Realizing the Power of Constant Never Ending Improvement
August 13, 2007 – 5:58 pm | by Carl Zetterlund
I was originally thinking of some clever title along the lines of how you can change your life by visiting a Toyota factory or something to that tune. I couldn’t get it right without it sounding cheesy, so I’m bringing it up now.
It’s been recently well popularized that the secret to creating great companies and products is to constantly improve quality all the time. Japanese companies pioneered this idea after General McArthur brought Dr. Deming over because he couldn’t find a single working phone in war torn Japan. Deming’s idea was simply that you will succeed and reap profits by setting up a system that makes sure that there are constant never ending improvements in manufacturing the product. This idea resulted in a revolution in quality products witnessed by the success of Japanese brands in America.
If constantly improving quality brings companies success, can this same philosophy help us achieve personal success?
The answer is a resounding yes!
Everyone has goals and desires, but the problem is that individuals place conditions on their well-being and happiness on these goals and desires. In other words, many people do not achieve happiness until they achieve their goal or desire. Then there is another problem. The happiness is fleeting. Then the cycle starts all over again.
This way of thinking and acting does not work very well as you are only occasionally happy. Here’s a better approach to life. How about aiming to constantly improve yourself everyday. It doesn’t have to be huge, but you do something that gets you one step closer to your goals and desires. By doing so, you will get a boost of happiness everyday, which will end up motivating you even further!
Think about it. Take for example a person who wants to start exercising. Most people start by setting a huge goal like being able to run 5 miles when they haven’t gone running in more than 5 years! Guess what happens. The next morning, the go out and realize how tough and challenging it really is. All of the sudden, that goal of 5 miles becomes a demotivating factor. As this happens, you are less likely to push yourself everyday to reach that goal. I thought goals were supposed to help?
Here’s a better idea. How about set a goal of constantly improving your running everyday. So, the first day you run to the closest electricity pole. Then the next day you run a little further. Then the next day you run just a little further than before. All of the sudden, you’re running 5 miles in no time, and you haven’t felt so good in ages. Everyday, you are excited to go run because you’ve been improving everyday, and you know with certainty that’ll you will improve today.
So simple yet so easily forgotten.
So many people become motivated to make great changes in their life, but they don’t have the right mindset. Setting huge goals and losing motivation. It’s tragic.
The trick in constantly improving yourself is that it fuels the fire. Your motivation is always up because you are always meeting that mini goal of improving yourself constantly. What you’ll find is that it builds and builds until you have more and more motivation. It’s magical.
The world’s most successful people do this everyday. They understand what keeps them motivated, and they improve themselves everyday. I believe the best people in any discipline don’t even realize what they’ve done. All they set out to do was be the best, which required them to work on it everyday. However, you don’t have to drop everything in your life to devote yourself to one thing.
All you need to understand is the power of constant never ending improvement.
I’m going end this with a story about John Wooden. He led the UCLA basketball team to 10 NCAA National Championships as a coach. He is widely regarded as the greatest coach in history. He was the first person ever to be honored in the hall of fame as a player and a coach.
So what was his secret? He never talked to his players about winning. All he asked of his players were to improve their game everyday, and it worked.
Think about it, and I’ll leave you with that.
Carl
P.S. I do have to give Tony Robbins his fair credit in introducing me to this concept. He’s a great motivator and has significantly changed my life. If you’re not familiar with him, I highly recommend you buy his book, Unlimited Power : The New Science Of Personal Achievement
