Little Steps Can Lead to Big Change
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When I teach improv comedy performers, new or experienced, there are usually hundreds of things I could be correcting them on. I prefer to pick one or two specific ideas and focus only on those. I actually let them do other things wrong without correcting them.
This only works if I do two things. 1) I make sure that what I am focusing on is more important than what I am ignoring 2) I let them know that I am only focusing on 1 thing so that they realize that just because I am not correcting something doesn't mean it is correct.
Why do I do this? Because to correct everything at once would be giving the improviser too much to think about. How can anyone comfortably perform improv comedy if they are thinking of 100 different things? I prefer to take it one step at a time, focusing on one critical piece at a time.
The Japanese call this principle Kaizen, which basically means small incremental improvements (Literally, it means "change for the better" or "improvement")
Too often, we try to fix everything all at once and do things perfectly on our first try.
I know when I wanted to jump into cold calling I tried to commit to one hour a day of dialing numbers. One hour a day! I hated 5 minutes of it and I was trying to force myself to do it for 12 times that long!
The only time I really stayed consistent with the calls was when I committed to dialing the phone 5 times per day. Some days I would do more, but all I had to do was 5. This was enough to get me started. Soon I had completed 500!
When you are trying to get sales and you are only dialing the phone 5 times a day, it seems incredibly inefficient and a sure path to failure. But, if you set your goal so high that you bail out, that's an even surer path to failure.
We live in an immediate gratification kind of world. When we want something, all too often we launch out with huge aspirations and take massive action, but all too often that effort lasts about a day or two and then we are right back where we started.
Confidence works the same way. If you take little steps that net little results, you will eventually make big progress and have huge confidence. The problem is when you either a) try to bite off too much at once and then lose confidence because it doesn't work or b) don't acknowledge all the little steps because they seem so small and insignificant. Make your tasks small, but still forward moving, and give yourself credit for even the tiniest progress. Soon you will build new habits that will make you confident and more successful.
If this concept intrigues you, I highly recommend you read "The Kaizen Way," by Robert Maurer. It's a short book with a few simple steps, and it also explains why bio-chemically it's better to take small steps.
Avish Parashar is a dynamic professional speaker who shows organizations and individuals how to get what they want using the Art and Science of improv comedy. He weaves together humorous stories, witty observations, and interactive exercises from improvisational comedy to get people laughing, learning, and motivated! Avish is most commonly called upon to deliver programs on Motivation, Sales, and Communication
For more free articles, downloads, and resources, visit http://www.AvishParashar.com
To learn how to apply the powerful principles of improv comedy to your own business or life visit http://www.ImprovforEveryone.com
