"My husband Don is a packrat. . . . Over the Christmas holidays this year, he decided to take charge of it once and for all. . . . A week later, he pronounced, 'I realize what the problem is. It's so out of control that it's overwhelming. I don't even know where to begin. So I've decided that for my New Year's resolution, I'm going to throw away one thing a day. All I have to do is go in there every day and throw away one thing.'

"Smart man. He's figured out a secret to change: one tiny step at a time. And it often doesn't matter which small step. Just take one, as long as it's little. Then take another. Repeat until you've gotten where you want to be.

"This is a great technique not only for clearing clutter, but for any task that feels overwhelming. Want to lose fifty pounds? Concentrate on losing one by cutting out fried foods. (A male client of mine lost seventeen pounds by doing just that.) Or switch to light mayo. (A woman who lost forty-three pounds began that way.) The successes both met with that first small change allowed them to keep on going and up the ante to reach their goal.

"Want to change careers? Take one class or read one book or have one conversation. Then figure out your next small step. Want to write a book? Commit to writing one line a day. Otherwise it can seem so daunting that you never begin.

"It turns out that this technique has a name — kaisen, a Japanese strategy for change that relies on tiny, continuous improvements. It actually originated in the U.S. at the beginning of World War II and was introduced to Japan after the war. Why it works has to do with the brain structure I wrote of in 'Preparing to Change.' Whenever we initiate a change, even a positive one, we activate fear in our emotional brain. If the fear is big enough, the fight-to-flight response will go off and we'll run from what we're trying to do. The small steps in kaisen don't set off fight or flight, but rather keep us in the thinking brain, where we have access to our creativity and playfulness.

"And when they say small, they mean small. Practitioners such as Robert Maurer give assignments such as flossing one tooth to someone who wants to create the flossing habit, or marching in place for one minute for a person who wants to learn to exercise. Want some scientific proof? Researchers at the University of Bristol divided seventy-eight people into two groups. One was told to take 10,000 steps per day, the other 2,500. Which group hit their target more often? The 2,500 group succeeded twice as often as the other one.

"Breaking it down into small steps gives you the chance to experience success, which provides momentum to keep on going. It's also a great antidote to procrastination. You don't have to do it all, just one small thing. The other day, I heard Don saying to Ana, 'I can't play cards with you until I go into my room and throw away two things because I skipped yesterday.' The smallness of the task makes it possible to keep on going even when you mess up because it isn't a mountain of a screw-up. It took him all of two minutes to catch up. And with the daily small-step method, after only ten days his room is already looking better than it ever has.

"What's the first small step to what you want? Go ahead — underwhelm yourself. The success you create will give you the courage and enthusiasm to persevere and perhaps even up the ante. Once you've done step one, put step two in place. As the great basketball coach John Wooden once said, 'When you improve a little each day, eventually big things occur . . . seek the small improvement one day at a time.' "