Busy, Busy, Busy!

How do you spend your day, full-filling what is MOST important?

The 80/20 Principle

Imagine you throw a small rock in a puddle of water. What happens? That small piece creates an even larger ripple, impacting the water it was thrown into. This concept of small actions that can make a BIG impact is crucial to our lives. But only if they are the RIGHT actions. 

The Pareto Principle or more commonly known as the 80/20 Principle explains that 80% of an outcome is directly related to only 20% of its causes.

What does this look like in real life? It could be that only 20% of employees within a workplace are creating 80% of the revenue. Or from all the choices you have when buy a product, only 20% of these choices are providing the most sales. Or only 20% of the customer base are the ones making the 80% of the profit. Or when you look into your closet each morning, you are most likely only going to chose 20% of your wardrobe to actually wear 80% of the time.

Enter you and me, working parents, spouses, friends, daughters, sons, maybe even students or leaders. Take a hard look at your calendar. How are you filling your days? 20% of your TIME is directly connected to 80% of your success!

For me this was a lightbulb, WAKE UP CALL. Are you like me and feel like you are constantly running from one task to the next trying to make everyone around you “happy” without even asking yourself, am I happy? What makes ME happy? What fills me up? What am I saying “yes” to that connects to my purpose and what am I saying “yes” to just because I feel like I should?

Trust me, I get it. Dishes, laundry, running kids to basketball practice and oh, I also need to drink more water, exercise and be a loving, spontaneous partner and friend-are important and need to get done. It feels unrealistic right? And if you’re like me, sometimes I get so overwhelmed, I don’t even know where to start and how to make even the smallest changes. 

So what do I do? Continue to stay in the daily chaos of my calendar controlling me, even though it’s not efficient and its not contributing to 20% of my success—it feels comfortable and SAFE.

Finding the 20%

Many people the first thing they do when they wake up in the morning is 1.) Check Social Media (GUILTY HERE) and 2.) Check their emails (GUILTY AGAIN). Sometimes before I even get out of bed, I am checking this….WHY?!

This can set the tone of your day, that YOU are not in control of your time and your priorities. It is dictated by others. You begin responding to emails, REACTING or numbing your body into the coma of the scroll-liking photo after photo or reading gossip chatter and negative news. 

One small step, I’ve made in the last week is to NOT dictate the course of my day by these two forms of media first thing in the morning. Instead, I’m re-grounding myself in what is most important for ME that day that connects to my bigger goals and purpose. And yes, I am fully aware that I’m currently utilizing Social Media this very moment to spread this message. But let’s be honest, THIS IS WHERE YOU ARE RIGHT?! I’d rather share a positive narrative than get lost in the toxic garbage being shared out there.

I share this, not to make myself feel better and for those reading to feel guilty. But to hold myself ACCOUNTABLE because I definitely do not have it all figured out. And to do so, I need YOUR support. Join me, in discovering your 20%!

I recently read the book, “The One Thing” by Gary Keller and chairman of Keller Williams Reality International, which happens to be the largest real estate industry in the world. According to Keller, “success isn’t about doing everything, it is about doing the right thing. All too often, we find ourselves so lost in the weeds of our day to day life that we lose focus on what we need to do to succeed.”

So where can you start? It’s shifting from checking off all the boxes on your “to do list” of your day to finding what truly matters MOST and where should you be spending your time. Remember 80% of our results come from 20% of your efforts. 

We ALL have the same 24 hours within a day. How can we using those hours? Each time we add one more little task, we are taking away from our own happiness and what matters most.

The One Thing

At this point you’re probably asking, ok ok I get it, but how?! I know and this to be honest with you is where my discomfort begins too. I can read and read about theory and say, YES this is what I need in my life but to actually put it into practice, let’s where I start to second guess myself or push this off to a “tomorrow” project. 

But here’s where the accountability comes in again. I am pushing myself past this discomfort to truly enter a space of growth and ACTION. 

Join me as I share my own personal journey. It starts like this…

 I recently wrote down 3-4 activities that I engage that I am extremely passionate about, the things that MATTER MOST to me. 

Then I wrote down 3-4 outcomes connected to each of those activities. I went with my gut and tried not overthink it—something I tend to do often. 

From there, I circled one activity and one direct outcome that are connected and I feel are most important to my purpose, success and happiness. 

Keller refers to this as the answer to this question, leading you to your ONE THING.

“What is the one thing I can do in my life that would mean the most to me in the world, such that by doing it everything else would be easier or unnecessary?”

And that’s where I leave you today, to urge you to join this journey ALONGSIDE me. From here, next week I will share about next steps in creating actionable goals that connect to your one thing, your 20% 

As Stephen Covey would say “If the big rocks don’t go in first, they aren’t going to fit in later.”

My One Thing….

“To share my own experiences of growth and self awareness and how this connects to my family relationships so that I can inspire and engage other families to do the same.”

Shh….don’t judge, it’s still a draft! Vulnerability is GROWTH and POWER!