If you want to be successful in life, there are only a few fundamentals that you need to focus on. You really don’t need to do everything possible out there to be a great success, but you do need to understand what those key factors are that are essential to accomplish.
Everyone by now has heard of the 80/20 rule also known as the Pareto principal. This simple idea was named after the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto by the management consultant Joseph Juran in 1896. The idea has been around for a long time now and has proven itself to be true in thousands of examples says that roughly 80% of effects come from just 20% of causes. For example, 80% of sales generally come from 20% of the clients; 20% of drivers commit about 80% of the accidents and 20% of a company’s employees produce roughly 80% of the results.
The reason this is important to our personal success is that this curious little rule holds true for us too. In other words you can expect that if you made a list of all the things necessary to become financially successful, you would find that in reality just 20% of your list would be those key items that you need to focus on to be financially well-off. This is very good news for all of us because no one can do everything recommended all the time. However, if you willing to take the time to identify the truly vital success tasks and just do those well – your success is almost guaranteed.
Unfortunately, most people don’t take the time to identify those key items and create a “success task list”. Many people stay busy and work very hard sadly however they are not working on the right things that bring success. Regrettably these unknowing people major on the minor things in life instead of the things that really produce results.
It is far too easy to fall into the trap of working on things that are pressing or seem urgent at the time. Yes, the dishes need to be done and the lawn needs to be cut but do these things fall into the 20% or the 80% category for success? Please don’t let the minutia of life steal your bright and exciting future.
You however are different; I know this because you are reading this post. You care about personal success and improving your life – so for people like us, we are going to sit down and thoughtfully write down or goals and from that list create a sub-list which identifies the major tasks required for success for each individual goal. The last step is to then relentlessly attack those tasks until completed. Now you are on the road of working smarter and greatly increasing your level of productivity. You won’t need to work harder or work more hours – just by changing what you focus your attention on will make all the difference!
Anthony Hampton is a success coach, thought leader, successful business owner and driver behind the Good Life.
I do this. I get super busy and work my butt off but it is usually on things that seem urgent but don’t really make my life better in the end.