Last night, I hurt a friend, unintentionally, yet I did it. My only consolation was that it was not malicious. Nonetheless, I felt so awful that by my stupidity, I had disappointed someone I respected. Of course I apologized and fixed my error. Luckily for me, my friend has a generous heart and was forgiving. I had read recently that in every situation or challenge one faces, there can always be found a lesson of equal or greater value. I decided, while I was feeling really low about my fiasco to not wallow, but sift through the debris and look for that nugget of wisdom. In my search, this is what I found.

What is PDCA?

It stands for Plan-Do-Check-Adjust, and I will get into what those mean right away. This will work for anything you are trying to achieve, big or small goals, even abstract changes you are trying to establish. When I say abstract, I mean for goals such as “I want to be a better husband/wife” or “I want to be more patient”. I will discuss how to use this method for the abstract goals a little later in this post.

Before I answer that, let’s understand why you might want to “eat an elephant”. The elephant in this question is a metaphor for an obstacle you are trying to overcome, in order to reach an important goal you have for yourself. Those goals may be about your profession, they may be about your marriage, your children, your health, your spirituality, or your finances. Whatever your elephant is, read on to see how you can devour it.