Have you heard of Pareto’s Law? You may have heard of the 80/20 Principle. The Law, as an example, demonstrates that 20% of workers accomplish 80% of productivity in any business setting. Vilfredo Pareto was an economist and philosopher (and more) who determined that 80% of the wealth was generated by 20% of the population. He revealed that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the inhabitants.
I leaned about the Pareto Rule over 20 years ago during my corporate life as a statistician. My analytical mind was put to use identifying and tracking metrics in the Hughes satellite factory in El Segundo, California. The goal – improvement – only happens through measuring and responding to those measurements. Root Cause Analysis and observation leads to success – guaranteed.
In the book “The 4-Hour Workweek” by Timothy Ferris, he suggests identifying the 20% of your sources that produce 80% of your desired results and happiness. Evaluating this theory at a personal level is quite insightful.
What are your ‘desired results” and what does “happiness” mean to you? You may want to get a pen and paper and jot down what comes to mind. Taking 5 minutes to read this and respond to your Inner Voice may drastically and irrevocably advance you toward your ideal life.
“Simplicity requires ruthlessness” Ferris says. To figure out what is most ‘important’ to do he suggests that you pretend you had a heart attack and can only work two hours a day. What would you complete if you could ‘do’ for only two hours a day? To obtain that which brings you the most happiness and joy, what would you do? How would you be? Who would you be in those two hours? Getting to this realization takes courage, awareness and bottom line thinking.
During the development of my latest hand analysis course, I’ve been contemplating the head line (in the hand) called “The Ruthless Mind”, named by Richard Unger. I call it the ‘Bottom Line Mind.” See Figure 1 with the head line traversing the palm with a flip up at the end. Look to see if you have one on your hand.
This head line indicates a super processor with the ability to get to the bottom line at lightning speed. This person is aware of what is really going on behind the scenes. She can condense the two-hour movie script into two sentences. She created the CliffNotes for “War and Peace” by Leo Tolstoy….and then simplified it even more.
If you have a head line, with a flip up at the end, toward the fingers, you’re probably not even reading this article any longer because you know where I’m ‘headed’. However, the other head line types might be curious.
Even if you don’t have this ‘Bottom Line Mind’ head line, you can still take a shortcut. Engage your internal computer to carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations that serve you.
Sizzle up your surveillance system. It’s obviously working for you in its own perfect way. And you can change the integrated circuitry to execute instructions for your happiness!
It’s OK to be ruthless in your Self inquiry. Get brutally and radically honest about your-good-stuff. Take a moment and quickly identify the 20% of your actions that bring you 80% of your delight. Think about this; 80% of the joy, bliss, satisfaction, peace, success – or whatever your-good-stuff definition is, comes from ONLY 20% of your CONSCIOUS actions. Don’t believe me. Experiment yourself.
Your computer program may rely on other people’s expectations, potential negative responses or on-going criticisms. For now, put them all on pause, or hit the delete key.
You are programmable. You have a code. You’re constantly calculating. This is Life-You. Say “Yes” to “You”. If needed, insert a new micro chip and get to the bottom line of your source of joy. Be still and go within.
If you feel the urge, report back to me. Your input will be gladly assimilated into my microprocessor.
