Monday, November 03, 2008
10:45 PM
90/10 Principle
Discover the 90/10 Principle.
It will change your life (at least the way you react to situations).
What is this principle ? 10% of life is made up of what happens to you. 90% of life is decided by how you react.
What does this mean? We really have no control over 10% of what happens to us.
We cannot stop the car from breaking down. The plane will be late arriving, which throws our whole schedule off. A driver may cut us off in traffic.
We have no control over this 10%. The other 90% is different. You determine the other 90%.
How ? ....... By your reaction.
Let's use an example.
You are eating breakfast with your family. Your daughter knocks over a cup of coffee onto your business shirt. You have no control over what just happened.
What happens next will be determined by how you react.
You curse.
You harshly scold your daughter for knocking the cup over. She breaks down in tears. After scolding her, you turn to your spouse and criticize her for placing the cup too close to the edge of the table. A short verbal battle follows. You storm upstairs and change your shirt. Back downstairs, you find your daughter has been too busy crying to finish breakfast and get ready for school. She misses the bus.
Your spouse must leave immediately for work. You rush to the car and drive your daughter to school. Because you are late, you drive 40 miles an hour in a 30 mph speed limit.
After a 15-minute delay and throwing $60 traffic fine away, you arrive at school. Your daughter runs into the building without saying goodbye. After arriving at the office 20 minutes late, you find you forgot your briefcase. You day has started terrible. As it continues, it seems to get worse and worse. You look forward to coming home.
When you arrive home, you find small wedge in your relationship with your spouse and daughter.
Why ? Because of how you reacted in the morning.
Why did you have a bad day ?
A) Did the coffee cause it ?
B) Did your daugher cause it ?
C) Did the policeman cause it ?
D) Did you cause it ?
You have no control over what happened with the coffee. How you reacted in those 5 seconds is what caused your bad day.
Millions of people are suffering from undeserved stress, trials, problems and heartache. We all must understand and apply the 90/10 principle.
Author: Stephen Covey
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As motherhood a statement it may sound, I find this article to be very true and useful. I've already known of this principle back in one of my personal development course 1-2 years ago.
Though I cant say I've been practicing it all the time, I think a good 80% of my day to day stuff I've been applying this principle. To good effect of course.
Heart (Feeling) ---> Brain (Logic Processer) ---> Mouth (Verbal)
Heart (Feeling) ---> Mouth (Verbal)
Which flow of communication do you think will be more effective and less likely to cause misinterpretation or unintended harm to others?
Mull over it.
