The Working Mom’s 80/20

In business, the “80/20 rule”  is a common way to describe the theory that a small percentage of your clients  comprise a large amount of your sales.  Simply put, 80% of your sales come from 20% of your clients.

From Wikipedia: “The principle was suggested by management thinker Joseph M. Juran. It was named after the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who observed that 80% of income in Italy was received by 20% of the Italian population. The assumption is that most of the results in any situation are determined by a small number of causes.”

Whether or not you believe in this theory when it comes to business, we can apply the conecpt to other areas in our lives.

Have you ever thought about how a small dose of positive can go a long way?

It’s kind of like the 80/20 rule for the working mom. Sprinkle in a bit of exercise, knock away the working mom guilt and include a positive pep talk once in a while, 20% a day. Well, not that precise, but I’m sure you get the thought.

If you are thinking that it is easier said than done Steph, I’d say you are right in many ways because we can’t have positive turned on all the time. It’s just not realistic with the ebb and flow, ins and outs, ups and downs life throws at us. Besides, over positive all the time would probably annoy people!

I find it kind of  interesting the blueprints out there about constant positive thoughts and  visualization of  abundance. Imagine, visualize and it will happen.

While a blueprint will help guide us and show us different ways of navigating it all, we all have our own set of circumstances and choices to make. Our mindset plays a major role. I have bad days, stressful days, days that make me want to throw my hands up. That’s part of life being fluid and giving us experiences that may help us cope when we need  those lessons to manage  the next go around.

So when I talk about the 80/20 rule for the working mom, my thought is that 20% of our focus, our thoughts and our internal dialogue results in 80% of our attitude.

For example, 20% of telling yourself how guilty you feel because you left your little one crying at the daycare door may result in 80% of you feeling awful throughout your day. Guilt is a feeling we allow ourselves to sink into as times.

A different approach is that you take 20% of you acknowledging that guilt, focusing on the attributes the daycare offers during this particular time in your family’s life may just create the 80% that helps you get through the day with less angst and stress.

How we maneuver the work world and motherhood has no blueprint. We have so many tools and resources available  to us today  which  are better than the pioneer working moms from 30 years ago had.  I just had a conversation with one who wished she had the support back then like the many platforms, books and  materials  offered to all moms today.

Finding what works for you and your family is as important as putting it into practice a little each and every day, just 20% or so at a time.  It’s about learning, building and empowering ourselves with the occasional bad day in spite of it all those days just happen!

What do you think about the working mom’s 80/20?