A current popular book is titled One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way. The author, psychologist Robert Maurer, describes the process he used to lose weight. He didn't count calories or carbs or get a personal trainer.

What he did was to throw away one French fry from his plate. Eventually, it became two, then three French fries, or portions of whatever he was eating. In this way, Maurer lost 45 pounds in 18 months - a living example of the premise in his book.

Taking tiny steps to achieve a seemingly impossible goal is the foundational premise of kaizen (pronounced 'kay-zin'). This is a Japanese concept that means 'continuous incremental improvement.' Kaizen has become a catchword in American industry leading to terms like Total Quality Control.

But what could you do in your personal life with this principle? Losing weight is an obvious application -- but what if you wanted to read the Encyclopedia Americana? Learn a new language? Develop new career skills? Write a book? Eat an elephant? Build a new house? Double your income? How could you approach it as one French fry at a time?

If you read about 10 minutes a day, you'll read an average book a month. If you write one page a day, you'll have a book ready to print in six months. If you stop three negative comments a day from coming out of your mouth, in 90 days you will have saved the world from 270 negative blows.

After reading this I recognize that it may help me make the changes I hope for if I will begin to throw away one French fry at a time. Like the rain that eventually changes a stream into a river perhaps small continuous efforts on my part will lead to big changes. Surely, even if I can't yet find the courage to make the big changes, I can find the inner strength and courage to throw away one French fry at a time.