The 80/20 "Rule" As A Basis of Individual Life Philosophy

Nothing *heavy* philosophically here; I've undergone some dramatic changes in my life in the past month, and am using this thread as a spring-board to bounce off some ideas, and hopefully get some input from you all

100% is perfect, correct? Six Sigma is almost perfect. I've lived most of my life with an aspiration to strive to be perfect...until I grew a bit.

Realizing that the world's/life's responsibilities, and demands are often in conflict with perfection, I adapted the 80/20 rule to my life several years ago.

It doesn't matter which particular aspect of my life I'm relating to: spirituality, career/work, family, relationships/friends, material needs, hobbies, etc. -- what I have discovered is that if a specific area of my job, for example, is satisfactory to me (while not harming others) at least 80% of the time, then I am content with that area. The same applies to any other aspect.

The questions I pose you, are:
1. How do you assess your life with its ups and downs, strengths and weaknesses-- if at all?
2. Do you think that 80% leaves too much to be desired (after all, you may be missing out on 20% of "something")?
3. Can you think of any additions or deletions to this rule based on your own experiences?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts

reply to post by sonjah1


Just for clarity, "Six Sigma" refers to +/- 6 Standard Deviations, or ~99.99966% accuracy in manufacturing processes.

Originally posted by myster0
reply to post by sonjah1

 

Just for clarity, "Six Sigma" refers to +/- 6 Standard Deviations, or ~99.99966% accuracy in manufacturing processes.

Obviously I know that or I wouldn't have said *almost* perfect. But life is a on-going process, isn't it?

reply to post by sonjah1


Yes 80% for me and twenty % for everyone else...oh wait, My name is not Rothchild.

reply to post by ldyserenity


Now that's funny but you know that's not what I'm talking about....or are you satisfied with 20%?

Seriously

What if the first 20% of your life is bad and the last 80% is perfect?
How would you ever know?

It is all a state of mind, so I don't worry about anything anymore.

No, I think that 80/20 is about right. I personally adopted a 70/30 rule, but I don't think that even that leaves something to be desired. Life is not going to always be convenient or easy, but as long as relative happiness can be achieved most of the time, I think that one can consider themselves mightily blessed.

Perfection is only a Concept, and not something we could ever be.

Perfection is defined differently by different people.. so you will never be perfect for anyone but yourself.. and even then we normally have the bar set too high for ourselves so that we are almost always failing in our attempts at Perfection.

This tells me we need to loosen up a little.. maybe that 20% will be the "perfect" balance?

Nothing wrong with striving to be the best you can be as a human being.. forget about doing the same within the world of Man.. that is a false path. Simply being the best person you can be in each moment is a choice thing.. in each moment. And it is being aware of the choices on offer in each moment that truly sets one person apart from the flock.

If you are an honest person, if you love without expecting it in return, if you do your best at everything you touch and if you are happy with yourself as you are now.. then who needs Perfection anyway?

reply to post by gnosticquasar


Thanks for sharing your philosophy.

I was beginning to think that I was the only one around thinking like this.

And you are right, If you can obtain these quality levels of life , you are fortunate

your surgeon has decided that you are one of the 20% of patients he is going to operate on while blindfolded, arent you lucky? now lets get those tonsils out of there, dont worry, it will be fine

I think that the "80/20" rule is most applicable in terms of where we focus mentally and spiritually. Usually, 20% of the activities are so significant for us that we can stop bothering about the other trivial 80%, thereby sparing our precious energy for those things that matter the most.

Peace

reply to post by Tayesin


Tayesin,

What wonderful words to ponder. You indeed, are elevated, in my opinion.

xo

Also, a human beings daily circumstances are quite different from that of a production process in a factory. We have the ability to control the environment in case of a factory, thereby we are able to implement processes of perfection such as Six Sigma to optimize the function. In case of a human being, randomness is a dominant force and thus perfection could work only up to a certain extent.

Peace

reply to post by order in chaos


You do know that Six Sigma is being implemented in many other areas as well don't you?

Medicine, Finance , etc.

But I do understand the point that you are trying to make in that we are not just cogs on a wheel.

Peace

reply to post by GenerationXisMarching


Well, in that situation, I guess I am SOL...

But it was at least the surgeon's responsibility, not mine; unless I was negligent in choosing the MD?

Actually this philosophy has been adopted over the years by many successful people. It is said that Albert Einstein did not know his own telephone number and kept it on a piece of paper for reference. . 80/20. The trick is in knowing what to prioritize your attention in your life and what to let slide. It is truly an art that most of us haven't mastered.

I have lived my life by the 80/20 rule for some time now but from some of the posts here I think I may be looking at it differently.

The way I understand it is that you will get 80% of the results from 20% of the effort. This is not like a doctor that is at 100% 4 days out of a 5 day work week and on the last day operates blindfolded.

An example I use is an ability. For example lets say that you want to become a guitar master and to do so you need 1000 hours of practice. That would be about an hour of practice every day for almost 3 years but if the 80/20 rule is right then you could practice for 200 hours and be 80%. This means you could grab the guitar and pluck out some good tunes. That's right you won't be great but you'll be good and the 800 hours you didn't spend on being great could be used to try something else.

So you could be good at 5 things and enjoy the variety that this allows or you could be great at 1 for the same effort/time.

reply to post by clay2 baraka


The only thing Albert & I have in common (& perhaps dyslexia?)! I "purge" non-important data pieces such as a phone number that I don't call, or is programmed in my phone.

Thnx for your insights, clay2

Originally posted by sonjah1
reply to post by ldyserenity

 

Now that's funny but you know that's not what I'm talking about....or are you satisfied with 20%?

Seriously

edit on 13-12-2010 by sonjah1 because: (no reason given)

Yeah I know since it's in philosophy you were talking about something else, just thought it was funny!

reply to post by daskakik


Daskakik-

I think there are 2 versions of the 80/20; for me, at least.

The other one I can relate to is from running businesses (which is similar to what you describe above). For example, when providing products to consumers, a business would want to stock only what 80% of the customers demand. With cash-flow issues, etc., why would a business up-front costs, excessive inventory, etc. to serve only 20% of the customers?

The time/effort you brought up is important to me as well, appreciated.