Your experience of Kaizen is unlikely to be a linear one. Everybody starts off very motivated to try new habits or get rid of unhealthy ones and then struggles to keep it up when other priorities get in the way. It can be especially hard to persevere when life throws a curveball, such as a job loss, a relationship breakdown, a bereavement or a health scare. When something shocking or stressful happens, it can be easy to slip back into the comfort of old behaviours and not look after yourself properly. Similarly, if your environment changes in a dramatic way, such as a big house move, a job change, retirement or the arrival of a new baby, it can make you crave routine, even if it’s one that isn’t very good for you.
Kaizen is a lifelong commitment to change, so there may be times when your motivation wavers or when you fall on hard times (unless you’re the luckiest person in the world). Nobody is perfect, and the idea isn’t to achieve complete perfection. It’s about approaching life as an exciting journey and opportunity for improvement. Bringing it back to Toyota’s car production line where this all started, it is about developing new ideas and practices while also polishing and refining your existing methods. There will be inevitable stumbling blocks along the way, but there are some methods to keep in mind to make sure you continue with Kaizen.
Plan for setbacks. Before embarking upon a new activity or planning to give up a bad habit, think about some of the things that might trip you up along the way. If you are trying to cut down on your alcohol consumption, then be mindful of an upcoming holiday with your friends where you might feel pressured into drinking a lot. Or if you are planning to run a marathon in spring, think about how the bad weather in winter might affect your motivation to train. Being mindful of potential stumbling blocks will help you to approach them in a different way if they do occur.
Choose the activity to suit the time of year. If it is cold and dark outside, you will feel far less inclined to finally start outdoor swimming than if you tried it during warm weather. Think carefully about when you are most likely to keep up a new habit, and plan accordingly. Just because everybody else is trying a new extreme exercise routine in January doesn’t mean that you have to!
Celebrate your successes. Keeping track of your progress and noting the different milestones you have completed will help you to keep going if your motivation starts to waver. Success breeds success, so completing one challenge will then spur you on to try something else. For example, if you create a nice living space at home and start enjoying it, then you might feel more inclined to create a nice working space, too.
Get some cheerleaders. Involving your friends, colleagues and family in your Kaizen goals means that there will be more people to encourage you and support you if you are finding things tough. They can also help to remove temptations that might set you back, perhaps inviting you for a coffee instead of wine if you are trying to cut down on booze, or buying fruit for the office snack supply rather than cakes.
Go back to small. If you are finding that you are struggling to keep to your targets, reduce them to the very smallest possible thing you can do instead. If you are having a bad mental health day and don’t feel capable of going for a 5K run, then try to go for a small walk instead. Even just doing something small is better than nothing, and you can gradually work your way back up to your target again.
Difficult times can teach you a lot about yourself. Although suffering a job loss, a relationship breakdown or a bereavement can be utterly devastating and make you feel like the rug has been completely pulled out from underneath you, they can also be the times when you learn a lot about yourself and your resilience. Be proud of yourself for making it through the day and what you have achieved, however small. The Japanese and Chinese alphabets don’t have a single symbol for the word ‘crisis’. Instead, it is an amalgamation of the two symbols for ‘danger’ 
and ‘good opportunity’ 
. It is hard to see the wood through the trees when you are having a hard time, but remembering that good things can come out of adversity can be helpful. All of my relationship break-ups have led to more satisfactory relationships in the future, and the time I got made redundant from my job actually led to me getting a far better job a few weeks later, so try to keep in mind that good things, as well as bad, can be round the corner.
First Kaizen step: if you’re having a tough time, keep a record of one small thing that you have achieved each day, then look back on this when things are feeling better and congratulate yourself on your resilience and for getting through.
And the most important thing: don’t be hard on yourself. If you are already having a rough time of it, then beating yourself up for not hitting your goals will only make you feel far worse. Be kind to yourself and remember that you can return to your new habits or activities whenever you are feeling stronger. Start small and build it up again.
