In a previous article, I wrote about about how the Kaizen approach to personal development, which consists of taking small steps in a spirit of continuous improvement, can help you make positive changes in your life.

In this article, I’m going to focus more on the reasons why the Kaizen approach works so well.

A good friend who wanted to do more exercise decided to join a gym and sign up with a personal trainer. Now, I don’t know if this trainer was particularly bad or inexperienced, but she put my friend through a really strenuous workout on their first session together. The next day, he was so sore that he could hardly move.

I’m not kidding, virtually every muscle in his body was sore. He couldn’t straighten out his arm, he had trouble walking, and he even discovered some muscles he didn’t even know he had!

My friend went back for his next session a couple of days later and had another similar experience. Needless to say, my friend did not go back for more. In fact, he gave up exercise completely for about a year as a result of this trainer.

Even to this day, we still joke about how she would tell him to “assume the position” before putting him through the ringer. I was almost like he was being punished for bad behavior.

I also had a similar experience with a personal trainer about 12 years ago. I was in relatively good shape and did regular exercise, but this trainer put me through a 1 1/2 hour workout from hell. It got so bad, that I just had to leave the workout when I started feeling nauseous. I almost threw up right there in the middle of the gym… and this crazy trainer wanted me to keep going!

When I got to the locker room, I almost passed out and had to sit down for 15 minutes before I felt comfortable driving again. I never went back to see this trainer, or even to that gym! I don’t remember being too sore the next day, but I have never felt as sick from doing exercise as I did that day.

The point of these stories is that making big changes in your life can be very difficult. How often have you started to make a positive change, whether participating in a new fitness program, getting rid of an old habit, taking on a new challenge, or learning a skill, only to abandon it after a short time? Or even worse, not even attempting to make the change at all?

Resistance to Change

Much of it has to do with your natural resistance to change, which is caused in large part by “homeostatic” mechanisms deep within your brain that like things to remain consistent and predictable.

Homeostasis is the process of maintaining a condition (like your body temperature) in a relatively stable state. For example, a homeostatic center in our brain regulates body temperature and tries to keep it within a certain range. Another example of a homeostatic system is the thermostat that keeps your home warm during the winter and cool during the summer.

In terms of behavior, homeostasis relates to your “comfort zone,” which represents the habits and routines that you’ve become accustomed to in your day-to-day life. Your comfort zone is also shaped by your self-image and your thoughts about who you are and what you can do. Your subconscious tries to keep your future actions consistent with your self-image, your past actions, and your past routines.

When you stray outside your “comfort zone,” you feel uneasiness, tension, and discomfort. The level of discomfort you experience is usually proportional to the size and speed of change. Quick or large changes create the most discomfort and tension. It is important to realize that this happens whether the change you are trying to make is good for you or bad for you.

In addition to your own internal resistance, you may also experience external resistance from others around you, like your significant other, parents, family, friends, co-workers, and even your community.

The reason is that any change that you make also affects them and their comfort zone, triggering their own resistance to the change.

Fear of Change

In addition to your comfort zone, you also have to deal with your natural fear of change.

If you think about it, it makes perfect sense from a survival standpoint for your brain to behave this way. In our caveman days, when our ancestors strayed from familiar surroundings and routines, they needed to be “on alert” to reduce the chance of being eaten by a predator or attacked by rivals. This is the fight-or-flight response in action.

Your brain uses your natural fear of change to trigger the fight-or-flight response whenever you step into unfamiliar territory. While this response can actually help you perform better in some circumstances, like when an actor has to give a performance, it often hinders your ability to make the changes you want, particularly if you feel overwhelmed or unsure about what you need to do.

Overwhelm Caused by a Big Change

Overwhelm is another major reason why people don’t follow through with a big change they may be planning or attempting, because it prevents them from taking the necessary actions to move forward. As they think about the change they want to make, the enormity of it overwhelms them and leads to procrastination or paralysis. They just don’t know where or how to get started.

Has this ever happened to you? Have you ever made plans for a big change, but backed away when it came time to actually take action because you felt overwhelmed or procrastinated because you didn’t know how to get started?

How Kaizen Helps You Overcome Overwhelm and Resistance to Change

The Kaizen approach works so well because it involves making small incremental changes that generate much less resistance, fear, and overwhelm.

Remember that the amount of resistance and discomfort you experience is proportional to the speed and size of the changes you want to make. Think of a rubber band… when you stretch it a lot, you can get quite a bit of resistance. But if you only stretch it a little bit, you won’t feel much resistance at all.

Small incremental changes naturally lead to less resistance because they allow you to stay close to your comfort zone. They also create less fear and overwhelm because the steps are much smaller and easier to make.

Kaizen also makes it easier to muster the courage and willpower you need to stick with the changes you are making, keep going, and take that next small step. Over time, these small continuous changes gradually shift your comfort zone toward your new habits and routines until they feel more normal and natural.

The Kaizen approach also helps you overcome external resistance from others because it is easier for them to accept the small changes you are making and gives them plenty of time to adjust.

Small steps can help you make changes that would have caused a great deal of resistance, discomfort, and overwhelm if you had tried to make them in one big leap.

I think it’s easy to see that if my friend had used a much more gradual approach when he first joined that gym, giving his body plenty of time to adjust and recover to the new exercise demands, he would have been much better off.

If my own trainer had put me on a gradual program rather than through exercise hell, I may have actually worked with him much longer.

In the next article, I’ll start discussing some specific Kaizen techniques you can put to use to help you start making positive changes in your life.

About the Author - Rodger Constandse is the founder of KSuccess.com and creator of the Goal Setting Challenge. He is also the author of the time management eBook Master Your Time, and principal developer of the Achieve Planner software.