Hi All,
Just sharing this from OneLight Village. It is perfectly timed for us all.
"Author: Stephen Covey
Discover the 90/10 Principle.
It will change your life (at least the way you react to situations). What is this principle? 10% of life is made up of what happens to you. 90% of life is decided by how you react. What does this mean? We really have no control over 10% of what happens to us.
We cannot stop the car from breaking down. The plane will be late arriving, which throws our whole schedule off. A driver may cut us off in traffic.
We have no control over this 10%. The other 90% is different. You determine the other 90%.
How? ..........By your reaction.
You cannot control a red light. but you can control your reaction. Don't let people fool you; YOU can control how you react.
Let's use an example.
You are eating breakfast with your family. Your daughter knocks over a cup of coffee onto your business shirt. You have no control over what just happened.
What happens next will be determined by how you react.
You curse.
You harshly scold your daughter for knocking the cup over. She breaks down in tears. After scolding her, you turn to your spouse and criticize her for placing the cup too close to the edge of the table. A short verbal battle follows. You storm upstairs and change your shirt. Back downstairs, you find your daughter has been too busy
crying to finish breakfast and get ready for school. She misses the bus. Your spouse must leave immediately for work. You rush to the car and drive your daughter to school. Because you are late, you drive 40 miles an hour in a 30 mph speed limit.
After a 15-minute delay and throwing $60 traffic fine away, you arrive at school. Your daughter runs into the building without saying goodbye. After arriving at the office 20 minutes late, you find you forgot your briefcase. Your day has started terrible. As it continues, it seems to get worse and worse. You look forward to coming home.
When you arrive home, you find small wedge in your relationship with your spouse and daughter.
Why? .... Because of how you reacted in the morning.
Why did you have a bad day?
A) Did the coffee cause it?
B) Did your daughter cause it?
C) Did the policeman cause it?
D) Did you cause it?
The answer is "D".
You had no control over what happened with the coffee. How you reacted in those 5 seconds is what caused your bad day.
Here is what could have and should have happened.
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". Grabbing a towel you rush upstairs. After grabbing a new shirt and your briefcase, you come back down in time to look through the window and see your child getting on the bus. She turns and waves. You arrive 5 minutes early and cheerfully greet the staff. Your boss comments on how good the day you are having.
Notice the difference?
Two different scenarios. Both started the same. Both ended different.
Why?
Because of how you REACTED.
You really do not have any control over 10% of what happens. The other 90% was determined by your reaction.
Here are some ways to apply the 90/10 principle. If someone says something negative about you, don't be a sponge. Let the attack roll off like water on glass. You don't have to let the negative comment affect you! React properly and it will not ruin your day. A wrong reaction could result in losing a friend, being fired, getting stressed out etc. How do you react if someone cuts you off in traffic? Do you lose your temper? Pound on the steering wheel? A friend of mine had the steering wheel fall off) Do you curse? Does your blood pressure skyrocket? Do you try and bump them?
WHO CARES if you arrive ten seconds later at work? Why let the cars ruin your drive?
Remember the 90/10 principle, and do not worry about it.
You are told you lost your job.
Why lose sleep and get irritated? It will work out. Use your worrying energy and time into finding another job.
The plane is late; it is going to mangle your schedule for the day. Why take outpour frustration on the flight attendant? She has no control over what is going on. Use your time to study, get to know the other passenger. Why get stressed out? It will just make things worse.
Now you know the 90-10 principle. Apply it and you will be amazed at the results. You will lose nothing if you try it. The 90-10 principle is incredible. Very few know and apply this principle.
The result?
Millions of people are suffering from undeserved stress, trials, problems and heartache. We all must understand and apply the 90/10 principle.
It CAN change your life!!!
Enjoy...."
Tayesin,
Thanks for sharing that. I agree whole heartedly with this concept. I have not heard of the 90/10 principle but over the last few years I have been practicing this. Once I started to live like this I discovered how freeing it is. I no longer get stressed out about much of anything. I have also noticed that when you live this way you get into the flow of life and things just some how allways work out. I think if a lot more people would practice this there would be a huge shift in the global consciousness and the world as a whole would function and flow in a much more positive way. People would discover it feels good to live this way and they would also find that there body and mind would feel healthy again. Well I am just rambling on here, just wanted to say thanks.
This goes right with the Eckhart Tolle book ''A NEW EARTH AWAKENING TO YOUR LIFES PURPOSE" if you are living any one of these three things at all times , acceptance, enjoyment, or enthusiasm, your are living in accordance with your purpose.
Have a great day
Great advice and an excellent way to explain it.
I have a bad habit of cursing with frustration, but making progress in small steps to turn the reaction.
I try to do a little game when driving, while observing, I practice the attitude, behavior and reactions I would have if exploring an astral world with meditative focus.
Hoping that this will help prepare me for more productive astral experiences.
This is the Law of Attraction at work. Focus on good, and more of it will come. Strangely enough, there have been days when I drive 60 MPH and it takes me 20 minutes to get to work, and then there are other days where I go 45 MPH and get to work in 15 minutes. This is directly linked to conscious thought activity. There are lots of videos on Youtube about the Law of Attraction. I watch them a few times a week. I'm trying for every day. Set aside some period of time to let go every day.
And then there are the things we love to hate, like losing at stupid video games... :lol:
Is this a new concept or something? If you don't realize that your actions dictate your life then you are either under the age of 18 or have an under developed frontal lobe.
And who came up with 90/10?
You can get into a plane crash and that is 100% not 10. You can be born poor in Africa, then its more like 10/90.
This is not a new concept, putting the label 90/10 on it is stupid.
Yeah, I think I am on the same page.
the 90-10 ratio is pretty arbitrary, and smacks of pop-movement self-help cliches; it does also serve to ignore the fact that people very often suffer misfortunes which are outside of their means to change- regardless of whether you ascribe those misfortunes to an idea like karma or not.
Those facts, however, don't change the other fact that the manner in which you deal with the misfortunes you are given does have a profound impact on end results, and the direction of your life. I think the thing that should be drawn from pieces of advice such as this is that it is best to attempt to sincerely treat others as well as we possibly can manage in all situations, and to recognize that we do have the ability to direct our thoughts and lives, and can bring about great good if we so aspire.
I thank you, Tayesin, for posting this, as I think the underlying principles are quite valid, and it is always of good use to remind people of things they might know, but forget the importance of.