Recognising the Sweet Spot
I chose this photo of my youngest from her newborn photo shoot as the image for this piece for a very specific reason - it symbolises the 'perfect' example of what it takes to achieve perfection. To capture the beautiful images of our newborn through the shoot, took hours of gentle maneuvering of our seven day old bub. The photographer was exceptional, to get this particular shot took patient, gentle stroking of her fingers, to eventually have them uncurl for the perfect resting pose to support her head whilst she snoozed. I may be a little biased, but I definitely feel like we achieved perfection! Here is the thing though: In this case I very much feel that the time and effort was worth it. If I am honest with myself however, there are definitely many areas in my life where I am pushing for that 100% and just maybe, it is not worth the effort...
In the constant pursuit of my development through learning (listening to audio books and podcasts being my favorite way) I came across a simple but life changing concept - the 80/20 rule. In terms of personal and professional development, I find that the topics and concepts that I am drawn to tent to often fit into both categories. The 80/20 rule is very much that, a universal, life changing rule. I discovered it in a book 'The untethered soul at work' by Micheal Singer, who spoke about it in relation to his work as the CEO of his company with over 2000 staff, referencing it as a business rule. The essence of it is this: 80% of the result comes from 20% effort, the last 20% of the result comes from the remaining 80% effort. Micheal describes the 20% input with 80% return as the 'sweet spot'. Now as a self proclaimed perfectionist the 'aha' moment that came from hearing about this concept has been life changing. It makes so much sense! I think back to the development of our first brochure for Growth Development, the essence of which came so quickly,and then we worked to refine it for 2 months, a frustrating and time consuming process. 80/20 isn't just about work, it is such an amazing concept to apply to all of life, especially for us perfectionists who are vulnerable to drive ourselves into oblivion. As raised in some of my other writing, combating the stiff notion of perfectionism is very much what my journey through My Art of Motherhood is about, and 80/20 is such a simple, yet powerful concept to support this personal growth.
Think about the last time you drove yourself to that exhausting, frustrating place, in the pursuit of getting 'it' perfect. Was there a point that you came to easily, that perhaps was 80% of the final perfect result? Yet to get it to meet your perceived standard of 100% it took so much more time and effort over and above that 80%(that came so easily)? According to 80/20, if we stop at 80% of the perfect result, we save ourselves 80% of our time and effort... to put that into perspective, that is the difference between spending 2 hours on something vs 10 hours!!! Now there are definitely thing in life that are worth 5 times the effort but something to think about is this: What is it that is worth 5 times the effort? If you are like me, you may find that there are a tonne of priorities that an 80% result
is just fine!
Here is to recognising the sweet spot.
