We know that when it comes to inventing stuff, the Japanese are absolutely crazy at it, right?
I mean, look at Godzilla, that’s a work of genius, ain’t it?
But I got to admit that when I first heard about this, I was suspicious. With just one minute, you can stop being a lazy person? That’s impossible.
But wait till you hear what I found. It’s good. It’s better than good. It’s…not bad.
Kaizen, The Philosophy of Daily, Continuous Improvement
In Japanese philosophy, Kaizen (改善) is about daily, continuous improvement. It’s the belief that a small step every day, done right, will have huge results down the road.
And that’s where the one-minute trick comes from.
The reason why most of us fail
Philosophers got it right when they say the one stopping you from achieving something is you yourself.
You’ll always think you’re not ready yet, you’ll always tell yourself aiya, I’ll start tomorrow when I’m feeling ready for the momentous task.
That and you start too fast, too furious.
The trick is about pacing yourself, start slow and steady, and persevere until the end.
Just think of it like running. Who will start their 2.4 km run at a sprint? You got to pace yourself and semi-jog till the end, right?
So how do you apply that in your life? By doing things one minute at a time!
The Japanese One-Minute Technique
The idea is to spend one minute a day doing a task that brings you closer to your goal.
The next time you know you need to do something, and you’re feeling lazy, just make yourself do it for one minute.
Yes, that’s all you need to do.
If you want to train your arms, just do push ups for a minute and stop.
Studies have shown that a task that lasts longer than half an hour will make you feel demoralised and burnt out at the twenty-minute mark. Hell, it might even make you not want to start.
A one-minute task, on the other hand, is something that you just want to get it over and done with. Yes, even the laziest person on earth can do it.
The only thing is you got to do that one minute on a daily basis.
But how can one short minute help?
It’s all about forming a habit. One minute is a short time. But one minute over a period of 100 days? That’s 100 minutes.
And that’s not all.
When you can see tangible results, you’ll be more motivated to work at it. And gradually, your one minute will turn into five minutes, and then even longer.
And before you know it, you’ve achieved what you set out to do.
Be it getting a fit body, becoming a better employee, learning a new skill, etc. This is a trick that can be applied to almost everything in life.
I’d admit that I’m a lazy person, but I’ve tried it for a couple of days and it seems to be working.
Try it out and let us know if it works for you too! ;D
