TheONEThing
The ONE Thing (Gary Keller)
- Very good! Will start incorporating these ideas into my everyday!
- What is the ONE Thing I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?
If everyone has the same number of hours in a day, why do some people seem to get so much more done than others? The answer is they make getting to the heart of things the heart of their approach. They go small.
When you want the absolute best chance to succeed at anything you want, your approach should always be the same. Go small.
This means ignoring all the thing you could do and doing what you should do. Its recognizing that not all things matter equally and finding the things that matter most.
Extraordinary results are directly determined by how narrow you can make your focus.
- Extraordinary success is sequential not simultaneous
- Not everything matters equally, and success isn't a game won by whoever does the most. Yet that is exactly how most play it on a daily basis.
Lists are invaluable, but have a dark side: To-dos serve as a useful collection of our best intentions, they also tyrannize us with trivial, unimportant stuff that we feel obligated to get done.
The things which are the most important dont always scream the loudest
To-do lists tend to be long; success lists are short. One pulls you in all directions; the other aims you in a specific direction.
- Go Small: Dont focus on being busy; focus on being productive. Allow what matters to drive you day.
- Go Extreme: Once you've figured out what actually matters, keep asking what matters most until there is only one thing left. That core activity goes a the top of your success list.
- We cant fall prey to the notion that everything has to be done, that checking things off our list is what success is all about. Sometimes its the first thing you do. Sometimes its the only thing you do. Regardless, doing the most important thing is always the most important thing.
- Distraction undermines results: When you try to do too much at once, you can end up doing nothing well. Figure out what matters most in the moment and give it your undivided attention.
- When we know something that needs to be done but isn't currently getting done, we often say, "I just need more discipline". Actually, we need the habit of doing it. And we need just enough discipline to build the habit.
- Dont be a disciplined person: Be a person of powerful habits and use selected discipline to develop them.
- Dont pursue balance: the magic never happens in the middle; magic happens at the extremes.
Whether or not to go out of balance isn't really the question. The question is do you go short or long?
In your personal life, go short and avoid long periods where you're out of balance. Going short lets you stay connected to all the things that matter most and move them along together.
In your professional life, go long and make peace with the idea that the pursuit of extraordinary results may require you to be out of balance for long periods. Going long allows you to focus on what matters most, even at the expense of other, lesser priorities.
In your personal life, nothing gets left behind. At work its required.
- Your work life is divided into two distinct areas – what matters most and everything else. You will have to take what matters to the extremes and be okay with what happens to the rest. Professional success requires it.
- Avoid incremental thinking that simply asks, "What do I do next?" This is at best the slow lane to success and, at worst, the off ramp. Ask bigger questions.
- "Dont put all your eggs in one basket" is all wrong. "Put all your eggs in one basket, and then watch that basket.
The focusing question (What is the ONE Thing I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?) Can lead you to answer not only "big picture" questions (Where am I going? What target should I aim for ?) but also "small focus" ones as well (What must I do right now to be on the path to getting the big picture?)
Its both a map for the big picture and a compass for you next move.
To stay on track for the best possible day, month, year, or career, you must keep asking the Focusing question. Ask it again and again, and it forces you to line up tasks in their order of importance.
The power of this approach is that you're setting yourself up to accomplish one task on top of another. When you do the right task first, you also build the right mindset first, the right skill first, and the right relationship first. Powered by the Focusing Question, your actions become a natural procession of building one right thing on top of the previous right thing. When this happens you're in position to experience the power of the domino effect.
Whats the ONE Thing tell you the answer will be one thing versus many. It forces you toward something specific.
The last phase "can do" is an embedded command directing you to take action that is possible. People often what to change this to "should do", "could do" or "would do" but those choices all miss the point. Action beats intention every time.
"Such that by doing" is the bridge between just doing something and doing something for a specific purpose.
- Most people struggle to comprehend how many things dont need to be done, if they would just start by doing the right thing. In effect, the focusing question seeks do declutter your life by asking you to put on blinders. This elevates the answer's potential to change your life by doing the leveraged thing and avoiding distractions.
- The ultimate success habit: Ask a great question, seek out a great answer.
- Time block your time off. Time block your ONE Thing. Time block your planning time.
- Block an hour each week to review your annual and monthly goals! [BROKEN LINK: Aspiration]
- Adopt the mindset of someone seeking mastery Continually seek the very best ways of doing things
- If you dont take care of your body, where will you live?