The Kaizen Millennial

Small improvements for significant, long-term growth.

Some of the largest problems for anyone on the face of the planet stem from money, food, or mental health.

Within the next several issues, we’re going to make small, easy adjustments to unlock massive growth in each of these challenges.

Here are this week’s pathways:

• Tracking Expenses: sets the foundation to start saving

• Reducing Stress: identify stress triggers

• Losing Weight: Find potential fail points for your new diet

Personal Budgeting

Week 1 of 4: Track Expenses

Most Americans (83%) have some savings, though many lack a 3-month emergency fund.

To improve your finances, start by tracking your spending. This means recording all transactions from your bank accounts, credit cards, and debit cards.

Rocket Money: Easily track spending, identify subscriptions, and cut costs.

Expensify: Offers more detailed tracking, but may be less effective for subscription cancellation..

For next week: Have at least the last month prepared so you can calculate your net income

Better Manage Personal Stress

Week 1 of 6: Identify Your Stressors

Stress significantly impacts sleep, memory, and relationships. Reducing it can even improve longevity.

To manage stress effectively, you must first identify its sources.

Stress Journal: Record feelings, thoughts, and situations that cause anxiety, tension, or overwhelm for a week. In this article, DayOne gives some prompts that will help jump-start the writing.

Therapy: A therapist can help you understand and identify your stress triggers.

Make a List: Spend 30 minutes jotting down your stressors.

Next Week: Explore mindfulness and relaxation techniques to cope with identified triggers.

Losing Weight

Week 1 of 5: Identify the Potential Fail Points

You’ve probably dieted before, so by now have at least an idea of the things that make you fail. Is it sugar? Overeating? Too many drinks?

Spend your first week identifying and start to remove the things that can make you fail.

MyFitnessPal: the freemium will work for most cases to track calories and types of food

Noom: A favorite of health professionals using behavioral psychology create a personalized plan to reach a desired weight

Paper: Writing down your triggers and fail points may be more beneficial than tracking through an app

For next week: Identifying the things that have made you unsuccessful in the past, and creating a strategy on how to not make that mistake again will help when you start to build small, new habits in the next issue.

Lingchi

“Death by a Thousand Cuts”

Sleep Habits

In the short term, poor sleeping habits can make you less alert and leave any of us prone to mood swings. We’ve all been there.

However, if your sleep habits continue to be something that are a problem. You can have a weakened immune system, or be at risk for chronic diseases involving your heart. Get diabetes. Or there are plenty of studies to show that an increase in weight and obesity has been directly linked to sleep.

Hansei - A reflection

Reflect on the most recent couple of weeks. Have you been getting between 6-8 hours of sleep? If you didn’t, how did it affect your next day?

There are plenty of tracking apps now, so figuring out how well you’re sleeping while in bed shouldn’t be much of an issue either.

Consistent bed times, not eating at least 2 hours before bed, and having all the lights out are really simple ways to not only improve sleep, but make sure that you’re getting it.

Poll