaizen wisdom says: "Start small then move forward."
Here is how you might proceed:
- Step 1: Visualize eating a cookie. Recognize the desire to change. Eat the whole cookie. End of first session. (Did you recognize where the change is starting? In the mind. That is where our relationship to the cookie exists.)
- Step 2: Connect to the desire to change. Break off a tiny piece of cookie and throw it away. Eat the rest of the cookie. Congratulations, you have made progress. The brain recognizes this as keeping an agreement with yourself.
- Step 3: Connect to your desire to change. Break of a quarter of the cookie and throw it away. Eat the rest of the cookie. You have decreased your cookie intake by 25%!
- Step 4: Break half of the cookie off and throw it away. Eat the rest of the cookie. You have decreased your cookie intake by 50%!
-Step 5: Break off a small piece of cookie and eat it. Throw the rest of the cookie away.
-Step 6: Pick up the cookie and throw it away.
-Step 7: If you want to eat a cookie in the future, break off a piece and determine which piece you want to eat. The breaking of the cookie forms a ritual that connects you to your goal.
You have shifted from eating habitually to eating mindfully. The journey started with really small steps.
This is a story about eliminating something in your life. You can also use this method to incorporate new things into your life by following the same steps.
The book is loaded with wisdom. I highly recommend it. I suggest trying it with a personal change in your life.
PS: This post reminded me to practice eating only a pieces of cookies during the holiday season. :)
4 comments:
This is a powerful,yet simple, methodology! Thanks for sharing.
The challenge will be to start "small" and try it with one thing I want to eliminate and one I want to add.
Multitudes of uses flying around in my mind.
Thanks Mike!
DT,
Thank you for your comment. Here's a suggestion. Write all the things on your mind down on a piece of paper. This process will help you externalize your thinking. Then walk away from the piece of paper for a day.
When you come back to it seek one thing to work on and circle it. If needed, refine your definition of what the successful outcome looks like.
Last, choose the smallest step you can think of to make incremental progress on the thing you decided to work on.
I am not sure if you use the GTD methodology by David Allen but if you do the steps look like this borrowing GTD terms.
- Mindsweep
- let it rest for a day
- Process. (In this case I am suggesting that you process one thing out of your whole list. You will want to hang on to your list for the next effort.)
- Create a project. I use the following format for my "Cookie" projects.
Complete 1 iteration of XYZ
or
Complete 3 iterations of XYZ
- Determine your next 'small simple' action.
@Office
- Grab cookie, break in half, eat half and enjoy the social event.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and best wishes to you as you move toward your successful outcome.
Hey Mike,
Great insight... It reminds me of my mentor. He always told me to make microscopic changes... Then he would turn to the flip chart and draw the trajectory of a rocket...
One degree change in that trajectory creates a massive difference when you travel thousands of miles into space...
I always try to keep this in mind when starting a new habit...
Doug,
Thank you for your comment. I like the rocket analogy.
I also appreciate the fact that you have a mentor. Having a personal board of advisors is a great way to continue learning and growing.
Very powerful stuff. I wish you continued success!
Mike
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