The History Of Pareto Scale
Have you ever heard of a concept called the Pareto Principle? If not, it is possible that you may have heard about it under another name- The 80/20 Rule. Management consultant Joseph Juran developed the concept of the Pareto Principle. He developed it for the purposes of organizational quality control and improvement. He picked up on the concept after reading from the works of Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto. Pareto noted that 80% of the land in Italy is owned by 20% of the population.
In simple terms, the 80/20 Rule means that 80% of your beneficial results comes about from just 20% of available time resources. You get a lot of stuff accomplished in 20% of your time. You get a little bit of stuff done with 80% of your time.
Some Examples of the Pareto Principle
Let’s look at some examples of the Pareto Principle in the world today.
In the business world, there is the axiom that 80% of sales are generated by 20% of clients.
A United Nations report revealed that 80% of the world’s wealth is held by 20% of the population.
In computer science, 80% of software errors and crashes come from 20% of reported bugs.
Software developers have found that 80% of the time people use 20% of a program’s functions.
In baseball, there is a statistic that is kept called “wins above replacement”. This stat basically shows how many wins a team has with a certain player in the lineup as opposed to that player not being in the lineup. Roughly 80% of a team’s wins are achieved with 20% of the roster in the lineup.
In workplace safety, studies via the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, show that 20% of workplace hazards account for 80% of workplace injuries.
In healthcare, 20% of patients use approximately 80% of healthcare resources.
Criminal justice statistics reveals that 80% of the crimes that are committed are committed by 20% of the criminal population.
A 1988 report regarding video rental stores (remember them?) disclosed 80% of sales come from 20% of videotapes.
In my own career experience as a union representative, I definitely can attest that 80% of grievance litigation work came from 20% of the union members (who we used to refer to as “the usual suspects”).
Why Should It Even Matter To You
OK, if you were not familiar with the Pareto Principle, now you have an idea of what it is. If you already had heard of it, this was a super condensed refresher. It is possible your response may be – “So what, who cares? How does all this jazz affect me and my life”? That is a valid question.
Being continually aware of the 80/20 Rule is important to you because it can be applied to a person’s lifetime as well. Almost everybody has “stuff” that they want to accomplish in this lifetime. It matters not what the “stuff” is. You know what it is. It could be money, relationships, career, health or intercession ability or any combination thereof. Even the guy who just wants to get laid. That would fall under the category of relationships (and after he gets an STD, regaining good health).
Permit me to extrapolate the 80/20 Rule. The average person spends approximately 20% of their non-sleeping, non-working, non-eating, non-showering, non-shitting (well, you get the idea) time achieving 80% of the “stuff” that they want to achieve. The grim reaper is a particularly uncompromising fellow. You do not know when he is going to come for you. You do know that there is a limit on the amount of time that you have here in this world.
Now, applying this to the 80/20 Rule, if you get an achievement rate of 80% of what you were going for by using only 20% of your available time, what do you think would happen if, during your entire lifetime, you just as productively used 25%, 30%, even 35% of your available time over your lifetime. You more than likely would surpass what you ever imagined was possible.
Yeah, But…….
“Yeah but” you say, “I need some down time, some goofing off time in my life. I’m not a robot or something”. Even if you pushed up effective usage of your available time to 35%, that would still give you almost two thirds of all the available time in your life to goof off. The Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu said many moons ago, “To say I don’t have time is to say I don’t want to”.
Time Use Defines Who You Are
Which type are you? Are you the one who says, “God did not give me a spirit of fear, but of love, of power and of discipline”. Or are you the one who says, “I wonder what’s new on Tik Tok?” Are you fully engaged in the disciplined process of clarifying your desires and creating an inner crystal clear image of them? If so, you must prioritize your spending of time in the direction of your heart’s desires rather than the thousand and one distractions that the world throws at you. Ultimately, the way in which you use your available time defines who you are.
For every decade that you live in this earth dimension, your perspective on time changes. In your youth you go through the “I’m going to live forever” stage. In middle-age, you notice time moving faster and say to yourself, “Seems like only yesterday that I was 20, but I still have time to work with”. In your old age, you say to time, “Damnit, slow down, you’re driving too fast”!
The thing about time is this – It is completely free, but at the same time it is beyond putting a value on it. You can spend every “penny” of time that you get but you can’t store any of it away. Once you have spent your hour, your day, your year, your decade, you can never get it back, it’s gone.
Alright let’s say that you have lived your designated amount of years. The grim reaper is walking up the sidewalk to your front door. You did achieve some stuff but other stuff was left undone or you screwed up. You had successes. You had failures. How much of your life conformed to the 80/20 Rule? How much could you have done that was left undone through a misuse of time? Start today to really look at how you are spending your available time. The substance of your life depends on it.
Dammit, Can I get a Re-Do?
When your body stops functioning and your spirit moves on to the next realm, you will have an opportunity to review your life here on earth from start to finish. Everything in your life will be reviewed from several different perspectives. You will not only see happenings and events from your viewpoint. You will also see and feel how your thoughts, words and actions affected all the primary people in your life. You will see how careless words negatively affected a human soul. You will see how a seemingly insignificant kind action on your part positively affected a human soul. You will see and feel – everything. The entire process will be monitored by higher evolved spirits (No, they won’t be piping in and saying, “You jerk, why did you do that”.).
After a certain point in my own life review, I can imagine myself blurting out, “Dammit, can I get a re-do or something”? Whereupon the monitor smacks my hand with a ruler saying, “We don’t swear around here”. That image reminds me of that scene in the movie, The Blues Brothers when Belushi and Ackroyd are visiting the nun. She explains that the orphanage is in a bind and needs help in the form of money. The Belushi character offers to help and his offer is rejected by the nun. Belushi then says, ” Well, I guess your up shit creek”. She promptly smacks him on the hand with a ruler. This causes him to curse again in pain which then causes the nun to continue smacking him. This goes on hilariously until while attempting to retreat back to his car, he tumbles down the stairs while still seated in a way too small for him school desk. She tells both of them not to return until they have redeemed themselves. Thereupon is the basis for his and Ackroyd’s further adventures.
Strait Is The Gate
Have you ever heard someone use the expression, “From now on I’m going to stay on the strait and narrow”. You may see it spelled “straight and narrow” but strait is the correct word. Strait means narrow or constricted. It is where we get the words straitjacket and straitlaced.
What this phrase means is that when someone follows the strait and narrow, they are making every effort to conduct their life according to Universal Law. Universal Law which has been set into action by God.
The actual phrase is taken from the biblical text in the book of Matthew – “Enter ye in at the strait gate; for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat; because strait is the gate, and narrow the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it”.
In consciously manifesting into this physical world your dreams and desires, be aware of this: that the majority of the world’s population productively uses but 20% of their available precious time to bring about most of what they want to accomplish. The other 80% of available time is by and large wasted. Is just observing and appreciating a bird or a flower or a cloud wasting your time? No. Is gossip and backbiting and jealousy and worry and violence and spite wasting your time? Yes.
Each day requires you to go to work, to school, to attend to family needs, to attend to personal needs, to eat, to sleep. After all the necessaries are done however, comes your available time. In the next twelve months, endeavor to take that 20% effective usage of your time and bump it up to 25% or even 30%. Take that additional time and devote it totally to thoughts, words and actions which will lead you to consciously manifest your inner greatness. Within you is the Kingdom of God which patiently awaits your arrival.
Who knows? If you devote enough of your allotment of time to aligning yourself with Universal Intelligence, the I AM, you may not even be required to have to do a re-do like me.
Believe. Receive.