One of the big problems people face when it comes to trying to achieve their goals is that they want to see certain results immediately. There is something much more appealing about the notion of being richer in a week or being in better shape by the end of the month.
Unfortunately, this just isn’t how it works. At least not in most cases.
Rather, in order to see the results you want, you need to put in consistent boring effort on a daily and weekly and monthly basis.
Saving money is a perfect example of this. You won’t save money with some kind of scheme or some kind of trick. You aren’t going to fix your bank accounts overnight.
But what you can do, is make lots of small smart decisions that will add up to large savings over time. This is Kaizen.
Let’s take a look at some examples of how to do this.
Write a Budget
It starts by writing a budget. The problem is when people are very vague about this – not knowing quite what they actually spend on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. They then make random assertions to spend X amount less in this category or that, or they randomly cut out one type of activity that normally costs money.
This tends not to work. Instead, you should try to create a strict budget that will show you precisely what you spend in each category in your life. That means things like travel, entertainment, groceries, eating out, etc. Once you’ve done this, you can assess how much you are spending in each area.
This is a very useful exercise because it immediately illuminates the areas where you are spending more money than you need to – the areas where waste is happening and where you aren’t being efficient.
NOW you apply a kaizen approach by making a commitment – a SMALL commitment – is just one of those areas. For example, you might say that you’re going to spend $10 less on entertainment next month. That might seem like a small deal, but it can make a big impact over time.
Or how about saying that you’ll spend $5 less on transport – this might mean just choosing to walk a little more. Once you manage this, you can then try and cut back by another $5 in another area next month.
Keep doing this and month after month you will streamline your savings – and that’s how you can eventually become very wealthy!