19: Unlocking Your Potential With Kaizen

In this episode, Kimberly and Terry explore the concept of Kaizen, a Japanese philosophy centered on continuous improvement and the idea of making small, incremental changes rather than striving for perfection. 

They discuss the importance of breaking down tasks, overcoming the fear of failure, and celebrating progress along the way. The conversation provides practical tips for applying Kaizen in everyday life, emphasizing that small steps can lead to significant changes, growth and the ability to accomplish even your biggest goals.

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Transcript

Hey, Kimberly here and Terry here as well. Welcome to group X appeal. Today we are talking about Kaizen. Well, if we're to talk about it, we should probably define it. So what is, I have really good ideas all the time. I appreciate the affirmation. You kicked it off at the first one. Keep going. I'm going, I'm on a roll now. So let's define Kaizen. All right. So this is a really well-known Japanese philosophy and guess where it got its start. Where?

And not the original start, but it started as far as its popularity goes. It was made popular by none other than Toyota. what a feeling. You know, I once got hit by a Toyota. You did. what a feeling. So the whole idea. She's got jokes. Behind Kaizen is that it's about progress, not perfection. It is about continuous improvement. It is about making small incremental

changes and improvements along the way as opposed to either expecting perfection or taking big leaps and bounds. Awesome. That's simple enough. And when we talk about making progress over perfection, the difference between the two, there's a lot of big differences. I think the trap of perfection that a lot of people fall into, we all do. I have. Right? Same here. It has a tendency to hinder our growth. That's true. Because we kind of look at things as a whole. We look at things as.

Because we look at things as a whole rather than breaking them down into smaller chunks. It's really simple to get overwhelmed definitely stressed out perhaps and For for you, are there any you know of those moments that you've had where you've had? say a project for work and you've looked at it and thought my gosh And you just dreaded it and maybe perhaps didn't even take the first step Take the first step. I don't know that I've ever

I've stopped myself from taking action. But I have slowed myself You're one of the rare ones. But I have slowed myself down. I have overwhelmed myself to the point, because there's also the age old fear of failure. And so of course, when you look at the whole, this thing you want to accomplish, this vision that you have or project that you want to get done, the overwhelm can lead you to the feeling of, because it seems so hard, I might not be successful and the fear of failure will stop you in your tracks in a heartbeat.

Kimberly/terry (02:25.366)
And so that's why I think it is necessary. And luckily I've kind of found a rhythm for breaking things down into kind of smaller, more achievable goals that'll help get to the ultimate vision. So I've never been stopped in my, I can't say never, but in many years I have not been stopped in my tracks. But. Did you say many years? Many, many, many, many, many moons since the dawn of time.

That's a previous episode joke. You're gonna have to watch to catch that. Yeah, so so I think you have it's something you can train yourself to do. Sure. Yeah. Yeah, I would have to say for me most recently as of like right now as we speak real though, I'm having the biggest mental block for some reason. With our our R.I.P.P.E.D. program, for example, you release programming for our certified instructors nationwide every 90 days, where they get the

brand new exercises, they get brand new music releases that we create and we create the music, we create these exercises and we shoot them, we do a video production, then we take it to edit and then we release them to our instructors. So that happens every single quarter. That's a lot. And we're working on season 58 and I've had this rhythm down for quite a while, for a long time since the dawn of time as well.

But for some reason, I have been looking at the project as a whole rather than what I typically do, just chunk things down. I go through my listening sessions to get to our team so they can put the music together and then I'll edit the music. We have a system, right? That has come together over the years quite nicely. It's very efficient. But this season, for some reason, I have like felt overwhelmed. And I know, maybe it's perhaps the, it's kind of falling in line with the holidays and whatnot.

So I think it's compounding with several other life things that are happening. I had to kind of do what you said is look at it and break things down again and not get overwhelmed. Take a step back so you don't get stuck. Yes, and get some perspective as well. Take a nice deep breath. I'm finally in my groove, but it's taken a while. I'm behind schedule. That's OK. And the other piece I thought of was, you know,

Kimberly/terry (04:45.358)
I want this to be the best season. You we've done 57 seasons. want this one to be just as good as the last one. So that perfectionism is really like hit me hard. can creep in because sometimes we don't put ourselves out there. We don't put something creative out there because we want to keep perfecting it. We want to make sure that it meets a certain standard before anyone gets to see it. Absolutely. And all that ends up happening there is you're of no service to the world because you got to get it out there.

So I've been stalled out for a while. Like I told you last week, was working on it, working on it, working on it. And then I just kept thinking, it's gotta be better than the last one. It's gotta be better than the last one. So I'm back. Ladies and gentlemen, he's back. So yeah, even if you get stalled out, you know, because of perfectionism or because of overwhelm or whatever the reason is for you. Like Kimberly said, take a step back.

That helped out a lot. had to step away from the project for like a day or two just to kind of get some perspective and feeling much better now, less overwhelmed. Good. So just sharing our own personal real life, real life experiences. But we wanted to share with you also five different ways that you can apply Kaizen in everyday life. And one of your first ones that you wanted to share that you shared with me is. Yeah, I think the first thing is to both identify

in your life what needs to focus and it's this whole evaluation process.

It is an evaluation process. Yeah. And then you make progress. And then you make progress. Or it's an evaluation progress. It could be that too. I don't know. That's a process. But it's this process where you take a look at the area that you want to focus on. Okay. What needs attention? What needs improvement? What needs your focus and energy? And then you take those small steps for continuous improvement, but then you got to take those pauses.

Kimberly/terry (06:39.884)
to evaluate, to assess how things are going so that you can make necessary shifts. That is part of Kaizen. Kaizen recognizes the fact that success is not a straight line trajectory, but it's more of like an up down, maybe, maybe a step back before you go two steps forward, a couple of, you know, alley oops here and there. And, but the idea is that over time you're still moving toward the goal. You're still moving toward the vision that you have for whatever it is you're trying to accomplish. So

Identify what you want to focus on and then continue to identify and evaluate the progress you're having as you take actions So you can make little tweaks and shifts along the way Easy, like it and then another tip is five minutes. Everybody has five minutes to get a project started That's what I had to tell myself just sit down for five minutes. I'm a kind of person who can't sit for very long I have to be moving. I have to be shaking. my gosh Ladies and gentlemen, is shocking

Kimberly/terry (07:42.584)
Yeah, so sit down for at least five minutes to get focused, to get, you know, kind of hunkered down and in the moment so you can get what you need done. And then what happens is if you commit to that five minutes and set a timer, I have literally had to do this, set a timer to be intentional with those five minutes or in those five minutes with whatever you're focused on doing. And before you know it, you start to kind of create some momentum and you don't want to stop.

And you can take that and, you know, apply it to anything. Let's say exercise, for example, if you're wanting to go lose weight or you're wanting to lose inches, you wanting to feel better, you want to get some exercise, but you don't know where to start, go out for a walk, commit to a five minute walk. And I guarantee you it won't only be five minutes. You'll gain momentum after taking those five minutes worth of steps. And you may go for six minutes, seven minutes, 15 minutes, who knows, but it's because you've created the momentum. So

Just get started with a little bit of movement and before you know it you look back and you've made a ton of progress Yeah, that's a brilliant tip and I'm not even going to make fun of you for saying hunker down hunker down Yes, I went old school. I I do I actually think I use that every now and then that's why I didn't harass you at all I'm like do I say that I think I do. Okay, never mind. So So the next tip we have for you and and Terry alluded to this when he shared a bit of his own story, but

break big tasks into smaller, more manageable chunks, more manageable, doable tasks. So like Terry was talking about with filming the next season of Ripped, he has a system where he kind of steps back and breaks it down. I think about a work project that I have looking into January, February, the first couple months of the year, and I'm planning on offering this free challenge for fitness professionals. And at first, found myself, I sat down and I'm like, okay.

you gotta do the landing page. You have to create the forum for people to be able to submit so they can enter and then set up an automation to send them a confirmation email. yeah, you gotta write the confirmation email, but you also have to create the confirmation thank you page that they get sent to. And you have a video one, perhaps. Right, exactly. Once they've submitted to be able to join you for the challenge. it's this big kind of massive undertaking. so that's one of those moments where I was like, okay.

Kimberly/terry (10:07.392)
I grabbed a piece of paper and I just, you know me, I created my little boxes and my little checklist and I just jot it down. I need to create the landing page, I need to write the email and it just, each one of those is not overwhelming at all. I mean, they could be labeled tedious perhaps, but not overwhelming. It's just the big project as a whole that becomes overwhelming. So I just knocked it all down on a list, cause I do likes me a good list with the box, cause I like to check the list cause I want the dopamine hit.

And then I started knocking things out with the time that I had. yeah, break those larger goals, inspired goals into the smaller, more manageable chunks. There we go. I like it. like it. How does this thing go? I could be completely off with this one. What's the best way to eat an elephant, right? One bite at a time. time, yeah. Where did that come I have no idea. Who's eating elephants? Who is? Seriously. And I have another question while we're on this topic. Why would we want to kill?

two birds with one stone. That is violent. That's violent. Seriously. I would so much rather feed two families with like one loaf of bread. yeah. I like that. Right. Much better saying, I think we're more productive and it's it's kinder. I think so, which is a perfect, it is a perfect, you know, perfect segue into the next tip that we have is make a small gesture of kindness on a daily basis. Right. That's, know, that is something that's going to come back to you. 10 fold.

Just by sharing a little bit of kindness and what does that mean exactly? You don't have to give someone some some physical gift or anything like that. Just a simple smile, a hello, a good afternoon. How do you do? Perhaps I am doing quite well. Thank you. Or a good afternoon. Have you seen spirited? yes. Good afternoon. Such a movie.

So yeah, that comes back to you and it just feels good and you never know whose day you can change and make so much better just by that small gesture of kindness. So, tip number five, which I think is like one of the most important things after you'd go through all these other tips that we gave you. I couldn't agree more. And we're just going to do a little throwback to our last episode where we talked about the power process because step number five in the power process is what we're going to give you as your fifth tip. You've got

Kimberly/terry (12:26.072)
to celebrate along the way. So as you're making those improvements, you're taking action. And remember, like we did talk about in the last episode, every time you take action, either it's going to go well and you get to celebrate that it went well the way perhaps you hoped it would, or it's maybe not going to go the way you wanted it to, but there's going to be a lesson in there for you. So every action we take, it's either a win or it's a lesson, which is a win. So celebrate.

And don't wait for the big finale to celebrate. Don't wait until the big project is done or the big vision has been accomplished. You got to celebrate along the way because that actually gives you more fuel for the journey. It keeps you engaged with what you're doing. It keeps you enthusiastic, excited about what you're doing. So got to celebrate. Got to revel. So let me ask you this real quick. Based on your checklist that you shared on your upcoming project in the first quarter of this next year, have you had a chance to celebrate yet? And if so, have you done it?

I celebrated once because I did knock out one of the major things on it and there's an ever so slight possibility. You see what happened was I had a Reese's peanut butter tree. good. It was really yummy. All right. I love it. So your treats a lot smaller than my trees.

and probably more fatty too. Yeah. Okay with that. Yeah. So once we wrap up this, the season that I mentioned, our newest upcoming release, I, I my pizza with everything that you can possibly imagine. this is once you've finished the whole release, whole release. But how about just one of the things you have to do? One of the, you know, that's a great question. I don't do that. So I to fix that. need to fix that. So perhaps after I finished the music production, that's a time to celebrate.

Once we finish the, you know, the choreography piece, maybe I'll celebrate that and then lead up to the pizza. Maybe I'll do a slice of pizza every time I finish up one of those and then have another pizza. That's a lot of pizza. But you know what? I think if anyone could take that much pizza, would be you. So, so that is it with Kaizen and you know, it's, it's a hot topic right now in the world because

Kimberly/terry (14:43.444)
So many people out there are trying to reduce their amount of stress. They're trying to, you know, find that progress step, that step by step progress rather than feeling stressed out. And this is the best method to do it. Absolutely. Right. So if you're ready to take the first step toward progress, start by hitting that subscribe button and or download this episode. Keep the Kaizen mindset at the top of your mind. Yeah. And we really encourage you and appreciate it when you share this with a friend who

could use a reminder that small steps lead to big changes. And don't forget to leave a comment, a review, just telling your 1 % improvement goal for this week. We would love to hear from you. I would love to be inspired by what's going on out there. For sure. So I am Terry Shorter, Kimberly Springwick. And as always, we appreciate you. We thank you. We love you. And we would encourage you to make it a great day. And why Kimberly? Because it's a great day to have. Take care. Much love.