Note: this post is a little bit “Tree Huggy” in that it talks about self development which I realise is not everybody’s cup of tea, so if it’s not your bag then just skip on and ignore it.

Over recent months I have done a considerable amount of thinking. A nice change, you might think, from my usual blind stumbling through life but believe it or not, when I put my mind (conscious and subconscious) to something I have some good ideas… or in this case a realisation…

For many years I have had an itch (no jokes please). I have had a niggling theory that there was some mileage in a particular article I once read. It was a piece by popular “self development guru” (?!) Steve Pavlina. It was on the subject of “How to get from a 7 to  a 10“. In it, he addressed the idea that we regularly better ourselves in the areas of life we choose (define your own taxonomy for that; i.e. health, finance, relationships etc) but can’t seem to push past that “7 out of 10″ zone. Now there are many reasons for this; resistance to change, self imposed barriers, external barriers, motivation etc etc.  but that’s not where I’m going with this.  It’s a great read (as are many of his articles) which I might some day cover,

So, like I say, for a long time this has been buzzing around my head (see Inception) and I have spent quite a long time considering the consequences, solutions and possible strategies to this common problem. Being the person I am; fairly logical, digital (i.e I don’t like “grey areas”), methodical and holistic, I looked at how I go about solving problems in my day to day work. Being an Engineer, I have spent most of my life learning strategies, tools,  approaches and techniques for problem solving. Indeed, Engineering as an approach could be exactly suited to this.

No I’m not saying that humans (especially the human mind) is mechanical, necessarily logical or suitable for the “Engineering Lifecycle”, I did, however, start wondering if it were possible to use some Engineering rigor to approach our lives and elicit a better “success” rate (whatever “success” might be defined as in each instance). It’s a line of thought that I’ve been following for a little while now and I have been surprised at the results. Not with me? Let me explain a little further….

A very basic four step problem solving process that we often use in Engineering is Deming’s “Plan, Do, Check, Act” (also known as PDCA or the “Deming cycle“). Take this process for example and consider how this might be a useful approach to developing an area of your life. You want more money? Well PLAN how you could achieve making more money. What next? Well don’t just plan it, DO IT. Don’t blindly continue on with your plans though, CHECK to see if it’s getting you your desired results. Is it? If it’s not, you better ACT upon what you have found to make sure you end up with more more. The PDCA cycle is an iterative process and as such, you go back to “PLAN” again and follow the cycle.

OK, so this might seem like common sense, “nothing special here” you might be muttering, but what about if we extend this a little further?

In 1906 Vilfredo Pareto observed the 80/20 rule. It states that for many events, roughly 80% of the results are caused by 20% of the inputs. Observing this rule of thumb can provide us with some powerful leverage when it comes to making changes to a system, especially to enhance performance. Turn this back on yourself and see what you find. Is 80% of your stress coming from 20% of your work? Is 80% of your commuting time taken up by 20% of the journey? Is 80% of your grief caused by 20% of your friends? Do you get 80% of your muscle gain from 20% of your exercises? Have a think about what is ACTUALLY going on in specific areas of your life and you might find some strong leverage to make changes that have big effects.

Again, nothing rocket science about any of this, these principles are not exclusive to Engineering anyway, but we can take this even further if we want to. For that though, you’ll have to wait until I get the chance to write the next blog post…