Reddit mentions of One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way

Great idea.

It made me think of an exercise concept I heard of from Kaizen.

There were two groups of people who wanted to get fit. The first group was given gym membership, vouchers for gym gear etc. The second group was told to take a flight of stairs and every day add one more stair. A few months (?) later, the gym group weren't exercising, but the stair group was in better shape and still going.

Set yourself small targets, say yourself: for this week, im going to walk on the treadmill for 1 minute each day. not more, not less. Only this 1 minute and do it for 1 week. There almost no way of how you could fail that. And even if you do, set your target lower, like standing on the treadmill for 1 minute.

I know how silly that sounds, but its importent to circumvent your mental blockage of starting it. Youll be a bit proud of yourself that you fulfilled your target and that will motivate you to raise your targets, but again, dont plan too much. Your next target should be like walk for 1 minute twice a day, and so on.

Just try it out, and if you think that method applies to you, this technique is called kaizen. I recently read about it in a book by robert maurer. It was called the kaizen way. (edit: amazon link

Coincidentally, I've been reading the book "One Small Step Can Change Your Life - The Kaizen Way" by Robert Maurer,
about making super-small, very easy increments. That basically side-steps one's tendency to resist larger suggested changes.

If it interests you, check whether your local library system has that book.

This book is worth reading - if you're trying to make change in your life, you may be trying to change too much at one time

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Books/One-Small-Step-Can-Change-Your-Life/0761129235/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1497694039&sr=8-2&keywords=one+small+step+can+change+your+life+the+kaizen+way

This is very similar to another book I've seen regarding the Kaizen way: http://www.amazon.com/Small-Step-Change-Your-Life/dp/0761129235/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331427874&sr=1-3

I felt the same way as you before I started going to the gym. Here's how I overcame it:

I walked to the gym everyday without any intention of actually working out. I got there, turned around and walked home.

I just made it a habit to get to the gym, chiseling off the smallest barrier and tackling it.

Then one day I decided to take it to the next step: walked in, signed-up and left. Second barrier down and I'm starting to feel good about myself.

The next day, I go in and just bike for a bit. I wanted to lift weights eventually, but felt more comfortable biking so I did that.

I was already in the habit of getting to the gym everyday, so I just kept walking in and biking everyday and turned that habit into working out everyday.

Eventually, I felt that I belonged there and became naturally comfortable spending my time there however I wanted.

So, the general idea is to isolate action-steps, breaking them into their smallest pieces and then conquering them one by one, allowing your success to build upon itself.

It seems like that would take awhile, but it's a lot faster than wishing you could do something for years and years.

More recently, I read this book which complements my experience perfectly: http://amzn.com/0761129235

That loving a tree thing gave me a really weird visual... but here is some of the best advice I can give you, I hope it helps.

~Get your body healthy. Start eating right, cut out as much sugar and soda as you can and bring in to you diet as many vegetables and fruits as you can. Start exercising 3-5 days a week, maybe jogging or going to a gym. But if that seems like something you wouldn't be able to make a habit, maybe just try taking a walk everyday or something, just getting outside and moving my legs really helped me through some of my hardest times. Also maybe consider quitting smoking if you feel that is the right move for you, it totally changed my life for the best when I quit cigs and tree.

~Start journaling or somehow writing your thought and feelings down. This sounds like it wouldn't be that helpful if you have never tried it, but trust me, it can do wonders for clarifying what exactly needs changing in your life. I think journaling can be 100x more effective than any form of therapy.

~Hang out with your friends and don't talk about how you feel depressed, talk about stuff that feels nice and get your mind off of what is making you not feel so nice.

~Check out stuff by Anthony Robbins, he is incredible. I recommend Lessons in Mastery. It really gave me a huge boost and changed my life for the better permanently at a time when I felt like how you have described you feel now.

~Get some hobbies, get outside, get your mind off your troubles and into books, sports, action, anything that makes you feel better. But make sure your not pushing your emotions under the rug, make sure to figure out (maybe with the help of journaling) what exactly the message your emotions are trying to send you is. Once you know what their message is, then it is fine to move on and take action based on those messages.

~I also recommend a book called One Small Step Could Change Your Life and also Switch.

Here are amazon links to my recommendations below (each one changed my life for the better permanently)...

If you want to talk about anything or ask me questions about how I got through some very hard times just PM anytime. I sincerely wish you good luck with everything :-)

http://www.amazon.com/Lessons-Mastery-Anthony-Robbins/dp/0743525159

http://www.amazon.com/Small-Step-Change-Your-Life/dp/0761129235/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1318486356&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Switch-Change-Things-When-Hard/dp/0385528752/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1318486377&sr=1-1