The 19th century economist Vilfredo Pareto was the first to discover that approximately 80% of the world’s wealth was concentrated in the hands of only 20% of the world’s population. While this was startling in and of itself, what was even more remarkable to him was that this 80/20 rule seemed to hold true for virtually every aspect of our lives.
While the numbers are rarely exact, they are remarkably close and this principle has great validity in appraising our lives from Work to Relationships, Finances, Sports, to things which bring us happiness.
Here are some of the ways that the statisticians have recorded the impact of the “Pareto Principle” on our society today:
- 80% of the loss of value from all crimes comes from just 20% of the criminals.
- 80% of all car accidents are caused by 20% of the motorists.
- 80% of divorces involve only 20% of married people as many divorce multiple times.
In the 1960s, IBM rediscovered the Pareto Principle when they realised that 80% of their computers operating time was spent executing 20% of their programming. By focussing their efforts exclusively on that 20% they were able to create massive upgrades in the effectiveness and usability of their computers in a remarkably short period of time.
Today many of the worlds leading corporations are using the principal to increase efficiencies, maximise profits and produce more with less.
Check to see how the 80/20 rule or pattern applies to your life. Here are a few to get you started but you can ask this question in virtually any context.
- 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts.
- 80% of your job satisfaction comes from 20% of your work.
- 80% of the wear on your carpets comes from 20% of the area.
- 80% of the time, you wear 20% of your clothes.
- 80% of the times you feel good about yourself, come from 20% of your experiences.
Now think about this carefully. Please, I urge you.
80% of everything you have ever achieved came from just 20% of your efforts. What would happen if you identified your really productive efforts, the 20%, and just increased those efforts by 20%? Would you double what you are achieving or would it in fact compound?
How does the Pareto Principal apply to golf? In virtually every way!
For example, as far as your Mental game of golf is concerned, if you learn the proper thinking for just 30 seconds prior to every swing, you will get huge reward for such small overall input.
If you pay attention to your alignment of club head and your body properly to the target which is only 20% of the entire setup and swing (perhaps less) you will start to get massive rewards for such small endeavor.
Think about golf in general, all aspects of it and then know this; Work on just the golf fundamentals of Grip, Aim, Stance & Posture, and your game will begin to improve beyond your expectations. Forget hitting hundreds or thousands of balls. Work the twenty yards from the green and in and practice your golf fundamentals.
It’s a good bet that you get pretty near the green in a couple of shots and then the score card starts going pear shaped in that last twenty percent of the distance to the hole. Spend 80 percent of your practice time on that last twenty percent distance. In other words, your short game.
Work on identifying the 20 percent of your game which costs you the bulk of your shots and then focus on improving just that area and your score card will love you for it and your mates are going to have to concede defeat more and more often while you apply the magic of the 80/20 rule to improve your golf game.
