What’s In It For Me?
Do you feel like you are very busy, but not getting much accomplished in both your professional or personal life? Author Gary Keller, cofounder of Keller Williams Realty, Inc provides insight on how we can improve productivity without feeling overwhelmed by cutting out distraction and focusing on our ONE Thing. The never-ending flood of emails, work meetings, and obligations outside of work can leave us feeling stressed out like we are on a hamster wheel. However, the book suggests there is a better approach to getting things accomplished that will help create a purposeful life. This will make it bit more sense if you read on.
The Big Idea
At the heart of The One Thing is the idea of essentialism, which can be applied to deliver extraordinary results in every area of your life, including work, personal, family, and spiritual. The author challenges readers to ask the question “What’s the one thing I could do such that by doing it everything will become easier or unnecessary.” This question can be asked in any aspect of your life (i.e. job, relationships, etc). The point of the question is to bring clarity on what really matters, and then work backwards to set up the small steps necessary to achieve your ONE Thing. Because extraordinary success is sequential, not simultaneous, you can apply the “domino effect” to your life where when you do the right thing and the next right thing, over time it adds up and the geometric potential of success is unleashed.
Key Concept #1
The Lies That Mislead or Derail Us
Before having a discussion on how the ONE Thing works, it is important to address the myths and misinformation that keeps us from accepting it. Below are the six lies between you and success:
Everything matters equally
The book concludes that instead of creating to-do lists, people should follow Pareto’s Principle, also known as the 80/20 principle, which states that 80% of the rewards/positive outcomes are created by just 20% of the effort. Keller challenges readers to go even farther by instead just identifying the imperative ONE Thing that will have the biggest impact, and this should go at the top of your success list. Although it can be easier said than done, make sure you say “no” to any other obligations until your most important work is done. Do not get caught up in the game of checking things off your to-do list, since everything on the list does not matter equally.
Multitasking
Multitasking is a misnomer. Why would you ever tolerate multitasking when doing your most important work? In the age of smart phones, distraction is natural, so don’t feel bad if you get distracted, but recognize it and try to focus only on one thing at a time. Multitasking at work or at home take a toll, leading to poor choices, painful mistakes, and unnecessary stress. When you try to do too much at once, you end up doing nothing successful at all. Try to figure out what matters most in the moment and give it your undivided attention.
A Disciplined Life
Instead of trying to be a disciplined person, focus on building habits. Build powerful habits and use selective discipline to develop them. Acquire one new successful habit at a time. Habits on average take 66 days to form, so once you have formed a new habit, it doesn’t require as much discipline to continue doing it. After all, discipline is a limited resource, but habits become routine.
Willpower is always on will-call
Do what matters most each day first when your willpower is the strongest. Willpower is a limited resource so decide what matters most and reserve your willpower for it. Your brain makes up 1/50th of your body mass but consumes 1/5 of the calories you burn for energy, so make sure you eat right.
A balanced life
It is not possible to live a truly balanced life, because when you act on your top propriety, you will automatically go out of balance. The challenge becomes how long you stay on your top priority. Separate your work life and personal life into two distinct buckets with each having its own counterbalancing goals and approaches.
Big is bad
Think big by setting a goal so far above what you want that you’ll be building a plan that practically guarantees your original goal. Study people who have already achieved what you want. Don’t fear failure and adopt a growth mindset (i.e you must believe that all things in life are skills that can be developed, as opposed to fixed traits).
Key Concept #2
The Focusing Question
“Anyone who dreams of an uncommon life eventually discovers there is no choice but to seek an uncommon approach to living it.” The One Thing p. 105
The book discusses the concept of the focusing question, which is both a big-picture map and small-focus compass. By asking yourself, “what’s the one thing I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary” it can lead you to exceptional answers that create extraordinary results. It will help you find the first domino you can knock over for your job or personal life.
Use your answer to “what’s my one thing” to develop a vision for your life and direction for your career. It also works when considering what you want to master, what you want to give to others and your community, and how you want to be remembered.
Use your answer to “what’s my one thing right now” as a small focus question to think about what you need to focus on a daily basis.
Gary Keller uses the focusing question as the foundational habit to achieve extraordinary results and lead to a big life. He applies it to his spiritual life, physical health, personal life, key relationships, job, business, and financial life. The focusing question can direct you to your one thing in the different areas of your life.
Research shows that those around you can influence you tremendously. Try starting a success support group with friends or work colleagues. By sharing your ONE Thing with others, it will help hold you accountable and you will be more likely to accomplish your goal.
Key Concept #3
Live With Purpose and Priority
When you have a definite purpose for your life, it provides the straightest path to power and the ultimate source of personal strength, which is strength of conviction and strength to persevere. Purpose helps when things don’t go your way in life. Knowing why you are doing something helps provide that extra motivation to preserve when the going gets tough. When you ask yourself, “What the ONE Thing I can do in my life that would mean the most to me and my world, such that by doing it everything else would become easier or unnecessary?” You are using the power of the ONE Thing to bring purpose to your life.
Purpose may sound heavy, but it doesn’t have to be. Discover your purpose by asking yourself what drives you. What’s the thing that gets you up in the morning and keeps you going when you are worn down? Thinks of purpose as simply the ONE Thing that you want your life to be about more than any other. As an example, the author’s purpose is to help people live their greatest life possible through teaching, coaching, and writing.
Purpose without priority is useless. This is where goal setting comes in. Keller offers a non-traditional approach to goal setting by conducting an exercise called goal setting to the now, which is setting a future goal and then methodically drilling down to what you should be doing right now. Start with your someday goal, then work backwards to your 5 year goal, one year goal, monthly goal, weekly goal, daily goal, and what you should be doing right now. Write down your goals and share them with others, as your probability for success dramatically increase compared to having ambiguous goals in your head.
Key Concept #4
Productivity
When it comes to improving productivity, one of the key tips the book offers is the concept of time blocking. Specifically, the author mentions that to devote maximum time to your top priority, you need to protect it by blocking time on your calendar everyday to devote to it. It is essentially a way of making sure that what has to be done gets done. Time block these three things on your calendar:
- Time block your time off (i.e. vacations)
- Time block your ONE Thing
- Time block your planning time
Resting is as important as working, because after a vacation you will come back more relaxed, focused, and productive. Next, time block your ONE Thing. The most productive people work on “event time,” meaning they don’t quit when its 5 o’clock, but work until their ONE Thing is done. The book recommendation for time blocking your ONE Thing is a four hour time block. That may seem like a lot, but to really productive, you cannot have constant interruptions or switching back and forth between different tasks. A suggestion is to divide your time into two buckets: maker (do or create) and manager (oversee or direct). “Maker” time requires large time blocks to write code, develop ideas, or execute projects/plans, while “manager” time can be divided into individual hours for meetings or conference calls. To experience extraordinary results, try to be a maker in the morning and manager in the afternoon. Finally, it is important to block an hour each week to review your monthly and annual goals. Ask yourself what must happen that month to be on track with your annual goals, then ask yourself what must happen that week to be on track with your monthly goals.
Believe it or not, comedian Jerry Seinfeld is a prime example of someone who has excelled because of time blocking. When Seinfeld shared his secret on how to become a better comedian, it was pretty simple: write jokes everyday. This sounds simple enough, but Seinfeld actually had a large calendar on his wall that had an “X” through every day that he wrote a joke. The goal was to never break the chain of X’s.
No doubt, there are plenty of ways for your time blocks to be sabotaged. Here are four ways to protect them:
- Find somewhere to work that takes you out of the path of interruptions. It could be a separate conference room in your office.
- Have snacks and drinks on hand. A trip to the coffee machine or kitchen could distract you with conversations.
- Turn your phone off, shut down your internet browser, and exit e-mail. These will all distract you.
- Tell those people most likely to seek you out what you are doing and when you will be available. They will eventually get used to your new work approach, and your boss will begin to notice the improved productivity.
Key Concept #5
Live With No Regrets
“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” T.S. Elliot
An elder Cherokee Indian told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside of all people. He said, “My son, the battle is between two wolves inside us. One is Fear. It carries anxiety, concern, uncertainty, hesitancy, indecision and inaction. The other is Faith. It brings calm, conviction, confidence, enthusiasm, decisiveness, excitement and action.” The grandson thought about this for a moment and then asked his grandfather: “Which wolf wins?” The Cherokee replied, “The one you feed.”
It is only when you have faith in your purpose and priorities that you will seek out your ONE Thing. This will give you the power to push through adversity. Faith leads to action, and when we take action we avoid the single thing that could undermine everything we have worked for–regret.
As satisfying as succeeding is, there is an even better reason to get up everyday and take action on your ONE Thing. Doing your best to succeed at what matters most to you helps you live with no regrets. Imagine going forward in time and getting advice from the 80-year old version of you. What would that advice be? The book offers a few ideas: “Go live your life. Live it fully, without fear. Live it with purpose, give it your all, and never give up. Effort is important, for without it you will never succeed at your highest level. Achievement is important, for without it you will never experience your true potential. Pursuing purpose is important, for unless you do, you may never find lasting happiness. Step out on faith that these things are true. Go live a life worth living where, in the end, you’ll be able to say “I’m glad I did” not “I wish I had.” The One Thing p. 212
A life worth living could be measured in many ways, but the one that stands above all others is living a life with no regrets. Who might be the people with the greatest clarity on life? Keller believes it is those people nearing the end of their life who can provide the most valuable clues on how we should approach our life today. Author Bonnie Ware’s 2012 book The Top Five Regrets of the Dying provides valuable lessons that are worth seriously pondering, as she spent years caring for patients near the end of their lives, and discovered many of them had the common regrets, which are worth reflecting on below:
- I wish that I’d let myself be happier—too late they realized that happiness is a choice.
- I wish I’d stayed in touch with my friends—too often they failed to give them the time and effort they deserved.
- I wish I had the courage to express my feelings—too frequently shut mouths and shuttered feelings weighted too heavy to handle.
- I wish I hadn’t worked so hard—too much time making a living instead of living life caused remorse.
- I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
#5 from the list above was actually the number-one regret expressed by the dying. Ware discovered through her work that most people had not even honored half of their dreams and had to die knowing that it was due to choices they had made, or not made.
If you think this is just anecdotal advice, think again. Other research studies have concluded that when people look back on their lives, it is the things they have not done that generate the greatest regret.
So, how do you live a life with no regrets? Live your live with purpose, priority, and productivity, and with your ONE Thing at the top of your scheduling, knowing that regret can be avoided. Ultimately, success is an inside job, meaning that if you put yourself together by knowing your purpose and priorities, your world falls into place. All success in life starts with you.
Apply It
*Let the ONE Thing bring clarity to key areas of your life. Think about the ONE Thing you can do in each area of your personal life, work life, and family life that can have the greatest impacts on each area. Below are a few examples:
What’s the ONE Thing I can do in 90 days to get in the physical shape I want…?
What’s the ONE Thing we can do every week to spend more quality family time together…?
What’s the ONE Thing I can do before my review at work to get the raise I want…?
*Write down the top 5 regrets of the dying on a notecard and place it somewhere discreetly that you will look at everyday. The reality is we are all mortals, so why not take invaluable advice given to you by elders and use it now while you still have time.
*Use your e-mail calendar at work or at home to time block your day. Focus on your most important tasks first such as writing or creating a project, and spend the afternoons for manager related tasks like meetings and conference calls.