80 gain/ 20 pain – managing time for greatest pleasure

You may have heard of the 80/20 principle. The principle is sometimes referred to as the Pareto Principle named after Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist at the University of Lausanne who produced a paper in 1896 indicating that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population and that 80% of the peas in his garden were contained in only 20% of the pea pods.The 80-20 Principle The Secret to Success by Achieving More with Less, written by Richard Koch, took the principle further by gathering examples from around the world and demonstrating the broad validity that the principle has and that it can be applied in our way of thinking about how we live our lives.

Ultimately, through application of this principle, we can maximise productivity through minimal effort. By focusing on what we want to achieve in terms of outcomes – such as health, wealth and happiness – we can work backward to identify options and strategies to empower and enable us to achieve our goals with grace and ease.

However this presents a number of challenges including:

• are you clear what you want to achieve in your life?
• do you have a clear picture of what form you want your journey to take towards achieving what you want to achieve?
• are you sufficiently prepared to do what you need to do to achieve what you want to achieve?
• are you conscious of potential or actual risks that may arise during your journey and how you will maintain your resilience in overcoming any “bumps in the road”?
• are you prepared and willing to hold yourself accountable for all your actions?
• are you sufficiently energised to make the sacrifices you may need to make in the short time in order to maximise your likelihood of success in the longer term?

You are the master of your ship and you have all the resources you need to be want you want to be, do what you want to do and have what you want to have.

The world is awash with knowledge of what works, examples of people who have succeeded against the odds, of paths to success.

Your challenge, should you wish to accept it, is to connect with these resources. Invest in your success, learn what works, model yourself on champions. You invest in the effort, you will gain the reward. The greater the effort, the greater the reward.

Over to you.