80/20 Rule Reversed (The Pareto Principle)
Get out of Black & White, All-or-Nothing Thinking and Behavior around Special Events: Sustainable and Mindful Eating and Movement on Holidays, Weekends, and Vacations
Part of my role as a trainer at my gym is to help with social media. We recently were tasked with explaining 80/20 mindset and I found it more challenging than expected! I had in mind that the common understanding of the 80/20 rule went something like this…
“80% of the time, do your best to eat clean, exercise a lot, be ‘good’ with your lifestyle choice (e.g. eating, drinking, sleep, hydration, etc) and the other 20% of the time do whatever you want because the 80 will outweigh the 20.”
As I was researching 80/20, however, I kept running across The Pareto Principle, which states that for many outcomes,
“roughly 80% of consequences, results, or outputs come from 20% of causes, efforts, or inputs”. Other names for this principle are the 80/20 rule, the law of the vital few, or the principle of factor sparsity, according to good old wikipedia.
The more I consider this reversal of the (perhaps commonly misunderstood?) 80/20 rule, the more I love it, especially when it comes to thinking of sustainable healthy lifestyle.
Stick with me here…I know it sounds impossible that just 20% of your efforts could determine 80% of your fitness / eating results…but…think about it for a second in practice…
If you’ve determined that health and wellbeing/longevity is a vital goal for you, you have probably also grasped that you must devote some time and focused attention to that goal, right? As we know, a goal without a plan to get there isn’t going to result in much:
So, let’s say you have narrowed in on a goal, whatever it may be:
- lose 10lb of body fat
- gain muscle
- get out of pain
- feel comfortable and confident in a swimsuit
And you’ve put enough (~20%) of your attention and energy towards it to make it a priority. That may end up looking like:
- adding more movement throughout your day (taking a morning or evening walk, for example).
- joining a gym and hiring a trainer to get you started safely and with a plan and accountability built in (what a great investment in yourself!)
- paying attention to what you are eating, and, if and when you are ready, making some mindful additions to crowd out the less favorable things on the nutritional spectrum (i.e. as you add more water, you have less space for alcohol; more greens, fiber and protein satisfy you and kill cravings so less sugar is consumed, etc — note the key of making additions rather than focusing on restriction. It’s kind of magical!)
After making micro changes in a positive direction and practicing them consistently over time, suddenly, you wake up one day, and there has been a shift. You’re looking (and actually are) stronger, you’re feeling better with more energy to get through your day, and your stress is lower.
Even on a special vacation day or two that you intentionally choose to diverge from routine to fully enjoy your life, having your cake and eating it too, nothing has gone wrong, physically or psychologically, because you’ve built a new identity!
You are a person who gets 80% of your results from 20% of your attention to a valuable goal you set with intention and the actions to back it up.
When you get home from that vacation, you effortlessly slip back into the behaviors, which now have become routine habits, that make you feel your best: moving your body regularly in ways that bring joy, eating in ways that satisfy you physically and emotionally, and, perhaps most importantly, not fixating on any of it too much because, after all, that’s only 20% of your life! You’ve got sh*t to do! 🤣
Pareto Principle in other Domains
If this sounds too good to be true, it’s worth doing some reflecting on! Put into more simplistic terms, the Pareto principle suggests that the majority of what you will achieve will come from very few inputs throughout the day, or in other words: less is more.
The Pareto principle has been proven out in many areas: economics, health, sports and daily life. Some of the most interesting findings that confirmed this principle include:
- The Pareto principle in business: in a given firm,~ 20% of customers accouns for ~80% of total profits
- The Pareto principle in healthcare: ~20% of all patients account for ~80% of total healthcare spending
- The Pareto principle in informatics: ~20% of all software bugs cause ~80% of total software crashes
- The Pareto principle in crime prevention: only ~20% criminals commit ~80% of crimes
There is a kind of “universal truth” to the Pareto principle, that we live with on a daily basis, a pattern that unconsciously guides our choices. Think about the clothes you have vs. the clothes you wear: how many times do you put the same shirt or jeans on with respect to the others you own?
In Conclusion
Turn off any judgement your mind is fighting back with and invite some curiosity into the equation:
What if cultivating (and, more importantly, maintaining) a sustainable healthy lifestyle is easier than you think? 🤔 What if you could get clear on what you want, set a meaningful goal, pay attention to it with about 20% of your mindset and actions, making micro changes that resonate and feel good, and practice it until it became your habit, your routine, your identity? What if it didn’t take up your whole day, all of your waking thoughts, and was more effortless than you expected? 😌
Applying the Pareto Principle to fitness is a shift in mindset, but a valuable one. For the long-term sustainability of any shift in behavior, fitness, eating, or otherwise, it’s important to get out of all-or-nothing, black-and-white thinking. There’s no need to think about being “on plan’ or “off plan,” just intention, awareness, and action! 🥰
Contrary to popular opinion, you will not gain 10llb or lose all of your gains if you have a couple of drinks out with friends or go on a vacation and enjoy dessert nightly. In fact, if you do it mindfully, you’ll likely eat or drink less, feel more satisfied, and lower chronic stress if you are cultivating meaningful social connections and relationships, the #1 key to health and happiness!
Remember you don’t have to do it all at once, and you don’t have to do it alone. If you need help or have questions or thoughts I would love to hear them below, over on my instagram @beckyjoy, or via e-mail (beckyjoy at gmail dot com) Don’t hesitate to reach out ❤
