Stephen Covey, author of the worldwide best seller The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (link below), did not invent the 90/10 Principle, but he surely gave it wings to fly. He talked about the 90/10 Principle in his books and lectured about it continually. But what is it? The 90/10 Principle states that: Ten percent of life is made up of what happens to you. Ninety percent of life is decided by how you react. Think about that for a minute. Only 10% of life is out of your control? It’s mind boggling. If you come to grips with this, you can use it to change your behavior. Then the 90/10 Principle can truly be life altering. Just consider some examples…
A Personal Example of The 90/10 Principle
I have Type 1 diabetes. People tell me all the time that they are shocked at how well I handle it. I made up my mind when I was diagnosed that there were way worse things to have than Type 1 . Every day since, I have tried (mostly but not completely successfully, if I’m completely honest) to act that way about it. I bring this up when talking about the 90/10 principle because I think it applies. Ten percent of life is out of your control. So, in this example, a Type 1 diagnosis is in the 10% for me. And how I choose to manage it by what I eat, how much I exercise, how often I see my endocrinologiist, etc. is all in the 90%.
And The Classic Example
Look up the 90/10 Principle. Almost everyone who writes about it uses the example of the spilled coffee. I bring it up here to further illustrate the concept. It goes like this:
You’re dressed for work and eating breakfast when your child knocks into you, spilling your coffee all over your shirt. You yell at your child for being careless and she begines to cry. Your spouse tells you to take it easy on her and you yell at your spouse. You run upstairs to change. Your spouse leaves for work, but your child is so upset she misses the bus. You come downstairs and now your child needs a ride to school. Unfortunately, you are so distracted as you race there that you don’t see the police officer. A $60 speeding ticket later, you drop your child off and head to work. Late. Your day goes downhill from there. When you get home both your spouse and your child are still upset with you. You say,”this has been a horrible day!” But who’s fault is it? The Coffee? Your child? Your spouse? The police offer? Nope. It’s yours. The day went sideways due to your response to the spill.
The 90/10 Principle Takes Practice
Let’s face it, a lot of how we go through life is on knee-jerk reactions and learned responses. To use the 90/10 Principle to effectively improve your life you have to consciously work on it. Something happens like traffic, you need to remember that’s in the 10%, but losing it in your car because of it, that’s the 90%. Better to turn up the radio and sing. You’ll be there at the same time either way. But you decide whether you arrive with a headache or heightened blood pressure. Or with a big smile on your face from all that good music. If you practice with the little things, like traffic or spilled coffee, you’ll be ready when the bigger 10% things arrive, like job loss, illness and the like. I say, it’s helped me in both the big and small things. And it’s worth a try.
For some other interesting reads, try: Cell Phone Theft and What To Do BEFORE This Happens To You and Why Words Matter: Support vs. Toxicity.
And in case you want more on Stephen Covey, here’s the link to his book: 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
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