The 80/20 Rule

I walk my kids to school everyday and say good-bye to them at the crosswalk.  We have an awesome crossing guard named Min who really loves kids and wants to make sure they are safe.  She told me today she was having to follow my 80/20 Rule.

Last year she found out I was a pastor and asked me one day how to handle a conflict she was having with a couple of parents.  She had reminded them of some of the driving and parking rules near the school and they did not take it very well.  They were pretty verbally abusive to her and it was beginning to really bother her.

I assured her she was doing the right thing to enforce the rules and make sure our kids were safe.  And then I told her about the 80/20 Rule that I try to follow.  It goes like this:  "Twenty percent of the people in your world, at any given time, are unhappy with you or don't like you and some of them actually want to see you fail.  That's just the way it is so focus on the eighty percent."

I've found that to be pretty true in life and for the most part it applies to everyone, unless you're the President, then the rule is probably reversed.

But that's just the way it is, people in your world are not always going to like you, agree with you, and some of them actually want to see you fail.  Don't focus on them.  Focus on the people who have your back, who are in your corner and who think you're great.

And never forget that regardless of who likes you and who doesn't, what mistakes you've made, when you've blown it, God loves you and accepts you just the way you are.