I'm sure most of you are familiar with the "80/20 Rule":
We wear 20% of our wardrobe 80% of the time.
80% or our revenues come from 20% or our clients/customers.
The same is true of working. 80% of our results come from 20% of our effort. Let me repeat that: 80% of our results come from 20% of our work. Which is good news...and bad.
The bad news is that most of us are overworking by a substantial margin. Matter of fact overworking impedes our results. Why? Because we are so busy running around we are not stopping to consider whether this work is getting us the results we want. Because we produce poor quality work that needs to be redone, or make errors that require additional time to correct. In other words, we are working hard but not necessarily productively. Which causes us to work much longer than if we slowed down and focused on our work and used our energy efficiently.
The good news is that we can work less and still see the same results. Actually, we may produce even BETTER results. Two studies on athletic performance illustrate that working hard does not generate the best results. In both studies athletes were divided into several groups. The members of each group were instructed to allocate their time in a particular way. For example, some groups were instructed to spend all their time practicing their sport. Other groups were instructed to divide their time between practicing the sport and visualizing the movements and outcomes they wanted from their performance. In one of the studies the group that improved the least was the one whose members spent all of their time training. In both studies the groups that spent more time visualizing outperformed the groups that spent more time working. So, why ARE we working so hard?!
The challenge for us is to adopt a new belief system and change long standing habits. The puritan work ethic is deeply embedded in our culture and psyche. "You have to work hard to get ahead" and "hard work pays off" are just two of the many work related "truisms" that have been drilled into us since childhood. In contrast it is interesting to note that the Chinese symbol for the word "busy" is composed of two symbols: heart and killing. That's a rather sobering image.
In the course of coaching, my clients improve their work-life balance. The more we slow down the more we can see and assess the virtue of our efforts, hear our hearts, tap our intuition and tune in to what really matters.
Women's Success Coach, Minna Keller, empowers successful professional women with demanding schedules, to achieve better business results faster, AND have more time more fun and less stress. Learn more about Minna and how to achieve "Better Results, Less Effort" on her website http://www.findmomentum.com
This article may be reprinted provided the author's bio is included.
UGGaustralia
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