Johnny's main objective was to pay $25,000 debt. At this point, he is far from accomplishing that, but he has managed to learn that by tracking his expenses he would know the difference between, "needs" and "wants". As he does this, Johnny set the PDCA wheel in motion once again and came up with a new plan. Let's push the PDCA wheel and see what he did:
Round 2
PLAN
Having found unnecessary expenses that would eventually hurt him, he decided to cut down as many "wants" and kept tracking expenses. In other words, he did something to reduce entertainment expenses first.
DO
No more weekly movie nights with the kids. This would reduce his expenses by $25 weekly/$100 monthly. He also cut down on snacks and gluten-rich foods which amounted to $10 weekly/$40 monthly.
CHECK
After this exercise, Johnny found himself having saved $100 + $40 = $140. Being able to cut down $140 from his monthly budget made him very happy and encouraged him to continue doing it. He kept tracking expenses and found that there were other smaller things that could be done.
ACT
Now that he managed to increase his income by reducing his unnecessary expenses, Johnny is ready to do something with this new $140 income!
Johnny kept spinning the PDCA wheel again and again. At the end of each cycle, he found himself with more data, and more interesting facts to learn from. He made decisions based on the new findings and kept doing it and doing it. Changes don't occur with at first time, but as we keep following the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle again, we will find out that it gets more interesting.
As we close our story, Johnny got a part-time job during the evenings. The income he got in his new job gave him an additional $500 per month. Having two jobs was exhausting but in time, he was able to put away enough money to pay his debts.
Johnny's diligent work-ethic got him a promotion at his main job that allowed him to quit his part-time job and still make more money. He managed to spend more time with children and put his new healthy habits to work for him. After he paid his debts, he continued to save money consistently until he had enough money to start a new business. What a success story!
You may not need to meet Johnny Hernandez, but if you take your life as seriously as he did, the continued spinning of the PDCA wheel will take you very, very far, on your personal life, and definitely at work. PDCA teaches us that true improvement one step at a time. Data is gathered, money is saved, but mostly, a character is shaped and new habits are developed.
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