You Can be Great If You Really Want To

Trouble sleeping?

Afraid to start taking sleeping pills and other medication? You are correct there is a nautural cure.

However, your body produces a hormone called melatonin, and for a variety of reasons, you may not be getting enough. Your sleep problem may be due to this.

The answer to sleep problems, aging and many more questions may be found in this wonderful hormone called melatonin.

Melatonin is a natural hormone found in ALL living creature, from the plant to animal kingdoms. In higher animal species, it is produced in the pineal gland (in the brain), but also in the eye (retina) and the gastro-intestinal tract.

What is Melatonin?

A naturally occurring hormone (derived from serotonin) that is both endocrine (enters the bloodstream from a pineal gland) and paracrine (signaling cell phenomenon, as from the retina when light is low, when the signal is “time to sleep”).

Melatonin, besides being a sleep hormone, is a very powerful antioxidant, anti-aging agent, immunoregulator, anti-depressant and sexual dysfunction regulator.

Is it Safe to Take?

Actually, the 3mg standard dose has virtually no side effects, and does not also affect the body’s ability to produce its own melatonin.

Rather, in today’s world where we are exposed to great amounts of strong artificial light, our bodies will not produce the melatonin it generally needs.

Melatonin also plays a key role in memory and our ability to learn quickly.

Some very famous studies have been made on melatonin (one by the Nobel Prize laureate Julius Axelrod) where it was proven that melatonin plays a direct role in establishing our sleep cycle and more.

In some mammals with short mating periods (due to hibernation), melatonin also is related to the production of other hormones which control sexual activity.

There are no toxic dangers at all, but it will cause drowsiness, so one must not take it prior to driving or operating mechanical equipment.

It may also react with some medications, so if you are taking any monoamine oxidize inhibitors (MAOIs), you must consult your doctor before taking melatonin

Melatonin and Your Sleep

It seems the very best and easiest solution to restless and un-easy sleep is to take one 3mg melatonin tablet 15 minutes prior to going to bed.

Also for at least 1 hour before going to sleep, make sure the lighting in your environment is progressively less and less, so as to stimulate your body’s own melatonin secretions.

Remember, bright light can block melatonin production completely.

Along with the melatonin and dim lights, try to put on some restful and soothing music to keep your mind from focusing on your problems and not sleeping.

Sleep should come too effortlessly, without dangerous and habit forming drugs.

Some Interesting facts about Melatonin

People who work at night, and have their melatonin blocked by evening bright lights have a significant higher incidence of cancer than day workers.

Melatonin appears to prevent the hyperphosphorylation of the tau protein.

It has been proven that hyperphosphorylation of tau protein results in the formation of neurofibrillary tangles. Neurofibrillary tangles are a pathological occurrence seen in Alzheimer’s, so melatonin may prove a very beneficial treatment as well as preventative for Alzheimer’s disease.

So, instead of getting hooked on sleeping medicines, try melatonin, and remember all the other benefits it may bring to you as well.

It is impossible to quantify the flurry emotions that go on in the life of an individual at each moment. However, to keep things simple for the sake of understanding, let us assume that human beings can be broadly classified into two categories, one who have self-confidence and the second who don’t.

We all must have witnessed at some point of time how the self-confident people conduct themselves. They are normally very confident in their walk, talk and anything that they do. Sometimes, they can be so marvelously eloquent in their speech that we are left with no option but to admire them with awe. They very often evoke a feeling from within us that is if such is the way ideal men/women are supposed to lead their lives, why can’t I aspire to be like them?

The more time that we spend in the company of such confident people, the more clearly we are able to see the vast difference between them and the people with low self-esteem. The people with low self-esteem are normally so low on confidence that they tremble just by the idea of interacting with others.

Eventually, what identifies an individuals’ confidence level is the disposition of the individual. If an individual conducts himself/herself with aplomb, he/she is considered high of self-confidence, else low on it.

Well, developing self-confidence is within every ones reach. Very fortunately, self-confidence is not something that we inherit from our parents, but is cultivated and conditioned during our growing up years and even until the later part of our lives.

In case you are among the lot that is immensely low on self-esteem and want to give yourself a shot in the arm, the primary thing that you must concentrate on is try changing your basic perceptions and attitudes.

Many people resort to spirituality and chant various mantras as soon as they discover their confidence levels dipping. It is the best method to verbally communicate to ones inner self and recondition ones state of mind. It also helps in determining that your actions are not true representation of the individual that you are. The mistakes and errors you may have committed are not the correct reflection of you as an individual. They’re mostly temporary in nature and do not in any way represent your true potential, which is boundless.

All this may sound quite obvious or spontaneous, but still may feel like unachievable as well. What is of utmost importance is that you develop strong belief in your abilities. Unless you do that, you will always find yourself slipping back into lower self-esteem condition time and again.

Such an effort is also vital in keeping you off your negative thoughts and tendencies. Nothing can be more detrimental to your efforts to develop high self-confidence than giving into your negative tendencies. You must constantly be on guard against all such habits and actively try to suppress negative feelings whenever they surface.

Lean Six Sigma Project Format

3 – 5 Weeks in duration 2 – 3 days per week Team members return to work for the remainder of the week or use time to gather data and communicate updates to department employees Project Phases – Define, Analyze / Mapping, Design, Rollout Plan Education/workshop on day 1 of each week, if needed Report out to Business/Executive Sponsor 2 – 6 month Implementation Rollout, Monthly Team follow-up meetings / conference calls

The Lean Six Sigma Project Format works on projects that need a few weeks to complete the improvement.  This can be due to many reasons.

The scope of the project may cross multiple departments and cannot be broken down into smaller parts or the process will be sub-optimized The team will need to gather, analyze and quality-check data before making critical decisions (Performance, Sales or Time Study data) The small Lean Six Sigma Team needs to get input from company associates who are not on the team, to ensure buy-in

In these circumstances the changes made by the Lean Six Sigma Team need to be well thought-out.  Decision-making cannot be rushed!

Projects that require a 3 – 5 week project versus a one week Kaizen event include:

Customer profitability analysis – Politically sensitive data and decisions Product rationalization – Important to use correct data or highly negative decisions can be made Order to Delivery streamlining – Processes that touch multiple departments Human Resource processes – Often involving legal issues Warehouse layout – A lot of work required Flow Manufacturing / Kanban Materials Management – Where parts, supplies and components are shared by different product families and therefore different Flow Cells Supply Chain improvements – Involving suppliers

Kaizen Event Format

Day 1 – Lean Education

Day 2 – Analyze current process and begin improvements

Day 3 – Continue improvements

Day 4 – Document new standards

Day 5 – Present results and celebrate

Failings of the Kaizen Event Method

> Action Item List not completed

> Rushed decisions

> Incomplete time studies

> Data not quality checked

> Poor record of sustaining

Kaizen events are meant to start and finish a Lean project in one week.  In many cases, however, the Friday celebration is just creating an action item list.  When the energy and focus of the Kaizen week is over, this action item list often lingers and the action items never get completed.  The result is that actual savings/improvements are far less than the calculated savings.

Because of the 1 week format, and the fact that the team is working full time on this project, decisions are often rushed.  Allocating 1 day to do time studies or gather other critical data is just not enough.  In 1 week, a few product families get time studied but not all.  Data is gathered, but it is not verified as being accurate.  There is no time to gather additional input from employees that are knowledgeable about this process, but are not on the team.

The result is often a solution that is “shoved down people’s throats”.  When this happens, employees who were not on the team will naturally push-back.  The result is an unsustainable process and actual results never equal the theoretical results.

Anyone involved in Kaizen events will tell you that sustaining is the hardest part.  But in the Kaizen process it gets the least focus.

What Kaizen Events Are Good At

Kaizen events can be successful.  There are two circumstances where we have been successful using the one week events to improve processes.

First is when the process being analyzed is very focused, affects only one or two departments and does not impact other parts of the company.  We used a Kaizen Event at a Retailer who was looking at eliminating redundant paperwork in the Procurement department.  This involved primarily just Buyers and Administrators in Procurement.  The improvements the Lean Team made were eliminating printing and copying paper.  This didn’t affect other departments in the company.

Another example of a focused Kaizen Event is reducing machine set-up time using Quickchangeover tools.  This improvement is focused on one machine and can largely get done, while communicating with all operators involved, in one week.

Kaizen Events can also be affective for 5S Visual Management implementations.  This involves labeling, organizing and sorting the workplace.  We would usually involve most of the people who work in the area involved.  This type of Lean tool can usually get done in one week (if the area is properly scoped out in advance) and does not have numerous additional action items that need to be completed after the week is over.

Benefits of the Lean Project Format

Breaks in the project (non project meeting-days) allow time to gather, quality check and refine data Breaks allow time to present current state process flow maps or time study results to additional department employees who are not on the Lean Team Duration of the project provides enough time to complete time studies of all product families The last week is dedicated to creating a control plan (how solution will be integrated into the business) and rollout plan

The key to the success of the Project Format is the duration of the project and the breaks in between meeting-days.  The duration allows for a completeness of analysis, communication of the improvements and a design that works and is well received by all department employees.

The breaks give Lean Team Members time to catch up with their regular jobs and work externally of the Lean Six Sigma Project to gather the data and communicate the current state with fellow department employees.

The last week of the project is dedicated to thinking about Sustainment.  This involves Control Plans, or how the process improvement will be integrated into the business process.  The team also builds a Rollout Plan (schedule) to show how changes will be sequenced into the business to ensure testing and acceptance.

Sometimes going a little bit slower will achieve real results faster.