The 80/20 Rule

Yes, you've heard of it - the 80/20 rule. It's everywhere.  What is it and can it work for you?

Its real name is the Pareto principle. A management consultant called Joseph Juran named it after an Italian economist, Vilfredo Pareto who, in 1896, showed that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population and, weirdly, that 20% of the pea-pods in his garden contained 80% of the peas!

It is now commonly used in business to compare sales income to the number of clients. Another useful application is in weight management.  Spend 80% of your time eating just the right amount of nutritious healthy foods and 20%  of the time being a bit more relaxed about what you eat to achieve a healthy weight.  Socially, of all of your friends and people you know, you see 20% of them 80% of the time and 80% of them 20% of the time. 

What about stress, anxiety and problems in your life?  Can the 80/20 rule help with these? A lot of the time 80% of our stress and anxiety comes from 20% of the things going on in our life and we spend 80% of our time worrying about things and only 20% working out the solution.

Imagine turning these things around.  Getting to the bottom of what is causing the stress, anxiety and negative thinking etc.  Letting go of those things outside of your control, putting in place a solution for those things you can influence and feeling 80% of that weight lift from your shoulders.  A life lived with a much greater sense of contented well-being, seeing the positive in people and situations and getting back a sense of freedom and control.  

Hypnotherapy can help to reset the way you approach life, leaving behind anxiety and negative ways of thinking and allowing you to live in a more positive and productive way.

Children, Teenagers and Teachers Under Pressure

Over the many years that I have been a hypnotherapist, I have seen a steady increase in the number of children who need support around anxiety, worry, school, exams and sleeping issues amongst others. The stresses on children's lives has multiplied and many children and students find it hard to cope. I regularly see young people especially in the 11-18 age group to help them deal with these things and lead a more positive life.

Equally, I have seen an increase in teachers that I see and in a recent study, teaching came out as the profession with the highest number of workers seeking help for work related stress. Hypnotherapy helps by increasing focus on what is most important, realising you may not be able to do everything in life 100% and getting back that satisfaction in your job that made you want to become a teacher in the first place.

When do I Take Action? When do I Let Go?

Do you feel that might snap?  That you might explode in anger or implode and simply go into shut-down as you can’t cope?  If you do, you are not alone.  There are several recognised triggers for these feelings and if one or more of these buttons are pressed, then it can make us feel as if we are spiralling out of control. 

The triggers are:

L - Life or Limb i.e. is our survival threatened?

I - Insult – has someone offended us?

F - Family Aggression – have we got issues going on in our family?

E - Environment – what is happening around us?  Is our territory being invaded?

M - Mate – is there trouble with our relationship?

O - Organisation – has the order of things/rules by which we live by been disrupted?

R - Resources or Lack of them – do we have the money, support to do what we need to?

T - Tribe – has our “us or them” button been pressed?

S - Stop – Do we feel trapped, restrained or cornered?

As soon as you feel angry or completely overwhelmed ask yourself if it is one of these LIFEMORTS situations. If it is, identify if you do really need to act i.e. is this a serious situation which requires immediate, powerful action?  If it is, act now.  However, all too often it is something more like a driver has cut us up on the road.

Some of the triggers are pressed in this scenario:

Environment - our territory around us has been invaded

Organisation – someone has violated the rules of the road

Stop – we feel hemmed in by this other car

However, it is not a life and death situation and we can actually take a step back.  We don’t need to become aggressive or quietly stressed and anxious about it. These triggers are very sensitive to stress and the more stressed we are, the more likely we are to react to them.

Hypnotherapy can help you identify your own triggers, put these things into context and find the balance again so that you are more calm and deal with things in a confident and positive way.