The 90/10 Principle of life

The 90/10 Principle will definitely change you life, and make it more enjoyable and stress free. Before going any further let us understand the Principle. We often believe that whatever is happening with and around us is ought to happen and it is our fate. But, this is not true, only 10% of life is made up of what happens to you. The rest 90% of life depends on how you react on a particular situation. This means that we really have no control on only 10% of things happening around us. We just cannot stop a car from breaking down; we cannot stop a train from arriving late just because we have an urgent meeting to attend. No, we just do have control over them. But we can certainly determine the other 90% by your reaction.

Let us try to understand it with an example. You are ready for your office and are having breakfast with your family. Your daughter knocks over the cup of coffee on to your shirt. You have no control over what happened. But now the consequences will be determined by your reactions. You scold your daughter and she breaks down in tears. Now, you turn to your spouse and blame her for placing the cup on the edge of the table. A verbal battle follows between both of you. You then storm into your room and change your shirt. Back downstairs, you find your daughter too busy crying to finish her breakfast and get ready for school. She misses her school bus. You now rush to the car and drive your daughter to school, overlooking the speed limit.

After throwing a traffic fine, you arrive 10 minutes late to the school. Your daughter runs into the school without telling you goodbye. You arrive at office 20 minutes late and find you forgot the briefcase. You had a terrible start and it continues through out the day in office. When you arrive home, you find that your wife and daughter are not talking to you.

Now the question is why it happened? Why did you have a bad day? Did the coffee cause it or did your daughter cause it? The answer is ‘You’ caused it. You had no control with what happened with the coffee but you certainly had control on those 5 seconds that caused the bad day. It’s the reaction of those 5 seconds that matters.

Here is what could have happened if you had reacted in a different way. Coffee splashes over you. Your daughter is about to cry. You gently say “Its ok honey, you just need to be more careful next time". You go to your room, change your shirt and garb your briefcase. While coming down you see through the window your daughter getting into the bus. She turns and waves you back. You reach the office on time and greet everybody cheerfully. Your boss is also happy with your day’s work. Back home you see you wife and daughter eagerly waiting for you. You spend the rest of evening enjoying with family.

Now did you see the difference? Both the situations had same start but different ends, just because of your reactions. Proper reaction certainly makes a lot of difference.

The example would have given you a better understanding of the 90/10 Principle. It’s only your reactions that spoils or make a thing and 90% of your life is in your hand.

Let us all try this Principle in our life and see how it really changes our life and make it more joyful.