Hey reader,

Life is beautiful, isn’t it? Full of sweet memories and spicy problems. Problems, that right, the spicy problems, is something which I am going to talk about.

The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem.
-Theodore Isaac Rubin

There is a principle called Pareto Principle (also known as the 80/20 rule, the law of the vital few, or the principle of factor sparsity) states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. If I relate this with our human life, 80% of the problems are due to some 20% of the overall causes.

In more simpler terms, 80% of our problems are due to 20% of the causes. Interesting, isn’t it? Do you know that 20 % of the causes that are making up 80% of your problems? The answer might be no, but you know them.  It’s right in your intelligent human brain, in some corner, that you just have to bring it out.

Humans are one of the most intelligent creatures on the Earth, yet most of them don’t know how to solve a problem. No, I’m not trying to teach you how to solve a problem, because I know you will solve it sooner or later. But yes, I will try to bring another viewpoint, that you might not have seen yet while approaching to solve a problem.

Normally, how do we solve a problem? We take the problem statement and start thinking about the possible solutions. Once found the solution, we fix it and move onto solve the next problem. Well, life is not a Mathematics exam. There’s another way, let’s have a look on it.

Whenever there is any problem, we try to fix that problem, either a break-fix, workarounds or complete resolution but we try to fix that specific problem.

The causes here are our weaknesses. Each and every problem in our life is somewhere linked to one of our weakness. What if we work on that 20% of our weaknesses? Our 80% of the problems will be fixed! Without even picking those problems one after another.

There is something called the SWOT Analysis. It is a study undertaken by an organization to identify its internal strengths and weaknesses, as well as its external opportunities and threats. Here, I will pick the first two letters of this acronym, SW.

Have you ever sat down, and started doing your SW Analysis (on your own, and not when someone actually asked you to do so)? If you have ever faced an interview, there is a common question where the interviewer always ask what are your strengths and weaknesses.  Interestingly, most of us fumble on this question. The reason, being we never knew our strengths and the weaknesses.

Let’s take out a 5 min break from your life, and start writing about your strengths and the weaknesses, right now. Take a break, and resume reading after 5 minutes.

No, I know you haven’t done it yet… It’s for your own self, can’t you take out 5 minutes for your own?

I hope, few of you would have done it. How do you feel, having your strengths and weaknesses right in front of you? Congratulations, you just did your SW Analysis. Now, I want to take your another 5 minutes, for your own self, to pen down the biggest problems you have in your life, right now. Take a break, and write them down.

So, now you have both, SW Analysis and your problems in front of you. Can you map, which problems are associated with which of your weaknesses? Try to make a link, just like the way we use to do “Match the following” questions in our childhood. What are those weaknesses that have most problems associated with it? These are your 20% causes, making up 80% of your problems. But yes, please note 80/20 is just a number and it can be 90/10 or 70/30 too. But the point to notice here is, that if you can improve on that 20% weaknesses, you might reduce much of your problems, without going onto each of the problems.

I’m still messed up and have all kinds of problems, just like anybody.
-Andrew W.K.

I also went through the same Analysis. I wrote down the questions that keep popping in my head, every now and then. Adding to it, I went onto a trip. No, it wasn’t a trip where I found up every secret of life, etc but I learned a few things, that I believe will help me throughout my life. Though I would not like to keep it with me, so I have tried to compile it into a short book. It’s called UnderstandingLife- Decoded.p1 (Patch 1). This is my first ever written book, so please feel free to correct me or review, and I would love to hear your comments.

To get access to the book, you just have to fill up this short form, which just asks for your Name and Email, where you will get the book.

Will be back soon, till then stay happy, stay healthy, and remember, Life is Beautiful.

Shukriya!