Mindset Monday: Tips to get your mind right

Perhaps you have heard of the 80/20 Rule or Pareto’s Principle.  Vilfredo Pareto, an  Italian economist, observed that 80% of Italy’s land was owned by 20% of the people.  This principle, that 20% of effort leads to 80% of results, is seen in almost any system or environment.

Here are a few examples from http://www.bsu.edu/libraries/ahafner/awh-th-math-pareto.html:

• 80% of a manager’s interruptions come from the same 20% of the people
• 80% of a problem can be solved by identifying the correct 20% of the issues
• 80% of advertising results come from 20% of your campaign.
• 80% of an equipment budget comes from 20% of the items
• 80% of an instructor’s time is taken up by 20% of the students
• 80% of customer complains are about the same 20% of your projects, products, services.
• 80% of our personal telephone calls are to 20% of the people in our address book
• 80% of our shipments utilize 20% of your inventory.
• 80% of sales time is spent on 20% of the customers, who may not be the profitable 20%
• 80% of the decisions made in meetings come from 20% of the meeting time
• 80% of what we produce is generated during 20% of our working hours
• 80% of your annual sales come from 20% of your sales force
• 80% of your future business comes from 20% of your customers
• 80% of your growth comes from 20% of your products
• 80% of your innovation comes from 20% of your employees or customers
• 80% of your profits come from 20% of your customers
• 80% of your staff headaches come from 20% of our employees
• 80% of your success comes from 20% of your efforts
• 80% of your website traffic comes from 20% of your pages

The Scary Part

Now here comes the scary part:  implementing the 80/20 rule.

1. Pick an area that you want to dramatically improve:  finances, profits, weight loss, writing, etc.
2. Track and Measure what you are currently doing in that area
3. Look for the patterns of 20% effort leading to 80% result and the 80% effort that is leading to only 20% result
4. Scary Part:  Cut the 80% that is only leading to 20% result
5. Fill that 80% with more of the efforts that were giving the original 80% result
6. Continue to track and measure

I think it’s scary because it means we have to change.  Just focus on the benefits that you will see if you can improve that area of your life.  For us, I know we have to create more original programming.  We have been focusing a lot of our effort into that this year and will be releasing new shows shortly.

What areas can you improve?  Give it a try because how many chances do you get in life?