Making Your Next Best Move

hat is your next best move? What should you be thinking about right now, I spend a lot of time thinking about, talking about and urging others to be very thoughtful and mindful and deliberate and intentional about how we allocate our most valuable resources, and those are our time, attention, energy and money. And the idea being that if I can figure out what’s the most important thing that I want and the most important things that I want, and then allocate or apply those resources to those things that are of the highest and best use interest value to me, then the results going to be, I’m going to be a happier person. Going to be more contented. I’m going to get what I want more because I am applying my most precious things to the most important things. Makes sense. So as we are trying to figure out in every aspect of our lives, personal lives, our business lives, our family lives, our community, all of it, what’s our next best move? What should I be doing right now? What should I not be doing right now, what should I be absolutely stop doing altogether? These are the questions. So how do I get better at doing that? How do I know what it should be doing, what it should not be doing? The last thing I want to do, unless I want to do it, is waste time. Time is just because time is of value doesn’t mean that I don’t want to waste it. Sometimes, just because I know how important my resources are doesn’t mean that I can’t F around. That’s okay. Sometimes I’m just over all of it. I don’t feel like it. I just want to sit on the couch watch a show, burn some time, waste it. Not that I consciously want to waste time. It’s just that I need a break. I need to kick my feet up, whatever, zone out, and that’s okay. That’s okay. We need to honor that particularly if we’re just fighting ourselves so bad and every fiber of our being just says I just can’t do this right now. I need a break. I’m burned out, I’m stressed out. I just can’t right now. Totally fine. What I don’t want is to be lying and BSc and myself and just keep trying to to push a rope and to do things that are just not going to happen. It’s not going to happen today. It’s okay. So I want to be more conscious about that and make more can you guys inform decisions I don’t want to just be lying to myself and going through the motions and spinning my wheels when I could be recovering and giving myself what I really need, which sometimes is just to blow off some steam or burn some time. So there’s all this going on, and then it’s the conversation about, should I be focused on my strengths and just go all in on my strengths? Should I try to understand where I’m weakest and how can I how can I figure out how to get stronger in these areas that I’m not that strong in? And I think at this point, I’m more in the camp of let’s focus on our strengths more than our weaknesses, because I don’t know that I’ve got enough time to improve my weaknesses. So they’re they’re just sort of a neutral I think I’d rather focus on my strengths, but I’m open to conversation. It’s something I’ve been thinking about, so I would love to know what you think about that. But in service of helping us to figure out what our next best move is, or what our next best moves are, in service of figuring out how best to be allocating our resources, the Pareto Principle is a very, very, very helpful tool in helping us sharpen, prioritize and then focus on the things that actually do matter the most. And you’re probably familiar with the Pareto, Pareto Principle, also known as the 8020 rule, 8020 law. And the idea is, when you identify 20% of the causes that lead to 80% of the results, then you can focus on those really productive activities and focus less, or get rid of the wasteful ones, or the ones that just don’t yield the results that you’re looking for. So again, if. So 20% of the stuff you do or that you focus on, is oftentimes going to get you rather when you recognize what the 20% of the activities are that get you most of the results, then you can focus more on those 20% so that’s the key. But my question is, do we know what those are? Do I know what those activities are? Do I know what those things are? Do I know what that 20% is? So that’s what I want to talk about today. So again, the idea is that 80% of the outcomes come from 20% of the causes. An Italian economist named Vilfredo Pareto. He observed in 1896 that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population. That’s interesting. I wonder where else that applies. And he found out studying it, that it applied to many places beyond just economics. It applies to our businesses, our personal lives, time management and productivity in general. So again, core idea is that not all of our causes, not everything that we’re doing, are going to be equal in terms of what they yield or their impact. In fact, it’s the realization that a small percentage of the things that we do the causes, leads to a large percentage of the results. So it commonly shows up as 8020, but could be 7030, could be 9010 could be 95 five. And what a joy that would be if you can get to 99% that you recognize that 1% of the things that you do get 90% of the results. What would you do that? Well, you would absolutely focus on that 1% right? Like this is awesome. I know exactly which lever to pull, which button to push, incredible. So, but it’s never necessarily going to be 8020 just be mindful of that. Be thoughtful of that. So think about from a business perspective. If you could know that 80% of your sales come from these 20% of customers. So if you’ve got 100 clients, 100 customers, you know? Okay, wow, turns out that the majority of my sales come from these 20. Then you’d focus more on those 20 than you would on the other 80% from a time management perspective, if you know that out of everything that you do on a daily basis, 80% of the productive work that you do comes from 20% of the tasks that you engage in. Well, that’s going to be really helpful. And this is something that I don’t know, that we all have a really firm grasp of. And I know that I’ve certainly I don’t know that I know this definitively, so I need to do some more work here too. So what are the key tasks that I have to be doing, from a time management perspective, or just to get work done, to get the right amount of work done, the most productive amount of work done. What are the tasks that are driving 80% of it? What are those 20% highest value tasks. So it’s true of our health too. Think about that 80% of the of your health benefits come from 20% of your good habits. Think about if you’re in the habit of exercising and you have a nutritious diet and you get enough sleep out of everything that you’re doing to promote good health, I bet it comes down to 20% of the stuff you’re doing is going to have the biggest results. So again, it helps us to really prioritize our tasks, focus our efforts on the things that really matter the most, and it helps us to focus on those things and then minimize what is less valuable or really wasteful a lot of the time, which is part of the part of the human condition. So again, if you’re able to identify the 20% of your customers or your product lines that generates the most revenue, it’s going to allow you to strategically focus on improving those things. So it’s allocation of resources that we’re looking to become as efficient as possible.

So what can you be doing when you are making policies, making good decisions? Really, everything that we’re doing. You can apply this to the world of politics, the world of business, to the world of health. You can apply it to coding and technology, really, literally everything. Figure out if you’re trying to have a better relationship with your kids, think about, okay, what are all the different activities? I do with my kids, and what are the highest value things that we’re doing that lead us to having a really strong, positive relationship. What are the things that I need to be doing as a parent to be able to demonstrate and show them that this is what it’s going to take for you to be a successful, independent adult down the road figuring those things out. So if we’re going back to the company, figure out, yep, this is what I need to be doing. If we’re talking about personal productivity, you figure out that 20% of the tasks are which, which 20% are going to deliver the best, most efficient results. You know, that’s going to increase your productivity. But more importantly, I think it’s also going to reduce the amount of stress. That’s that, that that you’re feeling, and that’s really valuable. Also, it’s increasing productivity, it’s reducing stress. These are all really, really, really positives. So to revisit the idea that it’s not going to always be 8020 it doesn’t have to be it’s all about that. You’re going to get uneven results from certain activities. And once you identify that, wow, look at that. I thought that going to this networking meeting, if you’re in business or you’re trying to develop a clientele, at some point, I thought that going to this networking meeting, or, you know, meeting this kind of professional for coffee a couple of times a week was going to deliver a lot of results, but it turns out that’s got me very minimal results. So big part of this is doing an honest assessment of what activities am I doing, and being honest with ourselves. Is this getting me the result that I really want? And then when you know that, that’s when you can figure it out. So the trick is identifying what is referred to as the vital few. So figure out which 20% of your tasks, clients, products or efforts, are delivering 80% of the results that you’re looking for. And then it’s a function of, how do we eliminate or minimize, minimize the trivial many. So now that you figured it out, what do we do? And if you’re in a position where you can hire people to all of a sudden take off your plate all the stuff you ought not be doing, that’s awesome, but meanwhile, in the real world, I appreciate that you might not be in a position to be able to hire full time staff to be able to help you with your business, or you might not be in a position to be able to hire a housekeeper or a landscaper or a pool person, just from a very functional think about the work that must be done around your home. Got to do laundry, got to cook food, got a vacuum, got to clean the pool. Got to do landscaping. This is a lot. So are there opportunities for you to get some of that off your plate? But again, I know that we can’t just all of a sudden move from zero to 60, so the trick is, how can I do a little bit less? How can I get a little bit better at this, to free up a little bit more time to focus on the things that do really matter. So in terms of our family unit, if I recognize that I spend so much of my time on Saturday and Sunday running errands and doing chores and completing the list of the stuff I was just talking about that I’m not able to spend as much quote, unquote, quality time with my kids. Well, what can I do? How can I make this a little more efficient and tip the distribution of the percentages more in my favor? And that’s the work right there. That’s figuring it out. And as intelligent people, I think we’re able to do that, and just also understanding that this is going to shift a little bit over time, because once you do identify what’s most important, and then you’re able to start moving and shifting your activities more towards that, well, then your Pareto distribution is probably going to shift a little bit more and you’re going to continue to become a little bit more efficient. So that’s a really powerful thing. So I think that you become more efficient when you focus on those vital few activities that lead to the majority results. You are doing what we all want to do, but don’t always know how which is work smarter, not harder. It’s going to result in better decision making, because it’s going to help us to prioritize those high value or high impact activities and move away from wasting more time or wasting time on low value tasks, and then improving our problem solving. So it’s going to help us to get to the root cause of the problems and recognize that a small number of issues are responsible for the majority of the problems. So that’s a you. The the the distribution, you can apply it so many different places. Like 20% of the problems are going to or 20% of the root causes are going to result in in 80% of the problems. Just like 20% of your activities are going to result in 80% of the results. So the cause and the effects. So it’s really fascinating thing. And within your organization, 20% of your sales team is going to, you know, produce 80% of the results, and so on and so forth. It’s just going to show up everywhere, just like Pareto recognized that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the people. So pretty extraordinary. But once you know, then it can help you to figure out what that next best move is. And you can look and see and look at, kind of look at yourself and say, okay, What? What? What am I strongest at? What are the activities that I’m really good at that are moving that needle, that are having the biggest impact in every aspect of my life, and really do an audit of those things. What are the stuff I’m doing every day? It’s a long list. We’re doing so much stuff. We’re making so many kind of different kinds of decisions. The idea is having a better and deeper understanding of these are the highest impact, the vital few versus the many that are causing me to be way less efficient and taking me further away from the life that I want, versus getting me closer to it. How do I get rid of some of those? Then you can do it a little bit at a time. Don’t have to do it all at once, and like this has been like Pareto talks about. It’s going to change over time anyway. So as you are trying to figure out what’s my best next best move, what ought I be doing right now with my time to get the results that I’m looking for, having a better and deeper understanding of the impact of the things that you’re doing and understanding which are of the highest value. I really, I can’t advocate enough that that’s going to get you closer to what you truly want. So more you know, more you know, as always, do your part, doing your best and.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

george grombacher 16:00
So if I want my iPhone, and my Tesla and my Bitcoin to work, we need to get the metal out of the ground.

Pierre Leveille 16:07
Absolutely. Without it, we cannot do it.

george grombacher 16:13
Why? Why is there a Why has production been going down.

Pierre Leveille 16:21
Because the large mines that are producing most of the copper in the world, the grades are going down slowly they’re going there, they’re arriving near the end of life. So and of life of mines in general means less production. And in the past, at least 15 years, the exploration expenditure for copper were pretty low, because the price of copper was low. And when the price is low, companies are tending to not invest more so much in exploration, which is what we see today. It’s it’s, it’s not the way to look at it. Because nobody 15 years ago was able to predict that there would be a so massive shortage, or it’s so massive demand coming. But in the past five years, or let’s say since the since 10 years, we have seen that more and more coming. And then the by the time you react start exploring and there’s more money than then ever that is putting in put it in expression at the moment for copper at least. And what we see is that the it takes time, it could take up to 2025 years between the time you find a deposit that it gets in production. So but but the year the time is counted. So it’s it’s very important to so you will see company reopening old mines, what it will push also, which is not bad, it will force to two, it will force to find a it will force to find ways of recalibrating customer, you know the metals, that will be more and more important.

george grombacher 18:07
So finding, okay, so for lack of a better term recycling metals that are just sitting around somewhere extremely important. Yeah. And then going and going back to historic minds that maybe for lack of technology, or just lack of will or reasons, but maybe now because there’s such a demand, there’s an appetite to go back to those.

Pierre Leveille 18:33
Yes, but there will be a lot of failures into that for many reasons. But the ones that will be in that will resume mining it’s just going to be a short term temporary solution. No it’s it’s not going to be you need to find deposit that will that will operate 50 years you know at least it’s 25 to 50 years at least and an old mind that you do in production in general it’s less than 10 years.

george grombacher 19:03
Got it. Oh there we go. Up here. People are ready for your difference making tip What do you have for them

Pierre Leveille 19:14
You mean an investment or

george grombacher 19:17
whatever you’re into, you’ve got so much life experience with raising a family and doing business all over the world and having your kids go to school in Africa so a tip on copper or whatever you’re into.

Pierre Leveille 19:34
But there’s two things I like to see and I was telling my children many times and I always said you know don’t focus on what will bring you specifically money don’t think of Getting Rich. Think of doing what you what you like, what you feel your your your your your, you know you have been born to do so use your most you skills, do what you like, do what you wet well, and good things will happen to you. And I can see them grow in their life. And I can tell you that this is what happens. And sometimes you have setback like I had recently. But if we do things properly, if we do things that we like, and we liked that project, we were very passionate about that project, not only me, all my team, and if we do things properly, if we do things correctly, good things will happen. And we will probably get the project back had to go forward or we will find another big project that will be the launch of a new era. So that’s my most important tip in life. Do what you like, do it with your best scale and do it well and good things will happen.

george grombacher 20:49
Pierre Leveille 21:03
Thank you. I was happy to be with you to today.

george grombacher 21:06
Damn, tell us the websites and where where people can connect and find you.

Pierre Leveille 21:13
The it’s Deep South resources.com. So pretty simple.

george grombacher 21:18
Perfect. Well, if you enjoyed this as much as I did show up here your appreciation and share today’s show with a friend who also appreciate good ideas, go to deep south resources, calm and learn all about what they’re working on and track their progress.

Pierre Leveille 21:32
Thanks. Thanks, have a nice day.

george grombacher 21:36
And until next time, keep fighting the good fight. We’re all in this together.