In my career, I read for the Cliff Notes: if there is an easier way to accomplish sales goals, I find it. This means either A.) I am Very Lazy or B.)I am Very Awesome.

In the spirit of “sloth”, I work diligently on one thing (and one thing only): applying Pareto’s Principle, aka the 80/20 rule. I concentrate on finding and completing the 20% of activities yielding 80% of my dollar growth, thus depositing 80% of my workload in a do-later/never account. (And it earns major interest, this account. The interest of those who want to know how to do it!) I then consistently use the 80/20 rule to exploit all my activities to my bank account’s best advantage. Adept at trimming long-cuts to shortcuts and turning shortcuts into micro-cuts, I focus with laser-precision on top clients and prospects…pretty much ignoring everything else.The fruit of my honed slacking skills? Being in the top 5% of salespeople.

Bottom line: through focused “idleness”, I drive results. If it ain’t putting money in my pocket, it ain’t worth doin’.

 As this is not a blog about work, sales or achievement, the attentive reader may wonder…what does all my slacking have to do with faith?

The 80/20 rule.

For a long time, I exhausted myself believing that to achieve the full benefits of faith, I had to fork over 100% of myself to my **religion’s brand of the Divine. (Plus 10% + of my income, but that is outside the scope of this article.) You may Come As You Are…but you’d better be ready to ante up on whatever you bring along. Time? You’ll be spending it in church. Money? Belongs to God. Hopes and dreams? Hand ‘em over…your calling is calling! Questions? Drop ‘em at the door. Romance? Leave room for Jesus, the Holy Matchmaker!

100% didn’t work for me, and I think if we’re honest, we’ll recognize that isn’t doesn’t work well for most. Even the devout among us fail to Live the Life, Walk the Walk and Talk the Talk 100% of the time, with 100% effort. It’s simply impossible. Still, many try; I know I certainly did. But the perpetual trying and failing? It leads to constant guilt. Abiding shame. Infinite ickiness. And one more thing: Trying to live faith at 100% fails to deliver results.

 If the fruit [result] of the Spirit is [supposed to be] love, joy, peace…(Galations 5),and the 100% strategy shows love/joy/peace-numbers in the red, doesn’t that mean trouble? (I certainly wouldn’t be storing up any treasures in my heavenly bank account, if you know what I mean.) In order to get my love-joy-peace numbers to a profitable level, I applied my favorite factor, the 80/20 rule, to faith. It goes something like this:

1. 80% of the sought-after results are gained by seeking the 20% cause. For me, this means finding and applying the 20% of things that are common to most religions: Love God, Love Others. Seek God, Serve Others. Find God, Inspire Others. Bonus: By allowing myself to choose the 20%, I believe 100% of the time.

2. 80% of any given religion may be practiced with belief in only 20% of its tenants. By giving myself permission to believe in only 20% ( I can choose to believe in more) , I give myself the opportunity to practice said religion at 80% efficiency. Though imperfect, an 80% religious practice equals 100% more results than the 0% of requiring myself to believe everything before doing anything.

3. An 80/20 religious philosophy=0% guilt. I can toss the idea that I’m not doing it right, or enough, or…whatever. I’m doing my best and that’s OK! 

I don’t encourage spiritual laziness; if there’s one place to work hard, it’s your heart. (I think this whole Thirty by Thirty thing earns me a membership in the Hardworking Spiritual Seekers of America) but that doesn’t mean you should stop short of working smart. So, if you’re having trouble living up to your religion, take a lesson from Pareto and try a results-driven 80/20 split. Grant yourself 100% grace, and you just might factor a faith you can believe in.

**Note: I am advocating applying 80/20 to RELIGION, not my realtionship with the Divine. Religion=everything outside this: Love God. Love Others.

Like Thirty by Thirty on Facebook  and follow on Twitter