The Principle of Kaizen

WowCoach(tm)
DeskTopCoaching
May 21, 2001

In this Issue:
1.  Quotes of the Week
2.  Kaizen Philosophy
3.  The Opportunities in the Moment
4.  A Simple Step in Relationships
5.  Coaching Tip

Welcome to the weekly edition of DeskTopCoaching. This
newsletter is designed to bring coaching into YOUR life.  Through
thought provoking articles, strong questions, and requests for weekly
action, we will bring a coaching slant to your life.

How do we make changes in our lives?  One step at a time!
Participate in the concepts of the newsletter and watch the shifts
begin to happen.

Our network grows by your referrals.  Please feel free to send
copies of the newsletter to friends and colleagues.

Have a wonderful week.

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"Begin doing what you want to do now.  We are not living in eternity.
We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand - and melting
like a snowflake."
                    Marie Beynon Ray

"Reach high for the stars lie hidden in your soul.
Dream deep, for every dream precedes the goal."
                    Pamela Vaull  Starr

"Re-examine everything you have been told.
Dismiss what insults your soul."
                    Walt Whitman

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Last weekend my office team travelled to Colorado for a team building
weekend.  All I told them was that we would be staying at a Ranch, that
we had to be careful to avoid altitude sickness (coming from our location
which is zero elevation), and that we would be living together 24 hours a
day.

What helped each of them trust this process was that they knew that one
of my mentors would be facilitating the weekend.  They also knew that
we were the only group that would be there, so we would have constant
contact with the phenomenal facilitators.  They also knew the food would
not be too bad - since each of us was responsible for partnering with
another member to provide two meals for the weekend.  You could
therefore purchase at least some food that you would like!

This was a weekend full of wonderful personal growth, as well as team
growth.  Each member of my team began the weekend by expressing
their minimum expectations, as well as their maximum expectations.  We
discussed the importance of entering into new work and adventures
expecting there to be things that impact our lives.

One small piece of the weekend that each of us has taken away is the
principle of Kaizen - take whatever step is the next most logical, even
if it may seem trivial.  This is the opposite of transformational change -
meaning
taking change in leaps.  An example of this is often apparent when we
want to make major health changes in our lives.  Often we begin by running
30minutes, taking a one hour exercise class, etc.  The principle of Kaizen
is to get up the next day and do one jumping jack.  In doing this every day,
what
is shown to happen is that one day you suddenly do two.  What happens in
5 years - you see that people are healthier than others who began trying
huge
transformational changes.

This principle reflected over and over throughout our experiential weekend.
We performed survival team exercises, evaluated our team performance in
interpersonal skills and critical/analytical skills, and finished off with
rock
climbing and rapelling.  Kaizen pertained to saying something you would
normally keep bottled up inside, taking two more steps up a rock, and
telling yourself you could do something you would have normally said
that you could not.

The learning has been life altering.  I watch one member of my team
that experienced how her thoughts could make her physically ill, to the
point of being bed ridden.  I watched another member who is terrified
of heights rapell down a rock cliff, and then question what else
she could do in her life if her internal dialogue was telling herself that
she could accomplish something - versus the self talk that says "I can't".

I am proud to be a member of a team that played at 100%.  How we
play the 'game', and show up and participate in each event of our lives,
is how we live our lives.  The principle of Kaizen has become an
important point for me to experience, to reflect, and to establish as part
of my operating system for life.

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The Opportunities in the Moment

How many moments do we let slip through our hands thinking there will be
a million more around the corner?  When our heads are constantly in the
future or stuck in the past we are missing the joy of what is here right
NOW.
What opportunities are available to you right now?

Moving through our lives at a fast pace trying to do more, be more, get more
or find more we often lose sight of what we already have...how wealthy we
are in our present.  The opportunities we have right NOW.  There is value
in every moment and every experience, even the painful ones.  Often times,
when working with clients around the issue of weight I ask, "What are
you getting from the extra weight?"  The first response is usually,
"Nothing, how could I possibly be getting something from this?"  Yet, as
we probe a bit further the answers start coming forth.  I am powerful.  I am
protected. I am living out my family role.  What is the message your body
is giving you right now?  Starting tuning into to the present moment and
listen
to the messages from your body, your environment, even your pain.    The act
of tuning in gives you choices that were not available before and you can
then go forward differently or remain the same.  The choice is yours...give
yourself the choice.

The choice comes from being present with your body and creating
opportunities with that presence.  Sometimes, it takes a big wake
up call to give up the yo-yo-ing between the past and the future.
Sometimes it takes going to the doctor and hearing the words cancer
to wake up and start living right here and NOW.  I invite you to begin
NOW rather than wait for a wake up call, look around your world right
now and notice what opportunities are available to you...what are you
longing for that you can begin today?  What message do you need to
hear so that you can have the life you really want?  What can you say
or do that will make a huge difference in your peace and well-being?

Begin NOW.  Don't wait.  Give yourself a choice and begin Living Well.

Challenge
Commit to 15 minutes a day to sit down and quietly tune into yourself.
Use a journal, a sketch pad, paint, meditate, breath....whatever works
for you to slow down and going inside.  Use that time to ask the following:

What do I need to know?
What do I want?
What is missing?
What do I need to let go of?

Then do something with the information.  Choose one area of awareness
from the questions and create an action plan for change.  For example,
if you find out that you are missing a spiritual connection then create an
action plan to make a soulful connection in your life.  You might start by
making a list of activities that connect you spiritually and then doing one
a week until you have established a routine that gives you the connection
you want in your life.

Copyright 2000 by Jamie McGarvey, MS, LCPC

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A Simple Step in Relationships

The baggy yellow shirt had long sleeves, four extra-large  pockets
trimmed in black thread and snaps up the front. It was faded from years
of wear, but still in decent shape. I found it in 1963 when I was home
from college on Christmas break, rummaging through bags of clothes Mom
intended to give away.

"You're not taking that old thing, are you?" Mom said when she saw me
packing the yellow shirt. "I wore that when I was pregnant with your
brother in 1954!"

 "It's just the thing to wear over my clothes during art class, Mom.
Thanks!" I slipped it into my suitcase before she could object.

The yellow shirt became a part of my college wardrobe. I loved it. After
graduation, I wore the shirt the day Imoved into my new apartment and on
Saturday mornings when I cleaned.

The next year, I married. When I became pregnant, I wore the yellow
shirt during big-belly days. I missed Mom and the rest of my family,
since we were in Colorado and they were in Illinois. But that shirt
helped. I smiled, remembering that Mother had worn it when she was
pregnant, 15 years earlier.

That Christmas, mindful of the warm feelings the shirt had given me, I
patched one elbow, wrapped it in holiday paper and sent it to Mom. When
Mom wrote to thank me for her "real" gifts, she said the yellow shirt
was lovely. She never mentioned it again.

The next year, my husband, daughter and I stopped at Mom and Dad's to
pick up some furniture. Days later, when we uncrated the kitchen table,
I noticed something yellow taped to its bottom. The shirt!

And so the pattern was set. On our next visit home, I secretly placed
the shirt under Mom and Dad's mattress. I don't know how long it took
for her to find it, but almost two years passed before I discovered in
under the base of our living-room floor lamp. The yellow shirt was just
what I needed now while refinishing furniture. The walnut stains added
character.

In 1975 my husband and I divorced. With my three children, I prepared to
move back to Illinois. As I packed, a deep depression overtook me. I
wondered if I could make it on my own. I wondered if I would find a job.
I paged through the Bible, looking for comfort. In Ephesians, I read,

"So use every piece of God's armor to resist the enemy whenever he
attaches, and when it is all over, you will be standing up."

I tried to picture myself wearing God's armor, but all I saw was the
stained yellow shirt. Slowly, it dawned on me. Wasn't my mother's love a
piece of God's armor? My courage was renewed.

Unpacking in our new home, I knew I had to get the shirt back to Mother.
The next time I visited her, I tucked it in her bottom dresser drawer.
Meanwhile, I found a good job at a radio station. A year later I
discovered the yellow shirt hidden in a rag bag in my cleaning closet.

Something new had been added. Embroidered in bright green across the
breast pocket were the works "I BELONG TO PAT." Not to be outdone, I got
out my own embroidery materials and added an apostrophe and seven more
letters.

Now the shirt proudly proclaimed, "I BELONG TO PAT'S MOTHER."

But I didn't stop there. I zigzagged all the frayed seams, then had a
friend mail the shirt in a fancy box to Mom from Arlington, VA. We
enclosed an official-looking letter from "The Institute for the
Destitute," announcing that she was the recipient of an award for good
deeds. I would have given anything to see Mom's face when she opened the
box.

But, of course, she never mentioned it. Two years later, in 1978, I
remarried. The day of our wedding, Harold and I put our car in a
friend's garage to avoid practical jokers. After the wedding, while my
husband drove us to our honeymoon suite, I reached for a pillow in the
car to rest my head. It felt lumpy. I unzipped the case and found,
wrapped in wedding paper, the yellow shirt. Inside a pocket was a note:
"Read John 14: 27-29. I love you both, Mother."

That night I paged through the Bible in a hotel room and found the
verses: "I am leaving you with a gift: peace of mind and heart. And the
peace I give isn't fragile like the peace the world gives. So don't be
troubled or afraid. Remember what I told you: I am going away, but I
will come back to you again. If you really love me, you will be very
happy for me, for now I can go to the Father, who is greater than I am.
I have told you these things before they happen so that when they do,
you will believe in me."

The shirt was Mother's final gift. She had known for three months that
she had terminal Lou Gehrig's disease. Mother died the following year at
age 57.

I was tempted to send the yellow shirt with her to her grave. But I'm
glad I didn't, because it is a vivid reminder of the love-filled game
she and I played for 16 years. Besides, my older daughter is in college
now, majoring in art. And every art student needs a baggy yellow shirt
with big pockets.

Author Unknown

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Coaching Tip:

Where in your life can you practice the principle of Kaizen - taking the
next most logical step?  Which is the simplest of these three areas:
health,
career/job, or relationships?  Pick one, then ask yourself what is the
simplest step you could take in that area to make change in your life?

Now what is stopping you from doing that tomorrow?  Begin with the
equivalent of one jumping jack a day - and watch where this leads you!

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Copyright 2000. All rights reserved. Permission is
granted to reproduce or distribute this newsletter as
long as this copyright notice and full information about
contacting the  author is attached. This newsletter is
produced by Dr. Janice Hughes B.Sc., M.Sc., D.C.

Dr. Janice Hughes is a Chiropractor who focuses on
health and wellness. She runs a private practice,
Whole Body Health, in Brantford, Ontario. She has created
an integrative health model which provides a group of
professionals partnering to provide lifestyle coaching
and education. Dr. Hughes is also a Coach who works
with individuals, teams or organizations who are
committed to getting ahead, changing direction or
simply growing.

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