Commit to Constant and Never-Ending Improvement

Jack Canfield's Success Principle #20

If you're joining me in the middle of my review of Jack Canfield's Success Principles, I hope you'll understand the method to my madness. Survivors of incest, abuse, and trauma often suffer from very poor self-esteem. We find it hard to keep our lives in order, and achieving goals can feel overwhelming.

I am offering this condensed version of Jack's advice to my readers, while including my own reactions to the exercises in the book. I hope you find them helpful. I certainly have.

In Japanese, kaizen is the word for constant and never-ending improvement. It has become a personal mantra for millions of successful people around the world.

In our ever-changing culture where electronics are obsolete almost before we unpackage them, we know that we must learn to adapt to change. Our survival depends on it. If we want to thrive, though, we must take a more dedicated approach. We can't just adapt to change, we have to constantly work at improving ourselves for the rest of our lives.

Jack Canfield uses the mantra kaizen to keep himself on track. I prefer Jesus' words: "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Matt 5:48) In other words, God sent Jesus as our model. He set a high standard for us: he wants us to strive to express his ideal love to those we encounter, just as Jesus did.

Expressing ideal love as a Christian can be acted upon in numerous ways. We can learn to forgive people who have hurt us, become more generous with our money, show kindness to people who don't deserve it, or simply commit to becoming the best person we can be.

Jack Canfield offers the following suggestions for thriving in our ever-changing world:

(1) Improve in small increments.
We must begin our journey toward a dream in baby steps. If we try to tackle something really difficult before we're ready, we may get so overwhelmed that we just quit before finishing.

I can certainly relate to this as I continue with these success principles. There are days when my head is swimming, and I wonder how on earth I will ever achieve the 101 goals I have written down. But if I select one goal and write down all of the steps I need to complete along the way, it becomes far more manageable.

(2) Decide what you want to improve.
Ask God every single day, "How can I improve today?" Listen for his response, and then devote your free time to it. Perhaps he'll lead you to read a book, take a class, volunteer, practice a sport, meet someone new, or spend more time with your spouse.

I decided to co-author a book with my daughter-in-law, because I needed to improve my discpline of actually finishing and publishing what I write. Since we are writing alternating chapters, Lauren can only do her part if I finish my work on time each month. By writing regularly and meeting once a month, we figure that we can have this novel in print within a year.

(3) Don't skip steps.
Becoming a master at any craft or skill takes a lot of time. If I want to find my name on the New York Times Bestseller list, I'm going to have to put in a lot of hours at the keyboard. I started by committing to writing this daily blog as a discipline to show up at the computer every day.

I know that I'll need to network with agents and ask other writers to edit my work. I must learn perseverence in marketing what I write, because it isn't helping anyone to have piles of manuscripts on my shelves. By working my way through all of the baby steps over a long period of time, I know that I will eventually reach my goal.

Jack points out that there are very few overnight successes. Desiring to become a millionaire is a very achievable goal, but a person has to be willing to put in a lot of time and effort to make it happen. Buying lottery tickets or hanging out in casinos probably would not be the best way to financial success.

We must make a commitment to constant and never-ending improvement if we want to enjoy success. Every success builds confidence, which translates into improved self-esteem. For those of us suffering from PTSD or the aftermath of abuse, greater confidence is an excellent by-product of following The Success Principles.

Today's Challenge
Choose one thing today that you want to do better. Write down the steps that are necessary to improve this skill. Commit to constant and never-ending improvement until you master what you have chosen to do.


Jack Canfield, America's #1 Success Coach, is founder of the billion-dollar book brand Chicken Soup for the Soul© and a leading authority on Peak Performance and Life Success. If you're ready to jump-start your life, make more money, and have more fun and joy in all that you do, get your FREE success tips from Jack Canfield now at: www.FreeSuccessStrategies.com