Success Strategy - Applying Pareto's Principle

You have likely heard of Pareto's Principle, also referred to as the 80/20 rule...  which states that roughly 80% of the effects are derived from 20% of the causes.  The principle is named after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto who, in 1906, determined that roughly 80% of the land was owned by 20% of the population, that 80% of the peas in his garden were produced by 20% of his plants.  In business, most widely accept that 80% of their sales come from 20% of their customers.  However, how does this relate to us and our potential success?

Consider the following... 

Many of us would love to be able to speak a second language, if not a third or fourth.  However, it may often seem like a huge challenge, requiring years of effort to achieve.  However, to be conversationally fluent in Spanish you would need to have a vocabulary of 2,500 of the high-frequency words.  With these 2,500 words you would be able to understand 95% of all conversations.  In order to get 98% comprehension, you would need roughly 5 years of study and tens of thousands of new words added to those core 2,500.    To obtain 95% comprehension though, you would only need approximately 5 months of study. 

• 5 months of study for 95% comprehension
• 5 years of study for 98% comprehension

If you want to pick up the basics of a foreign language, which method would you want to invest in?  2,500 words represents only 2.5% of all Spanish words.  Therefore knowing only 2.5% of the total subject matter produces 95% of your desired results.  This is the Pareto Principle.

Now consider this in light of the previous post in which we talked about the concept of  'good enough' as it relates to your potential success.  How much effort and input is truly required for me to reap the benefits and rewards that I want and need?  This is the key question we rarely take the time to ask ourselves and, as a result, end up either expending too much time and effort relative to the results achieved, or we fail to take action at all, believing ourselves unable (or unwilling) to invest the effort we believe is required.

Certainly there is a significant difference in the perceived effort required to learn Spanish between 5 months and 5 years.  One's interest and commitment level certainly would need to be high to invest 5 years of study.  The biggest barrier most clients erect to their taking action on a desired goal is the 'lack of time'.  We only have so much time available to us each day, week and month with multiple demands for its use.  All too often we look only toward increasing our time management skills through the use of more efficient 'systems' for organizing our activities.  Instead, I invite you to be more strategic in the application of your time in the first place. 

The Work:

1. If 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts - you had better be very clear about what that 20% represents and ensure that your better-than-average efforts go here.  For other areas apply the 'good-enough' principle!  Less effort in these areas will not diminish your net results, in which case extra effort is a useless expenditure.
2. In any task consider which efforts contribute toward the final desired results.  These are your core energy expenditures.  Any other activities should be minimized, if not eliminated.
3. Consider also what your true end-goal is.  We have the number 100% imprinted in our heads...  we feel that we must do everything to 100%.  However, it is not only not always a realistic goal, it is often not practical.  If our goal is to be functionally bi-lingual in Spanish, then it does not require 100% comprehension.  5 months of study, netting us 95% comprehension is enough to have us up and running.  Additional time and effort is required to take us to 100% but in no way is it needed for us to be successful.  This extra time up front can save you significant time in the long run and have you enjoying your successes much sooner.
4. Adopt a selfish attitude when it comes to your time.  Your time is finite.  All too often we act and behave in ways that would indicate that our time is infinite and unimportant.  However, it is a central component to our own success and needs to be treated as such.  Therefore, ensure that you are not spending 80% of your time working to enhance someone else's success instead of your own.  You need a clear vision of what you want to achieve and what actions are necessary to get there.  80% of your time (minimum) needs to be spent fulfilling these objectives.

As to methods, there may be a million and then some, but principles are few.  The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods.    Ralph Waldo Emerson

Focus on Success, not Perfection

Let's start off the New Year with the intention to be more successful, NOT to be perfect.  Often it's the bid to be 'perfect' that creates the vision of the unachievable, an unobtainable goal that limits our success.  Focusing instead on being more successful allows for even small achievements to count, each of which, when combined with other small gains, may serve to move us forward exponentially.

Making a conscious effort to be 'perfect' in everything we do can serve to delay, if not deter, us from achieving.  The ideal of perfection is a near impossible standard to meet, considering we will almost always believe that we could have given or done more, if allotted more time, money, support, resources, education, etc.  Who wouldn't agree that they couldn't have done 1% more? 

That 1% is enough to keep you from earning the 'Perfect' title!  It's enough to label your accomplishments 'less than perfect', if only to yourself.  Many will find that they hesitate to take action, or even to try a new activity, when they know that their first efforts will likely fall short of that perfect mark. Thus, they have lost before they start.  Not trying prevents them from learning and developing new skills, from moving forward through achieving even small wins and successes.

Airplanes are constantly flying ín error, having to readjust their heading constantly, to enable them to get where they want to go.  In essence, they take action (set their direction), readjust their heading and take a new action (by setting a new heading), readjust.  These continuous course corrections are needed to keep the plane moving in its desired direction.  Effective and successful?  Yes.  Perfect?  Hardly.

How many times have you seen someone receive accolades for a project that you felt fell short of your mark, your standards?  Was it perfect?  No.  Was it 'good enough'?  Judging by the feedback of others, absolutely.  Take a moment to think about what 'good enough' bought them.

• Likely the same recognition, rewards and reputation boost that you received from your last 'perfect' project
• Less time spent on the completion of this current assignment that they were able to spend on completing other projects, or to focus on themselves, their family, their friends
• Less stress,given they were not agonizing over the need to be perfect or to having to hand something over that they felt was less than perfect
• They felt good about what they accomplished and were able to celebrate its 'successful' completion, rather than stressing over the elements they couldn't get to due to budget or time constraints.

In essence, letting go of the need for perfection frees you mentally, physically and emotionally... freeing you to accomplish more, to be and feel more successful.

The Work:

1.  At the beginning of a new project, take a look at the goals and milestones you have established and define 'levels' of performance.  If you have perfectionistic tendencies, you likely have already identified the 'ideal' for each milestone.  Add to it defined performance levels that aren't perfect but that are sufficient to meet the needs and expectations of others.  In essence, create a vision of the 'good enoughs'.

Establishing this 'good enough' level up front gives you a clear and okay fallback position for when time, money, people and life intervenes and makes the ideal a seemingly unobtainable goal.  Setting that fallback position upfront gives you the permission to use it when required.  Creating it later will always leave you feeling like you've failed.

2.  Some clients find it helpful to view performance standards through someone else's eyes, using someone else's yardstick instead of their own perfectionistic one.  You might use someone else's views to help you establish the 'good enough' mark, while your standards might establish the 'íf time permits' level of performance.  If you find that you are uncomfortable with a 'good enough' goal that someone else establishes, then use it as a minimum level of achievement and set levels of performance in staged levels of achievement beyond this point.  Good enough plus 10%, good enough plus 20%...  You might then discover that you can feel pretty good at letting go of a project at 'good enough plus 15%', giving you a lot more flexibility than always having to achieve 50% more than everyone else in your bid to be perfect.  What could you do with the gift of time that 35% represents? 

This isn't settling folks, it's called being strategic.  If putting an additional 35% of effort into something will not net you at least 35% more in gains, you are wasting your effort... which likely could net you additional gains by being applied elsewhere. Your time and effort are not limitless commodities.  Learning to assign your efforts and time appropriately is what effective time management and ultimately, your success, is dependent upon. Our mantra for the New Year then?  Success through Imperfection!