The “Kaizen Mind Trick”

“Discover How to Use This Unusual (But Powerful) “Kaizen Mind Trick” to Finally Get Unstuck, Stop Procrastinating, AND Reach That Next Level in Your Business…

This is a continuation of last Thursday’s Guest Post on Kaizen in Internet Business – which is well worth reading.  The author (Ryan) is one of my more successful students who used the original HDYB process to develop a $250K business, and, now after direct coaching from me since January is about to launch his second business, which I firmly believe will be much larger.  (Disclaimer: please see the Full Testimonial and Results Disclosure on GlennCoach.com for typical results) Ryan is the ONLY person I’ve ever let guest post to this date, which tells you something about his abilities, character, and work ethic

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LESSON 1 (Part II): The “Kaizen Mind Trick”

In the previous post, I talked about using a relentless, methodical Kaizen approach of incremental improvement to achieve big gains in your business.

It’s an approach that enabled me to grow my first internet business from $0 to $25,000 per month in 18 months.

And I strongly recommend anyone who isn’t making the progress they’d like to be making in their business to consider adopting a similar mentality.

Now, what I covered in the previous post is sort of like Kaizen on a MACRO level.

But there’s a WHOLE other side to Kaizen — And it’s something that almost NOBODY talks about within the internet marketing world.

And it has to do with Kaizen on a MICRO level: How Kaizen affects your brain.

As a marketer who also has a background in neuroscience, this is a question I’ve explored with great interest. And in doing so, a few years back I happened to stumble upon a deceptively simple, but extremely powerful “Kaizen Mind Trick” which I now use whenever I find myself reaching a “sticking point” in my business.

And in a moment, I’m going to share that exact technique with you, because I think YOU might be able to benefit from it yourself the next time you get stuck in your own business

But first, I want you to think about the following question:

WHY does Kaizen work, exactly?

I mean, on one level, it works… because it works, right?

It’s common-sense. A self-evident truth. Something we marketers take for granted — like the effectiveness of split-testing, for example.

But think about it for a minute:

WHY is it that when you start thinking small, you’re able to achieve big results?

To answer that question, it actually helps to take a quick look inside your brain:

To your brain, any changes you make in your life – even the positive ones – are scary, because they deviate from your safe, comfortable routine.

And, when you attempt to reach goals through radical or revolutionary means, those attempts often fail because big changes heighten anxiety — which in turn activates the primitive “fight or flight” fear response controlled by a structure in your midbrain known as the amygdala.

(In fact, this fear response should be more accurately described as the “FREEZE or fight or flight” response. Because it’s why we tend to procrastinate — or suffer from “analysis paralysis” — when we feel stressed, anxious or overwhelmed about taking that next big step toward our goals…)

Now here’s the thing:

When you activate your primitive fear response, you ALSO restrict access to your cortex — the “thinking” part of your brain — which is responsible higher cognitive functions like creative problem solving and rational thought.

BUT…

When you start thinking in terms of making positive change through tiny, incremental, steps (or in other words, the Kaizen way) you’re actually able to bypass your brain’s fear response, engage your cortex, and therefore stimulate your creative problem solving ability.

The result?

You start making rapid progress toward your goals.

Now with all that mind, here is the deceptively simple, but powerful “Kaizen Mind Trick” you can use to take advantage of all this on a practical level:

Whenever you find yourself procrastinating, having trouble getting started, or simply feeling “stuck” on something in your business, just ask yourself the following question:

“What’s the next immediate step I can take that’s so small it would be impossible to fail?”

*The KEY is that it is HAS to be something that’s SO small, and SO basic that you literally CANNOT fail. (This is absolutely CRITICAL.)

For example:

Say you’re feeling overwhelmed about writing your next sales letter — and you find yourself having trouble getting started.

Simply ask yourself the question:

“What’s the next immediate step I can take that’s so small it would be impossible to fail?”

Your next immediate “impossible to fail” step might be something like typing one character in your word processor. Or opening up Microsoft Word. Or even just turning on your computer.

When you’ve reached the step that makes you feel silly and think, “Well, duh! Of COURSE I can do THAT..” then you’re on your way.

It has to be something THAT basic.

Because here’s the thing:

Once you’ve convinced yourself to type that one character, and realize “hey that wasn’t so bad” you can convince yourself to take that next “impossible to fail” step — which might be typing a single word. And when you convince yourself to do that, you can convince yourself to string together a single sentence.

And before you know it, you’ll discover that not only have you overcome your writer’s block, but you’ve got two pages worth of stuff down on paper without even realizing it.

Now, if you try the technique and STILL find yourself struggling to get moving on something, dreading the activity, or making excuses for not doing it, the solution is this:

Just cut back the size of the step.

It’s really as simple as that.

I cannot emphasize enough how critical this strategy has been to the progress I’ve been able to make in my business so far.

Coming from a regular guy, I’ll tell you that the Hyper-Responsive process WORKS.

It really does.

But where I think most people struggle is EXECUTING the entire process from start to finish because of all the different component parts.

The secret to success? Break things down into one “impossible to fail” step at a time.

Really, that’s it.

And if you STILL have trouble to get yourself moving — here’s a little something I remind myself of to help get my own butt in gear:

You can ALWAYS correct a poor decision, but if you do NOTHING, you can NEVER get the time back

Until next time — to your continued success!

Ryan

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GLENN SAYS:    Ryan will post PART III of this series in the next few days.  We’d love to have your questions and comments below.

Ryan will also shortly be working with me to provide Hyper-Responsive Process Coaching at a little more than HALF my personal rates, and we should be ready to take clients before the end of the week.   I’m happy to say the NEW coaching format will also include a level with PHONE time as many people have been requesting this.  If you’re interested, please get on the priority notification list at the bottom of my coaching letter… we’ll email that list 24 hours before the main list when the slots open.   (Space will unfortunately be very limited, please do get on the list if you’re considering it)