When I was twenty-two years old, I had a very unique experience.  I was at a dinner event, and just happned to be seated at a ten-seat round table of all World War II veterans.  Most of these men were in their eighties at the time, and I was aware that there used to be many World War II veterans in attendance at this dinner, but that they had been unfortunately passing away in large numbers in recent years simply due to their age. 

As we were sitting there eating, I couldn’t help but take in all of their units pins and medals, and I was in awe of the amount of history and experience sitting at the table around me.

Something occurred to me as I was eating, and I decided to ask them, “Hey guys, I’m curious about something.  I’m just getting started out in life.  I’ve only just now graduated from university and am actually out in the real world for the first time.  You guys have obvious seen and experienced a great deal in your lives.  If you had any piece of advice for me, what would it be?”

Much to my surprise, there was no hesitation or discussion among them.  Every said the same thing at the same time, which was “Don’t wait to do the things you care about”.  A few of them went further to explain that when you become their age, you’re not going to start businesses, families, or start exploring the world.  Those are the things you do when you’re young and have energy and time.

I had always viewed my life as a timer ticking down before this, to emphasize to myself my limited time on this planet, but I had never heard such a direct statement of action for going after your interests and goals.

Shortly after this dinner, I made a list of all the things I wanted to do with my life.  This included places I wanted to go, things I wanted to try, things I wanted to buy, things I wanted to learn, and a whole lot more.  I even went on Wikipedia to find more things that I didn’t know about at the time.

After this research and thinking, I was left with a very, very long list of things that I wanted to do, and from that point forward, I checked that list every month, every week, and every day to see what I could do in those time frames.

After ten years of doing this, I had traveled to almost 50 countries, I had lived in 2 other countries, and I had plans to visit my 7th continent.  I had adventured scuba diving, motorcycle riding, and skydiving.   I had learned how to blow glass, shoot photography, and make all sorts of other artwork.  I had learned all sorts of skills and taken an endless amount of classes.  Much to my surprise, my exhaustive “bucket list” as it were had become very short, and even trying to find new things to do yielded few results.

It was around this time that I started to have friends asking me how I had been able to do all the things I had done already.  I quickly realized that one of the hardest things for people trying to go after their goals is that they aren’t sure where to start.

And this is where 80/20 Life was born.  I’ve lived a pretty awesome life so far, but admittedly, my journey was filled with trials and tribulations and a whole load of mistakes and setbacks.  Eventually I got to my goals, but it wasn’t easy a lot of the time. 

Now, I want to take my experiences and knowledge and give them back to others.  To do this, I want to utilize the Pareto Principle.  The Pareto Principle is the idea that in most scenarios, 80% of an outcome is derived from 20% of the input.  This effect has been seen across many industries and fields, but essentially the idea is that: a little effort gets you most of the way to a goal.  The remaining 20% of the journey is where you are really going to spend most of your time trying to nail down details and make sure everything is perfect.

So what does this mean for you?  Well, I want to digest my knowledge and experience into short, concise lessons that anyone can understand.  Through these lessons, you will learn how to accomplish your goals and the things to consider to get there.  I won’t be able to get you all the way there, but with these lessons, you should be able to figure out the rest on your own so that your goals are custom tailored to you.

Really, 80/20 Life is all about trying to help everyone get to their goals.  When people start hitting their goals, it has an interesting effect.  Once goals start being met and people start having the life they want, they tend to start wanting to help others also.  I’m currently at this point in my journey, but imagine a world where everyone wanted to help everyone else.  This is the 80/20 Life dream.