In my last lesson on how to overcome your fear of public speaking, I talked about the part of your brain known as the amygdala, which is your fight or flight mechanism.

When faced with a life or death threat, you feel overwhelmed and enter a state of mental paralysis. You can’t think straight! That’s because your amygdala, doing what it’s supposed to do, comes to your rescue and shuts down all functions that aren’t necessary for your survival. Things like appetite, digestion, rational thinking, creative thinking, and sexual desire are turned off so all your energies can be directed toward fight or flight.

The downside of your wonderful amygdala is that it will go into this protection mode even in No-Life threatening situations. Whenever you are faced with something new or overwhelming that overwhelms you, such as taking a big test or having to give a speech, the amygdala kicks in and shuts down all functions that are not necessary for your survival.

The problem is that when you have to make a speech, need their creative and rational thinking abilities. You want to take decisive action but your amygdala prevents you from doing it because it thinks it has to save you!

What we have to do is tiptoe through the amygdala so as not to wake it up. We cannot alert the amygdala to danger. The way we do it is to attack the problem, problem, or fear in small steps, very small steps so that overwhelm never comes into play to activate the amygdala.

This brings us to the centuries-old Chinese technique known as kaizen. Kaizen is the art of taking small steps to achieve great things. How to use this technique is beautifully explained in a book by Dr. Robert Maurer, Ph.D., One small step can change your life the Kaizen way.

The following is an example from Dr. Maurer’s book. He tells the story of a woman named Julie, a divorced mother of two children under great pressure at work from her, overweight, out of shape, in poor health and eventually flirting with diabetes and heart disease.

Mauer watched Julie’s heart sink as her doctor gave her the well-worn advice to diet and exercise. She went into a state of overwhelm. Between the kids, work and other pressures, diet and exercise were out of the question, even though she knew that was the only thing that would save her! Just when she needed rational thought, motivation, and drive, his amygdala shut it all down.

The doctor was a little more than annoyed when Dr. Mauer asked Julie, “How about you walk in your spot in front of the TV for a minute each day?” Julie perked up. She could do that!

Did marching in place for one minute each day make Julie the picture of health? Of course not! The important thing was that Julie had a breakthrough. If she could do one minute a day, what else was possible? Soon, Julie was marching through a full commercial break during the TV show. She then forced herself to march throughout the show. Julie is now involved in aerobics and is well on her way to confronting and conquering her health issues.

Julie tiptoed past her tonsil. Starting with just one minute a day, there was no stress for her. Her amygdala was never alerted. She then added a little more to her routine. Then some more and all the time, her amygdala remained dormant.

In our next lesson, we’ll apply Kaizen to overcome that speech you’re dreading!