Simplify Your Life Using Kaizen

What is the concept of Kaizen about, and how can it be used to simplify your life? Kaizen is a Japanese term that means continuously looking for small ways to make improvements.

 

When most people consider simplifying their lives, they might think of making big or drastic changes such as selling their car, working from home or even something as extreme such as selling all their belongings.

 

To simplify your life using Kaizen means to ask yourself questions such as, “What is one small change I can make in my life that will simplify it?”  There is a lot of value in taking small, baby steps, – one at a time.

 

Also, examine some of the assumptions that you hold about simplifying your life. For instance, I recently had decided that I wanted to simplify all the technology gadgets and packages that I was paying for with respect to my phone and internet.

 

I had been complaining to myself that my Bell Mobility phone bill was too much as I was paying anywhere from $80 to $100 despite having a package that was only suppose to cost me around $40 per month. In addition, my roommate had recently introduced me to the Magic Jack, a phone line run through the computer that costs only $20 per year for unlimited local and long distance calls in North America. Obviously, I purchased this package, as it was a steal of a deal.

 

Afterwards though, I realized that I no longer needed a few of the long distance options offered through my blackberry cell phone. I had an assumption though, that there was no more wiggle room to move the price down because I knew that I already had a basic package. When I reminded myself to put my assumptions aside, and to ask myself how I could possibly make one small change, I finally got myself to phone the company and find out the facts about what packages were more suitable. In the mean time I realized that I never really used email on my blackberry, and that when I did check my email, I would simply read others’ emails and the completely forget to write back. As a result, one simplification or improvement was to do away with these two options of long distance and email.

 

As a result of this simple realization, I called Bell to see what packages were available without data plans and long distance. So, not only did I give up my long distance options (due to my new magic jack) but I was also able to give up my email data plan, and all of this brought the price of my monthly cell phone bill down to only $25 per month! This is such a simple concept; however, it only became a realization after continuing to ask myself how I could simplify things further.

 

The reason I shared this basic example is because Kaizen is all about looking for the smallest changes, changes that seem first hand to be insignificant or inconsequential. Imagine if you became simplifying your life by each week or month looking for one other thing that you could simplify in your life. What would happen? Don’t just assume that there is nothing left to simply. Keep asking yourself the question. Try posting the question on your refridgerator or a mirror to remind yourself of this question.