Sunday, January 4, 2009

One Small Step



A client wants to be more connected to her spiritual practice but she can’t seem to do what it takes to get her practice done. Is it motivation, resistance or fear?
I’ve talked with dozens of people that want something new in life but cannot move forward. They don’t seem to be able to take the steps needed.

Then we suffer. We get upset with ourselves because we haven’t done what we want or achieved the results we want. We judge, criticize, berate and just plain make ourselves wrong. We live in pain.

There is a Japanese technique of achieving great and lasting success through taking small, steady steps called The Kaizen Way. When we achieve one small step, we experience accomplishment! Then take another and another. Each step brings us to the direction we desire.

How do we stop judging ourselves? It takes practice. My favorite technique is to say “That’s interesting’ no matter what happens. I'm still practicing....

3 comments:

Carrie Wilson Link said...

I agree - the key is to just observe ourselves, and stop JUDGING ourselves! So hard to break that habit!

Lynn said...

Thanks, Christine,for focusing on the positive steps that we can take! I am intrigued by your reference to this particular method. Wonderful!

J.R. Johansson said...

That is so true. We are our own worst critics. Really it is hard to avoid it, but there are enough things that are hard to deal with in life. The last thing we need is to find it hard to live with ourselves. Gotta find that peace within. Very cool post!