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. However, you can control your reaction. Do not let people fool you; YOU can control how you react.

Let us 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 zone. 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 minute s 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, do not be a sponge. Let the attack roll off like water on glass. You do not 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?

1. Do you lose your temper?
2. Pound on the steering wheel? A friend of mine had the steering wheel fall Off)
3. Do you curse?
4. Does your blood pressure skyrocket?
5. Do you u try to 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 out your 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 are you 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!

Do you know that generally a 70 year life, how it is spent…?

• 25 years in sleep
• 8 years in study
• 6 years in rest and illness
• 7 years in holiday and recreation
• 5 in commuting
• 4 years in eating
• 3 in traveling/preparation…
• 12 years for work….effectively…

The objective of these lines?

• Achieve a sense of balance.
• Reduce stress.
• Enjoy life.
• Allocate time according to priority.
• Efficiency and efficacy.

Managing Time of Others

• Making best use of your time means managing that of your staff, colleagues, and seniors.
• Learn to delegate, share tasks and manage upwards as well as down.
• Maintain high expectations, and people will live up to them.
• Persuade others of your case using facts, not emotions.
• Take interest in what others are trying to achieve.
• Ensure that you define objectives clearly when you delegate a task.
• Reserve some time for time for the tasks that you alone can do.
• Keep a checklist to help you monitor the progress of tasks that you have delegated to others.
• Reward good work generously and chastise in moderation.
• Set precise and realistic deadlines for tasks that you delegate.

Managing your Manager

• Be aware of your boss’s working patterns, and try to adapt to them.
• Bring more than one thing at a time to discuss with your manager.
• Know the managers expectations and tailor the way you work to fit in with your manager’s expectation.
• Take initiative and arrange a time to see your manager rather than waiting for your manager to come to sort out your queries.

Dairies

• Examine your dairies and see which areas are taking all your time.

Clubbing

• Try and combine two activities.
• Club 2 meetings in the close by locations.

Elimination

• Eliminate activities that are time wasters.

Style of managing time

• Learning to say “No” was one of them.
• Evading demands of people.

Time management skills

• Delegation.
• Setting time aside for transactions.
• Self motivation.
• Planning
• Realistic deadlines

How to write an Action Plan!

• Clarify your goal.
• Write a list of actions.
• Analyze, prioritize, and prune.
• Organize your list in to plan.
• Monitor the execution of your plan and review the plan regularly.

How to finally manage time…

• Priority areas for time management-
• Biological time
• Social time
• Business time

But Why do Time Management techniques fail….as we fail to understand the underlying philosophy that… “Highly effective people don’t manage time, in fact they manage self”

Tips for Time Management

• Set time aside to review & prioritize demands on your time.
• Divide difficult task and start working on the subtask straight away.
• Think through your day while making your way to work.
• Delegate tasks that are not effective for you.
• Split your working day into chunks of thirty minutes.
• Review your time sheet to assess your work efficiency.
• Update time sheet as often as possible- memory is often unreliable.

Every one wants the best for his or her career; often we are so busy in our day to day life that we don’t spare time for our future, our Career. Yes we are ambitious and would have someday dreamed about being the best manager, Best Leader. Here are the three golden rules of “The one minute manager” a wonderful book by Blanchard, Kenneth which changed many lives, many careers and I am one of them.

The First Secret:

One-Minute Goals. All good performance starts with clear goals. If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there. If we were going to improve the performance of people all over the world, the simplest and easiest way would be to make sure people have clear goals.

The secret of One-Minute Goals is simply to agree on your goals upfront so that you know what good behavior looks like. Make sure you write out each of your goal on a single sheet of paper or index card. Limit the number of goals to three to five. Identify what the present level of performance is on each goal and then what level is desired. The discrepancy between the actual and the desired goal becomes the area for improvement. Choose a deadline for reaching that new level. Make several copies of your goals for home and work so you can refer to them daily. Look at your goals, then look at your behavior and see if your behavior matches your goals.

The Second Secret:

One-Minute Praising. Of all the things I’ve heard over the years, I can’t say enough about the importance of praising. The key to developing people will always be to concentrate on catching them doing something right instead of something wrong. Yet most people are still managed by being basically left alone until they make a mistake that’s noticeable and then their boss criticizes them. This is called “leavealone zap” management style or “Sea gull management.” Sea gull managers fly in, make a lot of noise, dump on everyone, and then fly out.

Tell people upfront that you are going to let them know how they are doing. Then there are three main things you need to emphasize with praisings. First, be immediate. Don’t save praisings for a holiday. Second, be specific. Just saying to someone, “good job,” is nice but it is not very helpful because they do not know specifically what is good so that they could do it again. Third, share your feelings about their work. Tell people how good you feel about what they did that was right, and how it helps the organization and the other people who work there. Stop for a moment of silence to let them enjoy “feeling” how good you feel. End with a reaffirmation and encourage them to keep up the good work.

Remember to praise progress even if it is only approximately right. Perfect behavior is a journey that happens one step at a time. A manager’s job is to manage the progress toward the goal. A good manager thus constantly looks for opportunities to praise progress or to redirect.

The Third Secret:

One-Minute Reprimands. What do you do when people do not perform well or make limited or no progress toward their goals? You have to hold them accountable.

The first alternative for poor performance should be redirection, which means going back to goal setting trying to find out what went wrong and getting them back on track. Never reprimand or punish a learner — you’ll immobilize them. If you are dealing with somebody who knows better, who as performed a similar task well in the past, then a One-Minute Reprimand might be appropriate.

Tell people beforehand that you are going to let them know — in no uncertain terms how they are doing. Reprimand people immediately. Tell people exactly how you feel about what they did wrong. Pause to help your transition from your feelings to set-up the last and probably the most important part of a reprimand: reaffirmation. Reaffirm that you think well of them but not of their performance in this situation. Your intent is to get them back on course, not to try to make them feel badly. Remind them how much you value them. Realize that when the reprimand is over, it’s over.

To me, the Three Secrets can help you be the coach in the workplace, at home or on the playing field. Share the secrets with your people, use them as needed and get your people to use them as well. You’ll all perform better as a result.

Here are 10 tips to help you achieve a better balance in your life. Take a moment to read and reflect on these tips — and then get your life in balance!

1. Negotiate a Change with Your Current Employer. Progressive employers recognize the value of good employees, and many are willing to find ways to help current employees deal with short-term or permanent changes caused by family situations. The changes can include flextime, job-sharing, telecommuting, or part-time employment. Your first step is to research your employer’s policies and methods of handling previous requests. Then go to your boss armed with information and a plan that shows how you will be an even more valuable and productive employee if you can modify your current work situation.
2. Find a New Career. Some careers are simply more stressful and time-consuming than others. If you need more time for yourself or your family, now may be the time to explore careers that are less stressful and more flexible.
3. Find a New Job. Rather than a career change, perhaps you simply need to take a less stressful job within your chosen career. This change may involve working with your current employer to identify a new position, it may involve a full job-search, or it may involve temping or becoming a consultant or starting a freelancing or other home-based business.
4. Slow Down. Life is simply too short, so don’t let things pass you in a blur. Take steps to stop and enjoy the things and people around you. Schedule more time between meetings; don’t make plans for every evening or weekend, and find some ways to distance yourself from the things that are causing you the most stress.
5. Learn to Better Manage Your Time. Avoid Procrastination. For many people, most of the stress they feel comes from simply being disorganized — and procrastinating. Learn to set more realistic goals and deadlines — and then stick to them. You’ll find that not only are you less stressed, but your work will be better.
6. Share the Load. Even though we may sometimes feel we’re the only ones capable of doing something, it’s usually not the case. Get your partner or other family members to help you with all your personal/family responsibilities. Taking care of the household, children, or parents should not be the responsibility of just one person.
7. Let Things Go. (Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff.) It’s simpler said than done, but learn to let things go once in a while. So what if the dishes don’t washed everyday or that the house doesn’t get vacuumed every week. Learn to recognize the things that don’t really have much impact in your life and allow yourself to let them go — and then not beat yourself up for doing so.
8. Explore Your Options. Get Help. If you are feeling overwhelmed with your family responsibilities, please get help if you can afford it. Find a sitter for your children, explore options for aging parents, and seek counseling for yourself. In many cases, you have options, but you need to take the time to find them.
9. Take Charge. Set Priorities. Sometimes it’s easier for us to allow ourselves to feel overwhelmed rather than taking charge and developing a prioritized list of things that need to get done. You need to buck the trend. Develop a list. Set priorities. And then enjoy the satisfaction of crossing things off your list.
10. Simplify. It seems human nature for just about everyone to take on too many tasks and responsibilities, to try to do too much, and to own too much. Find a way to simplify your life. Change your lifestyle. Learn to say no to requests for help. Get rid of the clutter and baggage in your house — and your life.

In the end, the key word is balance. You need to find the right balance that works for you. Celebrate your successes and don’t dwell on your failures. Life is a process, and so is striving for balance in your life.

One of the main reasons that workers become unhappy at work is bad management. A bad boss can turn even a good working environment into an uncomfortable and unhappy workplace. They have the ability to assign good or bad tasks, and ultimately fire us. This power imbalance is why a good relationship with your manager is so important. You are not powerless to quietly accept a bad boss and have a responsibility to do speak up in an attempt to change the situation. However, you must recognize that some bosses are intentionally bad because they receive benefits to which they are entitled and you could be seen as a threat, in which case you must know how to defend yourself.

Steps

1. Take action at once. It is vitally important that you do something as soon as you realize you are being victimized by a bad boss.
2. Choose the right time to talk and never approach them in the middle of a meeting or when you see him in the hallway. Make sure you’re in a quiet, undisturbed place so that you have their complete attention, and you are calm and collected.
3. Try to show how his or her actions reduce motivation, hurt business, or increase expenses. If you can, explain the changes that would make working conditions better, and make for a happier atmosphere. Suggesting specific alternatives makes it easier to make positive changes. Agree to follow up at a later date, to evaluate the new situation.
4. Praise your boss when they get it right. Many managers never receive praise because somehow, it is mistakenly believed that praise should only flow from managers to employees. You may be nervous about approaching your manager to offer advice, but good managers are truly grateful for constructive, useful feedback, and will appreciate any opportunity they get to learn how to do a better job. Still, this article is about “bad” bosses – but when you have the chance to give them a good work, take it.
5. Don’t become the victim indefinitely. If you have truly tried to make it work between you and your boss, but they did not accept or appreciate your attempts, escalate your complaint to higher management. If that complaint falls on deaf ears (or if there’s no higher authority to appeal to) it’s time to move on! Try to get an interview for another position within the company (with someone you know to be a great boss), or in another organization.
6. Keep in mind that there is a difference between a bad relationship and a bad boss. A bad boss is one who is intentionally mean or unethical and not receptive to dealing with you in an honest and open way. In this case, you must be prepared to defend yourself against false charges your boss could impose on you. Make sure that all communications between you and that boss happen in front of others.

So don’t be a Victim anymore..!!!