🔥 5 Minutes of Leadership Fuel
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🫶 A Dose of Inspiration
“It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: what are we busy about?”
— Henry David Thoreau
We live in a world that rewards busy.
Full calendars feel productive. Long to-do lists feel responsible. Saying yes feels kind.
But somewhere in all that motion, the things that actually matter can quietly get crowded out. What if the most courageous thing you did this week wasn’t adding something… but choosing?
📥 Download the quote graphic to use in your next staff email or meeting.
🤓 A Dose of Learning
You might have heard of the 80/20 Rule, also known as the Pareto Principle. (And no, it’s not about ground beef as one leader joked with me this week. 😂) The idea is deceptively simple… 80% of outputs come from 20% of the inputs.
You may even know that it came from an Italian economist, Vilfredo Pareto, who observed that 80% of the land was owned by 20% of the people. Turns out, it extrapolates to many other concepts. Anyone else wear 20% of the clothes in their closet 80% of the time?
But here’s the honest question: Are you actually using it?
Because there’s a big difference between knowing a principle and having the courage to live it. And this is one that, when you see it and start taking advantage of it, it can rock your world in the best possible way.
Perry Marshall is one of the world’s leading experts on the 80/20 Rule. His reinvention of the Pareto Principle has been published in Harvard Business Review, and his 80/20 Curve is used as a productivity tool by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab. He joined Robert Glazer on the Elevate Podcast recently, and shared some great takeaways we can all benefit from.
He said that even of the people who have heard of the 80/20 Rule, most wildly underestimate how deep it goes. And even the people who teach it have to keep coming back to it. As Perry put it: “We teach what we most need to know.”
Here’s the thing: this isn’t a productivity hack.
Productivity hacks can actually speed up the hamster wheel. They help you do more, faster, without ever asking whether those things should be done at all.
80/20, applied with intention, is something different. It’s a leadership lens that asks:
What actually matters most right now? And what am I doing that doesn’t?
Perry’s conversation with Robert Glazer made something clear… the reason most leaders don’t apply this isn’t lack of knowledge. It’s that subtraction is hard. Addition is easy. We keep layering on responsibilities, commitments, and expectations because saying yes feels productive… and saying no feels like letting someone down.
But what gets lost in all that adding? Your best energy. Your clearest thinking. Your deepest impact. Your pure genius.
Before You Can Find Your 20%, You Need One Clarifier
In my own work with leaders, I’ve found that the 80/20 Rule only becomes useful once you answer this first:
What does success look like for me right now?
Not in your job description. Not in someone else’s expectations. In your actual, lived experience… when do you end a day or a week feeling like it mattered, like your contribution moved your little corner of the world a bit forward?
That answer becomes your compass. And once you have it, you can start to look honestly at three domains where focus creates the biggest return:
📤 Your Work: Which conversations, projects, or efforts create real impact? Which ones consume energy without moving anything meaningful forward? Some things can be delegated. Some can be done with less emotional weight. Some can simply stop.
🤝 Your Relationships: Which connections bring growth, belonging, and alignment with who you want to be? Courage sometimes looks like investing deeply in fewer relationships rather than scattering yourself across many out of habit or obligation.
⚡️ Your Energy & Wellbeing: What small practices give you a disproportionate return… a walk, a quiet morning, stillness, laughter? And what drains you without truly moving anything forward?
What Shifts When You Do This
When leaders actually apply this, not as a theory but as a proactive decision, something changes.
The excuses quiet. A particular kind of stress lifts. Not because life gets easier, but because you’ve named what matters. You’ve given yourself permission to be less than great in the areas that aren’t your 20% right now. And you’ve freed your best self for the places that are.
That’s not doing less. That’s leading and living with intention.
🎧 Listen to the podcast episode here: The Elevate Podcast #651: Perry Marshall On Leading With The 80/20 Rule
Ready to find your 20%? I wrote a guide for exactly that… including a free worksheet to help you filter what matters most: 🧭 The Courage to Focus
🌀 A Dose of Reflection
Before you sort priorities, make a list, or start deciding what to cut… start here.
Take a few minutes with these questions. Let the answers be honest, not impressive.
🧭 When did you feel most successful this past month?
🧭 What moments made you think that mattered?
🧭 What felt aligned, meaningful, or energizing?
There’s no right answer. Just yours.
Then, begin to define how to finish this sentence: Right now, success for me looks like…
Ready to go deeper? The 80/20 Courage Filter worksheet is waiting for you.
You got this. Let’s lead with belief.
In your corner,
Melody
Founder, Culture of Belief
PS: Seems like a solid plan to save money… 😳😂
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