Principles That Changed My Life
No intro, no bullshit.
1 — Pareto’s law, otherwise known as the 80/20 rule, states that “roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.” Note that, depending on the context, it can vary and can become something like 85/15 or 70/30. Let us try to witness the 80/20 rule in the real world.
You only need to know about 20% of the words to be able to understand 80% of a conversation in any given language. Learning a language can become way easier. In fact, you can start by pulling up a list of the 1000 most spoken words and you should be on your way to understanding.
You only use 20% of the things you own to accomplish 80% of the tasks. At one point in quarantine, I concluded that I had way too much useless stuff. I used that principle to remove some of the stuff from my house. I am not talking about living the life of a minimalist here, I am talking about keeping useless stuff. I still had all my notes from high school. I had not touched them in years. So, I only kept about 20% of these and I threw the rest away.
2— Do I really need this? This is a principle that I acquired when I read the book entitled Do You Really Need It? by Pierre-Yves Mcsween. Now, whenever I am about to buy a thing, I always ask myself this question. More often than not, the answer is: “not really.” This other day, I wanted to buy a computer mouse from Amazon. Quickly, I was suggested to buy the keyboard as well by the algorithm. My mouse is broken but my keyboard is more than fine. That is when I asked myself the question. In the end, I only bought the mouse and I saved a non-necessary $50. My finances look a lot healthier now.
We are living in a society where overconsumption is ubiquitous. We buy way more stuff than we need. We want to show other people that we own a lot of stuff. Do you really need to buy your wife a $50k ring? The answer is no. You could literally buy a $5k ring and go have some fun in Hawaii for half that price.
Aarón Blanco Tejedor from Unsplashed
3 — Listen to people more. People are only interested in themselves. If you have a conversation with someone, try to be a bit more aware of what is going on. You do not want conversations to be one-sided. You want your conversations to be as balanced as possible. That way, people are going to have a lot more fun having a conversation with you. It can be as simple as sliding a “and you?” in your conversation.
In any given conversation, you need to be able to listen to the other people’s thoughts. Also, you need to try to understand where they are coming from with their train of thoughts. Even if you are against the opinion of the person/people you are having a conversation with, try to get them.
You are going to have so many conversations in your life. Might as well master this skill.
4 — Co-operate with the inevitable. This is a principle that I acquired when I read How to stop worrying and start living by Dale Carnegie. If you know a circumstance is beyond your power to change, accept it. If you start hating yourself for it, you are going to live a bad life.
I have a problem with my eyes. I was born with a lazy eye. My left eye is way weaker than my right. I can barely read with it. This is something that I notice daily. Even if it might not be a big deal, it is for me.
With this condition or any other condition, you have two choices. One, you can keep complaining about it until you die and live a life full of negativity. Two, you can co-operate with your problem because you cannot do nothing to change it and live a life full of positivity. I personally choose the second option.
There are people in way worst conditions than mine that are smiling and appear to be only seeing sunshine and lollipops. I want to be just like them. I want to see the brighter side and always keep a positive mindset.
Here is a summary of the 4 principles:
1- Pareto’s law.
2- Do I really need this?
3- Listen to people more.
4- Co-operate with the inevitable.
My hope with that article is that I am going to be able to help at least one person with some of the principles that I have learned so far.
