One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way

Kaizen Technique
Practicing Small Questions
The following questions are designed to form the kaizen habit of asking yourself small questions. Some of
them are specifically related to goals; others give you practice in seeking out continual improvement
across the categories of your life.
As you begin, remember that you are reprogramming your brain, and that it takes time for new mental
pathways to develop. So choose a question and ask it repeatedly over the course of several days or
weeks. Try to pose the question to yourself regularly, perhaps every morning over coffee, every time you
hop into your car, or every night before bed. Consider writing your question on a Post-it note and then
sticking it onto your nightstand (or dashboard, or coffeepot).
Here are just a few ideas to get you started. Feel free to come up with your own.
If you are unhappy but are n’t sure why, try asking yourse lf this: 
If I were guaranteed not to fail, what would I be doing
differently?
The que stion’s whimsical quality make s it safe for the brain to answe r truthfully, and it can produce some
surprising answe rs that le nd clarity to your goals. Some one who is stalle d out at work may discove r that she re ally wants
to quit and study landscape archite cture inste ad; anothe r might be shocke d to find that all she re ally wants is the courage
to ask he r boss to say “he llo” in the mornings.
If you are trying to re ach a spe cific goal, ask yourse lf e ve ry day: 
What is one small step I could take toward reaching my
goal?
 Whe the r you ask your que stion aloud or in the privacy of your own thoughts, ple ase take a kind tone with yourse lf,

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