The world is your oyster, as the saying goes, and there are so many things you can accomplish with your life. By reaching your first goal, you have proven to yourself that you have what it takes to change your life and to take hold of the kind of life you really want. Don’t stop there. Get excited about the next goal, the next vision, and the next plans you are going to make.

The heartbeat of the kaizenetics principle is gradual and continuous improvement. Notice the word, continuous. That means the process does not end. Once you achieve this vision, start thinking and dreaming, “What’s next for me? What’s next for my family?”

If you have accomplished everything you currently want in your life, what can you do for someone else? Perhaps that is your next vision, and your next step, to reach out beyond yourself and help others to begin accomplishing their visions and dreams.

So in conclusion, let us review the seven principles of kaizenetics:

1. Know what you want.

2. Establish your vision.

3. Break it down into small steps, so you don’t hit that wall of resistance to change and so that the steps you take are easy to implement in your daily life. Success is bound to follow.

4. Set goals for those steps.

5. Work on your determination and do not give up. Have a system in place to remind yourself why it was so important to you at the beginning of this journey to accomplish what you wanted. Keep that vision before you and it will fuel your determination to carry out the steps you need to take to reach your goal.

6. Reward yourself for your great efforts.

7. Keep it going. Reach out for new goals, and set new expectations for yourself. Embrace new desires, go out, and get the life you want! In addition, don’t forget to help others fulfill their dreams along the way. Sowing in love to others will attract good things to your own life.

Kaizenetics is a gradual but continuous process. Once you have achieved and accomplished one vision or goal, get moving towards the next. Also, remember it is the journey that counts. Your life is a journey of self-improvement. Take time to savor, enjoy and appreciate where you are at right now and the progress you have made, while remembering you have potential for more within you.

By rewarding yourself, you reinforce the positive changes you have made in your life and you set the stage for further accomplishments and success. Not everything you try along your journey to your goal is going to be wonderful, easy, or successful. Some of it will actually seem like work.

The whole point of kaizenetics is to break it down into such small steps, that you hardly notice that you are implementing something new. It should be such a small step that it becomes automatic. At that point the change becomes unstoppable and the habit becomes a natural part of your daily routine. It is then an automatic action that’s then unstoppable because it is ingrained in you.

Reward The Behavior You Desire

You’re going to be making some better choices and doing some phenomenal things for yourself. It’s important that you reward yourself for that and for the sense of accomplishment you are gaining. Reward the behavior you desire.

With children, this principle is always effective. When they do what you asked them to do, or expected them to do, you then affirm them. “Good boy! Thank you for doing that” and they will want be twice as quick to do it again next time. In the same way, as was discussed in the articles on communication in small businesses, showing gratitude to your customers is important. Thanking them for their purchase ensures loyalty to your businesses. Why not use this principle on yourself?

Meet Your Hunger For Recognition

Give yourself a big pat on the back and say, “Hey, nice job. You have been doing a terrific job. Keep it up. You are phenomenal. You are going to hit your goals in no time at all.” By acknowledging the effort you have made towards your goals, in implementing changes in your life, it feeds the hunger everybody has to be recognized. Every one of us loves to be acknowledged for a job well done. Can you think of anyone who doesn’t like a good pat on the back?

So you need to give yourself a pat on the back along the way, not just by acknowledging your efforts ,but also by actually rewarding yourself. Do something nice for yourself, whether it is giving yourself a massage, going to a movie, going out to the theater or on a date. Whatever it is that you enjoy or is a treat for you- maybe even taking a vacation or trip- but do something as a reward for a job well done and make it part of your plan.

Then you will be setting up a vibration of appreciation, acknowledging your efforts and that will continue to attract more opportunities and more rewards for yourself.

Now throughout the process of implementing new actions and reaching out for your goals, you may fail to accomplish a single goal, in fact many people do, but that is fine, as it becomes a valuable learning experience. As long as you get up and try again another way, you will still come out a winner. The only way you can fail is if you quit or give up.

Now unfortunately, this is what many people do with their goals. They give up on them and lose sight of why it was so important to them in the first place to accomplish that goal. Remember, the very first step of kaizenetics is deciding why you want this and why it is so important to you. This is an important reason why a vision board is so great, because when one step in your journey is more challenging than another, it can get tough to continue. Your vision board is a great reminder in these situations of why your ultimate goal was so important to you in the first place.

It helps get you back in the game, or more importantly to get your head and heart back in the game when you may be tempted to simply give up, or put it off for another time, or write your goal off as being too hard.

Plan For Obstacles

Determination will keep you on track, but you also need to plan for obstacles. You will be engaging the Law of Attraction and using the physics principle of Entrainment to help draw successful, profitable, experiences and opportunities into your life. But obstacles will pop up.

Unfortunately, there will probably be people with thoughts or motives that are not supportive of your vision for your life. You need to plan for those obstacles. If you make a plan, you can avoid wasting time and creating frustration by constantly butting heads with them or needing to confront them in order to succeed. If you use the principle of Kaizenetics though, you can flow around the obstacles and not lose ground. Plan that some things may not go exactly as you expected or wanted. In fact, there is a word for what happens when what you plan does not happen the way you planned it. It is called life.

In life, things don’t always go the way we planned. If they did, my daughter Lauren would be an extremely healthy, vibrant young girl. She is a vibrant, amazing, beautiful person but it did not go the way we planned. However, we have adapted to that, learned and grown from it. It’s changed the way I communicate with people, the way I help them, and increased the importance that I now place on teaching people about these principles.

Go with the flow. Take what life deals to you and use it, harness it, and put it to use for you. Those obstacles can be a new opportunity, an unexpected twist that can enrich your journey and lead you to surprising and unexpected destinations.

Create Smart Goals

You need to create smart goals. Not intelligent goals but smart goals and the first step to doing that is that one, they need to be specific goals. What changes are you going to make? You may know the long-term goal you want to accomplish a year from now, but you need to set goals for this month, this week, even today. What specifically are you going to do today?

Create Measurable Goals

They need to be measurable goals so that by that deadline, you can see if you accomplished it. If your goal is to do one jumping jack a day, that is a measurable goal. If you want to be happier today, how will you measure whether you achieved that goal? Will you measure it by how many times you smile? By simply relying on your memory, that you remember you were happy today? However, you choose, you need to be able to measure what it is you are trying to accomplish and whether you have achieved it.

Create Attainable Goals

Thirdly, your goal needs to be attainable. You have to believe that you can do this. If you are a man, you cannot change yourself into a woman simply by thinking about it. It would be impossible to accomplish. If you are a frog, you cannot just turn into an elephant by wishing it, it will not happen. So, is it something within the realm of reality or possibility?

Aside from the impossibilities just mentioned, in reality, anything is possible for anyone to achieve. The question is– do you believe you can accomplish it? It is your belief that is important. As discussed in an earlier article, you can choose your destiny.

In general, people can choose in an instant what they want in life and what is achievable to them. Unfortunately, people are just as quick to de-select their destiny and decide what is impossible for them in life.

Henry Ford said, “Whether you believe you can or you believe you can’t, you’re right” and that is absolutely true. If you believe that you can have this, if you select that destiny for yourself, you can have it. If you believe you cannot– if you de-select that destiny– then you won’t have it because you will generate those negative waves of doubt. If you believe you can have what you desire or achieve your goals, you will attract opportunities to accomplish that and get to your goal. If you believe it is impossible, then you will attract obstacles and roadblocks that will stop you from getting there. It’s basic physics.

Create Achievable Goals

Next, your goals need to be realistic and achievable. That is why Kaizenetics works so well, because you set small incremental easy steps which will guarantee that you succeed. Have you heard the expression, success breeds success? The better you get at doing something, the easier it is and the more you will succeed in that realm. The more you succeed in accomplishing small goals, the more goals you will accomplish. That is the beauty of Kaizenetics. It helps you set realistic, achievable goals that breed success and accelerate you to your end goal or destination.

Set A Timeframe

Finally, you need to set a timeframe and this is the last part of the smart goal setting system. You need to have timeframes for each of your steps and that way you know if you are staying on track. If your goal is to simply do one jumping jack a day, that’s a great start, but when will you do it? Are you going to do one now, tomorrow, or in three weeks time? If you simply say, “at some point” that usually means never. So you need to set time frames and then you can review your goals and the progress you are making on a regular basis.

So in summary your smart goals need to be specific, they need to be measurable and attainable. You need to have a clear focus and believe in yourself because you will tap into the Law of Entrainment, the Law of Attraction, which will work on your behalf to attract further opportunities. Your goals need to be realistic and you need to set a timeframe by which you will achieve them.

Now, the beauty of the principle of Kaizenetics is that it is implemented through small changes. Most people resist making big changes in their lives, but with the principle of kaizenetics, you first decide what you want, you identify your vision and then you break it down into small actionable steps that you can take to bring it to pass. As you make those steps, you constantly review the actions you are taking, keeping your goal in mind, and you make slight changes along the way as needed.

Small Steps Daily

It is easy to implement small actions on a daily basis it does not create a lot of conflict or upheaval. Those kinds of changes stay, because they did not disrupt your day-to-day routine too much. However, that one small change starts a ripple effect that grows and increases. In a way, those small steps are like small stresses you are inflicting on yourself and your daily routine, but it helps you avoid hitting a wall of resistance within your own mind and body at embracing the change.

Nobody enjoys stress and the majority of people will consciously go out of their way to avoid stress. Nobody really wants to face their fear, or to have to face challenging situations. Our minds love being comfortable, being in control, knowing what to expect. Our minds look for the easy way out.

Resistance And Fear

So when you confront the body or confront the mind with an opportunity for radical change, the mind goes “Whoa, not for me that is a little spooky, I don’t want to do it” and subconsciously it searches for ways to sabotage the plan in order to avoid the stress and change that you now face.

At the heart of it, it is fear. Fear of change, fear of the unknown, even fear of the journey. Applying the principle of kaizenetics however, allows you to set up small incremental steps, so the fear mechanism never kicks in. The red flag never goes up and so your mind finds it easier to accept the change and accept the new habit you need to build.

Taking the example of exercise we used in a previous article, and applying the small action of one jumping jack a day, your mind says, “Hey, one jumping jack – I can do that. One small change – I can do that.” It is achievable! Moreover, because it is achievable, implementing those changes is relatively easy to maintain.

Vision: Get Focused On Your Desires

The best way to start is to sit in a quiet place and think about what you want. Meditation and deep breathing may help, or if you like to do a more formal type of meditation, listen to tapes or even read a book, sit quietly and connect with your higher power. Turn off the phone so you don’t have the kids or the office calling you and ask yourself, “What do I want my life to look like in one year, in three years, in ten years?”

“What kind of car do I want to drive? Where do I want to go out to eat? What kind of relationship do I want to have with my wife or my significant other? Where do I want to live? What kind of home do I want to have? Where do I want to travel? What kind of vacations do I want to take?” These questions will help you reflect on the different areas of your life. Then, you can create pictures- either hand-drawn or cut out of magazines, and paste them onto a board to make a visual representation of what you want.

The whole purpose of this is to sharpen your focus. Every time you look at your vision board, it will remind you of your goals and your vision for your life.

The Law Of Attraction, The Principle Of Entrainment

Now, there is a principle called the Law of Attraction, taught in a book and a movie called “The Secret.” The basic principle behind it is that what you focus on you attract. In fact, there is a scientific basis for this principle called Entrainment, discovered by a scientist working on an experiment.

In his office were two grandfather clocks, the type that has large pendulums at the bottom that swing. He noticed that the pendulums were swinging out of synchrony with the other and never matched up. However, within a few days, the pendulums were swinging in synchrony. In other words, when an energy wave is introduced to another energy wave, gradually the energy waves join and form one wave. This principle is called Entrainment. The Law of Attraction is based on that same principle. You need to create a focus.

Thoughts Create Waves

There is a monitor called an EEG (an Electro-Encephalograph) which is placed on the brain and it measures the electrical waves generated by the brain. When we have thoughts, we generate electricity and electricity travels in waves. Therefore, thoughts create waves and are actually physical energy or electrical waves. We can therefore use that power use those waves, to draw the things around us into synchrony with us.

So, what is your focus on? What kind of waves are you making with your thoughts? If you are focused on lack and struggle, on poor relationships, on negative expectations for your life, you are like a grandfather clock whose pendulum is swinging and giving off a vibe of depression. Any other clock that comes near you will also become depressed.

Or are you full of positive expectations? “Everything is going to work out for me. I know exactly what I want. I know the opportunities that I am looking for. I know where my life is taking me. I know that I’m going to live a life of abundance with excellent relationships, travel around the world, eating in the finest restaurants, driving the finest cars.”

When you think positively, you are like a super-powered grandfather clock, and all other clocks in your area of influence will start swinging their pendulums to the same frequency as yours.

Keep Your Focus

That is the power of having a clear and positive focus. Not only will you accomplish what you desire in life, but you will also influence and affect everyone else around you in a positive way. You will attract opportunities that may never have been there for you before. New doors will be unlocked to you, so you can achieve whatever you are aiming for. That’s the science behind the Law of Attraction. That’s why it is so important to not only establish your vision but also continually remind yourself of it so you can keep your aim and focus on the target.

What is it that you want? When you know what you want, make it a clear vision that you can picture and see and have before you constantly. Then, once it is firmly planted in your heart, you can begin to go after it.

If you would like more information about Dennis’ coaching services, click here

In Japanese, there are two symbols, kai and zen, which mean change for the good. In Japanese business, kaizen is the principle of gradual and continuous improvement. For example, The Toyota Motor Corporation uses kaizen by teaching everyone within that organization to find something every day that improves the function of the company. Kaizenetics is based on this Japanese business principle.

Small Achievable Changes

The best part of applying the principle of kaizen is that it doesn’t involve huge dramatic changes, but small achievable changes. For example, simply moving a phone to the left side of a desk from the right-hand side, would save time whenever the phone is answered because the majority of people are right-handed. Clearly, that is not a big change. However, when this practice is applied to thousands of employees, it results in thousands of seconds saved each day, adding up to a lot of time saved over the course of several years.

Another change may be as simple as moving a pencil sharpener to a more central, accessible location for the employees. The changes are not big changes, but this principle is the heart of kaizenetics.

In the following articles, we will look at seven critical steps to accomplishing anything that you want in your life. This is what kaizenetics is all about.

Step 1: What Do You Want?

The first step in kaizenetics is for you to decide exactly what you want. Before you can get to your destination, you need to know what that destination is. You cannot plot a course or Google a map without knowing where you want to end your journey. Clearly, you know where you are right now, but where do you want to be in the future?

Taking Inventory

So firstly, you need to consider this: are you qualified to get there? Perhaps right now you are not qualified, so that indicates some areas where you need to get training and knowledge. Next ask, “do I have the necessary skills to fulfill my vision?. What skills and knowledge do I have? Where am I heading? What skills and knowledge do I need to get there? What skills and knowledge do I need to have by the end of the journey in order to fulfill my goals?”

Clarifying Your Desires

It is also important to ask yourself what you really want. At the end of your journey, at the end of this ride, what is the end result you want to see? What results are you hoping for for yourself and for your family? Are your goals financial, business, or relationship related?

Lastly, but most importantly, is to ask yourself, why do you want it? Jim Rohn says, “The bigger the why, the smaller the how.” What that means is that if you really want something badly enough, and if you know clearly why you want it, then how you are going to do it and how you are going to get there becomes significantly less important.

A coaching session can help you get more clear on what you really want.

Minimizing The Fear

Any change in life usually involves some fear and some resistance to the changes you need to make. The bigger the changes you want to make in your life, the bigger the resistance you will encounter. However, when you can pinpoint your why, when your reason is big enough, your fear becomes small. If you want to reach your goal more than anything, the chances are you will be willing to do everything you need to do to get it.

If your goal is too small or your desire is not white hot, the effort needed and the resistance you will encounter to reach that goal will make it all seem like too much effort. The fear of the journey and of facing that change will seem too huge to take on. In that case, you will not even try. You will not even start on the journey because of your fear and lack of desire to reach that goal.

However, when you really want something, and you know why it is so important, you will be willing to do whatever you need to get there. In fact you will be willing to go above and beyond and to do more than you originally calculated to reach that goal because it will be such a driving force within you- such a consuming fire. You will not want to sleep or eat until you reach that goal.

Can you see how essential this first step is? You need to decide what it is you really want and to stir that desire into a blazing fire within your heart.