The Pareto Principle And Your Life

Practice the Pareto Principle and Reap the Results You Seek in Your Life

 

 

 

Pareto PrincipleThe 80/20 Rule, or Pareto Principle, probably isn’t new to you. The Pareto Principle is the idea that 80% of your results come from 20% of your actions. You wear 20% of your clothes 80% of the time. The top 20% of sales people make 80% of the sales. It’s a powerful concept that can be used to change your life quickly.

Use the 80/20 Rule to create the life you desire:

  1. Realize that your instinct is to focus on the 80% of your options that provide minimal results. The Pareto principle isn’t for the weak-hearted. The easy, comfortable actions we prefer are those that provide little in the way of results. The most meaningful actions are less comfortable.
  • For example, switching to fat-free doughnuts isn’t too hard, but it also won’t lead to a lot of weight loss. Leaving the dinner table when you’re still a little hungry each night for 6 months is more challenging, but will make a huge difference.
  1. It can be applied to nearly any area of your life. 80% of your happiness comes from 20% of your actions. What if you arranged your life so you could spend more time on that 20%? By the same token, 80% of the grief in your life comes from 20% of the people in your life. What if you could limit or eliminate them from your life?
  2. The 80/20 principle saves a lot of time. By focusing on the actions that make the biggest difference, you can save a tremendous amount of time.
  • It’s all about efficiency. Consider each part of your life and make a list of the most important actions you take. These are the vital few actions that make most of the difference.
  1. Ask yourself the important questions, using the 80/20 principle. Then, you’ll have enough information to make a huge change in your life. You know what makes you happy, who makes you happy, and what creates your success. You also know which things and people are obstacles to these objectives.
  • Which 20% of my activities cause 80% of my stress?
  • Which 20% of my activities lead to 80% of my happiness?
  • Which 20% of my friends do I enjoy the most?
  • Which 20% of my friends cause the most pain?
  • Which 20% of my skills account for 80% of my success?
  • Which 20% of my beliefs cause 80% of my grief?
  1. Begin to apply the principle to your life. What are you trying to accomplish? Let’s imagine that you own a business and want to apply the Pareto Principle.
  • 20% of your employees do 80% of the work. You’d better treat them well to ensure they don’t leave!
  • 20% of your employees cause 80% of the problems. You might want to show them the door.
  • 20% of your customers provide 80% of your profits. Cater to these customers.
  • 20% of your actions created 80% of your customers. Focus on those actions to gain new customers.
  • 20% of the actions you take provide 80% of the value you’re creating at work. Spend more time on that 20%.

The 80/20 principle can be applied to any part of your life you wish to change. You’ll save a tremendous amount of time and get more accomplished. Ensure that you’re spending your time on the activities that can create the biggest impact.

To your success

Michael W

Michael W

Where Do You Put Your Effort To Be Successful

“Success is…
knowing your purpose in life,
growing to reach your maximum potential, and
sowing seeds that benefit others.”
John C. Maxwell

The 80/20 Principle – Knowing Where to Put Your Effort In

Pareto PrincipleGoing big is often the best way to ensure your success – create enough output, take enough chances and eventually you’ll be sure to have a hit or ten under your belt which for many of us will be more than enough.

But while working hard enough is often the secret to almost guaranteed success, you mustn’t also underestimate the power of working smart.

What it Means to Work Smart

What it means to work smart is basically to be strategic in the way that you approach any problem or any ambition. In turn, this means approaching your aims in such a way that you will be able to cut corners and accomplish the most with the minimal effort. In theory, this will then allow you to combine your smart strategy with huge output in order to accomplish the best possible results. Putting in 10,000 hours is a great way to become an expert – but the quality of those 10,000 hours also makes a big difference.

The 80/20 Rule

The 80/20 rule, also sometimes know as the ‘Pareto Principle’, basically states that whatever it is that you do, 20% of your effort will yield 80% of your success. So if you sell 100 products, chances are that 20 of them (or even fewer) will make up the vast majority of your cash.

The moral of this story is that if you ‘throw enough paint at the wall’ some is bound to stick. We often won’t know what is going to be the most important aspect of our strategy but once we do, it’s then a good idea to focus on that smaller percentage that yields results.

In the case of a business providing a service, it will often be that the company makes the vast majority of its money from just a few clients while the others serve as nothing but a distraction really. In other cases, it might be that a small number of clients cause the vast majority of the problems.

In such a case, it would be wise for that business to lose the 20% causing the 80% of the problem and even to get rid of some of those clients that aren’t bringing much to the table. Instead, focus purely on the ones that are generating the most income and actually life will be easier and you’ll earn much more. Then you can put in huge effort and see huge rewards for both them and you!

Michael W

Michael W


 

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