The one thing

November 1, 2018

The one thing, the surprisingly simple truth behind extraordinary results.

This book is the New York Times bestseller. 

Rest assured the content of this book will not disappoint you as reader.

The One Thing by Gary Keller with Jay Papasan

It start with simple one..

“If you chase two rabbits …..
.. you will not catch either one.”
– Russian proverb.

What I learned from this book are:

  1. There is ONE thing that once I completed it now, the rest of the task will be easy or non-essential anymore.
  2. During goal setting, bring the end result to the NOW moment.
  3. What is the one thing that I can do now so that the tomorrow task will be easier or no longer necessary.

It also explained well about the distraction between each task.

I am very well agreed with the disadvantages of juggling between multi-task at hand at the same time.

Our focus is very limited, upon switching between context and perform one simple task. We risk to use a lot more time to re-adjust back to where we left before the distraction. Therefore the writer suggest us to use time-blocking method when scheduling our task.

I love the way he shows the monthly schedule for each day.
Even the holiday is scheduled ahead of time and treat it as important as the official meeting scheduled. The one that can’t be missed or just moved or canceled for whatever reason or excuses.

Planning part of hourly daily task also have to clearly mentioned what is “your one thing” and blocked one whole hour just for that.

The next part of the book explained about the “Domino effect” and how carefully placed pieces no matter how small, it would be able to lead to greater benefit at the end. The important thing is the ensure the first one is actually pointing or falling into the right direction/orientation. And let the plan eventually folding out itself nicely.

Toward the end of the books it also mentioned about entrepreneur mindset and purposeful mindset. Where we might be falling into trap of “doing things naturally” .. which involved of many failure cycle and repeating itself for many time before eventually see any success.

While purposeful mindset will follow a system, model , managed focus and aimed for breakthrough systematically. Rather than just depend on natural effort. This one really making un-natural or putting in a lot of extra-ordinary effort of getting to the where we aimed to achieve.

There are many wisdom and quotes being shared in-between the pages and the section breaker. 
I guess I will just quote it verbatim here for some of meaningful one here.

“Who we are and where we want to go determine what we do and what we accomplish”.

An ancient story about “The beggar bowl” made of human desire at which is bottomless and almost drained everything from a very wealthy king.
Which is pretty much remind me of being in happiness is always a chosen choice.

“What’s the ONE thing I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?” 
Repeat asking this question to every area of your life such as :

  1. .. for my finances
  2. .. for my business
  3. .. for my job
  4. .. for my key relationship
  5. .. for my personal life
  6. .. for my physical health
  7. .. for my spiritual life

“The rung of a ladder was never meant to rest upon, but only to hold a man’s foot long enough to enable him to put the other somewhat higher”
– Thomas Henry Huxley

“To do two things at once is to do neither” 
– Publilius Syrus

“Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least”
– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“The things which are most important don’t always scream the loudest”
– Bob Hawke

“There can only be one most important thing. Many things may be important, but only one can be the most important.”
– Ross Garber

“It is those who concentrate on but one thing at a time who advance in this world” 
– Og Mandino

“Every great change starts like falling dominoes”.
– BJ Thornton


“Be like a postage stamp — stick to one thing until you get there”
– Josh Billings

“In delay there lies no plenty”.
 – William Shakespeare 

“Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there”
– Will Rogers

“Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now”.
– Alan Lakein

Here is the skeleton on what about planning to the now is about : 🙂

Someday Goal
(what’s the ONE thing I want to do someday)
-> 5-year goal
(Based on my someday goal, what’s the ONE thing I can do in the next five years?)
..
-> 1-year goal -> monthly goal ->  weekly goal -> daily goal

-> right now
(Based on my daily goal, what’s the ONE thing I can do right now?)

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